ITALIAN MINISTER KILLED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25377, 27 December 1947, Page 7

ITALIAN MINISTER KILLED

STABBED AT LEGATION IN STOCKHOLM

(Rec. 10 p.m.) STOCKHOLM, Dec. 26. The Italian Minister to Sweden (Mr Alberto Ricci), was stabbed to death with a pair of scissors at the Italian Legation. Mr Ricci was with members of the staff, who had assembled for their Christmas luncheon, when an Italian asked to see him. The man wag admitted to the legation, and stabbed Mr Ricci before any of the staff could stop him. The assassin is reported to have told Mr Ricci that he had an invention to demonstrate. He produced a large pair of scissors and a screwdriver from his pocket, then turned on Mr Ricci and stabbed him several times. Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent says that it was a madman with a seven-year-old grudge who murdered Mr Ricci. The killer was sent to an asylum outside Stockholm in 1940 after slashing with a knife an Italian musician visiting Sweden. It became his fixed idea that the then Italian Minister had ordered him to be sent to the asylum. The authorities released the killer for Christmas, 1947 on condition that his wife fetched him and returned him to the asylum, but he eluded his wife on the outskirts of Stockholm and by a trick entered the Legation and stabbed Mr Ricci, apparently not knowing that Mr Ricci only assumed his post after the war.

Spectator Shot at Football Match.— A 24-year-61d spectator named Harold Howe •was shot through the knee by a revolver bullet as he stood on a stand watching the Oldham v. Swindon Rugby match at Oldham. The police appealed over a loud-speaker to any of the 15,000 spectators who had a revolver to come forward, but there was no response. Howe’s condition is not serious.—London. December 26. Steamer Adrift in South Atlantic.— The small steamer John Awen has reported that she is adrift in heavy seas in the South .Atlantic after losing her propeller, and is awaiting the assistance of tugs from Buenos Aires.— London, December 26.