The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-06-23
DE MAZIO MUST PAY
PENALTY BY HANGING
The Italian Who Murdered His Wife
To BE Hanged in Scranton.


To BE Hanged in Scranton.
The Board of Pardons has refused
to interfere in the death sentence
passed by the local courts upon
Nicholas De Mazio, the Old Forge
murderer, who on July Z last, shot
to death his child-wife.
De Mazio was found guilty of the
crime last October, after receiving
one of the fairest trials ever accord
ed man in this commonwealth. He
was sentenced TO be hanged by
Judge Edwards and Governor Stu
art fixed the day for the execution
as July 20, between the hours of 10
q. NJ. and p. IN. His attorney, NJ
j. Martin, who defended him and
put up the insanity defense, carried
the case to the Supreme Court in
then took the case to the board of
pardons and that body refused to in
terfere with the sentence Of the
court.
The murder for which De Nazio
was convicted, was one of the most
brutal in the history of the county.
|
He had married girl barely sixteen
had a wife in Italy. 1t was brought
out at the trial that from the time
he married the girl he had heaped
all kinds of abuse upon her, and had
kept her locked up in the house.
His father, who resided with him,
was, it is alleged, instrumental in
this abuse, and the girl lived in a
living hell.
On the day of the murder she left
his home and went to the home Of
her sister. The father went to the
place where De MaZio was engaged
with gang of men on the public
streets and told him. The murderer
stopped work and went home, Sc
cured revolver and then went in
search of his wife. He entreated
her to go home, but she refused.
De Mazio then went to the office of
an alderman and tried to secure a
warrant for her arrest on a trumped
up charge of larceny. Failing in
this, he returned to the home of the
girls sister again, and while her
back was turned and he was affec-
tionately stroking her hair, he shot
| her three times. He then escaped
to his home and was taken few
hours later by the borough police.
At the time he seemed to have a
full realization of the enormity of his
crime and stated that he knew he
would get the rope.
At the county jail, where he was
remanded for trial, he took on a
sullen attitude and would speak to
no one. Finally the court appoint
ed attorneys to defend him and then
the insanity plea was trumped up.
Three physicians were called by the
defense to prove that he was suffer-
ing from dementia praecoX, form
of insanity brought on by an injury
he received by falling from null
berry tree in Italy when he was a
boy. The commonwealth, to rebut
this, obtained the testimony of Drs.
| Gunster, Whelau, Dolan and Nc
Grath, who declared from their OBJ
servation of De Mazio he was sane
at the time he committed the crime
and is sane now. Drs. Lynch, Long
street and De Antonia were the ply
sicians who testified for the de-
fense.
The jury could not believe the
story of the defense and returned
a verdict after but few hours de-
liberation.
Last week Attorney Martin, in
! arguing the case before the Board
of Pardons, took occasion to attack
the standing of some of the doctors
of the commonwealth. He said DR..
Gunster was a joke, as far as being
an expert on insanity was concerned,
and that DR.. Dolan was an expert
only in Traction company cases.
District Attorney O'Brien, however,