Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-09-09
Murder of Countess = Terrible
Crime I'm y RaflUay Carriage.
Naples august l0) Correspondence Londen

Crime I'm y RailUay Carriage.
Naples august lO) Correspondence Londsn
Times.
Every one here has been Mortified By
the details Of q murder which was COM
mitted last Thursday night in first-class
carriage of the night train from Rome to
Florence. The victim was the Contessa
Armanda Sartores' Ribrandi Cattaneo de
Novara-a long name, but you must take
/, it as it is. Separated from her husband,
to which it is necessary to allude, she
came from Voghera, in the north Of Italy,
to Naples about fortnight since, and
took lodgings at San Pao!s, village
near Nola. Here she was in the habit
of receiving every evening several Off
GERS of cavalry regiment, among whom
was Lieutenant Negri. One evening
last week the cries of the Countess, in q
half suffocated tone, were heard be-
seeching for help, on which the land
lord, Signor Contieri, went out on
the staircase, fred shot, and met
Negri running down. He then went
to the Countess, who confessed that she
had come to San Paola in order to see
Negri, who had some letters of hers
which he refused to give up; that after
her society" had left her that evening he
returned. having sent away the servants
under some excuse and closed the doors,
when he endeavored to force her to write
letter, TO her friend stating she had
committed suicide. What could have
! been the motive for this can only be i'm
agined. On her hesitating to do this he
suatched dagger from her hand, which
she carried for self-defense, and was in
the act of striking her when she fed to
another room, followed by her maddened
lover. The dagger was again uplifted.
when the pistol shot fred by the landlord
seemed to paralyze him, and he made his
| escape. In Contieri's apartment she
remained all the night, and Negri re-
turned to ask her pardon, insisting also
on remaining in another room. On the
next day "Wednesday several of the
officers of the regiment, hearing of the
affair, came to the house to protect the
Countess, who determined to return to
Voghera the next day-Thursday last.
Two officers and the landlord, Contieri,
accompanied her as far as Caserta, where
they left her, the Countess refusing their
society any further, adding that she no
longer had any fears. On the train ar
riving at Isoletta, the station on the
Roman frontier, the body of the unfortu-
nate woman was found extended on the
a oor of the carriage, a pistol at her feet, a
pistol shot in her head, and her hand COW
cred with blood and cut as if by glass.
More than this is not known at present.
Some assert that they saw Negri get into
a third-clsss carriage, dressed as civil
ian, in the same train that the Countess
left, and that his cap was found near her.
If so, he is suspected of having walked
along the footbosrd to her carriage, and
having shot her through the window. OF
him nothing has yet been heard. This
horrible tragedy, which report almost
in the same words that it is described in
all the journals of Naples, has created
here an immense sensation; in all its de-
tails it is most revolving, and might fur
nish another Mrs. Radcliffe with materi-
ais for 0 sensational romance. A highly
respectable journal, in defending Negri |
against the imputation of theft, also says
there can be no ground for suspicion in
the simple fact of his having loved a wo-
man so desperately as to murder her.
HE was not a maurais siyst. He was
wei-born, rich, honest, and only vain"
In another passage he is described as
unfortunate" Thus Iit is that crime is
condoned, and that sympathy with it
generates that prevalent sentimental
feeling against capital punishment.
Wonderful to relate, however, Neapoli-
tan juries have, within the last two
months, brought in vsrdicts in three ca
ses without "dttenuanti circOstanze -
Justice still hesitstes; there are the Court
Of Appeal and the royal mercy to be in
voked. The probabilities are that the
sentences of three heinous murderers
will be commuted.