Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-07-12
DAILY EVENING STAR.
A Strange Tragedy

A Strange Tragedy.
The London Leader furnishes its readers
with an account of an awful tragedy,
which for moral ,depravity, stands unri-
vailed on the page of recent criminal his
tory. We give it in full s' q .a1. II
A strange tragedy has been acted in a
small Italian town in Piedmont. Men
daco was person of fortune, and held the
position of mayor of his native town, Vel
gottl, some twenty-four miles from Genoa.
He became violently enamored of a young
and handsome woman of the same place,
Maria Giusto, at the time widow with
four children. An Illicit connection en-
sued between them, and after some time,
Mendaco, with the connivance of his mis-
,tress, resolved to get rid of his wife by
killing her. His scheme was most art
fully contrived. On the night selected
for the murder heinvited two of his frienls
to sup with him and his wife, as he stated
his intention Of going ON journey the
next day. He took care to display on
this occasion the most affectionate kind
ness for his wife, who, after some time,
retired to rest. leaving her husband still
at supper with his boon companions,
whom he piled so copiously with liquor
that they fell at last intoxicated on the
floor. The mistress of Mendaco, as con-
certed, now made her appearance, and the
two wretches set about their work. r0o.
Stealing into the chamber of the Sleep
ing wife, the husband succeeded in stran-
Cling her with her cord, while his accom-
plice smothered her cries by stopping her
mouth with her hand. What added to
the horror of the act, was the fact of the
poor victim being enciente at the time;
IN her agony she gave premature birth to
achild. The deed once done, the assas-
sins coolly proceeded to carry out the
plan previously settled on. While the
woman washed the linen of the bed and
floor, the husband carried the corpse into
the adjoining garden of a neighbor, with
whom his wife had lately had violent
dispute, thus hoping to cast this foul muir
der on an innocent man. At daybreak
,Mendaco reused up his drunken compan-
ions of the previous night, and the three
LETT the house together. In few moments
Mendaco pretended that he had come off
without money, and returning together
to the house, he cried out from the out
side to his wife to throw him his purse
HIS paramour, who was secreted in his
wife's chamber awaiting this maneuvre,
threw out the money demanded, without
showing herself, and Mendaco's friends
naturally thought and declared that his
wife was in her bedroom when they all
LETT the house in company. ri-
When the murder was discovered, sus-
piclon naturally fell upon the unfortunate
man in whose grounds the body was dis
covered, and he was was arrested and
thrown into prison. This nefarious plot
was, however, providentially defeated
Two of Mendaco's children had overheard
the death cries of their unhappy parent,
and m spite of the menaces and entreaties
of their guilty father, they revealed what
they had overheard. The arrest of the
true criminals followed upon trial they
both confessed and accused each other,
and were both condemned to death. (Sad
to relate, the poor man who was first ar
rested, and detained in prison, lost his
senses from terror.) Upon the first trial
both were condemned to death but a
second one was ordered from some infor-
mality. The result was the same, and a
second condemnation was registered
against both the criminals Repeated eff
forts were made to save the woman from
execution. A deputation of noble ladies
belonging to the Misericordia went lately
from Genoa to Turin to intercede with the
klng and Queen for communication of the
sentence, but the case was too atrocious
to merit it, -' ID