and Matilda and his brother Felice confirmed his identity. Bruneri had been missing for six years, when he fled the family to live with Camilla Ghidini. Bruneri refused to admit knowing the family, and faked a fainting. Another woman named Milly who had a love affair with him recognized him as Bruneri as well. Bruneri's mother, Eugenia Mantaud, while still alive, was not involved in the identification, being weak of heart. The identification was contested by Giulia Canella's attorneys on the ground that the mother had not been allowed to see the man, claiming she would have foiled the whole Bruneri family plot orchestrated in conjunction with the quaestor and police, not on the grounds of illness. Eugenia died two days later on 4 July 1929 of heart failure, causing some embarrassment to Canella's attorneys. Inquiry The quaestor ordered fingerprints to be taken, and had them compared with those from Bruneri's criminal records. Fingerprints had been sent to the central police archive in Rome when the man was initially arrested, but no matching was found at a superficial search of the huge archive. The second try proved to be 100% positive, and the Scientific Investigation School of Rome wired back a telegram confirming that Bruneri and the alleged amnesiac were the same person. Bruneri was a fugitive and had to serve two years from previous sentences, so he was jailed in the Collegno mental hospital while awaiting further trials. Giulia Canella fought the allegations and began a long campaign of appeals to the Turin Court, asking for the man to be set free on the premise that he was not Bruneri. The famous attorney and jurist Francesco Carnelutti offered to defend Bruneri, along with the lawyer and fascist gerarca (National Fascist Party member) Roberto Farinacci. Carnelutti, with the aid of political pressure, managed to have the man released on 23 December 1927. The Turin Court stated that no certain proof of the man being Bruneri had been presented, despite the identification from the criminal records. Bruneri's mother, after learning of the developments, stated that she was sure beyond doubt that the case was another scam by her son, that being his style. Rosa Negro and Felice Bruneri (Mario Bruneri's wife and brother) challenged the court decision in order to obtain an executive order from the court to bring Bruneri back to his duty to his wife and his mother. Trials