Los Angeles Herald, Volume 34, Number 203, 22 April 1907 — ITALIAN BANDIT TO BE RELEASED [ARTICLE]

ITALIAN BANDIT TO BE RELEASED

SO FAR REQUISI . ION PAPERS HAVE NOT ARRIVED

Remarkable Record of Enrico Alfano Made Public ut New York. Ships to America as

s Stoker

By Associated Press.

NEW YORK, April 21.— Enrico Alfano, wanted In Italy for many crimes, may be released tomorrow unless requisition papers arrive from Italy or strong representations are made nt the state department at Washington.

The arrest of Alfano unfolds the story of his romantic career in Italy. He was head of the mysterious "Cammarlstl dl Napoli," or the Camorra, an Italian terrorist organization. He was active as a bandit, but was forced to flee to America to escape arrest for assassination.

Death was tho pvnlshment Inflicted on one Cuocolo, a pretender to the position of ruler of the C.mmaristl, and Alfano is declared to bo the slayer of his rival. The pretender was lured to a forest, where ho was stabbed to death, it is claimed, by Alfano and his conspirators.

Then the wife of Cuocolo was condemned. Alfano and his men called at Cuocolo's home, and when the wifi) opened tho door she was stabbed, her body pierced by a dozen slender shafts of steel. The assassinations spurred the gendarmes to extraordinary activity. Alfano and the conspirators seemed immune from prosecution. Indeed, he was held by the populace as a demi-god, free to roam at will unharmed because enveloped with some divine authority, invulnerable as to bullets and Impossible of capture. But suddenly Alfano disappeared, going to New York. The Camorra thrived in New York, too, with all its sinister machinations, which baffled the police and even the Italian detectives. By the ITew York Camorra the chief was greeted with many honors.

A feast was prepared in recognition of the coming of the leader, and Alfano wa3 banqueted at the Patrochl. But this feat was his undoing. Ho was spied upon by a follower of the murdered pretender and the word was passed to Petroslni and Archlopolll, New York's Italian detectives. Their subsequent descent upon the east side underground resort ended the bandit's liberty.

He appeared before Magistrate House In the police court yesterday. Alfano had all the appearance of an Italian of high rank. He wore a suit of fine texture, molded to his slender form. He admitted through an interpreter that he was Alfano, but denied that he had committed any crime He was, he coolly declared, visiting the United States because of the frequency of political arrests in Italy.

The utmost endeavors of the police to discover Alfano's heudquarters have been futile. They realize, however, that powerful Influences are with him in his present predicament and are not at all certain they can hold him for extradition.