MOB RULE IN ROME

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24367, 20 September 1944, Page 5

MOB RULE IN ROME

FASCIST OFFICIAL LYNCHED . , ~ , LONDON. Sept. 18. A former high police official in Rome, Dr. Canetta, was lynched by angry crowds to-day, and the trial of Pietro Caruso, the Fascist former chief of police, had to be postponed on account of their violence. “Riotous scenes occurred at Rome’s Palace of Justice this morning when Pietro Caruso, the former Rome police chief, was about to come up for trial in the first big anti-Fascist trial,” ssys Reuter’s correspondent in Rome ‘An angry crowd of about 1000, including many widows of men whofn Caruso is reported to have sent to their death, swept into the Court, and even occupied the jury’s seats, crying, ‘We want Caruso!’ ‘We want justice.' “The courtroom presented a fantastic scene, Ten men armed v. ith revolvers were ready to shoot Caruso the moment he appeared, but they were discovered and disarmed. The courtroom was a seething mass of people, with boys hanging precariously from balustrades high in the air. “A British officer, appealed to the crowd to go home and wait for the result of the trial, "remising that justice would be done. Large numbers of Itrlian police did not attempt to interfere, beyond verbal protests. “Finally, at 10 o’clock, an hour after the trial should have started, it was announced that it had been temnorarily suspended. Caruso was held in a small room near the Court. An angry crowd swarmed outside swearing to lynch him. A big crowd also assembled at the exits of the Palace of Justice uttering the same threats. Violence of the Crowd “Dr. Canetta. the former governor of the Regina Gaol, and one of the principal witnesses against Caruso, was recognised by the crowd, and attacked. Bleeding and half dead, Canetta was thrown into the nearby Tiber, and as his body floated downstream people in a bo?t followed and beat his head with the oars. Then thev dragged the body from the river, after which the mob carried it to the Regina Gaol and hung it "i> at the entrance. ; “The trial at which Caruso and ! Canetta were to appe?r was entirely an Italian affair, the only Allied officers present being observers from the Allied Control Commission, "’he Homans’ demonstration followed a big campaign in the Leftist, and particularly the Communist, newspapers, against the delay with which justice wa« b°ing meled out to Fascists. “Caruso, who is aged 4,3. worked with the German S.S, colonels Kappler and Dollman. He terrorised the city with five special inouisHion souads. who were notorious for their violent, ruthless methods. “Caruso is liable to the death sentence. because, on March 24. he handed over to the Germans 50 Italian poetical prisoners, whom the Germans shot, together with other victims. This a reprisal for the partisans’ kill-