The Bee-Hive : — 1869-08-21 (London, England)

THE MURDER OF A COUNTESS.  The Naples correspondent of the Times writes aS follows on the 12th inst. t—" Further details have coma to light with regard to the horrid tragedy enacted on the Roman railway last week, with which I sapplement the story I have already sent. As to the precise point where the Countess Cattaneo was so cruelly murdered, it seems to have been between Cassino and Aquino, for at Cassino she was seen to present herself at the window of the carriage, while itt Isoletta, the frontier station, at no great distance, her lifeless body wat round, with a shot in the head and another tinier the esom. The pistol, a revolver, and the Fan of the mars deter lay at her feet. Two countrymen who were at work at a very early hour in the morning assert they heard the shots, and thus the local:ty can he determined. Nothing was heard or known of the assassin until Friday evening, when a man with a bare head, clothes torn and stained with blood. several teeth knocked out, and with three or four wounds on his face, arrived late at St. Maria del Capua—that is, Canna Antica. His straege appearance attracted the attention of two Carah!neers, to whom he gave the name of Carlo Bianchi, and told a story not altogether satisfactory. At his rcquest, however, they took him to a hotel, and then went to inform the police authorities. Meantime the aei- clisant Bianchi entered his room and ordered some vinegar and water to be brought, but on the return of the setvant the visitor was missing. He had thrown himself out of the window, and was lying dead on the pavement below,. Some officers of the Lancers of Victor Emmanuel were sent for, and identified the body as that of Carlo Negri, a lieutenant in that regiment. How he got into the carriage of the Countess, whether he walked along the footboard or managed to introduce himself at Capua after her friends had left her at Caserta, perhaps will never be known, or how he left .he train. It is probable that he precipitated himself from it while in motion, though some wounds in hi, neck were inflicted apparently with a large hair. pin. The friends of the unfortunate Countess telegraphed immediately from Voghera to the political authorities, requesting that a modest' funeral might be given her, and she now lies buried at Arce, a small place near the railway. With the mysterious relations which existed between her and Negri, and which led to the catastrophe, the public have nothing to do, and it is of far greater importance to inquire what precautions exist on any line of railway against similar acts of violence. What is there to prevent any one from being murdered by a resolute assassin in the silence and darkness of the night, in the corner of a carriage; or any woman from being insulted and abused by some miscreant; or any one of us from being robbed ? So long as there is no efficient communication between the passengers and guards every traveller by railway is exposed to the chancel; of such disasters. As to the line of communication outside the carriages, you may judge of what use it would have been in the circumstane• s I have been describing, with the windows closed, and the hand of a powerful man to prevent all access to them. Disasters always forerun and compel remedies, and if this brutal murder should direct the thoughts of railway directors to the precautionary meastlres so much needed, some geed will have resulted from it."