Angelina Napolitano

Background

Angelina Napolitano (also spelled Angelina Neapolitano) was an immigrant to Canada. She was born in Italy in about 1883, probably in a small town not too far from Naples. Her family name and her baptismal name or parents were not known.

She married Pietro Napolitano about 1898 and emigrated to Canada after living in the United States. They lived in New York City for seven years, then moved to Canada in 1909. They first lived in Thessalon, Ontario, then moved to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where there was a sizable Italian immigrant community. The couple had four children.

The Napolitano marriage was violent. Pietro beat and threatened Angelina.

The offence

On Easter Sunday, April 16, 1911, when Angelina was six months pregnant, Pietro told her to go out and make money through sex or he would beat her, kill her, or kill her unborn child. He was going to sleep, and she had until he woke to get some money.

As Pietro slept in their top-floor apartment on James Street, Angelina took an axe and hit him four times in the neck and head, killing him.

After the killing, Angelina immediately sought out a neighbour and confessed, adding: "I just killed a pig,". She waited for the police to come while hugging the youngest of her four children.

Angelina was charged with murder.

Investigation

After Angelina sought out a neighbour and confessed, police found her with her arms wrapped around her youngest child.

Arrest

Trial

The trial began on Monday, May 8, 1911, in Sault Ste. Marie, with Justice Byron Moffatt Britton presiding and Edmund Meredith as the crown attorney.

When the court realized that Angelina did not have a lawyer, the trial was adjourned for a day so that a court-appointed lawyer, Uriah McFadden, could prepare a case.

When the trial resumed on Tuesday, May 9, Meredith called nine witnesses to testify to Angelina’s guilt. McFadden called only Angelina herself, who did not speak English well. McFadden’s case rested on what was essentially the battered woman defence. He argued that Pietro’s abuse had forced a desperate Angelina to murder and cited the November stabbing.

Britton ruled the incident inadmissible evidence and reasoned: “if anybody injured six months ago could give that as justification or excuse for slaying a person, it would be anarchy complete.”

The jury returned a guilty verdict. The trial lasted only three hours. Although the jury recommended clemency, Britton sentenced her to hang.

The execution was scheduled for August 9, one month after Angelina’s due date.

Sentencing

Britton sentenced Angelina to hang on 9 May 1911. The execution was scheduled for August 9.

On July 14, 1911, the federal cabinet commuted Angelina’s sentence to life imprisonment.

Appeals

No appeals were described in the provided material.

Outcome

Angelina was granted parole from Kingston Penitentiary on December 30, 1922, after serving 11 years.

Angelina reportedly died on September 4, 1932 at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Frontenac County, Ontario.

Other details

Pietro’s earlier abuse included an attack in November 1910 when he stabbed Angelina with a pocket knife, wounding her nine times in the face, neck, shoulder, chest, and arms and leaving scars. He had been charged with assault but received a suspended sentence.

At the trial, McFadden argued that Angelina had been provoked into murder by her husband’s abuse, most notably when he had stabbed her the previous year.

The case produced public debate about domestic violence and the death penalty.

After the story hit newspapers, a media frenzy began in Sault Ste. Marie and also in the United States and even Europe. Some coverage criticized Angelina using racist stereotypes that she was a “hot-blooded foreigner” and deserved to pay the penalty for her crime. Other coverage focused on the abuse she had suffered and agitated for her sentence to be commuted to jail time or even a pardon.

Sir Allen Bristol Aylesworth, the federal minister of justice, received many letters from individuals (including McFadden) and petitions organized by groups in Sault Ste Marie, Toronto, New York, Chicago, England, Austria, and Poland.

Dr. Alexander Aalto of Ohio offered to be hanged in Angelina’s stead and said: “It would only be fair to Mrs. Napolitano for a man to give his life for her, inasmuch as her life is in peril on account of a man's persecution of her, and because men condemned her.”

The British suffragette journal "Common Cause" excoriated the law and the justice system, stating: “both bad, for they are exclusively masculine.”

Other arguments presented in letters included claims associated with Arthur Cyril Boyce, MP for Algoma West, that Angelina must be not guilty because her pregnancy made her temporarily insane. Petitioners also suggested that Angelina should be praised for taking the life of a sexually immoral man, and that Angelina’s fear of her impending doom would adversely affect her unborn baby.

The Toronto Suffrage Association warned: “every additional hour spent by her [Napolitano] in the condition of terror, anticipating her execution” would “react in a deleterious manner upon her unborn innocent child.”

After serving her sentence and being granted parole, Angelina tried to contact her children, who had been placed in foster homes, but it remained unknown whether she ever saw them again. The trail ended after she left Kingston in the spring of 1924.

In 2003, independent film director Sergio Navarretta began researching Angelina’s life for a documentary and expanded it into a feature film, Looking for Angelina. The film was shot in two weeks in 2004 at Sault Ste. Marie on a shoestring budget of $250,000. The writers were Alessandra Piccione and Frank Canino, who took inspiration from Canino’s play "The Angelina Project". Lina Giornofelice starred as Angelina, with Alvaro D’Antonio playing Pietro. Large parts of the film were in period-correct Italian with English subtitles.

The film showed at the Montreal World Film Festival, Cinéfest in Sudbury, Quitus Italian Film Festival in Montreal, Shadows of the Mind Festival in Sault Ste Marie, the International Film Festival of India, Cimameriche Film Festival in Genoa, and the Mumbai International Film Festival.

Navarretta said: “In general,” said director Navaretta, “audiences have responded to the film on an emotional level, empathizing with the journey of [the characters].”

Looking For Angelina won three awards: A Special Recognition at the Cimameriche Film Festival; Best Feature (Drama) at the Quitus Film Festival; and Quitus Award of Distinction at the Quitus Film Festival in Montreal.

Angelina Napolitano was described as the first woman in Canada to use the battered woman defence on a murder charge.

Timeline

• About 1883 — Angelina Napolitano was born in Italy near Naples.
• About 1898 — Angelina Napolitano married Pietro Napolitano.
• 1909 — The couple moved to Canada, first living in Thessalon, Ontario, then moving to Sault Ste. Marie.
• November 1910 — Pietro Napolitano stabbed Angelina nine times, leaving scars; he received a suspended sentence for assault.
• April 16, 1911 — Angelina killed Pietro Napolitano with an axe on Easter Sunday.
• May 8, 1911 — The trial began in Sault Ste. Marie.
• May 9, 1911 — Angelina was sentenced to hang.
• July 14, 1911 — The federal cabinet commuted her sentence to life imprisonment.
• Dec. 30, 1922 — Angelina was granted parole from Kingston Penitentiary.
• September 4, 1932 — Angelina reportedly died at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Frontenac County, Ontario.
• 2003 — Sergio Navarretta began researching Angelina Napolitano’s life.
• 2004 — Looking for Angelina was shot in two weeks in Sault Ste. Marie.