Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1860-05-09
HORRIBLE ATROCITIES IN SICILY.

HORRIBLE ATROCITIES IN SICILY.
A correspondent of the London Morning
Chronicle vouches for the truth of the hor-
rible incidents of governmental persecution
detailed below. Such barbarities are al
most without parallel in history.
INFAMOUS TREATMENT OF HOSTAGES.
The Police of Palermo, desiring to lay
their hands on a certain Casimer Cusima-
no, who, being suspected of patriotism, had
taken to flight, arrested as hostages, threw
into filthy dungeons, and put to the tor !
ture, his old mother, his wife and sons and |
daughters. EleOnora, the youngest cf the
latter, a charming and beautiful girl, late
ly married to respectable citizen, under
went treatment that moved the whole cap I
Iital to pity. Madam Catalano, the wife of
the celebrated advocate of that name, made .
such intreaties to the Director Maniscaleo
that she obtained leave to take the poor
young victim to her own house, becoming
answerable for her appearance. At the
present moment Elenora Cusimano is resi-
ding at the county scat of the County of
Ronchibille, where she is slowly recovering.
Her relatives are still in prison.
THE CHAIR OF TORTURE.
As regards the torture, each commissary,
each jailor, has his own way Of applying it.
The details would probably be revolving,
but they are but too true, and can be es-
tablished by official documents and the re-
ports Of the medical officers. The famous .
POntillO owes his reputation to the kind of
torture he applies to the very Office of his
cOmmiSsionaryship-making the patient SIT
down on chair with an openwork scat,
furnished with razor blade and having un-
derneath cha6ng dish of burning coal.
THE ANGELIC INSTRUMENT
Inspector Louis Maniscalco, namesake
of the Director General, applies iron man.
acles to the accused, which arc made grip
tighter and tighter if the sufferer is stub
born. In the slang of the sbirri, this is
called the angelic instrument
TYING THE HEAD BETWEEN THE LEGS.
Jailer Bruno, in the cOmmissaryship of his
Olious Careea, (there is a prison to each
eOmmissary's district,) strips his prisoner
of his clothing. and then ties his head be-
tween his LEGS.
THE GROWING INFAMY.
But one of the satellites of the Director
General that excels all others, is evidently
the famous Captain Chemici, born a peas
ant of the village of BelmOnte, once a rob-
Der by profession, aud now an officer of pO-
lice and rch proprietor. Sent by Mais-
calgo to the town of Nicosia to find out the
assassin of a certain Gorgone-a govern
ment official killed out of an incident ari-
sing from an exhibition on his part of an
incredible transport of fury-Out of thirty
individuals thrown into prison on the most
indefinite suspicion of being implicated in ,
the crime. Chemici chose two at haphaz-
ard. to make an example Of, and to assuage
his thirst for torment. The two unfortu-
nates-Rosario Chimera, of the Vale dol
mo, and PizzolO-underwent the most hor- ,
rible treatment, such as the cap of silence,
the 'angelical instrument starvation, bea- 7
ting to deaths door, etc, without being >
brought to confess to. an act they had new !
er committed. This police functionary T
then seized Oh the wife of Chimcrae a young Y
and handsome woman. After having per- I
petrlted on her the most abOminable vio- r
lence lie had her tied naked on bench, ,,
and gave her up to the brutality of his h
sbirri. She remained three days in that =,
state, without solid food, until half dead, .
the poor creature depOsed that her hus- "
band had said formerly that he should like h
to kill Captain GOrgOnc.' :,
This testimony, so obtained, was imme- -
liately taken down by an officer of justice !,
brought for the purpose; and Chemica, re- D.
oiccd at having an inkling of proof re-
turned to the dungeon of the prisoners to
inform them that Chimera's wife had con- II
fessed. They still persisted in their deni- D,
Il, and he then had recourse to a mode Of d
torture of such monstrous obscenity that Il
description is impossible The sufferers at v
asst yielded, and confessed whatever was nj
required Chemici had them then taken, Z.
With all the display possible, to the place W
where the crime was committed, so that II
hey might repeat before magistrate, and tr
"A the presence of the assembled crowd, Of
10Th the avowal Of their guilt and of the fl
,xact spot in which they had placed them re
elves to fire the fatal shot. When, how W
vcr, they were brought out into the light al
nd air of heaven, and into the presence Of Ir
heir fellow citizens, breath of energy he
evived the martyrs, they raised their hi
leads, and with a feeble but firm voice pro- le
laimed themselves to be innocent, and de- bo
iounccd the infamous means employed pr
gainst them. A cry of horror arose from le,
he assembled crowd, and the shirri hasti- I
Y surrounded them and carried them back m,
o prison gagged. The former torture was to
gain applied. Chimera and PizzOlo again
ank under it; and, confirming their first
vowal of guilt, were taken to Catana, the ua
hief town of the province, to be tried hu
he High Criminal Court finding evident lef
larks of the tOrtures they had endured, tn
Omitted their explanations, ordered that FIN
hey should be visited by medical COM tn,
were bold enough to report Gl
be truth at the risk of themselves getting fo1
4 II u