The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-10-23 00:00:00

CRIME AND ITS PUNISHMENT IN
ITALY.

The Special Correspondent of The Times, writing from
Stress, Lago Maggiore, the 9th inst., thus narrates "a
shocking tragedy by which the people of Ylorence were
driven to ungovernable frenzy," the previous Tuesday :--
Nine years ago a rag merchant (cenciaolo), called
Sisto Vakriani, married a handsome girl, aged 21,
belonging to the parish of San Frediano. They lived
together in Via dell Orto, and had four children, of
the ages of seven, five, and four, with an infant—a
girl—of eleven months. The husband was a prey to
a blind, and, apparently, unfounded jealousy, and it
was with great difficulty that the young wife suc-
ceeded in pacifying his suspicions with respect to a
young man residing in the neighbourhood. The hue.
band's mistrust then took a new turn, and was directed
to another supposed lover, and nothing could convince
him of the innocence of his wife. On the afternoon
of the sth, the wife, by name Maria, who was sitting
with her infant in her arms, ventured to remon-
strate with her husband, endeavouring to satisfy
him of the groundlessness of his accusations, and
complaining of his violence, as she ,had often had to
put up with blows at his hand. The husband, blind
with rage, ran for a knife, and, stabbing her in the
breast and in the nape of the neck, felled her to the
ground quite lifeless. The infant girl, whose arms
were round her mother's neck, received also a terrible
gash, which cut her from the breast to the abdomen.
and she also fell in a dying state on her mother's body.
The three other children, alarmed by the mother's
screams, hastened upstairs, but found the door of their
mother's room fastened from within. There soon arose
a great clamour on their part; the neighbours, accus-
tomed to scenes of riot and violence from that unruly
household, crowded up in great numbers, and suc-
ceeded in breaking in, but only to find the dead
mother and the dying child in a pool of blood on the
floor. The murderer had attempted to escape by
throwing himself from a window, and letting himself
down the well of the house with the bucket rope. The
race of the populace at sight of the victims knew no
limits. They looked for the murderer all over the
house, and, obtaining a glimpse of the rope by
which he had let himself down into the well,
endeavoured to haul him up. But, as he heard
the cries of the multitude, who threatened him with
instant execution, calling out, "A Morte I A Morte I"
he protested that he would surrender only to the
police, and, cutting the rope, he sank down deeper into
the well. Presently the police came up, and great
exertions were required te soothe the passions of the
populace, and to clear the house; but the mob still
pressed in upon the door outside, invading the whole
street, and vowing that justice should be done on the
spot. The police, upon proceeding to the well, fbund
it easy to fish up the criminal, who, indeed, had not
gone to the bottom, but had been stopped in his fall by
the iron clamps which lay across the well in the lower
story, and he came up with no greater harm than a
slight bruise. His lips were, however, somewhat
burnt, and he had some difficulty in his articulation,
for when he saw that the people had tracked him to
his hiding place he swallowed part of the sulphuric acid
he had in a little phial about him, and which he had
bought at a chemist's the day before.
A carriage was presently drawn up to the door to
remove the murderer to the prigon of the Murate. But
the carabinieri, or gendarmes, who had him in charge
had to draw their broadswords and to strike among the
crowd very smart blows with the flat of their blades
before they were able to smuggle the criminal through
the door and into the vehicle, the populace breaking
out into horrible imprecations, and even hurling sharp
knives at him. The prisoner was conveyed to the
hospital, severely suffering from the consequences of
the sulphuric acid which he had swallowed, and, as it
seems, still in some danger of his life. His little girl,
taken from the arms of her mother, was also conveyed
to the hospital, but she expired early on the following
morning.

Valeriani has since been brought before the magis-
trate, and has confessed with great coolness that he
has indeed killed his wife, to punish her for her double

treason, mentioning even the date of the offence com-
mitted by her with one vf the two suspected young men
—the eve of St. John's, the 24th of Jane. Hs evinced
greet distress on hearing that his innocent child had
fallen a victim to the blind fury which he only meant
to wreak upon his wife, and wept bitter tears on hear-
ing that his other children had been placed under the
care of his wife's brothers.

The newspapers, whose details fill severed columns,
add descriptions of the personal appearance of the mur-
deter, "a man about 40 years old, with dark hair,
black moustache, ana imperial, somewhat thin, a very
truculent expression of countenance," &c. The mur-
dered woman "bears all the traces of uncommon
beauty, with a profusion of brown hair, brunette com-
plexion, middle sized, and of a slender but elegant and
most symmetrical figure." The poor woman would in
a few months have been again a mother.
What seems to me most striking in this sad story is
the readiness with which the populace in Italy, and
especially in that singularly gentle, humane, and
civilised Tuscany," come forward to take the law into
their own hands, and to inflict summary vengeance on
any supposed offender. What happened in Florence
four days ago occurred in Siena the year before last,
and-I alluded tetthe subject at the time. The people,
opposed as .they_aret_to--aapital punishment,-show,-
however, no hesitation about doing the hangman's
work themselves. Both the Siena and the Florence
murderers called out to the police as to the saviours
through whom they felt confident of being able to
• escape the worst consequences of their offence. Once
out of the clutches of the mob, the worst criminal
is free from all terror of the eortfifold. ' Had less
time been given to Valeriani to smuggle himself
through the window and let himself down into the
well, or had the police not been so soon on the spot,
• the very rope which aided him to esc 4pe the first out-
burst of the people's fury would, in all probability,
have been its readiest instrument; and had the gen-
darmes been less numerous, lees strong, or less deter-
mined, or the knives which were flying after the
murderer had been better aimed, he would have been
immolated to the vengeance of a "gentle, humane, and
civilised" multitude, even when he already was in
the hands of justice. So true is it that the humani-
tarian theories, in obedience to which the penalty of
death has again and again been abolished in Tuscany,
do not go very deep among the more practical and off-
hand lower classes, and that these, acting upon in-
stincts common to all men, deem it a duty to do
justice themselves. . . .