The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1853-05-24 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

HORRIBLE CRIME AND EXECUTION IN ITALY.—ApriI 30th was the day assigned for the execution, at Genoa, of Mendaco and Maria Giusto, for the barbarous murder of Marguerite, the wife of the former, in November, 1851. Mendaco was a person of intelligence and some fortune, and held the respectable position of syndic or mayor of his native town, Veigotti, some twenty-four miles from Genoa. He became violently enamoured of a young and handsome woman of the same place, Maria Giusto, at the time a widow with four children. An illicit connection ensued between them, and after some time, Mendaco, with the connivance of his mistress, got rid of his wife by killing her. The 30th of April was named for the execution of both, at six, a.m. Even before daybreak the streets were filled with anxious multitudes to witness the melancholy procession. The soldiery lined both sides of the way, from the prison to the spot of execution, which is situated at the extreme end of the Old Mole, as it is termed in Genoa. The woman was first executed. She was sustained on either side. A priest mounted the ladder, and prayed in a loud voice while the cord was fastened to the scaffold. Suddenly the poor wretch was seen swinging in the air, having been pushed from the ladder by an assistant below. To my amazement and horror, the chief executioner then sprang directly on the head of the dying criminal, supporting himself against the beam above, and tried, by the weight of his body and the pressing down of his feet, to break the neck in twain. After a few efforts he succeeded, having adroitly adjusted the cord for that purpose, and he leaped back upon the ladder with some such a flourish as a dancer goes with his feet at the close of a pirouette. Anything more needlessly barbarous and disgusting it were impossible to conceive. In some ten minutes more the executioner again ascended the ladder, and, undoing the cord by which the woman was hanging, he coolly removed her—suspended in the air from his arm, and before she could have been quite dead—lower down the scaffold to make room for Mendaco, who was now approaching. From an impulse of humanity, a member of the Misericordia concealed with the banner of his order the still palpitating body of his paramour whilst the assassin was coming down the Mole. It must have been for him an instant of supreme agony, as his eye at last fell upon his accomplice. He turned pale, and shook from head to foot. He recovered almost immediately his self-possession, which he had maintained to an extraordinary degree from the beginning. He ascended the fatal ladder with singular composure, but still gazing intently upon the inanimate body at his side. His last look was upon her as he was hurled from his support, and in a second after the executioner repeated the frightful barbarity just mentioned. He stood upon the head of the wretched criminal, stamping with all his force; but owing to the 1 slipping of the cord, all his efforts failed to break his neck. For nearly ten minutes this revolting spectacle was going on, till the thousands of disgusted and enraged spectators at last gave way to the most violent hootings and execrations. The air resounded with their infuriated yells. By the time lie got through his horrible office, the people had effected a landing, and they rushed with mad eagerness towards the scaffold. The executioner and his assistants had fortunately disappeared, else they would have fallen certain victims to the terrible emotions that had been stirred up. The soldiery present found it impossible to restrain the crowd, who closed in upon the bodies of the criminals, handling and turning them round. The Mesericordia, to put an end to the scandal, at last cut them down, which is their special privilege, and conveyed them away.—Correspondent of the Morning Post.