The Colorado statesman., 1908-01-25
MURDERER
CONFESSES
ANTOINE NERoNI, OR BoVoRI,
SEEMS TO BE A FIEND IN
HUMAN FORM.
PREFERS HU MAN FLESH
BEGAN HIS CAREER OF SLAUGH-
TER IN ITALY BEFORE COM
ING TO COLORADO.

Denver.-A Republican special from
Florence, Colorado, Tuesday night
says:
A confession of crimes committed
and murders planned which far sur
passes in fiendishness the CORY recital
of Harry Orchard in the Steunenberg
case, was that of Antoine Neroni, or
Bovori, as he was known here.
The confession was obtained by De-
tectie Sandesko of Pueblo, and has
been briefly summarized before but
was given in full today in an inter
view by the detective.
1t shows that the thirst for blood
engendered by his first murder, com
mitted when he was twelve years old,
grew so strong in Neroni that he
claims to prefer human flesh to any
other and that he planned to kill two
children here, boil their bodies and
drink the broth.
Detective Frank Sandesko OF
Pueblo, who got full confession from
Bovori in the county jail and who Sc
cured the promise from the prisoner
of being shown the burial places OF
the three corpses, says he has met
hundreds of criminals during his Sc
cret service work, but does not re-
member having before met a criminal
who is so absolutely devoid of feeling
as is Bovori, and asserts that he is
degenerate and brute of the worst
type.
In addition to a confession of the
four Florence murders, Bovori con-
fessed to Sandesko to having killed
one man in Italy, stabbed three 9th
ers, planned to kill an entire family in
Walsenburg, and that he was prepar-
ing to slay Mrs. Joseph Minichiello
and two little daughters the night of
the day he was arrested.
He also said that if Mrs. Minichiello
had not suspected him of numbering
her husband the previous night, she
would have fallen into the trap set by
himself the morning after the disap-
pearance of her husband and would
have been killed.
According to Bovori's own state
ments to the detective, Mrs. Minich-
iello started for Florence at an early
hour to inform the officers of her sus-
picions and fears and Bovori, who was
in the yard, inquired where she was
going She answered that she was on
her way to Florence, when Bovori
said he was going to town in few
minutes and if she would go into the
house and wait awhile, he would hitch
up and drive her to town. She refused,
and this saved her life, for Bovori told
the detective that if he had succeeded
IN, in hnr inf ic 10
have killed her with the same axe he
used in destroying the lives of his
other victims.
His plot failed and then he deter
mined to break into the Minichiello
house that night and kill the woman
and her children.
The woman was to have been bur
led, but the children, Bovori said,
were to have been boiled, and he in
tended drinking the broth.
He admitted having a craving for
human blood and preferred eating hu-
man flesh to other meat.
With the assassination of the trio
and the Minichiello family, Bovori
would have claimed seven victims in
Florence and that the last three are
now alive is due only to his arrest
two hours before sundown. If he had
succeeded in killing the woman and
children, he was to have fled to Italy
that night.
Sandesko was employed by the
county to work up the case and was
placed in the cell with Bovori. He was
handcuffed and shackled. Sheriff Es-
ser informed Bovori that Sandesko was
murderer wanted in Omaha and
since he was also an Italian, they
could keep each other company.
Sandesko told Bovori that he was
member of the Black Hand and
showed a clipping from a newspaper
detailing recent bloody work of the
Black Hand in Pittsburg. Among other
names in the dispatch was that of
Peter Angelo.
The story was blood curdling one
and Bovori listened to it with unabated
interest. Sandesko said that he was
Peter Angelo, the person spoken of in
the dispatch, and produced a letter
bearing the same name. After being
told that Angelo had just come here
from Omaha, where he murdered his
thirteenth man, Bovori swallowed the
bait and after being sworn to men,
bership and faithfulness to the secrets
of the order, he gave the details of
his many crimes.