The Price of Heads

In all of Sicily there is no bloodier bandit than Salvatore Giuliano. A swart, 25-year-old ex-black marketeer, who began his career with the killing of a customs officer, Salvatore has totted up a spine-chilling record of robbery, blackmail, murder and kidnaping. Yet to many a Sicilian, Giuliano is a hero as revered as Robin Hood. Sicilian police have long since promised not to bother him provided that he kills no policemen. On Palermo's walls, signs calling for "Giuliano for President" are common sights.

Last week Giuliano took a political position: while his band was attacking Communist headquarters in two Sicilian towns, the bandit himself put an advertisement in the newspapers declaring his undying enmity toward the "Red gangsters who want to throw us into the lap of that terrible Russia."

Italy's Government promptly posted a reward of 3,000,000 lire ($13,200) on Giuliano's head. The self-made savior was merely incensed at the trifling price offered. The only reply he deigned to make was a counter-offer of 2,000,000 lire for the capture of the Minister of the Interior.

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