The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-14
MUsoLINo's CAREER.
Picturesque Italian Bandit Sen
fenced for Life.

Picturesque Italian Bandit Sem
fenced fer Life.
Giuseppe Musolino. one of the most
picturesque brigands in history, was
sentenced last Wednesday at Lucca,
Italy. to Imprisonment for life. This
is the maximum sentence in Italy.
Musolino received his sentence
with equanimity but pleaded elo-
quently that the clemency of the court
be shown his comrades in the dock.
With tears in his eyes Musolino as
sured the jury of the innocence of his
comrades and begged for their ae-
quittal. The court and jury were Wis.,
IDLY affected by Museline's eloquenoe,
and the other prisoners were dis
charged.
MusoIino's sentence includes eight
years solitary confinemnt.
He was the leader of a band of bril-
gands that long infested the southern
end of the Italian Peninsula A pic
turesque, daredevil sort Of a eharac-
ter, he lived high up in the mountains
| and made his living sometimes by
| Fobbing travellers and sometimes by
| fepays in the villages. At least thir-
| teen 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 ex-
| petition of soldiers against him and
! for a time he was besieged in his
mountainous stronghold. Finally, by
| bold dash, Musolino and his band
! broke through the Gordon drawn
| around them, killing a number of
| the soldiers. Then Musolino disap-
| peared and for three years nothing
was heard of him. Last September
ii was reported in Naples that he was
| living in New York city, but this re-
| port turned out to be unfounded, for
| some months afterward he was run
| down in Italy and was put on trial
| at Lucca,
| The trial was ono of the most sensa-
tienal of recent times, the interest in
| it in Italy extending from the highest
10 the lowest. One of the chief charae-
| teristics of this eminent brigand Is his
vanity which has been fully satisfied
| by the manner in which his trial was
| conducted. Many distinguished men
jouFneyed to Luoea to study the bril-
| gand, among them being D'Annunzie,
| the poet-dramatist; Pascoli, another
| famous Italian poet, and Signor Lom-
broso, the celebrated psychologist, all
| of whom seem to have been fascinated
! by him. D'AnnunZio is said to be writ
| ing a novel and also a play, of both
| of which Musolino is to be the hero.
Signor Lombroso, after a careful study
of Musolino, has declared him to be
perfectly sane, adding:
'SIe is an exceptional man. If proper
ly brought up, he would, am certain,
have become glory to Italy. His in
telligence, perspieacity and eloquenee
are indeed extraordinary. He possesses
in the highest degree all the qualities
of great orator and a great man, and
yet he is merely a brigand. 1t is a
truly fascinating case"
On one occasion, in a moment OF
fury at the trial, he attempted to
strangle a woman witness who, in de-
scribing the murder of her son, had
| turned dramatically TO Musolino and
cried: '"fhere Is the man who killed
him." IT took eight stalwart gendarmes
to subdue him.
Although there are a dozen families
| who have had some one of their mem
hers killed or wounded by Musolno.
only one father, a carbineer, has had
the courage to come forward on the
prosecutions 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 il
Musolino should escape they would try
to shoot or stab him.
Musolino's many murders and hts pc
culiaF code of honor had made him
after his capture a popular hero. Like
| Robin Hood, Musolino owed his sue
cess as a brigand to the sympathy and
assistance, more or less thinly yelled
| of the poorer class with which he
came in contact in his peaceful moods
! His fVo1 farsiro Fflxy xuffh
thoriries, and on these he waged re-
lentless and for long time successful
warfare. His treatment of the rank
and file of the italian gendarmere
| however, saVored of courtly gallantry
When, on one occasion, he shot a po-
| lice captain, he lamented the neces-
sity according to popular legend, and
regretted that his victim had not chosen
some other vocation by which to carr
his bread. Musolino always claimed
that he was unjustly imprisoned fol
attempting murder. being tried and con.
| victed on that charge. He was moi
| even in his boyhoed, however, an ex.
| enlplary character. At fifteen years OF
age he was under police surveillance
In 1894, when seventeen years old. he
received a first sentence, and three
years later a second, for housebreak-
| ing. He was tried for attempted muir
der 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 ca
| pacity so-ever.
| At times whole regiments were mobi-
lized in attempts to capture him, and
| for a year a force of 500 men, police
! and carbineers, had it's hands full with
the hunt. Musoiino was for a long
time the terror of Calabria, and up tc
| the time he was captured, in October
| 1901, was credited with having COM
mitted twenty-five murders. OF the
| fifteen witnesses at his trial whom he
| had sworn to kill he is said to have
made away with twelve. Musolinc
was captured after desperate re-