On Trial For Mass Killing. Members of the gang in the dock during the first day of the trial. At left background is Giuseppe Cuccinella and at right in the Extreme foreground is his brother Antonino Cuccinella. Bandit King Salvatore Giuliano went on train "In Absentia" at Veterbo, Italy, June 12, for the infamous mass killing in Sicily on May Day 1947. Reports say that he has sent a defence petition from his hiding palace to the court. Unofficial versions say the petition claimed that the machine-Gunning of 400 May Day paraders at portella Della Ginestra, a sicilian village near Palermo, was in accident twelve people were killed in the shooting Giuliano, says the report, wrote that he only intended to capture communist leaders. June 15, 1950. (Photo by Associated Press Photo).