EXCERPT from Italian Wikipedia:
At the age of twenty, Maria Oliviero murdered her sister, hacking her 48 times with an axe, for slander and joined her husband’s gang. She was arrested in 1864 and went on trial in February, was charged with 32 crimes: kidnapping, violent robberies and thefts, fires, and murders.She confessed to the murder of his sister, but for the rest she claimed she was coerced into participating.
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FULL TEXT: A Turin letter states that among the Neapolitan provinces which have to contend with the dreadful scourge of brigandage there is that of Cattanzaro, which possesses tee advantage of having a band which is led by Maria Oliviero, an exceedingly handsome woman, not yet thirty years of age. Barbar ity is her chief characteristic, and the sight of blood renders her as excited as a wild beast. She was the wife of a famous brigand, Moneco, of the Albanian village of Spezzano, who was killed in an encounter with the Italian troops near Rossano. In this very encounter Maria was also wounded, but she continued to discharge her musket, kneeling on the dead body of her husband, with a firmness and a courage which even commanded the admiration of her opponents. Having at last been struck in the right leg, she fell into the hands of the troops, was brought before a court-martial at Cattanzaro, and condemned to be shot.
The sentence was, however, commuted to thirty years penal servitude. While she was expiating her crimes in the prison at Oattanzaro the gaoler fell desperately in love with her. The cunning woman pretended to feel an equal affection for him, and one day she told him that while she was with her husband she had concealed in at place near Rossano a large sum of money, which had been paid for the ransom of a rich farmer. The gaoler went quickly to the spot and found the money.
This fact had naturally the effect of making his love for Maria still more ardent, so that she had no difficulty in convincing him that tender affections are bettor manifested in freedom than within the four walls of a dungeon. Before, however, making their escape Maria succeeded in sending word to her brothers, who are brigands, that on a certain evening she would be at an appointed spot, not far from Cattanzaro, attired in man’s clothes, together with her deliverer. Maria was punctual at the rendezvous, manid her brothers also. The unfaithful turnkey was killed out of hand, and the money he had found replaced in Maria’s pocket. Once free, this woman organised a band of brigands, and began her operations in that tract of mountains which lie between the river. Crati and Cattanzaro.
The barbarities since perpetrated by Maria are almost incredible. The village of Spinelli, Cotzenei, and Belvedere have been literally sacked by the band she commands. The dread which the name of Maria Oliviero inspires among the rural population of Cattanzaro is so great that the Italian government have been obliged to send two battalions of the line to pursue the cruel fury.
While the band led by this woman is desolating the country of Cattanzaro, we hear from Rionre that Bersaglieri have succeeded at last in capturing the famous brigand, Sacchitiello, together with the two still more famous mistresses of the brigands Crocco and Schiavone.
The strangest thing about the capture of Sacchitiello, and the two women, is that they were taken in the house of the captain of the National Guard of the village, where they had been concealed since the month of July. This fact shows how difficult it is to got rid of the Neapolitan brigands, since, in certain cases, the commanders of the National Guard give them safe shelter in their very houses.
[“A Female Brigand – Her Atrocities,” Camden Democrat (N.J.), Mar. 4, 1865, p. 1]
