The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1900-01-20
CRISP AND THE MAFIA

from intimidation. But before the sta
ton master had been month under lock
and key he was allowed by the examining
magistrates, who must now bee regarded
as having been in league with Palizzolo
to withdraw his deposition and to swear
% a statement that he could not pos
slbly have recognized the man, since he
himself was absent from the railroad
station at the time. On the strength of
thlS ne was set free and shipped off with
not haste with his family to Tunis, where
ne now lives, doing nothing, in receipt of
considerable sums of money which reach
him from Sicily.
VI course the man whom he had recoe-
n1zed was Immediately afterwara re-
stored toafreedonl, and it was uuly later.
that Commander Lucchese was able to
secure proof that the alibi on the strength
VI Which the station master had with
uraWn his first deposition was untrue
since the station master had been on d,1tv
at the Iermlnni station throughout the
entlre day of the murder and had men
| TONED to number of persons afterward
the fact that he had said Good morn
ing! to the marquis, who was in the
train on his way to Palermo.
Lucchese, who spent a number of wears
in police duty in Sicily also furnished evil
dence OF the most incontrovertible nature
that PallZzolO has for ten years or more
peen the acknowledged and RECOGNIZED
chlet OF the Malta in Sicily, the organizer
OF most II not all the crimes committed
by that association, and has been, thanks
to this, not only the most powerful man
IN the entire island, but able to keep the
whole of the population in a state of alb
| ject terror.
| Finally Ducchese explained to the court
| now, owing to the fact that he had hon.
! estly endeavored to bring the murderers
| OF the Marquis Notarbartolo to justice,
ne had been subjected to every ~conceiv-
| able affront and slight, not merely on the
part of the leading people in Sicily. but
even at the various government depart
| ments at Rome, until he had ultimately
been driven into retirement, the high re-
gard In which he is, however, held bv
honest King Humbert being indicated by
the fact that he wears around his throat
the green ribbon and the white cross of
the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
conferred upon him by his sovereign,
which gives him in Italy the highly priced
| title of commentators.
or course these startling revelations
have led to others Of a still more amaz-
| .ng character, which it must be confessed
are due in a great measure to the energy
| the boldness and the keenness Of penetra-
ton on the part of the members of the
staff of some of the leading members of
! the Italian press. Young Notarbartolo
Commander Lucchese, his inspector of
gendarmerie. Cervis and others having
| testified as to what may be described as
the Sicilian end of the case, and definitely
| shown the responsibility of Deputy Paliz-
| zolO for the murder, and likewise his con-
nection with and chieftainship of the
| dreaded Malta, the newspapers seized
| hold OF the Roman end of the scandal and
began a radical and relentless investiga-
| ten s@tnthe, influences. which <Palizzolo~
| had been able to dispose of in the Eternal
| how >s,,l
out how it happened that all the most
| important documents relating to the af-
| fair had mysteriousy disappeared from
! the dOsSier, and even from the archives
! Of the government departments con-
| cerned; how it was that none of these
| reports had ever received any attention;
how young Notarbartolo came to be sent
off to all sorts of remote stations out of
his turn of duty; why Commander Luc-
CHEESE had been driven to retire; why
| magistrates who showed any determina-
| ton to get to the bottom of. the affair
had been suddenly transferred to remote
parts Of the kingdom how, in one word,
PaliZzolo had been apparently able to
| bend to his will every one Of the great
| government departments at Rome.
The results of these Investigations are,
to say the least. sensational. For it has
become apparent that during Crispi's va
rious terms of office premier he had
! taken advantage of the fact to introduce
many Of his own countrymen, that is to
| say, Sicilians, into the. government de-
| Dartments at Rome, notably into the min
istries of the interior and of justice. Most
| of these were appointed on the nominal
| ton of PaliZZolo himself, as the parlia-
mentary representative of the capital of
Sicily and as the political boss of the
island. Naturally, Palizzo1o only selected
men upon whom he could rely to serve
-, sx,{@ ~t 4I1 Toe
thus it happens that large number of
government officials holding responsible
| administrative positions at Rome, and
with power to obstruct, and even to stop
altogether the wheels Of justice, are
friendly to the Malta, if not actually affi-
| lated thereto
Palizzolo has been all along one of the
chief political supporters and adherents
of Crispi he took a leading part in the
ovation to the octogenarian statesman at
Palermo in the early part of this year,
and. in fact is a welcome guest of the
Crispi family at Naples, as we'll as at
Rome. This, taken in connection with
the extraordinary readiness which the
old man is known to have displayed when
premier to further all the wishes of his
| friend PaliZZolo, has naturally led to the
charge that the former prime minister
! himself remains still member of the
| Malta.
| 1t is known that he belonged to this
organization of crime in his youth-in
those days when he used to devote his
time and~h energy to devising nitro
glycerine bombs and Internal machines
for the assassination of tyrants, both
royal and administrative.
There are now loud cries to the effect
that Crispi should be put on trial as a
member of the Malta; that is to say, as
a member Of a criminal organization for
hidden by law, and observe from the
dispatches received from Italy that def
mite charges are about to be brought
against him in connection with the mat
ter. But Justice moves slowly in Italy,
and it will scarcely be credited that, in
spite of the terrible accusations brought
against Palizzolo, and notwithstanding
the conclusive evidence of his guilt, which
is acknowledged by the newspapers Of
| every shade of political opinion through
out the kingdom, he has not yet been ar
rested and still retains his seat in the
national legislature at Rome as the par
liamentary representative of the capital
| Of Sicily.
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