Marked for Death by the Mafia.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8961, 9 December 1905, Page 7 (Supplement)

Marked for Death by the Mafia.

(San Francisco Examiner.)

A gentle old priest, lovingly doing his appointed work among his flock in a little township in the heart of Pennsylvania.. i 6 fighting a 6ilent battle for his life against the dread power of the Mafia. He is Father Antonio Cerut-ti, once of

Florence. The scene of the grim, silent battle between the priest ancl his little knot of devoted followers and the most vengeful secret society of robbers and assassins in the world is Carbondale, one of the line of ordinarily peaceful, workaday little townships that lie along the Lackawanna Valley. ■ Practically unaided by the police, Father j Cerutti has for ten months, by day and night, sustained only by the sense of an exulted purpose, battled with the forces of the Mafia, meeting craft and cunning with I lie tac-t-and acumen of a high intelligence, and in every hour of these ten months, fiom the night (hat- he effected the capture of the rufhan and bully, a local agent of the Mafia's Head Centre, in \e\v York, who had demanded money on pain of dentil, his life has hung by a single hair.

He knows that- the fiat of the Mafia, immovable and unalterable as the stars, that he shall first be marked with the sign of the cross and must then die, has gone forth ; he realises that, save for the devoiion of one stalwart, brave man, Joseph Ceupa, he stands alone. "And yet, sir," he says, with a smile, radiating a quaint humor, "I am by the Providence of God, alive, my face is unmarked by the cross, and I am unharmed."' He knows that Joseph Ceupa, master of all the secrets of the Mafia, matching cunning against cunning and device against device, stands as a bulwark between him and the stilletos of his enemies, and that did Joseph fall he would be left defenceless.

"For you see, the men of the Protective iSociety of St. Joseph, ever\'one of whom would shed the last drop of blood in my defence," says Father Antonio, are helpless in machinations against the assassins whom the Mafia sent down lieTe to rob and tyrannise my people. Tlicy are simple, honest fellows, who came from the farms and the seashore, and who, working in the coiil mines or on the. railroads, have no, thought save to earn bread for their little ones."

Tlie story of this drama, watelied with a feverish intensity of interest by the people of every town along the valley, really begins in the November of last year, when there floated through the little colony fearsome whispers of the appearance of five olive-skinned men with black liair, fierce black eyes, and the earrings that- mark the professional Italian out-throat, who, visiting the houses of the laborers at night, demanded money, and in doing so, suggestively fingered a stiletto. When they vanished after one night's work the colony was 200 dollars poorer. The thirteen hundred people comprising Father Cerutti's flock in his Church of Mount Carmel aTe divided into two sections. Of these the minority of 300 come from the province of Reggio, which has iiiven may sons to the Mafia. The majority of the remainder come from the County of Catanzaro, in Calabria.

Father Cerutti heard of the raid, and found that- the money had been taken from the people of the Reggio district. All these people, questioned by him. swore with feverish enthusiasm that they had paid money voluntarily for the benefit of theiT fellow townsmen lying ill in the hospitals of New York. Father Cerutti looked among his flock, found the man he wanted in C'eupa, took him into consultation, and waited for the next sign of the Mafia He knew that- the thriving, industrious little colony had been marked by the organisation for constant robbery and sjjoliation. He had not long to wait. On a December night- agents of the Mafia swooped down upon CaTbondale and a little group of surrounding villages. And with the rising of the morning sun came a tale of horror to appall the bravest heart : a tale of men and women having been lield up at the point of the revolver and forced to give up all that they had; of homes invaded ; the husbands, brothers, fathers turned into the street by the burly, black-bTowcd Tuliians of the Mafia; of wives and sisters subjected to insult and indignity. To the local police presently floated Tumors of the foray. With bulldog directness they made the -usual effort nt investigation, only to find their way blocked by the stonewall of a trembling, frightened denial on the part of the victims. Then it was tliat Father Cerutti, in earnest of a resolution lie had taken, called a dozen of the men of his congregation together and laid the foundation of the organisation of defence, to be known as the I'iotcctivc Society of St. Joseph. "My sons,"' said the priest, '"the. time has come when we must arise for the defence of our homes against the enemies of the honest men of our Tace. To appeal to the Anglo-Saxon police is, you see, useless. They are honest and willing, but they can do nothing with our people against the Mafia. The detection and punishment- of our criminals must- be with us. We must meet- Italian cunning with Italian cunning." And theTe and then the Protective Society was formed, each man registering an oath to give up his life, if need be, in the detection of the criminals and the protection of the homes of his fellow-country-men.

By tacit consent it was Joseph Cepua, the soldier, who organised the forces. The Mafia in New York heard, and issued . the first challenge. Twenty agents, supplied with money, went to. Carbondale, and, with the aid of a padrone, got work in the mines and an the railway, and began the battle. Ceupa was already in command of their names and identities.

Frank JLirtino, holding up a pallid and trembling boy at the point of the revolver in the darkness of Fairview street, felt the pistol dashed from his grasp, and wheeled round to see the little figure of the priest confronting him, and in the next moment Father Cerutti had seized him. Ceupa and four other sliadowv figures came seemingly out of space, and" MaTtino lay bound and gagged on the ground. Speedy wa6 his fate; within a week he was on his way to the State Penitentiary, there to serve four years and nine months of imprisonment with hard labor.

Came one night a Mafia agent to a house from which the father of the family was absent. And even as he hammered fiercely at the door a shot Tang out from a clump of trees by the roadside. He fell, desperately wounded, to be carried away by mysterious hands. The" battle begun in earnest, with the first two blows to the credit of the vigilance men.

"Wait and see," was the word sent down to Carbondale by the head centres of the Mafia in response to a wild appeal for further instructions from the local agent. Santo Criscari, who in nine years of activity as a professional agent of the (Mafia had never even been under suspicion, held up six houses one night in January, and reaped a harvest of 50 dollars. Foresco Matzzogali, John Cambo, and two more, following this action with njechanical precision on the following sight, had 200 dollars to forward to headquarters in New York on tfietr return.

They rejoiced iri tlie thought that they would not now" have to pay with wounds ana stabs for their non-success. When, in tie saloons that night they flourished rolls of bills and in blatant boasting talked of their triumph, they recked not of the lar borer with a black patch. o,ve? his eye, who lay, seemingly dxujpjk, in the corner of the room. And only did they realise the. truth "when four hours later Ceupa apat their bedsides, revolver interna, ehind him a group of the Carbondale police, and dragged them from their beds to gaol. Once more Pennsylvania justice was swift, Criscari five years and nine months.; Martzogali and Cambo, each four years and six months, was the grim story presently forwarded to the Mafia officers in New York.

"The priest and thai accursed Ceupa; mil beat us!" said the Council of the Mafia.

"Once shake the belief of the Italians in the invincibility and invulnerability of the Mafia and our power will be gone forever. Ceupa must be killed. The facq or the priest must be marked wi% a cross. He, too, must die." - Thus, according ta Ceupa, groping around the haimfs of the "Wafia. in every kind o/- disguise, -was the order now isstfecT. 'Soon twenty-five more Mafia ageats began work on the railroad. This time John Costa was chosen the local leader. Thrice -was Ceujja shot at in the (krkgess

I and each time escaped unharmed. The ! end of April approached before the Jla&istruck the first blow at- the devoted priest. Father Cerutti, altering the shadow of thw Fairview toad, leading to >his home, at midnight, after leaving the bedside of a dying woman, was followed by a shadowy presence that- grew nearer and nearer with eacli step. And when it seemed thatthe pursuer was close on his prey three other figures, watching from the other sjdr of the street, jumped out and gave cluv-.'* to him. The man was fleet of foot and was lost in the woods.

It might have been a mere matter of coincidence that John Costa the following night fell into a fierce quarrel with Salvatore Carriccio, fired two shots at him and vanished. For many weeks Carriccio lay in a hospital with a bullet wound in hi.s leg. And then, Costa- having fled to Italy, Carriccio was released. Jivery effort to induce him to admit that- he was the ma.i who had followed Father Cerutti had bet ! fruitless.

I The whole purpose of the Mafia w;..5 now bent upon one object, revenge. And ! here the familiar methods of the organise ! lion were brought into plav. There w«.> a lull of four weeks more, and then Father Cerutti, who had been reading by his iibray table, suddenly looking up, saw by the light of the lamp a figure crouching o:: the inside of a window in the rear room. Lifting the lamp he stepped into the innerroom, and as he crossed the threshold the* figure leaped through the open, window and was gone. This was the signal for a guard upon Father Cerutti's home. Two armed men. one at- the rear door, one at- the from door, watched over the sleep of the priest. Ceupa, dodging flying shots in dar:,streets, steadily pursued his campaign. Kvery newcomer in the Italian colony was watched and questioned, and, his replies being unconvincing, driven out. Came -July and the approach of the Fourth, bringing the annual picnic of tinChurch of Mount Carmel. Father Cerutti, in his innocent delight in the approach of what is to him the great event- of the year, had perhaps momentarily forgotten tlu; Mafia. Kot so Ceupa. It was at- the picnic, he reasoned, that the men of the Mafia, never sleeping, would make their next attack; for then Father Cerutti would be surrounded by only- women anj children. He noticed, also, that- certair* men, whom he suspected were agents oii" the Mafia, had of late evinced a remarkable fondness for ihe clump of woods half a mile in the rear of Father Cerutti's home.

C'eupa recalled the existence of a cave in a bank of trees a hundred yards in the interior of the woods, and for two nights, hidden in underbrush, watched. By his side were four chosen aides.

The night of July 2 brought the crisis. With the setting of the sun seven men, apparently coining from as many different points, crept into the clearing outside the cave. In the centre of the group was oilq who appeared to be the leader. "I heard Father Cerutti's name mentioned in fierce anger. I saw the men step out, saw them throw the stiHettoe-s on the ground and raise theiT hands to the sky, and then I knew that they were swearing to take Father Cerutti's life,"' said C'eupa, in giving the story to this newspaper.

There was a sharp whistle, a. rush, a fnssilade of revolver shots, and one trembling: prisoner was in the hands of C'eupa. Tin* rest had escaped. Xo weapon was found on the Mafia, man, and there being no evidence on which he could bo even held, he was released.

Thrice since that night has Father Cerutti been followed to his home—trailed there by the vengeance of the Mafia, his protectors trailing the trailers, and firinga warning shot as they approached ton near.

Only two weeks ago the Mafia playe.l another card. Father Cerutti, in one i.; those moments of incaution, which seejii inevitably to affect the man in deadly peril, had chosen a new route across la! -, to liis home. As he aproached the s!l-i - dows of the trees a light step behind him brought hiua to a stop, and, as before, he wheeled around to see a man close upon him, his hand grasping something in hi.> pocket.

Then did Father Cerutti, realising thai, the Mafia had gotten him at last, 6ho-i: for help. There were answering shoui:s from the road. The man turned, Tan ft> his life to the woods, yet he could xioi get out of the range of his_pursuers, and he rail on, staggering with exhaustion, until he tumbled head foremost over a fallen tree. The razor found in his pocket will help to convict him at his trial, at- Scranton, for assault.

And thus this strange war of darkness, in all its features unlike anything of the kind ever before seen in. the country, gots on until justice, represented by "Father Antonio Cerutti and his devoted aide, Joseph Ceupa, shall have triumphed, o>-~ the Mafia- once again has given convincingevidence that it is, indeed, invulnerable to law.

"And you see, as I told you in the beginning," 6aid Father Cerutti gently tapping the shoulder of the writer, "'I am stili salo and still unhurt in spite of their machinations. Perhaps it is given us to prove that this band of brigands and assassins which we know by the name of." the Mafia can be fought and beaten. Per - haps they will succeed in their purpose to disfigure me and get my life.. Well, then, there is one old priest less in tin world, and the good God will reward mt in His own way."