THREE NOTED OUTLAWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 79

THREE NOTED OUTLAWS.

Romantic stories have bean appearing in the Continental newspapers during the past two months concerning three notorious brigands; two of them have earned fame o>i account of their spectacular deaths, and the third because of tibe skill with wthieh h-. has so fa<r baffled the police. One of the three was a. Magyar named' Sovanyou Soska, and his field of operations long ago was the Carpathian Mountain district, -with its vague, lonely roads and inaccessible retreats. Twenty-five yeais ago he was the scourge of the country. "He became such a nuisance at last tihat a small ■ army was sent out to hunt ham. He fell into their hands by accident, and was sentenced to imprisonment for Hfe. In prison he becams softened in spirit. He was released after 22 years' confinement, and returned to his native village, where he started to make his livelihood as a hendsman for hi* brother. His wild career as a robber had been made the subject of* a whole library of stories and memoirs in German and Hungarian. He a£ once made a collection of these and read them over and over wibh avidity, commenting on their literary merits to has friends and correcting their historical in-* accuracies. He plainly regarded himself as ,a great pubfc figure, and revelled in his glory. After a wihile, however, his fame began to pall on him, and at last he was missing ior several days. Search was made, and he was- found dead in one of his favourite ■hiding-places, with the best of the books about him neatly stacked at his aide, andi the big cavalry pistol, with wihich hie had blown, the top off bis head, still grasped in his hand. —A I/ife for Revenge. —■ The second brigand, released from, prison last autumn, was Francesco Parißi, who during the last six months has been jpursuing a vendetta which he swore, against those who took part in has trial]when he was captured some years ago. He hi&.in the woods and- fields, and; only emerged from time to time to ehoot at someone who was concerned in his trial. Some* he missed; several he wounded more or less seriously. One man he maimed for life only a week "before his own end came, because be believed him. to be a spy of the Caralbinieri. Finally he was brought to bay through the Carabinieri shadowing the women who were supposed to be his sweethearts, and Who visited $&<m in his fastnesses at nightfall. A pitched battle was the result, and Parisi is said to have fired 61 ehots from guns and pistols before he was killed. —A Daring Brigand. — Giuseppe Sulomoce is a Sicilian. He is still at large, though a hundred Carabinieri are looking for h;m. He also proclaims himself a victim of the law*6 injustice, seeking revenge. He says he was the victim of political spite. "The good God," he screamed to the spectators in court on his oomiction, "ougM to make the earth open and swallow up tl*eee false wHnesses." However, he took his punishment quietly. On being liberated, .after 10 years' imprisonment, his very first act was to shoot dead the official whom lie held responsible for his prosecution. Whan the man dde-d at once, Sa-lomone bewailed th^ fact. He had thoped h<e wou'd linger for some time in the torments of reawree and the fear of jud-gment. Since then Salomone's life has been the ordinary one of a brigand. He is said to be a most daring fellow. He meets in disguise the Carabinieri who are ohasing him and carouses with them; then, he sends them

on a wild goose chase to look for Trim. 50 males from where he is going to be-. His crowning exploit was to wrife his ownr memoirs and- have tihem published in a Sicilian newspaper. —P. T. O.