Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 110

fnnBTEEa: TRIBUNE MAGAZINE, MARCH 16, 1924 Maria TuceCs persistent story of self-defense and accidental shooting ight have cleared her bid for the testimony of the murdered year-old daughter, who had witnessed the deliberate crime of her aw- There Is No Use of Officials Resorting ta Threats in the Effort to Obtain a Confession From a Woman Says One Who Is an Expert onthe Subject of Criminology Relating Some of His Experiences in Playing Upon Her Conscience and Her Affections Without Result, Although She Did Finally Take a Plea in Order to Obtain a Light Sentence Quickly she disappeared with her five children and her husband. The woman she had shot made an almost miraculous recovery and is alive and healthy today, "The Mezzi family went to a remote part of Italy, to a mountain district where there is little communication with the United States and where the wife felt she would be safe from the "charge oi assassination that she believed waa against her. I chanced not long ago upon a man who had seen her. Apparently she lives joyous in the belief that her vengeance was iCulfillel and that her rival dead. -t "When, with their formidable native qualities, women go in seriously for murderous banditry it is not a thing to eon template lightly.

A race of female gunmenthat is a thought to make the police gasped and writhed, fatally wounded. She begged him not to accuse her, to say that he had accidentally shot himself. Jle promised he would, with the strange sentimentality that men will often display tn snch a cirsumstance. "I examined him shortly after the shooting and he toM me that it had been an accident. I saw that it could not have tbeen; There were no- powder i burns on his Medical opinion agreed that the shot had been fired from a distance of at least three feet When these evidences had been placed ALBANIAN FEUDS The murder of the Italian military, commissioner which, not SO very long ugo led almost to war between Italy and Greece, was committed amid surroundings congenial to deeds of blood.

A feudists, the mountaineers of Kentucky and est Virginia are mere babes in arms compared with those of Albanilt, some of vendettas arise from causes the most trivial, A "quarrel once arose between two friends because one nad promised the other fourteen cartridges and afterwards refused themjand as a consequence twelve men lost their lives in one day. A terrible fend between two' mountaineer families of Albania had its origin in a pig eating the young crops of a neighbor as they, were springing up. The owner of the crop shot the pig, and the owner of the pig instantly 'Elew the slayer of" the animal. Many years passed and many lives were lost before this blood-feud was appeased. But often causes of bloodshed are serious enoughs Many arise from yonng girls having been carried off without their parents' consent, and any insjilt to a woman is promptly punished by death.

The injured husband is bound to avenge the stain on his family and hini--clf by shooting the offender or ever rj main a disgraced and dishonored man. the crime. She would probably escape with a small prison sentence. For a moment tHe expression of grief and wronged innocence persisted in her face. Then suddenly she bursted into laugh- ter.

'You win, Fiaschetti! I'll take a plea," and she grinned with an expression so much like that of a gambler who knows how to lose that it was startling. "She took a plea and got a light prison sentence. "Not only will a woman repeat with a weird tenacity a story shown to be false, but when she determines on a policy of silence nothing apparently will extract words from her. "Several years ago an Italian' killed another in a griidge fight and got away. In the course of looking for hiin, I lejirned that he had a sister living in an east side flat.

I went to the A fiery-eyed Sicilian woman of twenty five or thirty, the fugitive's sister, came to the door. "Good morning, Signqra." What is your name?" "I don't know." "Are you married" "I don't know." "Are these children here voursf" "I don't know." "But in the devil's namc-hat do you" "Listen, Signor Policeman I know that in the morning it grows light and in the evening darkness" comes. That I know, and nothing more." "I went away. I was satisfied. I understood perfectly that, it would be a waste of time to try'to extract anyjn-, formation from that -woman about her brother.

"A story printed several months -ago about a man who, having stabbed his wife, wandered over-the world for "ten years, desperate with the fear of police pursuit and death at the command of the law. I know of a case somewhat like that, but a little different. "One evening, half-a dozen years ago, a woman, Maria Mezzi, whose husband I knew, eame to my office at police headquarters. With fury still Mazing in her "Here is the weapon. I have killed "Killed whom" "The woman who ruined my home, ho eyes, bhctoola, a pistol from her bosom.

"'Uelore' him and he was told thnt it was perfectly clear that the woman had shot him, "he grudgingly admitted it. Rose Iluber was brought to his bedside and still vehemently denied her guilt, upbraiding hira frantically for his "The man died. The evidence -against her for murder was perfect! Most men, when confronted with bodily facts tr.at make their stories impossible, will either despairingly admit the truth or will grow so Confused as to discredit themselves completely. Not so with a woman. Rose Huber stuck to her story, of accident with an unshakable coldness and persistency and with a perfectly plausible simulation of mournful horror1 over her lover's death and his accusation of her.

"I was determined" to get a confession. There is no. use of resorting to threats with a woman, as there is with mehT. I tried sheer persistency. Daily I visited Rose Huber in her cell and demanded the truth.

Steadfastly, day after day, she denied it. I called upon conscience, npon the affection she professed for the dead man, npon the injustice of pretending that he had lied asrainst her. in his dying hour. Nothing moved her. Finally I poitited out to her that ho jury would believe her storv, that with the evidence against her she was certain of being convicted and that her sentence would be much lighter if she admitted Concettina Conlin, the 9-year-old child whose testimony upset the mournful defense of Maria Tucci, described by the Police Detective as "a flawless piece of act- tn Bischoff's Surgical -2 6 House of Service took my husband from me, who took their atherf rom my five children." i husband had fallen into infatuation with a woman of evil reputation, had neglected his family and had left them in distress.

The wife had gone many times to the woman and begged her to give back the husband to his children. The woman had laughed at her. Then Maria Mezzi had shot her down. I took the wife' to her victim's bedside. 'I hope you die she cursed with a bitter sneer.

'I want to be very glad. (I want my childen to be "She took the liveliest delight in the: physician's' pronouncement that the victim must die. "There was a good deal of sympathy" for her and she was released on $15,000 bail, which, was put vp by a relative. Trusses, Supporter. Elastic Hosiery, Surgical TRUSSES Made order and properly fitted.

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