THE STORY OF THE BONMARTINI MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 84, 8 April 1905, Page 13

THE STORY OF THE BONMARTINI MURDER.

! A FULL-FLAVOURED ITALIAN > i ROMANCE. ! After having been adjourned last November on account of the Italian Parliamentary | elections, the trial lias now been restimed I ■ at Turin of the amazing liurri-Boamartini ' otise, a drama of illicit love and murder, , I the details of which are almost unparalleled ia t'jp annals of crime. Five persons stAnd accused of being con- ■ eerned in the assassination at Bologna on ■ ! August "JT. 1002. of Count Francisco Bon- ; I martini, who was found stabbed to death ; , : on September 2 in a Hat which was broken | j open by the police. The prisoners are ; Countess Linda Bonmartini, the widow of ' I rhe deceased;, Tuliio Murri. brother of the I Client"??: Pin Xaltii. physician, and friend ; . cf Tuliio: Dr. Carlo Secchl, the Countess's, " lovit: and Rosina Sonnetti, Tullio's sweet- | 1 heart. ' v The Countess in her youth had been deep- I . ! !y attachetl to Dr. Sccehi, a pupil of her I father. Professor llurri. ajid a man 20 ■ years her senior. Her father, however, ' I was opposed to the match, and in ISO 2 Linda Miirri married Ount BonmartinU a man of qaier. domestic tastes and mediocre ability, who was POSSESSED OF GREAT WEALTH. j ■ I The union did not prove a liappy one, ■ , the Connt bcinjj embarrassed by his wife's . : lmconveutionaliiy and overpowered by her superiority of mind. ■ j Gradually indifference grew up between ' * them, and when Countess Linda met her i i old admirer. Dr. SeccUi. at Rimini, her first j love revived, and her feeling for her stolid ' husband turned to contempt and hatred. The Countess continued to cherish, her ] violent passion for I>r. Secchl, and she I made her brother Tullio her confidant. ■ Tuilio was deeply attached to her, and, indeed, his love for his family is the one rei deeming feature of n character chiefly marked by cynical sensuality. *" Dr. Secchi wa.s a close friend of Tnllio. who also numbered among his acquaintances Pio Naldl, a mined gamester. RosLna Bonnetti is the Cinderella of the drama. Loving Tnllio with a dog-lite devotion, she is accused by the prosecution of offering to poison Count Bonmartini, and it is alleged that she shnt Tuliio and Naldi in the flat where the Count was DONE TO DEATH. In the original murder plot batched between the prisoners it is stated to have ! been arranged that Tuilio should challenge i the Count to a wrestling match, strike I ! him senseless with a bay; full of bullets, j : and then inject curare, a deadly poison, j into his body. A flask of curare anad a hypodermic syriusp were actually bought, bnt the scheme failed through Count Bonmartini j i I defeating Tuliio. in spite of the latter's i great strength. A fresh plan was then j : I devised. ' J On the afternoon of September 2, 1902, j the Bologna police were asked to break i ! open the door of a flat on the first floor of No. 33. Via Mazzini, from which an in--1 ! tolerable odonr proceeded. Lying in the • i entrance hall just behind the door in a ■ pool of clotted blood lay the dead body of : Count Bonmartini, pierced with 13 terrible 1 j knife wounds. ! The apartment was in a state of wild 1 disorder. Scattered about the room were ' I articles of feminine apparel and toilet re--1 ; qnisitps. a champagne bottle and two glass- ' : es, the Count's empty purse, and a number •' i of rifled jewel cases. A note was also found ■ ; in a woman's handwriting, signed "8.," in 1 I which the writer agreed to meet the Count : i on August 27. ' I Two blood-stained towels were found in ■ ; the bath-room, and a basin full of blood ■ and water. Red splashes were also found '• , in several other places. When Tnllio was informed of the crime, I he attributed it to robbery, and said that ■ ! the Count had had relations with disreput- ' able women connected with a gang of ruf--1 nans. On the same day the Countess telegraphed to her father from Venice that ' : her husband had started for Boiogna, takj iag with him A LARGE SUM OF MOKEX 1 ; So far the plans of the conspirators ap- • peared to have sneceeded. On September 4 rhe Countess, her brother, her children, ; and a Dr. Dagnini left for Switzerland. 1 , On the way Ttiilio asked the doctor to dress ' I a wound on his arm, and confessed that he ! had killed the Count after a quarrel. Tuilio ' : subsequently made a similar statement to I his father, embellishing it with many de--1 J tails. 1 j Nine days after the giiastjy discovery in ■ the flat Professor ilurri denounced his son ' to the police. Detectives had already been _ j at work and collected information which ' j contrasted g'.aringly with TuHio's story. j He was arrested on the 19th. Xaldi. the . : Countess, and Rosin a Bonnetti were apptei hended a few days later, but it was not ', j until June :?Z. VJO'S, that the police sue- , I ceeded in laying hands on Dr. Secchi. Two days previously Xaldi had made an unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide in prison I by cutting his throat. The prosecution allege that the barbart ous murder of the Count was actually com- » mitted by Tuilio and j*ar* who lured the Count to the flat and, after stabbing fcjja

I to-death, arranged the rooms so as to give ' the idea of a debauch. They then washed { their blood-stained hands, locked , up the fiat, and departed. Countess Linda and Secchi are accensed ;of instigating the crime, and Rosina Bonnetti with aiding in its execution and taking the dead man's gold chain, and ready : money. A feature of the case is that the Italian . newspapers have discussed the facts, real J and assumed, month after moath, and have practically tried the accused parties with- ■ out fear of contempt of Court—a rale which j does not appear to obtain in Italy. -! During the trial the defendants are im- • ; mured in a huge cage-like dock, and are ■ t strongly guarded by gendarmes;. >\ Terdicts in Italy are given by a majority ■| of the jury. . The defendants being Freethinkers. Sods' alists, and Catholics, it would, It is said, H have been impossible to obtain a jury that m would bring in a unanimous verdict. 'I —^——