CANIORRA TRIAL

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1178, 13 July 1911, Page 5

CANIORRA TRIAL

« REMARKABLE DISCLOSURES. SCENES OP FRANTIC EXCITEMENT IN COURT. .1 I e ALL NAPLES TAXED. :1 SOME STRANGE STORIES TOLD. Dy Tolenraiih—Press Association—Copy rlehl (Rec. July 12, 9.20 p.m.) d Rome, July 12. Interest has been revived in tho CaU morra trial at Vitcrbo by a series of rcn markablo revelations by Captain Fabs broni. s The captain, who is a young and dis- '■ tingnished officer, and a lvuight of the f Order of the Crown of Italy, stated that as captain of tho Carabineers at Naples, II he had made inquiries into tho methods v of the Camorra. Ho gavo his evidence with great clearness and confidence. ® Tho witness showed that the corpses of the innkeeper Cuocolo and his wife, with f whoso murder the 39 prisoners are ehargs ed, had been given the imprint of rer vengo in order to inspire fear. . , Erricone, tho leader of the society, he j declared, had invented a system by which r each branch of the Camorra had a figure- ) head in addition to its real head. These disclosures led to an uproar in s the cage in which the prisoners are con- . fined while in Court. s Captain Fabbroni, in continuing, said ' tho chief injunction of the Camorrist } decalogue was, "Never confess, oven if it would help the person accused." Bctray--1 ers were punished in various ways, rang- • ing from beatings and razor slashings, to - murder. Abbatcmaggio, the informer, had alj ready been condemned to death, and it • was impossible for him to escape if he ! left tho prison. ' The Camorra's object was to despoil ' everyone within its clutches, from the prostitute or sneak-thief to tho highest l oflaeials. 1 Erricone was subsidised by the Naples 1 Illumination Company, in order to prcj vent the theft of its wires and other implements. Other Neapolitan companies ! had similarly secured immunity. The ■ system recalled the times when landed proprietors had supported brpandage in ' order to secure their own safety, i Captain Fabbroni gavo instances of tho ; prisoners' influence over thieves, and recalled tho case of a cabman who over- ' charged Father Vitozzi, the priest arrested with the gang. His reverence said the cabman would regret his act, and the 1 same evening three Camorrists beat the cabman, and compelled him to apologise and return the overcharge to Father ] Vito7zi. The society's chief usher was one Danna, a cobbler, who drove youths to light women, who accompanied them to gambling hells, the usher completing thfir' ruin. Erricone had been tried for complicity in such cases. Ono of tho lawyers, Signor Bovio, called out, "Erricone was acquitted!" Captain Fabbroni: "Yes. But tho President of the Court was the brother of the lawyer who is now defending Erricone!" A terrific tumult followed this statement—Erricone jumped about in tho cage howling like a hyena. Signor Bovio protested that Neapolitan Judges had been insulted. ■ Captain Fabbroni retorted ; s "You forged documents in Paris in connection with Rupi's defence!" The uproar and disorder then roso to such a pitch that the Carabineers with

difficulty prevented a free fight between the lawyers and witnesses. Captain Fabbroni afterwards traced the rise of the Camorra's power from 1660, when Garibaldi handed over to it tho maintenance of public order, o-n the plea that the society was best acquainted with local rascaldom. / FIERCE FIGHT AT NAPLES. A POLICE INSPECTOR KILLED. Rome, July 11. Tho police,at Naples, in attempting to arrest Grandullo, tho successor of Erricone as head of the Camorrists, were led into a fierce conflict. An inspector was killed, and a policeman is in a critical state through blows from bludgeons. STORY OF THE CAMORRA, A STRANGE BODY. Erricone, otherwise Enrico Alfani, al-. leged to be the chief of the Camorra in Naples, is now undergoing bis trial with 38 other prisoners at Viterbo. The Camorra, tho union of disputatious persons, is a secret society which for many .years dominated Naples. Originally, so far as can be traced, a league of prisoners, formed for good fellowship and mutual aid, it gradually spread through many branches of Neapolitan society. There was a grand master, whose name no one was supposed to .know, and a court nf judges, picked from the 12 branches of the league. Each branch was composed of a number of somi-independent groups, politicians, blackmailers, smugglers', or thieves. Tho judges met in secret and sentenced in secret. Those who refused them obedience died, as a long list i f unpunished murders testified. The old Cammorisfi were helped, criminals ,'ti its ranks mysteriously cscapetj punishment; and respectable citizens submitted to its blackmail rather than fight it. It hung like_ a shadow over Naples. With the coming of popular suffrage the Camorra found a wider field. It entered lcc-al politics, and carried all before it. Shady contractors became its allies, and the local administration of Naples under Camorra influences became notorious throughout Italy. Affairs reached such a pass that the Government appointed a Royal Commission of Inquiry, and the report presented to the Minister of the Interior in 1901 by Senator Sardeilo boro nut tho worst that had been feared. For a time the political influence of the Camorra was checked. A Strange Scepe. A correspondent, of the "Daily Mail" recently described a visit he paid to the church at Viterbo, in which tho trial is beini; held, to listen to Abba tern aggio giving his evidence. After describing his arrival, ho says:— "A moment later I found myself looking down from the tribune of tho north transept upon the amazingly strange scene. Opposite, in the south transept, flanked and backed by carabinieri and officers, roso the famous iron cage with its four rows of prisoners; besido it, and : a little forward, tho smaller, now empty, cage reserved for the accuser; where the high altar stood of yore, tho judicial Bench presided over by the bearded Judge; in the transept below me, t'he ( jury; and in the nave, first, the desks and benches nf counsel and solicitors, and fur- , tlier back tho serried rauks of the un- , professional audience. Above tho velarium stretched across choir and navo could be clearly seen the exquisitely wrought capitals of the columns and the vaulting of tho roof. The Ex-Camorrist. ' On (he altar steps, facing the jury, ! stands a smartly dressed, good-looking, Youngish man. Ifis left foot is slightly < thrust forward, a bandage protruding I through the slashed leather of the boot. ; Ho stands in an easy attitude, his-left ' arm on his back, his right arm acecntu- ■ tiling with mensural, rounded movements 1 the points of his oration, lie has a i pleasant, cultured voice; and he talks t eloquently, dispassionately, .suavelv, with < a balanced tlnw of language, worthy of a f professional nratnr. , f "Who is it.-" I asked my neighbour, c

"Why, Abbatcmaggio—the accuser!" So this self-possessed, gentlemanly orator was the ex-Camorrist, the cx-criminal turned King's evidence! I looked at Ills thirty-six occupant? of the cage— thtry were, with few exceptions, like Abbatomaggio; well-dressed, well-niiuuicred mid-dle-class people, such as you may meet any day at any of the belter restaurants in a prosperous Italian town. But for (he cage it would have been pardonable to mistake Ihe caged murderers' and thieves for the jurymen—and the inil'mlunato jurymen, who have to sacrifice their whole lime for liiuo or ten months for lis. t<], a day, for the accuscd Cauiorl'ists.

Abbatcmaggio talks; the prisoner!? in the cage listen impassively; the Caniorra priest VifoKzi, with an indescribable expression of injured innocence 011 his villainous face, sits immovable like a statue, his chin resting on his hands, which are .supported by a strong stick. Once only, when the eloquent accuser has divulged a particularly incriminating incident, a wave of shrugging shoulders and other signs of protest passes through the cage, and the priest, with, an air of almost grotesque hypocrisy, makes the sign of the cross ami raises his arms heavenwards as if to implore tho Almighty's forgiveness for Abbatcmaggio.