Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-03-14
A FLORENTINE TRAGEDY.
\ Startling Tale of Jealousy, Passion and
Revenge.

Revenge
Florence Letter il London Times: A
murder of such. romantic interest and
such terrible oonse queRees took place in
Florence the IS h OF December that some
account OF It can scarcely be deemed
without interest for English readers
Tragedies as startling and as ghasIy
often occur su over Italy from the mas
ter passion of Jealous and baflsd love,
but their scenes are usually in a mors
humble and less cultured sphere of life.
In this instance the victim is patrician
lady of great beauty, of large wealth, and
of honorable name, the Countess Costa
of Verona, and the scene Of the murder
was the cemetery chapel where her hus-
band was buried four years ago. The
countess, a woman still attractive and
lovely, with a tall and graceful figure,
delicate features, brown eyes, and chest
nut hair, was left a widow with four
children and considerable fortune, ad-
mired and respected by all, and Singh.
larry happy in the circumstances of her
life. Her landau, with her handsome
children and her favorite little dog, was
familiar feature in the drives of the
Gasoline.
An italian officer, Gaetano BOscherini,
who was among the amis de la maisOn at
the Casa Costa, and who Is believed to
nave been passionately in love with her
before his departure for Messowa, on his
return from Africa resumed his familiar
intercourse with the family and was con-
suited and employed by them in various
matters OF business. Latteriy however,
he became dissatisfied with his position
of trust and friendship and made her
repeated proposals of marriage which
| the countess refused, but refused in such
a manner as to leave friendship still pos
sible between them. Il is always said to
be a perilou5 task TO change a lover into
friend, and she eviC emily believed it
possible TO retain a friend without allow
ing him to become q lover, for although
she persistently repulsed the idea of a
second marriage, she continued TO re-
ceive Boscherina as before, and the last
Of December, when he offered to accom-
pany her to the chapel of Miniato on the
visit TO her husbands tomb, which she
was wont to pay every month, she allow
ed him to do so, telling her children that
she would meet them later IN as Giucosa
bOnbOn shop.
While the poor children waited there,
presents and festivities, their mother was
assassinated by Bosoherini in the mortu
airy chapel at San Miniato. The brute
stabbed her with a knife-one thrust
dividing the heart itself, another pass
ing from the jugglar vein on the lett 10
the cartoid artery on the right. He then
shot himself with revolver blowing 20
pieces his face and head. That this
frightful murder was premeditated is OF
course, evident from the weapons employ
ed. Wbe Their the crime was the mere
brutality of disappointed passions, or
whether the desire to obtain possession
of her wealth had been added 10 admira-
ton of her person, or whether ancient
jealousy of the husband whose memory
she cherished, or whether present Jealousy
of some more favored sutton drove the
the fend who killed her to his horrible
vengeance will in all probability never be
known. Seldom has a more atrocious
| crime been imagined.
The scene of the murder, the hill which
Michael Angelo called his bella yillanella,
and where the legends of the saints place
the martyrdom OF ST. Minias, whom the
panther spared, the glorious sylvan
beauty around, where the last golden
foliage of autumn still fingered among
the deep green Of ivy and arbutus and
cypress, the brilliant sunshine that fell
that day on the white marbles, the gilt
tering crosses, the many colored mosaics,
the old brown watch tower of Michael
Angelo brooding over all, with the white
doves circling around it; down below in
the city the waiting children, ignorant of
their loss. laughing and talking, full of
the merriment of the season, wondering
heedlessly why their mother tarried SO
long-all these circumstances and &C.
cessories enhance an exceptionally
tragic tale of passion and revenge.