The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-05-13
A POOR, IGNORANT WOMAN
IS BARBAROUSLY EXECUTED

and she cooked his meals, washed his
| dlsheS, 1roned his shirts, and last
| summer, weeded in his garden Faith
err Lambert. the priest, says that a
hundred times she might have escap-
ed from the Bergen county Jail had
| she cared to make the attempt.
Inhuman Barbarity.
The method in which Bergen coun-
ty will mete out punishment to this
woman smacks strongly of ancient
barbarism. The execution is to take
place in the prison corridor. Every
prisoner, including one man and one
! woman doomed to the same fate, will
hear the death struggle of Anna Val
| entina.
| The corridor is not large enough
to permit of the erection of the regu-
lation gallows. SO the sheriff will
make the poor ignorant little woman
| stand on platform raised six inches
| from the floor, and adjust about her
neck a rope, which will jerk her up
| to death. The rope is suspended over
a pulley in the ceiling. 1t runs down
from the pulley. through hole in
| the floor into the basement. At that
end ii is attached to dozen bags
which hold half ton of sand. The
| bags are arranged on a slide. When
| Sheriff Mercer cuts small rope with
his jackknife the bags will be re-
, leased and go crashing down to the
! basement floor, 10 feet The woman's
| body, suspended from the moose at
| the other end, will be jerked up 10
| feet and no doubt her neck will be
| broken, if her be not torn from her
| body.
| Eleven years ago the Valentino
| woman, now II years old, left her
home in southern Italy and emigrated
alone to America She had known
| the miserable life of a peasant and
| she says she came filled with hope
| for a better existence. In New York
| factories she earned the price of
| scant livelihood for several years and
| then she Joined the great colony of
Italian silk weavers in New Jersey.
| For nine years the woman lived
as the wife of Michael Corlucci, also
a silk weaver. They boarded their
| small savings and three years ago
built a tiny home in the town of
Lodi On the building Anna labored
| by the side of the man she loved,
helping to nail up the frame, wheel
the dirt and plaster, and finally paint
the house. But the fruit of her labor
was not to be hers. Corlucci threw
her over and accepted Rosa Salza as
his wife and the tenant of the house.
1t is said by neighbors that Anna
accepted her cruel abandonment with
apparent resignation. She learned
| about this time that Corlucci had all
along deceived her, and had a wife
and children living in Brooklyn. Anna
did not want him back but there
| sprung up in her an intense hatred
for the woman who had supplanted
her. She lived in a hut adjoining her
| old home. Each day passing to and
| from her work at the mill she saw
Rosa Salza enjoying the comforts of
the home she had helped to build.
! One day, a year ago last March, while
| she was returning from her work,
her rival approached her and taunt-
| ingly said
|
my house. and my twin babies? You
can not come in. They are mine. I
| hate you
Driven to the Crime.
Anna Valentine rushed into the
| dooryard. She pursued the taunter
| into the house. She seized a bread
knife from tho kitchen table and in
blind frenzy of hatred stabbed the
woman to death, infiicting II wounds
Influential Italians in all parts of
the country contributed to a fund,
| and all legal resource has been ex-
| hausted in a fight for Communication
| of the woman's sentence to life i'm
prisonment. Father Lambert of St
| Mary's Catholic church, and a num-
| Der of prominent Hackensack women,
made a gallant fight to arouse public
sentiment and were largely success
full, but the pardon board refused to
| be influenced
she always falls on her knees and
kisses the floor when l approach her."
says Father Lambert THAT is the
way this poor soul has % expressing
her humbled spirit. l think one of
the most remarkable things I have
ever seen has been the way in which
Anna Valentino has borne her misery
| She will die courageously. She spends
most of her waking hours in prayer
for her souls salvation"
1t is 20 years since a woman was
executed in New Jersey. Hangman
Van Hise, who has officiated at ~
| executions in the state assisted Sher-
| iff Mercer in the hanging of Anna