Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-09
overlooking tthe moat). but they
were driven off by the guards.
Hanging Is Described.

"Rattisti was taken directly to the
gibbet and before the hangman put
! the moose around his neck he shouted
! in a robust voice:
Down with Austria. Long live
Italy
THE hangman's two assistants lift
| ed Battisti from the ground, then the
| hangman put the moose around his
neck holding the rope in his hands.
! The assistants then went behind the
gibbet and pulled the rope which
passed over the top of the board thus
| forming the gallows. For reason
which l cannot today explain. this OPP
Grafton failed and Battisti was low
cred from the gallows. He remained
standing and / did not hear him shout
gain The operation was repeated
second time in the same way with the
same rope and | saw the hangmau
give. with his hand, Battistis head
blow, bending it forward. The opera
| ton was thus carried out. All this
lasted about a minute and at once
afterward Battisti's body was taken
down from the gibbet and placed
lengthwise at the foot of the gibbet.
He was then covered with the floor
board above described and left in that
position.
Il was obliged to go away from my
lookout and was not able to see the
hanging of Filzi. which took place at
once after
In the morning of the same day I
had been ordered. together with two
other privates of German and Bo-
hemian nationality, to dig the grave,
for the burial of the two martyrs.
which I did at the distance of eight
or ten meters from the two gibbets
and at about one meter and half
from the wall which separates the
castle moat from the street. The
grave was about $50 m. deep and
l.S0 m. broad. While digging the
grave we found some human bones,
which. according TO the officers pres
ent, must have belonged to those per
/ SONS who Were executed in 1859 and
1866 The grave was so near the
place of execution that BattiSti must
certainly have seen it.
When II was growing dark on the
+. same day ! was ordered with three
other soldiers to bury the two mar
tvrs. but | refused. saying | did not
feel well. and another soldier was
charged to take my place.
According to what these soldiers
said, Battisti and Filzi were buried
in the same grave without coffin.
and wrapped up only in a piece of
tent cloth y corporal who helped
to bury Batusti and Filzi afterward
boasted in my presence of having
thrown q stone as large as a mans
head against Battisti's head: this cir
cumst3nce was afterWard confirmed
to me also by two soldiers who took
part in the burial
Corporal Is Arrested.
THAT corporal, who was arrested
for fraud, had duly assisted also at
the execution of Chiesa, another pa
triot. and, in fact. ne wore the lat
ter's boots. He was a German of
Bohemia. don't remember this fell
COWS name.
II can assure that Battisti's body. at
once after the execution, was taken
down from the gallows and deposited
on the ground; as, however. between
the execution and the burial about
TWO or three hours passed, ii is quite
possible that in the meantime the
body of the martyr was again at
tached to the gallows 10 photo
graph it
The work of digging the grave
was done by us part in the morning
and part in the afternoon. In the
morning a corporal supervised US, in
tho afternoon it was, instead. a cor
poral major-both were of German
nationality.
That the weight of Battisti's body
broke the rope I did not see: do not
think it is true, as otherwise | would
have seen the broken rope kuotted
together, or at least a new one got
My impression is that the first opera
ton did not succeed for some other
reason. and that Battisti was hanged
with the same rope with which the
deed was attempted the first time.
The document is signed by kuen
Salvatore and attested by the dis
trfct judge.
How Body Is Revealed.
The Austrian command. not content
with taking the life of this great citi-