The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1901-05-02
BRESCI A MANIAC.
King Humbert's Assassin
Breaks Down Under
Punishment.

Paris, April 2o.-Bresci, the assas-
sin OF King Humbert OF Italy, has
gone mad.
1t is little wonder that the regicide
has become a raying maniac, for the
method OF punishment was intended
to produce this effect His sentence
of life imprisonment really meant
| death with torture on the way to
| execution" the most terrible punish
ment the Middle Ages invented. In
olden times the victims were obliged
to ride to death in cart, naked and
loaded with chains, while the heads
man cut, burned and otherwise tor
tured them according to the demand
of the blood drunk onlookers Now
the public is not invited to the show,
but the culprit's fate is no less cruel.
Passanante, who stabbed King
Humbert Nov II, 1878, was march
ed to a dungeon instead of the gal
lows. The act OF grace read: Ten
years in the 'segreta, or black hole,
the rest of his life in solitary confine
ment"
The black hole in Porto-SergiO
Prison was a sepulcher seven feet
below the level of the sea. Its
breadth was three feet three inches
and it was twice as long. But an
Italian who had lived all his life in
the mines or in malarial dugout was
not easily killed, mentally or physic-
ally, by close confinement. Dassan-
ante outlived the ten years of the
''black hole and became ripe for the
criminal insane asylum only in 1889.
The authorities have, therefore,
decided that the black hole is fail
ure as place OF punishment, but as
it could not be improved upon in
respect to dampness, darkness and
unhealthfulness, they concluded that
to add to it's horrors it was necessary
to turn it up on end and shape it like
a coffin. Consequently Bressi was
doomed to spend the first ten years
of his sentence in coffin-shaped cell
under water
The casket cell is sorry triumph
OF twentieth century cruelty. Neither
Nero, Caligula, Ivan the Terrible nor
Weyler invented its equal. The pris
oner must be on his legs all the time
or lie down, his feet propped against
the cell walls. If he ism poisoned by
breathing over and over again the
deadly exhalations of his tortured
body, stagnation of the blood yes
sells and anemia speedily wreck his
health. The place is infested with
all kinds of vermin and creeping
things
The prison in which Bresci is con
fined is established in the colossal
ruins of Frederick lis castle on the
end OF the ancient mole. Five hun
dred years have passed since this
stronghold was laid low, but its sub
terranean dungeons are as numer-
Gus, death dealing and well fortified
to-day as in the times when the pow
erful enemy OF Popes Innocent III, |
Honorius III and Gregory TX built |
them to punish pirates and obstrep-
erous barons.
Among the several hundred cells |
there are very few not furnished with |
wooden horses and iron rings to ia |
cilitate the infection of fortunes
In addition to the ordinary instru-
ments OF torture with which most OF |
the cells in the prison are provided |
there is also a special torture cham
Der. 1t is fitted with rack, on |
which the prisoner is placed, and |
over his body heavy roller is pass
ed, with spikes, which cut into the
flesh and crush the bones. In this |
chamber of horrors there is limb
This is a high scaffolding
with ropes and pulleys, by means of |
which the arms are pulled upward |
and the legs drawn downward till all |
the bones are drawn from their |
sockets
Here, too, is kept an iron cage the
shape of the body. in which the pris-
oner is put when he becomes insane. |
There is headpieee, with spikes to
pierce the tongue if the prisoner. in
his desperation, makes an outcry.
There are finger-pinehers TO crush |
the joints OF the hands. There is a /