New Orleans Republican., 1875-11-23
A Cut.Throat,s Confession,

Giovanni Cont, alias Filomeno Gallotti.
the chief carver at the recent Italian
butchery, made partial confession yester-
day. This wretch, who planned the mas
sacre, and with his own little knife cut the
throats Of all four victims, has refused to
talk with officers, reporters, or anybody
about the affair, except 10 say that he had
taken no hand in the murder While the
others, in the same cell with him, have Il Id
their stories, freeing their consciences by
telling everything, Cont, as conscienceless
as rock, has heard all without eviIcing
the slightest emotion. He has evidently
been fixing up his defense. and yesterday
he signited MS desire to make clean breast
of the matter, and tell the whole truth.
He says he inaugurated the carving exer-
cises. at the card table, by quietly cutting
the Old Italians throat, holding him BY the
hair and eawing the dirk across his wind.
pipe till he was quite dead. The other
butchers, who were cutting and slashing al
the boy, failing in dspatching him ae easily
as they had hoped, be iet; the old man and
went TO their assistaI ce, and gave the boy
stab which took his breath away from him.
With this, he says, he put up his knife, and
.ook no further part, except to look on,
IRON the front room, while Arata, Ballette
and Giuseppe cut the throats of the other
two boys as they entered the back door He
says that they took from belt, and also a
pocket book, on the old mans body the sum
of $500 in gold and S317 IN currency. A
good part of this. he says, was doled out. in
sums varying from SO to $li0, to all the
parties concerned in the crime. and he de-
MES having buried any portion of the
spoils, but says his share, except the
Amount found upon him when arrested, was
spent IN reaching New Mexico, Cont ac-
knowiedges that he got the others to Join
him in the murder, Deodata, whose pre-
varications are both amazing and amusing, |
was the first man spoken to on the subject |
He agreed to GO ''snOoks" with him in the |
murder. Then, on the last dav of the ter
ritorial fair. Fernandez, the Mexican. was |
asked to join, and cheerfully consented, |
saying he could guide them out of the coun- |
try safely. Arata, the boy whose confes- |
sion has carried much weight with it, when |
spoken to, refused to take part but after |
ward consented. One by one the whole |
gang were apprised and enlisted in the un-
dertAking.
Conti's reason for killing the old man is
this: Years ago he was following his trade |
Of tinker in New Orleans. He was very
much liked by all his Italian, French and |
spanish acquaintances, and the confidence |
In him was SO strong that several of them
deposited their earnings with him for safe
keeping. In time these private deposits
he might as well reap some benefit from the |
funde. and accordingly loaned the money
to an Italian fruit dealer, who came up to
Memphis on business and never returned |
Cont followed him in time, and ascertained
that the fruit.vender had been induced to
run away with the money by an old Italian
named Joe, q musician, who had gone North
He started out, says Cont, to overtake
the thief, visiting Mobile, Louisville,
st. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha and Chey-
enne, and, being unable to reimburse his
New Orleans depositors, concluded to settle
down in Denver and resume his honest
trade of tinker. He had been here but q
short time when, at the invitation of Les
sandri, the harpist, he called at the
house Of old Joe, on Lawrence street, whom
he had never seen before. While there 20
asked him to write a letter for him. He
wrote the letter, which was to a woman in
Italy, and, to his great surprise, added, by
direction, the signature of the identical man
who had got the fruit-dealer to run off with
5000 belonging to his friends. He satisfied
himself, after writing any number of letters,
that he had struck the right man, and then
he determined to kill him, and gradually
disclosed his purpose to his conidants.-
Denper Nears