The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-17
MUsoLINo's CAREER.
Picturesque Italian Bandit Sentenced for Life.

1 IOT LlIc
 Giuseppe Musolino, one of the most pic
 turesque brigands in history. was sent enced last Wednesday at Lucca, Italy, to imprisonn ant for life. This is the max
 imum sentence in Italy.
 | Musolino received his sentence with
 equanimity, but pleaded eloquently that | the clemency of the court be shown his
 comrades in the dock.
 With tears In his eyes Musolino assnr ed
 the jury of the innocence of his com
 rades and begged for their acquittal. The court and jury were visibly affected by
 Musoino's eloquence. and the other pris-
 oners were discharged.
 | Musolino's sentence includes eight 1 years solitary confinement.
 He was the leader of band of brigands | that long infested the southern end Of
 the Italian Peninsula. A picturesque.
 daredevil sort of a character, he lived | high up in the mountains and made his l living sometimes by robblng trivelers and
 sometimes by forays in the villages. At
 least thirteen attempts at murder. most
 of which were successful, are included In
 the catalogue of his crimes. and for years
 the countryside was terrorized.
 | At last the authorities sent an expe-
 time he was besieged in his mountainous
 stronghold. Finally. by bold dash. Mu-
 solino and his band broke through the
 cordon drawn around them, killing a number of the soldiers. Then Musollne
 disappeared, and for three years nothing ! was heard of him. Last September 1t
 was reported in Naples that he was llv-
 ing in New York City, but this report
 months afterward he was run down in
 Italy and was put on trial at Lucca. The trial was one of the most sensa- tional of recent times. the interest in 1t | lowest. One of the chief characteristics | of this eminent brigahd is his vanity. which has been fully satisfied by the man.
 ner in which his trial was conducted. 1iott1 tSh he1 ma Lucca to study the brigand, among them being D'Annunzin. the poet-drama fst; | Pascoli, another famous Italian poet, and | Signor Lombroso. the celebrated psyehol- | ogist all of whom seem to have been fas- | cinated by him. D'Annunzio is said to | be writing a novel and also play, Of | both of which Musolino Is to be the hero. | Signor Lombroso. after a careful study | feotly sane. adding:
 He is an exceptional man. If properly | brought up, he would, I am certain, have | become a glory to Italy. His intelligence. picacity and eIoouence are indeed ex- l traordinary He possesses in the highest | degree all the qualities of great ora | tor and a great man. and yet he Is merely | d brigand. It Is a truly fascinating case. | On one occasion, in a momeni of fury
 at the trial. he attempted to sttangie a | woman witness who. in describing the murder of her son, had turned dramatic \ ally to Musolino and cried: "1Erre Is the man who killed him." It cook tight stall ! wart gendarmes to subdue hiTI.
 l Although there are a dozen families ! who have had some one of .heir members killed or wounded by NuSolino. only one | father, a carbineer, has had the courage | to come forward on the prosecution s side. The others. who are all Calabrians. | regard the case as a traditional vendetta | and refuse to soil their honor by going | to law. but if Musolino should escape | they would try to shoot or stab him. Musolino's many murders ana ms pecu- | liar code of honor had made him after
 his capture popular hero. Like Robin ] Hood, Musolino owed his success a 1 brigand to tho sympathy and assistance, | more or less thinly yelled, of the poorer | class with which he came in contact in | fly was with the authorities. and on these | he waged relentless and for a long time | successful warfare. His treatment of the rank and file of the Italian gendarmerie. however, savored of courtly gallantry. l When. on ono occasion. he shot a police captain, he lamented the necessity, ac- | cording to popular legend and regretted | that his victim had not chosen some other vocation by which to earn ais bread. Mu- | solino llways claim sd that 1e was uni st. | Ky imprisoned for attempting murder, be- | ing tried and convicted on that charge. | ever an exemplary character. At Is | years of age he was under police surveil- | lance. Tn 1894, when IT years old, he re- | ceived a first sentence. and three years | later a second for housebreaking. He | was tried for attempted murder in 1898 | found guilty and sentenced to a long | term of imprisonment. He managed to | escape, and at once swore to destroy | every person connected with the court
 that tried him. In what capacity so-ever
 At times whole regiments were mohii- lzed in attempts to capture him, and