The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-03-11
Italian Terrorists, Forty-one
in Number, Were Placed
on Trial for Lives at Viter-
bo Today.
SELECTING A JURY
A DIFFICULT TASK
In Such Dread Do People
Hold Cammorist Band
They Fear to Sit in Judg-
ment Over Them.
american News SerVice)

Viterbo, March 11-Locked in steel
cages to prevent rescue. thirty nine
members of the notorious Italian Ca
mora were placed on trial here to-
day. The prosecution is chiefly dir
ected against Enrico Alfano alias "Er-
ricone" head of the Neapolitan Camor-
ra. Forty-one members of the murder
GUS body are under indictment but
two of them were not arraigned.
Although the defendants are nomin-
ally charged with completely in the
murder of Gen. Naro Cuocola and his
wife, the beautiful Sorrentino' on
June 5, 1906. the authorities hope to
draw aside the curtain hiding the real
secrets of crimes committed both in
Italy and other countries and which
have baffled the international police.
Among the crimes which may be
explained is the murder of Joe Petro-
sino, the New York detective who was
shot to death in Palermo, on March
II. 1909. His assassination was plot
ted by Gaetno Denadio, who is one
of the defendants.
One Is a Woman.
OF the 80 put on trial today. only
one is woman. She is one of the
calmest prisoners in court. She is
Marie STANDARD, who is accused of har
boring members of the Cammorra in
Naples where she owns a hotel, and
sharing in their councils of assassin
alton.
The defendants are all members oi
the Catholic faith, and they express
ed a desire to attend mass before
the opening of court. Accordingly q
priest entered the monastery prison
and said the mass while the NeapoIi
tans knelt and responded with theil
prayers.
From their prayers the prisoners
went to court to be tried for their
lives.
The prisoners were led into court
under a heavy guard of gendarmerie
Before the main body arrived one OF
their number, Giovanni Abatamaggic
the former member of the band who
betrayed his fellows in a series of con
fessions, had already been smugglet
into the court house and was encaseG
any attack by his former associates
| in crime.
Herded Into Cages.
In second and larger steel cage
built in the center of the room Alfant
and the other defendants were herdet
despite their protests. The great tria
of the international band of terrorist!
opened with promise of becoming thu
most sensational legal melodrama o
the age. Never before in Italy or an!
other country were such scenes enact
ed at any trial.
While the tritl was getting unde
way more troops arrived here to rein
force the little army already on thu
scene.
The sentiment of the populace to
ward the members of the dreade,
band is mingled. In the minds o
many these hardened masters of crim
have already become heroes and maj
tyrs. AS result there was a grea
deal of wagering that, with the ea
ception of possibly three or four al
would be acquitted.
The first hitch to the proceeding
and material evidence of the fear il
which the Cammorra is held came wit
the very opening of the session. ca
valieri Santero, procuratore del Re
who has charge of the prosecution
arose and notified the judge that sey
eral of the forty talesmen who ha
been drawn for jury duty had disar
peared.
We are beset with dificultie
through the fear in which this dreat
full organization is held" he said. 81
is my duty to inform this honorabl
court that several of the talesmer
drawn for jury duty. have either bee
inveigled out of the community o
else have fed through fear of tn
awful vengeance which this society
wont to wreak upon it's enemies
Immediately after learning of tn
disappearance of the talesmen, tn
presiding Judge issued orders for thei
arrests and asked that the minister G
justice in Rome be notified so that
general search for the missing me
could be started.