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

1t rs Alleged That He Is IL Member
Of This Famous Criminal Society
-Amnzing Revelations in Con-
nection With the Murder of Mar
auis NotarbartGlO, Mayor Of Pal
ermo, Governor of the Bank of
Sicily and One of ItaIy's Most
Distinguished Men.
Imagine the sudden discovery and rev.
citation to the public that a member of
congress from one of the principal cities
Of this country, and the all powerful po-
ltical boss of his state, was the Num-
Der One and chief Of one Of the most
famous secret organizations of crime in
the world, and that for more than a
decade he had been controlling the dis
tribution Of every government and NUM-
cipal office in the state, with a view to
furtherng the interests Of this secret So
ciety. Add to this the presumption, nay,
the certainty, of the connivance, perhaps
the completely, of the secretary of state
or premier; and then the running to earth
of this chief of the secret society after
long chase of eight years by a naval offl-
in order to aVenge the murder OF
fondly-loved father and to bring to justice
these responsible for his assassination
under peculiarly atrocious circumstances
1t is necessary for people in this coun-
try to picture this in order to form any
conception of the excitement which pre-
walls at present in Italy in connection
with the trial in progress at Milan for
the murder in 1899 Of the Marquis Notar-
bartolo, mayor of Palermo, governor of
the Bank of Sicily, and one of the most
distinguished public men in the Kingdom
The prisoners on trial are not the chief
culprits They are merely the conductor,
the engine driver and the stOker of the
train by which the marquis was travel
ing when the murder took place. They
were arrested some weeks after the MUIR
der and nave been in prison ever since
the government having acquired the be-
lief that If they had not actually them
selves slain the marquis at any rate
they We're aware of the identity of the
culprits. 1t was hoped that the long i'm
prisonments and the innumera Bile magis-
terlal examinations to which they were
subjected would end by inducing them to
make q full confession. But these, ex-
pectations have been disappointed. and it
was not until the son of the murdered
man took his place on the witness stand
that the general public learned the name
Of the person principally responsible for
the assassination.
My father he declareds was. killed
by the orders and by the agents of Dep
uty Palizzolo, who represents the city of
Palermo the capital of Sicily, in the ma
tional Legislature at Rome. Palizzolo
caused my father to be killed first of all
because he had, while mayor, obliged him
to restore to the municipal treasury large
sums of public moneys which he (Paliz-
Zolo} had deliberately stolen while city
treasurer, and secondly because the mar
uuiS had become aware while governor
of the Bank of Sicily of a number of
frauds and fOrgeries perpetrated at the
expense Of the institution by Palizzolo
These frauds had placed the bank in a
critical condition. SO critical. indeed. that
the inspector general of national banks
had been sent from Rome by the minister
of finance to investigate it's condition.
The marquis had furnished the inspector
with Information as to the manner in
which the institution had been robbed
by Palizzolo. and was on his way back
to Palermo from his country seat With
er he had gone to fetch certain papers
letters and documents, comprising the
forged acceptance and false mortgages
in fact. most Of the papers clinching the
guilt of Palizzolo-when he was MUIR
dered. None of his money was taken
from him. Even his watch remained in
his pocket and his jeweled pin in his
necktie. Only his wallet of papers had
disappeared when his body was recov-
cred. Need you ask after this why he
was murdered, or inquire as to the iden-
tity of the person responsible for the
crime?''
And then the gallant young lieutenant,
who for all these years has been on the
trail Of his fathers assassins, went on to
describe the obstacles and extraordinary
impedments that had been placed in his
way: how. through the influence of Paliz-
zolo, he had repeatedly been sent off on
the most extraordinary missions to dis
tant parts of the world whenever the
trail became too hot, until he had finally
been obliged to insist on being placed on
the retired list and on half pay in order
to enable him to pursue his researches
without interruptions: how all the dis
coveres which he made and brought to
the notice Of the authorities were pooh
poohed and pigeonholed, while he himself
was obliged to be constantly on his guard
in order to avoid sharing the fate of his
father; how his house had been repeated
1y broken into, his papers stolen, his bag
gage rifled Of it's contents while he was
travelling by land and by sea. In fact, he
showed how throughout these eight years
he had been fighting without ceasing in
the dark against a band of enemies COM
prising officials of high and low degree,
whose one object was to put a stop in
some manner or another to his re-
searches
Encouraged by this denunciation Com
, mander Lucchese, North italian, for
l merly project of police in Sicily, now re-
! tired on pension, testified that, though
with the independence characteristic of
the Piedmontese he had honestly done his
utmost to bring the perpetrators of the
murder to justice yet all his efforts had
been frustrated by this all-powerful inf, u
ence, namely, that of Palizzolo. He bore
wlthess TO the fact that the reports which
ne hl1nself and his inspector of carbineers
/. or Sendarmes, Cervis, had made to the
. authorities had either never reached the
latter' or, If received, had been de-
etroveo py some official hand, since not
one or the reports figured in the dossier
or CORRECTION of papers relating to the
tt, ne called attention to the fact
tIial on the same day that the murder
was committed the report drawn IN ~,
Tue government inspector of banks on the
SUBJECT or the Bank of Sicily, and con-
tanning the charges against Palizzolo, had
ny seriously disappeared from the desk
" Inc minister of finance at Rome and
r e,,aa+ le'er oeen recovered the bank in
epector himself dying so shortly after
Mdru that he was unable to rewrite or to
ula" 1t up afresh. He told how two DAYS
pitoi ~ the murder meeting of notori-
Gus CRIMINALS had been held at the resi-
oence OF Palizzolo, at which the murder
OF the Marquis Notarbartolo was decided
upon: Ihen he related how one of these
CRIMINALS, known as a blindly submissive
ana obedient tool of Palizzolo, had been
recognized in crowd of more than one
hundred men by the station master Of
Ierm1ni as having got into the compart-
ment adjoining that OF. the nobleman
AFTER, first Of all, inquisitively peering
into the latter's window in order to see
II MS victim was there. The man was
arrested, while the station master was
placed In the house Of detention with the