SCOFFING AT DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20626, 26 July 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

SCOFFING AT DEATH.

BANDITS LAST STAND.

Celio race, Italian murderer and bandit, took his life and fell headlong into a yawning mountain aby:ss before the eyes of his pursuers—who had penned him ia his cavern lair with machine guns—mho? than surrender to the gallows. Pace had squandered the riches of his family, robbed Ins father and filled him, and tried to kill his sister. Ho was then a marked man—an outlaw—and lie (led to the mountains in Trento, northern Italy, where, hunted like the animal thn» ho was, he lived like a dog in tnaocessihlo caves, which were strongholds tho Italian Army during the war. For many weeks I'aco escaped justice, but at last ho realised that Ins mountain fastness had linen penetrated by carabineer# and militia. Undaunted still, he nought refuge in a cavern situated on a mountain top, below which yawned a great precipice, IMXlft. deep. Two carabineers found In* hiding placa nnd approached it-, to he met hy a volley of gunshots, which hurled one soldier into the chasm to death.

Reinforcements were brought up, hovr* ever, and machne guns were trained on tho murderer's cave, leaving him no loophole of escape. But Celio Pace scoffed at death and dofiod the hangman to the last. He loft his lair and climbed s mountain ridge, whero, in full view of his besieger*, h# put a bullet through hi* heart and. with a gesture of icorn, plunged headlong to his doom in the dojuba of the anysa.