The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-03-27
THE MALTA.
The Bloody Society OF Death and Its Muir
der of Chief Hennessy.

Vengeance is the earliest word taught
10 the Sicilian. To right what ht
deems his wrongs: TO correct his grief:
in blood and exact from his enemy
sanguinary recOmpense OF every INJURY
is part of his religion. As quarrel
arose between this Sicilian and that; az
vengeance was threatened ard attempt
ed, friend bound himself to friend IN
society for mutual protection thus
one day-a day so distant down the
centuries that only the merest whispers
of tradition concerning it can be heard
was organized the dark brotherhood
of the Malta. As it grew, as new re.
cruits, fearing some private enemy ana
fleeing from some personal vendetta,
Joined it for protection: the Malta. be
came, on its own part and on that oil lis
members, aggressive. Its earlier policy
was protection to its members and re-
venge of their wrongs. Its later ac-
tions. born OF the pride OF secure
strength. were of an initiative sort. Ii
took part in Sicilian politics and al
one time controlled the island. 1t had
its orders or councils in Rome, on the
mainland and all over Italy. The gov
erument began to fear it and many were
the laws and frequent the attempts to
extirpate the bloody brotherhood OF the
Malta. The only result was to drive II,
in its meetings and action, into deeper
obscurity. 1t did not die but grew and
fOurished.
The members of the Malta were
greatly feared. No one knew certainly,
that is, no outsider, of its membership.
| IL q r., Of ha m T.
ter OF membership. and preserved with
many dire oaths. To violate the Malta
oath and name a member to an outsider
was death. This punishment was many
times inflicted.
So no one. not OF the Malta, knew GER
tainly that Pictro or Juan or Romero
or anyOneNelse was Malta But as Is
common in such cases it was many
times suspected. A man supposed to
belong to the society was feared and
respected. Should he be drunk or dis
orderly in a wineshop the fact that he
was believed to be Of the order was
enough to secure him from arrest or
| interference. No peace officer was
anxious to incur the enmlty of the
mysterious but deadly Malta. They did
not last long-ThOse officers whom the
order hated. A dark night, a lonely
walk. the dull glimmer of stilettO
and the officer was dead-stabbed to the
heart from behind.
New Orleans is a composite Of all
nations. Among the rest is a colony Of
Italians, and these dark-brOwed Eme-
gres come, too, mostly from Sicily.
They are not of the best types and
! frequently have left their country for
their country's good and to the vast dis
advantage OF the city of New Orleans,
wherein they settle. Bandits and bril-
gands for whom a price was offered;
condemned felons who escaped their
bonds: all furtive dark-eyed despera-
does, with red headgear and broad rings
of brass and gold in their earS-these
were the sort who came.
These wolves brought the Malta. The
| bloody oath was taken and the roots of
| the society implanted in America.
Not much was known of the Malta
| here. The Italians settled in \ colony
| by themselves. There are now some
1000 of them. They add to their
ranks some 1900 year. They have
their churches, their newspapers. their
| trading booths and bazaars separate and
away from the rest Of the people of New
Orleans. One may live in their quar-
tiers and never hear any language but
| Italian for month. Their frontier is
as clearly established about their pos
sessions in New Orleans as If it were
marked by law.
New Orleans is not well governed
city Il is lazy, sluggish and dirty, as,
indeed, are most communities il torrid
chimes. Its police force is small and
far more efficient. 1t was just the
place for the Malta to flourish, and it
did grow and spread and wax strong.
Nor was it idle. For this cause or
that reason, in the divers years of its
New Orleans existence, it has sentenced
and executed over 100 men.
The only change from the methods Of
| fatherland was the substitution OF a
shotgun loaded with handful of slugs
as weapon in place OF the ancestral
dagger. The streets OF New Orleans,
and especially in the Italian quarter,
are narrow and vilely lighted at night
They present places which would sug-
gest assassination at a glance. The
hidden killer can here go to work and.
unless the eeriest bungler, be almost
certain OF safety and success.
So the Malta throve in New Orleans
and went its bloody courses. Its victims
we're, with but two or three exceptions,
Italians, or what in New Orleans is the
same thing, Sicilians. Outsiders did
not complain, and Italians did not dare.
Once they went outside OF their own
swarthy nationality and attempted, in
1860. the life of the clerk of the criminal
court. This would not do. The valo-
tile Americans cared not how many Of
their own sort the Malta daggered or
shot, but it must keep its blOod-stained
hands from others. So a mob Of
Americans quickly formed, charged
through the italian quarter and killed
some twenty-five or thirty Italian
without much care or effort expend q
in the selection.
This was enough. The Malta CO.
cluded that the assassination of Amer.
cans came too high and abandoned TIL
business as proftless and costing more
than it came to. They kept up a fur
tive shooting and thrOat-slitting. how
ever. among themselves with great
spirit. For this, as was said, no one
cared.
There VS. o." Wan in New Orleans.
an American. whom tue Malta hated
This was David e. Hennessy, chief
superintendent of police. He was 80
years Of age. and lived in New Orleans
from childhood and had studied these
Sicilian brigands ana bandit Italians as
no other American had. More than
one crime had been brought to the
italian door by David C.. Hennessv and
more than one son OF Eneas wears
letters to-day because OF this officer.
Among others he captured that cele-
brated Italian outlaw Esposito and
shipped him back to the theatre of his
crimes and the scene of his srrb=anr,apt