Maria Barbella

Maria Barbella was born on October 24, 1868, and grew up in the village of Fernandina, in the Basilicata region of Italy. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1892. Her father, Michele Barbella, brought his wife, Buonsanto Filomena, and his family to the Little Italy section of New York and settled on Mulberry Bend.

In November, 1893, after being in the U.S. for 11 months, Maria met Domenico Cataldo, who, like Maria, was also an immigrant from Basilicata, Italy. He had a shoeshine booth on the corner of Canal and Elm Streets and Maria passed there everyday on her way to the factory where she worked as a seamstress. Maria began to stop and talk with him daily, often leaving early from her home to spend time with him. Domenico told Maria that he was looking for the right girl to marry. Maria thought herself to be unattractive and was flattered by the attention she received from Domenico. He would walk her home but he never came into her house to meet her parents.

Domenico persuaded Maria to go with him to a boarding house, where he gave her a drink and seduced her. Maria became upset afterwards and demanded that he marry her. He showed her a savings book with a $400 deposit and promised to marry her. However, he continued to put it off and led Maria on for several months. She continued to meet with him at the boarding house in the hopes that he would consent to marrying her. She was devastated when he told her that he was returning to Italy and was ending the relationship.

Maria and her mother confronted Domenico in a bar where he was playing cards. Her mother demanded that he marry Maria. Domenico said that he might be persuaded to marry her if the family paid him $200. Maria's mother exclaimed that they didn't have that kind of money. Domenico laughed at her and said his last words, "Only pigs marry!" Maria then stabbed him. On April 27, 1895, a headline in The New York Times read, "A young woman, Maria Barbella, cuts Domenico Cataldo's throat."

Maria was arrested and incarcerated at the New York Prison--the Tombs. She was 27 at the time of the murder. She spent 2 and 1/2 months in the Tombs and was visited everyday by a family member. A little-known attorney, Amos Evans and Henry Sedgwick on his first case, were appointed her case. She told them of her love for Domenico and of his refusal to marry her. She did not see the lawyers again until she appeared in court on July 11. On that day, she appeared wearing a dress she had made while in prison, and a dark gray felt hat trimmed with orange flowers and feathers.

Twelve men had been chosen as jurors and none of them were Italian. The judge in the case was John W. Goff. Maria's confession was read by the agent who took it, John O'Rourke of the East Fifth Street Police. It read in part:

"She admitted having entered the bar while Domenico Cataldo was playing cards. Then, after having grasped the man by the hair and pulled his head back, she had cut his throat. Then she had run away. Domenico ran after her, but almost immediately he had fallen to the ground dead. The woman confessed that she had been relieved when she saw him fall because she was afraid of him."

In his deposition, police officer O'Reilly stated: "I went immediately to Miss Barbella's apartment where, hidden behind a stool, I found a bloody cotton dress." The Deputy Coroner, John Huber, testified that Domenico had died from a loss of blood from a neck wound caused by the six-inch long knife Maria had used to stab him. The defense used by Maria's lawyers was that Domenico made a practice of seducing women with false promises and that Maria was one of his victims. Domenico was portrayed as "a gambler, a libertine of the worst kind."

Judge Goff stated that from the evidence it appeared that Maria had acted in a fully conscious manner. He asked the jury not to have mercy on Maria. He said, "Your verdict must be an example of justice. A jury must not concern itself with mercy. The law does not distinguish between the sexes. The fragility of the female sex is sometimes involved to excuse savage crimes. We cannot publicly proclaim a woman not guilty of killing a man solely because this man has proposed marriage and then changed his mind!"

In less than 45 minutes, the jury reached their verdict: Guilty of murder in the first degree. Maria Barbella became the first woman in the U.S. to be convicted of murder since the electric chair became the instrument of capital punishment. On July 18, 1895, Judge Goff sentenced her to death--"execution by electricity." Maria was transferred to Sing Sing Prison, the first female convict held there in 18 years and the first one on death row. She was a model prisoner. Her case was talked about nationwide and in Italy. Many people maintained that she should live. Hundreds of letters were sent to New York's Governor Morton, criticizing the State for its death sentence.

Countess Cora Savorgnan traveled from Italy to assist Maria in getting an appeal. On April 16, 1896, the Court of appeals granted Maria a retrial on the basis of omitted testimony during her first trial and the lack of Judge Goff's impartiality. Maria was transferred from Sing Sing back to the Tombs.

Maria's second trial lasted 24 days and her defense argued that she was an epileptic and had mental problems because of this condition. She was found not guilty in the second trial. After her release from prison, Maria married an Italian immigrant named Francesco Bruno on November 4, 1897. In 1899, she had a son named Frederick. In 1902, she was living with her parents and her husband had returned to Italy and remarried. Nothing is known of her life after this time. On March 20, 1899, two years and 3 months after Maria Barbella's acquittal, Martha M. Place, the first woman to die in the electric chair, was executed at Sing Sing.