The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-07

revelation to the public that
member OF congress- from one Of
the principal cities Of this coun-
try. and the all-powerful political
boss OF his state. was the Number 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 distribution of every gov
eminent and municipal office in the state.
with view to furthering the interests Of
this secret society. Add to this the pre-
sumption, nay, the certainty, of the con-
nivance, perhaps the completely, of the Sec
rotary Of state or premier; and then the
running to earth Of this chief Of the secret
society after long chase of eight years
by naval officer in order to avenge the
murder OF a fondly loved father and to
bring to justice those responsible for his
assassination under peculiarly atrocious
circumstances.
It Is necessary for people in this coun-
try, says the New York Tribune. to picture
this to form any conception of the excite
ment which prevails at present In Italy in
connection with the trial in progress at
Milan for the murder In 1892 OF the Mar
quis Notarbartolo. mayor OF Palermo, gov
ernor of the Bank Of Sicily. and one Of
the most distinguished public men OF the
kingdom. The prisoners on trial are not the
chief culprits. They are merely the con-
ductor, the engine driver and the stoker
Of the train by which the marquis was
travelling when the murder took place.
They were arrested some week after tho
murder, and have been in prison ever since.
the government having acquired the be-
lief that IL they had not actually them
selves slain the marquis at any rate they
were aware OF the identity of the culprits.
1t was hoped that the long Imprisonment
and the innumerable magisteria1 examina-
lions to which they were subjected would
end by inducing them to make a full con-
fession. But these expectations have been
disappointed. and 1t was not until the son
OF the murdered man took his place on the
witness stand that the general public learn
ed the name of the person principally re-
sponsible for the assassination.
The SONS story.
my father" he declared, was killed
by the order and by the agents of Dep
Palermo, the capital Of Sicily, in the
national 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 money which he
(Palixzolo) had deliberately stolen while
city treasurer, and secondly because the
or OF the Bank of Sicily OF a number of
frauds and -forgerfes by Palizzclo. These
frauds had placed the bank in critical
condition. 50 critical, indeed, that the Inn
perial general of national banks had been
sent from Rome by the. minister of fin
ance to investigate its condition. The
marquis had furnished the inspector with
Information az to the manner In which
the institution had been robbed by Paliz-
colo, and was on his way back to Paler-
mo from his country seat, whittier he had
gone to fetch certain papers, letters and
documents, comprising the forged accept
ances and false mortgages-in fact, most
of the papers clinching the guilt of Paliz-
zolo-when he was murdered. None of hts
money was taken from him. Even his
watch remained in his pocket and his jew
eled pin In his necktie. Only his wallet of
papers had disappeared when his body
was recovered. Need you ask after this
why he was murdered, or inquire as to
the identity 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
impediments that had been placed in his
way; how. through the influence OF Paliz-
zolo, he had repeatedly been sent of on
the most extraordinary missions to distant
parts of the world whenever the trail be-
came too hot, until he had finally been
obliged to insist on being placed on the
retired list and on half pay in order to en-
able him to pursue his researches without