ITALY: Trial by the Year

Every now and then Fascist editors announce that Il Duce has suppressed the dread Sicilian Mafia “entirely,” but every now and then a few hundred more Mafiosi are dragged into court.

In three big iron prisoners’ cages at Sciacca. Sicily last week 185 were placed on trial. The total would have been 214 except that the rest were “sick in their cells,” according to the warden of Sciacca’s jail.

In the cage sat the Rev. Vincenzo Baiamonte. Archpriest of Burgio, and several former Mayors of local towns. Indeed last week’s batch of alleged desperadoes were as different as possible from the 153 dirty, sullen men and savage, leering hags who sat in similar cages during the first mass Mafiosi trial at Termini Imerese (TIME, Oct. 24, 1927). Last week the well and in many cases elegantly dressed prisoners listened with composure while the Crown charged them with 43 murders, 26 attempted assassinations, blackmailings & robberies innumerable and, collectively, with “banding and conspiring together for criminal purposes.”

After 185 pleas of “not guilty” had been entered, Cavaliere Allocati, President of the tribunal, addressed the jury thus: “You must sacrifice all personal interests, cut yourselves off from your homes and families, neglect your business interests— for how long? . . .

“There are several thousand witnesses to be examined. The indictments alonecomprise 69 large volumes. But, courage! I hope—and I prophesy, basing my prophecy on the accelerated tempo of the Regime—that with energy and zeal this trial will come to an end in less than half a year!”