GRUESOME SCENE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 194, 12 May 1924, Page 6

GRUESOME SCENE

EXECUTION OF ITALIANS IN LOUISIANA APPEAL FROM SIGNOR MUSSOLINI By Telegraph —Press Association. Copyright. (Rec. May 11, 5.5 p.m) New York, May 9. The little town of Amite, in Louisiana State, to-day furnished a singularly tragic and gruesome spectacle, in the hanging of six Italians for killing a restauranteur named Calmes in May, 1921. The Italians had effected a bold bank robbery, and were making their escape across the man’s property, when the latter, in attempting to stop them, was killed by one of the robbers’ bullets. Repeated appeals from their convictions proved ineffectual, despite a declaration of one of the robbers, who confessed to firing the fatal shots Crowds from the neighbouring cities flocked to Amite, storming the prison yard, which was guarded by 300 militiamen, standing shoulder to shoulder behind a moat filled with four feet of water. Two of the prisoners attempted to escape the gallows by stabbing themselves, but the authorities, during their final moments of life, sprang the death-trap. Another prisoner remained unconscious from terror till death came. The case has aroused international interest, culminating in an appeal from Signor Mussolini himself to President Coolidge. All the appeals, however, were fruitless, the State Governor declaring that the confession by one man, Roy Leona, instead of exonerating his companions, convicted each one of them. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.