ITALIAN CRIME VILLAGE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12285, 11 July 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

ITALIAN CRIME VILLAGE.

(Special Correspondence to the Sun.) Home, May 12.

A sensational trial, recalling that of tlie Camorra at Viterbo, is expected at Rome .iu the near future, when twentyoighfc inhabitants of Marino will bo charged with criminal conspiracy and murder. Marino, the small town 011 the Alban Hills, about thirteen inile.s from Rome, formerly a stronghold of the Arsini and the Colonna and now noted for its wine, has a population of about 8,000. Strangely enough the majority of the citizens are rabid republicans and anticlericals and as they arc of a turbulent character and ready to use their knives on. the slightest provocation crimes of blood are painfully frequent.. Nine years ago the inhabitants of Mariuo attacked' Cardinal Merryldcl Val.the Papa] Secretary of State, who then used to spend' the summer months in the nearby ■ peaceful town of Castel Gandolfo. On several later occasions anti-cleiical demonstrations of a violent' character were held at Marino, ivliero troops had to-be sent to quell serious rioting. From time to time attempts have been made agaiusfc police officials, who wore mysteriously shot at from behind country -nails, and stabbing cases and murders became frequent. Siucu 1911 thirteen persons have been murdered , and 'sixteen stabbed. In most of these eases several persons were arrested 011 suspicion, but the majority were acquitted i'or lack of evidence. j

Two years ago a well to do wine grower who was the leader of the Catholic party at Marino was mysteriously' shot dead. Another prominent. Catholic was -mysteriously murdered a few years ago. These murders were at the time attributed to a secret sect and it was openly charged that- they were nothing else but regular "executions." The names of the murderers were whis-

percd in the town, bill, 110 ovideuco could bo obtained against thein. as tliG inhabitants of Ma rino, like the Sicilians, follow flic code of tin. 1 .so-called ''omerta," or honor.

Last .January another murder was re mini tied at Marino, in broad daylight, after a banquet, in a crowded locality. Itnth the victim and Iho murderer, who this time was arrested, were notorious characters and a month before they had profaned the grav« of a Catholic and organised a banquet in the cemetery. A new police inspector with a squad of detectives was sent to Marino and within a couple of months a sensational discovery was made. All the notorious characters of Marino, men with criminal antecedents and under police surveillance, who openly professed; to be anarchists and republicans, belonged to a secret society of Carbonari essentially anti-monarch-ical and anti-clerical. The police raid' ed a wineshop in a cellar where, a meeting had just been held ami discovered skulls, daggers, candles and l other emblems used in the rites of initiation. Sixty Carabinieris went around l the town at night and arrested twenty-eight citizens who belonged' to tlio Society of Carbonari. Alter a couple of days the thirty-one prisoners, chained together and handcuffed, were conveyed to Rome under a strong escort, and 1 tlio preliminary investigation of the case has now been started by the examining judge.

Meanwhile there are thirty-one weeping families at Marino loudly proclaiming the innocence of the victims of police persecution and clamoring for revenge. The anarchists and' republicans throughout Italy are organising meetings of protest, and tlio investigation about tlio members of the Carboneria, liko tlio,so of tho Cauiorra, is bound to bo most difficult and cornplicated.