A History Of Secret Societies by Arkon Daraul

Author:Arkon Daraul [Daraul, Arkon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Normanby Press
Published: 2015-11-06T06:00:00+00:00

14—THE DECIDED ONES OF JUPITER THE THUNDERER

THE life of one of the most celebrated of Italian brigands runs through the story of the Lodge of Jupiter the Thunderer, which came into lusty being after 1815, when bands of outlaws were terrorizing Calabria and the Abruzzi. Ciro Annunchiarico was his name, and he had placed himself at the head of a cut-throat band, unable to live in normal society because of their crimes.

For some time the brigands were able to operate unmolested, but when the Government decided to take stem measures against them, Ciro realized that there might be scope for a general confederation of all outlaws. Ciro himself had little to lose, being under sentence “of at least perpetual imprisonment for murder”. He was nobody’s fool—and had no hope of being able to overcome the Royal forces; but he felt that he could muster sufficient forces to gain favourable terms when it came to the point of negotiation. His was not the most powerful gang, but Ciro had a strong personality. The Vardarelli bandits, he knew, were already so powerful that they would make the best allies; and he accordingly invited them and the chiefs of other groups to a conference, about the end of 1816 or the beginning of 1817. As a priest, he himself celebrated a Mass for the combined forces in a deserted chapel just before the deliberations commenced.

Gaetano Vardarelli, head of the other important group, felt that such an alliance might attract too much unwelcome attention from the authorities. In point of fact he was himself at that very moment in the service of King Ferdinand, for he had made his peace with him on favourable terms. At the same time, he was prepared to listen to any proposition which might give him greater profits than his current arrangements.

He awaited Ciro’s suggestions. Ciro was both a desperado and a man of learning. Brought up in comfortable circumstances, he was early earmarked for the Church, came of a respectable family of farmers, and had an uncle who was known as something of a savant. The youth began his terrible career through killing a young man of the Montolesi family in a jealous rage. Whipping himself into a sense of hatred for every relation of his victim, he pursued everyone of the name of Montolesi, until only one remained alive. This worthy only escaped by shutting himself up in his house and staying there for several years. Even when Ciro was killed, he refused for some time to believe it, such was the terror which his enemy inspired in him. After four years in prison, Ciro escaped, and started his career as chief of a society of murderers. Some of his exploits cannot be recorded in a book for general circulation. His more ordinary activities were sanguinary enough. Such things as the ravaging of a woman at Martano and stealing from her 96,000 ducats were the normal routine with him. He kept in continual correspondence with a large

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