Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-09-19
Crime i'm Sicily.

A letter in the London Times tells a
fearful story of the insecurity of life III
Sicily: On the 9th of August the pa
peTs of Palermo related the following
incident. The incident occurred toward
the end of the previous month"; but
was first reported on that day.
In the neighborhOOd of CaltayutOro
in the province of Palermo, twelve men
combined to sequestrate, in the phrase
of the cOuntry-an unfortunate priest
To 'sequestrate here is generally under
stood in the sense of kidnapping for the
sake of eXtorting ransom. 1t is the pro-
cess known to the English public in the
instance of Mr.. Moons. The priest was
sequestrated accordingly, and 1900 francs
obtained from his family. But, whether
because the sum was insufficient, or be
cause the robbers had some particular
grudge at the priest in question, or,
which is the most probable suppositiOn,
because he had recognized and could
have denounced them, they then muir
dered the man and burned his body. The
calcined bones and some of his clothes
were found in cave. The same DAYS
papers relate another incident also.
which was more recent. Five men Sc
questrated boy, whom they forced to
accompany them to the hOuseOf hfsaunt
and to request admission. She recOg-
niZed her nephews voice, and opened
her door. The men entered, murdered
her, robbed and set fire to the house,
and as they thought, murdered the boy
too HBut he was not dead, though NOR
tally wounded. He COntrived to crawl
to a neighbours where he wrote down
he could not speak for his throat was
cut-the names of his murderers. He
died two hours after.
The next story has a fine Irish flavor
about it, Some years ago proprietor
let, on the system of perpetual lease.
common in this country, an estate of
some extent. but, from its uncultivated
condition, of little value. 1t was taken
in small lots by quite number of peas
ants The estate, however. had been
settled on the owners wife, but this had
been overlooked and her signature had
not been affixed, therefore the leases
were of course invalid. At their fathers
death his two sons, tempted by the great
increase in the value of the property
through the labor bestowed upon it, de-
termined to avail themselves of the flaw.
The tenants agreed to pay double the
rent agreed upon, and a large sum down,
but the brothers refused the offer. went
before the courts, and of course gained
their cause. The other day they went
down with a legal official to take pos
session, protected by a strong escort for
they had received threatening letters.
Nineteen of the tenants met them and
the fOrmalities were completed. Then
a discharge Of fire arms proceeded from
a short distance off, and the legal officer
and one of the brothers fcll-the for
mer dead and latter mortally wounded.
The tenants all ran away. The locality
where this occurred was also in the prov
ince of Palermo.
The next case IshalI mention appeared
in the papers of the 10th. A peasant
was loading his cart with tomatoes in
his own garden at Fayara. a small ham
let-if it deserves the namc-sOmc three
or four miles from the city. Some armed
men entered the ground and demanded
his money. c'cried out and his wife
fired gun from the house to call aid.
The men ran away, but they left the
peasant dead. he having received sever
al stabs.
The last case | shall mention occurred
Gay or TWO later also NlJhlh JiItr
miles of the city. 4 man was sitting in
the balcony of his house, when he was
fired at. lie was wounded in the lee,
but fortunately not killed. Now this is
a country where, to all practical purpos-
es, the penolty Of death is abolished /
am told that there have been only two
executions here in the last ten years
two persons suffering at each. I believe
the last was seven years ago. and the
crop of murders Git is true 1t is August,
and assassination. are always expected
to be most plentiful in that month"; is
what have indicated. Of course this
is the practical abolition of the penalty.
The correspondent assures us that so
great is the terror in which men 60 that
the journals never publish the names of
! persons accused of crime.