ITALIAN CRIME.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3086, 8 January 1879, Page 1

ITALIAN CRIME.

Mubdeb of Captain Fadda by his Wife's Pabamoub.

Though the trial of the murderer of Captain Fad da has not yet begun, enough is publicly known about the case to show that it was not a common murder from motives of vengance or passion, but one of these carefully planned crimes which are unfortunately, not uncommon ia Italian life. On Sunday morning a few weeks ago a man whose name is now known to be Cardinali, called at Captain Fadda's lodgings to say that a box was waiting for him at the station, which would be given to his orderly if he went with the messenger. The place mentioned as that whence the box came was a town were Fadda had been stationed and where he had Meads, and, as it is not uncommon for hangers on about the station to give information of the arrival of parcels that they may mak^ a fewsous.tfe orderly wa9 sent with the man to get it out. In this way the ground was cleared, and Captain Fadda remained alone in the house. The railway office, when they came to it, was shut, and Cardinali, leaving the orderly to wait there for him while, as he said, .he went for the keys, hurrieH back" to Captain Fadda's lodgings. What followed he alone could tell. It is supposed that as soon as the door was opened he threw himself on his victim, stabbing him wherever he could. All that is known is that in few minutes ha left the house, and a few moments later Fadda stumbled to the street door, stabbed in twenty-three places, and fell there dying. His assassin might hare escaped at the time ; but, though he had laid his plans in the most cold blooded manner, his nerve failed at last, and as he rushed down the street with a scared face, two guards stopped hiim to see what was the matter, and soon heard of his crime. The news quickly spread over the town,* and later in the day the lodging-house-keeper gave information to the poli< c that Cardinali, with a friend, had lodged at his house for a days, and that the friend had disappeared. Police were sent to the railway station, and he was discovered about to start for Naples with 500 francs in his possession, and arrested.

Cardinali, when confronted with the orderly, was at once recognised; and it also came out that lie had called "at the captain's house once before; Sat h* persistently denied his guilt, and said that when he came back to the house he found Captain Fadda stabbed, and was so frightened he ran away. His friend was more communicatiye. He said that Oardinali was part proprietor of a small circus and that he had proposed to him to come to Home to enter a circus troupe perform* ing there, but had also said that he had another affair on Hand which would make them both rich, and that he wanted to find an officer in the army who had a Very rich wife. Capt. Fadda, it appears, was married to a Calabrian lady, but when his regiment was ordered to Rome, on one excuse or another, she put off joining him. He had, furnished an apartment, but she persuaded him to sell the furniture and live in rooms till she come; then she asked him to sell her piano and send her the money; and a short time before his death she had written to him to sell her jewellery. la fact, though no legal forms bad been gone through, they were virtually separated, and she had no intention of rejoining him. The reason of this distinction on her part was, that while with him at Terni she had fallen in lore with one of the riders in a travelling circus—Cardinali, in fact—and had become his mistress. Her husband seems to have been unaware of this fact altogether, though it was well known in her native .town, and is said to have been encouraged by her mother, who preferred Cardinali, a Calabrian, to Captain Fadda, who was a native of Sardinia. But Fadda, seeing that she had no intention of return* ing to live with him when she wrote for her jewels, went down to see his brother, and consult him. what was best to be done. It was during this absence that Cardinali came to Rome. .

As soon as these facts became known to the police a telegram was sent to arrest Mme. Fadda, and send her to Rome for examination. She at first denied all knowledge of Cardinali; at length confessed that she did now him, but had no criminal relations with him, and.had not seen or heard of him for some timo. So far there was no evidence of complicity, but it has since been discovered that she sent him, while in fiomo for the express purpose of murdering her husband, a post office order for 500 francs, the same amount which was found on his accomplice, and which seems to have been intended to pay tbeir expenses. It also came out that Cardinali's sister acted as a sort of,go-between for them, and knew of his journey to Home; she, too, has now been arrested, and it is further said that Mme. Fadda had recently made inquiries what pension she would receive at her husband's Jieath. It is assuming to much, perhaps, to say that she was cognisant of her lover's intentions, but public opinion condemns her. It may be. however, that ho concocted the plan himself without her knowledge, thinking that, the husband out of the way, he would have no difficulty in persuading her to marry him, and know- - ing that she must have some fortune as no officers are allowed to marry unless their wives bring them at least 30,000f. of dowry. The murder , whomsoever planned, was well arranged beforehand. The murderer came over two hundred miles to put the plan fii'to executiou, and when he found -the victim absent, wait d about several days till the desired opportunity arrived.—Pall Mali Gazette.