THE CAMORRA TRIAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 87, 1 June 1911, Page 3

THE CAMORRA TRIAL.

Tire remarkable proceedings that have been going on at \ itgrho ever since tiic early part of last March, shed a strange and parish light upon the survivals oi medievalism that linger in Southern Italy, where the dagger of the hired bravo is still purchasable, as it was in the tune of Caesar Borgia, and where .secret sentence and execution are dealt out to all who, aiouso the enmity of the league,' ot villains called the Caniorristi. On March 12th began the trial of thirty alleged members of tlie Cainorra, who were laid by the heels on a charge of living connected with the murder ot a eci tain Gonnaro Cuocolo, a person in humble circumstances, who _fallowed the occupation of a receiver of stolen goods, and whoso body was found on June 6th, 1900, on the seashore near Torre del Greco, bearing 39 separate daggei thrusts upon it. On the same day the body ot Cuooolo’s uif 6, Maria, was found in. her house in Naples stabbed in fourteen different places. The public, •prosecutor in this “cause eelebre,” in outlining; (he case, intimated that ho had evidence to show that a meeting of Ihe Canionisli was held at a-certain wineshop, where the leader, Enicono, denounced the Cuocolos lor the betrayal of a comrade, Arena, who was i.ulieiiiig penal servitude in consequence. The tribunal decided that Cuocolo deserved death, anil that liis wile liad better bo suppressed also, as sharing her husband's secrets—she know too much. A certain Nicolo Mona was told off to make the necessary arrangements, and was assisted by three others, wiiose identity was known. After enticing Cuocolo from his house in the seashore, the quartette stall bed him to death, then jumped into a hired carriage and drove hack to Naples, where they sought out the victim’s wife, whom they louiid in bed, and immediately .murdered. It lias taken the authorities’ nearly live years to prepare the ease against the accused, and as there I ’are sia hundred witnesses altogether, the trial is likely to provide several more Ir.unatie, not to say staggering, incidents before it is over. The inlol’niation in the possession of the police is derived mainly from statements by (he informer Abbatemaggio, who nils just had Ids. felt in prison by a professor of criminology, surrounded by his class of students, an incident' that, in its bizarre grotosqueness, harmonises well with the astonishing; picture of the administration of justice presented from day to day in our cable messages. With thirty Caniorristi in one cage, surrounded by armed carabinieri, and the informer in another cage to protect him from being summarily silenced before his evidence is concluded ; with thirty-two counsel for the defence; with twelve puymen who think it not incompatible* with their ndico to express their opinions loudly as the case g;oes on; ■nil with frequent “scenes”—in which the armed guard occasionally takes a hand—going on between, all these persons, the presiding Judge, Cavalioro Hianehi. must find Ids official duties a serious tax upon his nervous system. Ana the- trial is expected to lust for another two months yet!

Originally a'Teaguo of prisoners, the Cainorra is of' respectable antiquity, for it was .flourishing when King; Berlin and IT. cat on the throne of Naples, and it attained a certain picturesque dignity by becoming associated with the great movement for the expulsion of the Bourbons. It was organised originally for mutual protection combined with scientific blackmailing, and it has levied toil in (lie merchants and traders )f Napl es lor so long that *the commercial lommuaity can hardly yet believe that tlnvc is a eh a nee of the gang being broken up. It ’k bta+ed fat there; fs a grand master, whose name ao qne is supposed to know, and a court of judges picked from twelve brandies ot the league. The judges meat in secret, and pass sentence in secret, and death is the penalty for those who r< t'niio ro '"irry out their behests. The genual public of Naples consequently have a lively interest in Lire sosalt of rids trial, and whether the prisoners me

convicted or acquitted .it is tolerably certain that the daily routine nf

cia) life in Naples will ho pnno.tua'ted freely with dagger thrusts in the near tH ' ure. owing lo the storm of passions unloosced during the unprecedented judicial proceedings. The Cainorra is only one of the many secret societies of Italy. There are others—including the Malm—which are equally active. For the rest of the world it becomes a matter of importance to exclude Camorristi, and their colleagues in tho other murder societies, from tha ranks of the immigrants that so many undeveloped countries are anxiously seeking. A recent ferocious murder in Carlton, Melbourne, where a young Italian shot a compatriot ami Ids wife

■and then shot himself, was spoken or w ith hated breath by members of the Italian community in Melbourne as the crime of a Camorrista. Possibly they were wrong, and tJio murder may have been an ordinary of passion. Rut these startling and melodramatic incidents at Viterbo show the necessity of scrutinising the credentials of every immigrant from Monthern TCnrope very carefully. There is no room in Australasia for a nranch cither of the Camorra or of the Alalia.