some minutes before we could utter a few words of indignation. Only Angiolillo said not a word. A little later, he suddenly rose to his feet, uttered a laconic goodbye, and abandoned the house" ... "This was the last time I saw him." The assassination of Cánovas del Castillo Under a false identity of a reporter for the Il Popolo newspaper by the name of Emilio Rinaldini, Michele Angiolillo traveled to Spain from London, passing through Paris and Bourdeaux. When he reached Madrid, he learned that Cánovas had traveled to the thermal bath resort of Santa Águeda (now a psychiatric hospital) in Mondragón, Guipúzcoa, and decided to pursue him there. On 8 August 1897, Angiolillo found Cánovas alone and shot him dead. The Prime Minister's wife hurried to the scene, shouting “Murderer! Murderer!” after the gunman. Angiolillo, in turn, bowed and declared, “Pardon, Madame. I respect you as a lady, but I regret that you were the wife of that man.” The repression and mass torture at Montjuich was a direct factor behind Michele Angiolillo's decision to assassinate Cánovas, and he claimed in his defence speech to be "no assassin, but rather an executioner", calling Cánovas, among other things, the personification of the greed of the bourgeoisie and the tyranny of power. About Angiolillo, the New York Times wrote: Angiolillo allowed the authorities to capture him and vehemently denied other parties' involvement in the assassination. He was executed by garrote in the nearby town of Vergara. There is some evidence that he originally planned to kill one or two young members of the Spanish royal family, but was dissuaded by Puerto Rican nationalist leader Ramón Emeterio Betances, who suggested Cánovas del Castillo as a target instead. Betances provided logistical assistance for Angiolillo's safe travel into Spain, as well as some money. References Bibliography 1871 births 1897 deaths People from Foggia Italian anarchists Italian atheists Italian assassins Anarcho-communists Anarchist assassins 19th-century Italian people Politics of Spain Executed anarchists People executed by ligature strangulation 19th-century executions by Spain Italian people executed abroad Italian people convicted of murder Italian expatriates in Spain People convicted of murder by Spain Assassins of heads of government Executed assassins 1897 murders in Europe 1890s murders in Spain