"BLOOD VENGEANCE."

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 66, 15 September 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

" BLOOD VENGEANCE."

Before the Court of Cessation in Vienna, a story was told which ahowa that the terrible vendetta of past days still exists in some parts of Dalmatia. At Fado, near Cattaro, the brothers Pero and Grosto Gjokonowicz and one Jove Bozovicz were neighbours. A trifle made them bitter enemies. Bozovicz's goats grazed on the brothers' land, and much quarrelling followed. One day the three met in a remote path. The two brothers threw themselves with daggers upon Bozovicz, who, bleeding from many wounds, drew his pistol and fired it, and Grosto Gjokonowicz fell dead. Bozovicz escaped, but next day gave himself up to the polioe, begging that his fourteen-year-old brother Stevo might be well watched, so that the surviving Gjokonowicz could not make him the victim of "blood vengeance." He was put on his trial for homicide, but the jury, on October 26th last, found that he had only acted in defence of his own life, and acquitted him. He had not left the prison in Oattaro when Pero Gjokonowicz hastened with one of his brothers named Juro to the house of Bozovicz. They found there only his wife and daughters, and went aside and watched. They soon espied the brother of the acquitted Bozovicz, the boy of 14, Stevo, who was singing and carrying an urn of water. Crying "The devil threw thee in our way," they seized him, and stabbed him so quickly that he did not even cry out. They then threw the body in the bushes, and Pero took off his garter, and wound it round the dead boy's neck. The brothers Gjokonowicz were both arrested and charged with the murder. At the trial at Cattaro, both were found guilty. Fero was sentenced to death, and Juro, because he was not 20 years old, to 18 years' penal servitude. They protested against the sentence, and appealed. The sentences were, \ however, confirmed.