Among the fruits of the unhappy condition into which exorbitant taxes, low wages, and other industrial evils have plunged the masses in Italy to-day is an increase in the number and activity of the robber bands infesting various parts of the kingdom. The excuse given by many of those who enter upon a life of brigandage is that the government takes every penny they earn by honest labor, and there is nothing left for them but to rob and plunder or die of starvation. Be that as it may, the brigand army is certainly being recruited at an alarming rate. It is said that in Sardinia alone last year nearly one hundred brigands were captured and some hundreds of followers arrested, including the mayors of several small towns! Southern Italy is infested, and the extent of the intimidation and robbery can hardly be grasped by the inhabitants of orderly communities.
A case which is now causing a sensation throughout the whole of Italy and has earned for its hero—who is twenty-five years old—the title of “His Majesty King Mussolino of Reggio,” is very interesting, and is the most famous occurrence of this description since the days of the brigand Tiburzi. Mussolino is at large in the district around Reggio, in Calabria, and appears to have earned his title, for the chief of the Italian police has taken the matter in hand, and for some weeks recently two battalions of infantry, besides three or four hundred gendarmes, were completely outwitted and outmanœuvred by his daring and successful tactics. He has killed quite a number of his pursuers, and those who have in any way assisted them have shared a similar fate. A short time ago Mussolino was condemned to twenty-five years penal servitude for attempted murder. During the course of the trial he was loud in his protestations of innocence and swore vengeance against seven witnesses who appeared against him, and managed to kick one very severely in the face during the trial. Since his escape he has killed all seven.
The peasants generally consider him innocent and do not object to lending him a helping hand, so the trouble in his “sphere of influence” is likely to be interminable.
“King” Mussolino has recently addressed a letter to the newspapers threatening death to the governor of the province if he does not immediately withdraw the troops.
The whole story appeals to the imagination of the populace of southern Italy, and when, some weeks ago, his sisters were arrested, there was such a succession of threats and disturbances that the authorities were forced to liberate them.
Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, New York, NY, March 21, 1901
