The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-03-04
SLAYER Of PRINCESS
LIKELY TO RECOVER
Hint That Italian Court May
Deal Leniently With Lieuten-
ant Baron Palermo.
EXCUSES MADE BY FRIENDS
Woman Was Beautiful and Eleven
Years Older That the Cavalry
Officer.
EXCUSES MADE BY FRIENDS

ROME, March 3.-All Rome still is
talking of the sensational murder on
Thursday Of the Princess Giula Trigona
Di Santa Ella, the queens lady-in- wait
Ing. by Lieutenant Baron Palermo.
Palermo late tonight was slowly i'm
proving. The bullet which he fired with
the intention of killing himself remained
imbedded in his skull. Although lie is
conscious and able 10 talk he has re-
fused to give any explanation as TO why
he killed the woman who had befriended
him.
The police. however, are not averse
10 making known what their investisa-
tions are unfolding. These, they say,
show that Palermo treated the woman
brutally before he finally killed her The
princess, frail and unhappy with her hus-
band, they say. fell an easy prey to the
nobleran whose scandalous adventures
had brought him TO the threshold oil en-
pulsion from the army.
According TO the police. Paterno met
the princess in 1908 at Palermo. lie be-
came the friend also Of the prince, The
friendship between the two men became
so great that Patcrno had himself made
head OF the local mafia and brought
about the election of Prince Trigona as
mayor of Palermo.
Paternos demands for money became
constantly more imperative: and once. 1t
is alleged, lie attacked the princess In the
antechamber to the room III which were
the king and queen.
a postmortem examination today
showed that the princess was seriously
wounded In the back and neck. Either
OF the wounds would have been NOR
tai.
Attention has been called to the fact
that Italian courts sometimes deal lenl-
emily with authors OF tragedies growing
out of affairs of the heart.
IL was ascertained today that the i'm"
mediate cause Of the murder was the re-
fusal Of the princess to S give the the baron
1t had been generally accepted that
when the queens lady-in waiting met
Palermo al the obscure Hotel Rebec-
the imperial wishes that she have done
with the lieutenant and seek recorcilia- :
tlon with her husband. Prince Trigona
Di SAINT Ella. having prevailed.
Baron Wanted Money.
Whether this supposition was correct
can be made known perhaps only by her
slayer. but the police investigation has
left no doubt that Paterno's first con-
Germ was to obtain funds from the source
that had supplied him before.
pressed Tor Queen Helena who. it is
known. had made every effort to bring 10
an end the alliance and reunite the
prince and princess;
was the indirect outcome of the insis-
| tence OF both the queen and his majesty
than an end be put 20 n situation that
for some time had been fruitful OF back
stairs gossip
The two daughters of the princess. aged
and ii years. are being shielded from
knowledge of the truth.
Murderer Has Friends.
Palermo Is not without friends at this
time. They point out that he was be-
side himself with infatuation, and being
only 81 years of age, was eleven years
the junior OF the woman whose beauty
might have turned the head Of an Older
and wiser man.
He saw Princess Tricona frequently at
cour, when she was nj her best and no
one denies that she encouraged his at
tentons.
The prince. who learned of the situa-
ton through attempted blackmai on the
part IL is said OF one OF Paterno's cred
itors who held n cheek made by the prin-
cess. had instituted proceedings for sep
aration but these were abruptly ended
Yesterday when the failure OF the prin
cess to appear WAS explained The
prince also was member Of her ma
iesty's court