Posted on 11/11/2023 6:47:40 PM PST by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1806, the Neapolitan partisan Michele Pezza was hanged as a bandit.
Better known by his infernal nickname “Fra Diavolo” — “Brother Devil” — Pezza (English Wikipedia entry | Italian) was forced into the army of the Kingdom of Naples as punishment for manslaughter in 1797, just in time to experience its thrashing at the hands of the French Republicans rolling down the peninsula.
By 1799, Naples was no longer a kingdom at all, but a French-modeled and -backed republic, one of several in Italy.
Populist, Catholic resistance to these impositions commenced almost immediately. Fra Diavolo was destined to become the enduring legend of this sanfedismo movement.
Pezza’s band, which eventually numbered as much as 4,000, stalked the roads around Rome and Naples, terrorizing French soldiers and Republicans. They had a reputation for cruelty......
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Guy made good spaghetti sauce, though.
In 1933, Laurel & Hardy starred in a comedy movie about this character entitled “The Devil’s Brother’ “Bogus Bandits” or “Fra Diavolo.”
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