The Trials of Maria Barbella: The True Story of a 19th Century Crime of Passion

In 1895, Maria Barbella, a 22-year-old Italian immigrant who worked in a New York City sweatshop, was convicted of killing her abusive lover, Domenico Cataldo, because he refused to marry her, and thereby she became the first woman sentenced to die in the newly invented electric chair. Drawing on primary research in Italy and the U.S., Pucci, an Italian filmmaker and writer, has skillfully crafted Barbella's suspenseful story and, in addition, documented late-19th-century prejudice against Italian Americans and women, as well as the inhumane treatment of prisoners. Barbella was saved from death when Cora Slocomb, a U.S. citizen married to an Italian count (Pucci's great-grandmother), became convinced that Barbella had not intended to kill Cataldo, and she hired an attorney who managed to get his client retried and acquitted. Slocomb, at the same time, launched the first national campaign against the death penalty. Gripping social history. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)