... It is reckoned as cowardly to betray an
offender to justice, even though the offence be against one's
self, as it would be not to avenge an injury by violence. It
is regarded as dastardly and contemptible in a wounded man to
betray the name of his assailant, because if he recovers he
must naturally expect to take vengeance himself. A rhymed
Sicilian proverb sums up this principle, the supposed speaker
being one who has been stabbed. "If I live, I will kill
thee," it says; "if I die, I forgive thee!"
Any one who has had anything to do with the administration of
criminal justice in a city with a large Italian population
must have found himself constantly hampered by precisely this
same "Omerta." The south Italian feels obliged to conceal the
name of the assassin and very likely his person, though he
himself be but an accidental witness of the crime; and, while
the writer knows of no instance in New York City where an
innocent man has gone to prison himself rather than betray a
criminal, Signor Cutera, formerly chief of police in Palermo,
states that there have been many cases in Sicily where men
have suffered long terms of penal servitude and even have died
in prison rather than give information to the police.
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