Sante Jeronimo Caserio
Sante Jeronimo Caserio was an Italian anarchist known for assassinating Marie-François Sadi Carnot, the President of France, in 1894. Born into a poor family in the Milan province, he faced various hardships throughout his early life, including his father's mental health struggles. Caserio exhibited a strong sense of altruism and initially aspired to become a priest, but his exposure to anarchist ideology influenced his path. After fleeing to France following his imprisonment for distributing socialist propaganda, he became involved in anarchist activities.
Caserio's assassination of President Carnot was motivated by a desire for revenge against the French government's treatment of anarchists, particularly following the execution of Auguste Vaillant. His attack occurred during a public event, where he fatally stabbed the president while proclaiming his support for revolution and anarchy. Following his arrest and trial, Caserio accepted his fate, expressing his commitment to anarchist beliefs even at the time of his execution. His actions incited violence against Italian immigrants in France, marking a significant moment in the turbulent relationship between anarchist movements and state power during that period.
Subject Terms
Sante Jeronimo Caserio
Italian anarchist and terrorist
- Born: September 8, 1873
- Birthplace: Motta Visconti, Italy
- Died: August 16, 1894
- Place of death: Lyon, France
Major offense: Murder
Active: June 24, 1894
Locale: Lyon, France
Sentence: Death by decapitation
Early Life
Sante Jeronimo Caserio (SAHN-tay yay-RO-nih-moh cah-SAY-rih-yoh) was born the second youngest of eight children to a poor family in the Milan province. His father, Giovanni, who was a peasant and boatman on River Ticino, finished out his life in a psychiatric institution for mental disorders that were linked with scabies. The young Caserio was a rather reserved boy but had a marked altruistic inclination. He wanted to enter a seminary and is reported to have been very pious. He started work at the age of ten as an apprentice in the local bakery, and at fourteen, he found work in Milan. There, he became acquainted with anarchist propaganda, inspired by the ideas of the Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin, who predicated violent methods of action (“propaganda by fact”) based on individual assassinations. During this period, the authoritarian methods of the Italian head of state Francesco Crispi exacerbated class conflicts in Italy and created a situation of great tension, which would eventually culminate with the assassination in 1900 of King Umberto I.
After his imprisonment for distributing socialist propaganda on May Day, 1892, Caserio fled to Switzerland, took part in numerous anarchist meetings, and emigrated to France. In the spring of 1894, he worked in a bakery in Sète, in southern France, and was member of an anarchist club known as the Oaktree Hearts.
Criminal Career
It is not clear whether Caserio decided alone to assassinate Marie-François Sadi Carnot, the president of the French Republic (1837-1894), or if he was designated by a group of comrades, as was stated later during his trial. Historians do know that after taking leave from his work in 1894, Caserio bought a knife and took the train to Vienne, where he decided to continue his journey to Lyon by road in order to avoid police detection.
On the evening of June 24, President Carnot was expected at the Grand Théâtre in Lyon for a gala given in his honor. When Caserio, a slim and rather unimpressive young man, stepped forward toward the president’s carriage with a newspaper in his hand, the guards did not take any notice. Caserio suddenly produced his knife and—yelling “Long live the revolution! Long live anarchy!”—he stabbed the president with incredible force. The blade penetrated eleven centimeters into the liver, and the president died three hours after the assault.
Legal Action and Outcome
Caserio was immediately arrested, and his trial began on August 2, 1894. He refused assistance from an Italian lawyer who wanted to plead, based on Caserio’s father’s medical record, irresponsibility on grounds of disturbed mental heredity. Caserio made no attempt to deny his responsibility and claimed his action was retaliation against President Carnot’s refusal to grant mercy to anarchist Auguste Vaillant, who had been executed a few months earlier. When his death sentence was pronounced, Caserio exclaimed, “Long live the social revolution!” He was beheaded in the early morning of August 16 and is reported to have whispered again, “Long live anarchy!” seconds before the blade of the guillotine descended on his neck.
Impact
The assassination of the French president by Sante Jeronimo Caserio caused an outbreak of violence against Italian immigrants in France in a context of acute rivalry and tension over colonial matters between the two countries. The day following the murder, the widow of the president received an anonymous letter containing a photograph of Ravachol (François-Claudius Königstein), who had been executed in 1892, with the words “He is well avenged.” However, despite more anarchist threats, Caserio’s act was the last of a long list of political assassinations in France.
Bibliography
Gallas, John, and Clifford Harper. The Ballad of Santo Caserio. London: Agraphia Press, 2003. A poem about Caserio’s life with illustrations and a biographical note.
Maîtron, Jean. Le Mouvement anarchiste en France. Paris: Gallimard, 1991. A thorough account of anarchist movement history in France from the mid-nineteenth century to World War I. In French.
Miller, Paul B. From Revolutionaries to Citizens: Antimilitarism in France, 1870-1914. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002. Provides good contextual history of France and Europe during the era in which Caserio lived and anarchists flourished.