The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-19
Officials To Probe Sewage Lynchinq
BY ELEANOR PACKARD United Press War COrrespendent) )

United Press War COrrespOndent)
 Rome, September 10, - tuP) - An official inquiry was promised today Into the lynehing of a minor Fascist official by a Roman mob, in. cluding hundreds of women, that broke into the Palace Of Justice yeS- terday and dragged out their kick ing, screaming victim without more than token interference from Italian police,
 Count Carlo Sforga, minister with. out portfolio In the Italian goveFn- ment, told correspondents the Car. abinieFi and officers who stood by while the mob killed Donate CHFetta, assistant director Of the Regina Coeli prison during the MuSsolini regime, would be punished severely,
 But Sforza pointed out that ca. retta was one of the most hated Fascist leaders in Rome and 1t would have been very difficult for them to fight off the enraged mob, which numbered well over 1000 men and women,
 Caretta was to have been Q wit. ness at the trial of Pietro Caruso, former police chief of Rome, and was waiting to testify when the mob seized him. The trial was postponed until tomorrow,
 Women Led Mob
 Sforza charged that part of the blame for the incident rested with Ettore Cassaiti, president of the court, who, he said, issued tickets for Caruso'S trial to mothers and widows of Italian hostages executed by the Faseists before the Allied en. try Into Rome. Some of these wo. men, hysterical with rage and grief, led the mob.
 The iynehing was an unhelievab- iy savage mixture of blood and laughter. The mob pounded Caret- ta's face against the pavement, breaking his nose and knocking out his teeth. It pulled handfuls of hair from his head and finally gouged out his eyes with their fing- CTS. Then they dragged the body, unconscious but still alive, to the Fiber and threw 1t in near @ bath ing barge. Several bathers swam over and began pushing 1t about lie @ rubber water toy, diving under 1t and even playing tug-o-war with 1t. Women on the shore, unwilling to get wet, shouted, laughed and wept and threw things at the body.
 Carreta's body quivered convul- Sively as the bathers pulled it about, dragging 1t through the water by the hair and then drawing 1t back by the feet, leaving bloody streaks in the river.
 BIudgeoning
 A number of men rowed out to the body in a boat and watched for signs of life. Each time 1t moved they cracked the bloodied, eyeless head with their oars.
 Then the naked body was lowed to the Mazzini Bridge about a half- mile away and pulled it out into the street. where the mob dragged 1t by the feet-the hair already had been ripped from its scalp. At in- tervals the ghoulish procession was halted while men and women jumped up and down on it.
 At the Regina Coeli prison where he once officiated, Caretta's body was hoisted up by the feet and left dangling at a rope-end from the bars of second story cell.
 Most of the Rome press and the official Vatican Osservatore pro- tested vigorously against the lynch- ing today, excepting the Republican Newspaper Voice Republicans, which said it was Justified" as one way of assuring that the peoples justice will prevail.
 Morning newspapers generally took the view that the lynching was due to the slowness of the govern- ment in bringing Fascist criminals to trial.
 Il Tempo reported that Signora Caretta watched the lynching of her husband from a window of the Re- gina Coeli prison, where his family still lives. As the battered body was hung from a window. the paper re- ported, ~the cries Of brief and h0F- TOT of Caretta's wife were drowned out by the mob's cries of hate and triumph"