Tommaso Forte (alias Tommasone) was born in Mortale, Casalattico, on a date not known exactly by my uncle, but he was certain that this Tommaso was the son of Onorato and brother of my uncle Tommaso's nonno, Filippo and their siblings Angelo, Domenico, Pasquale, Maria, Pace and Angelantonia.

(Paul Forte's research shows that Tommaso was born in Mortale on 27th October 1829, the penultimate child of Onorato Antonio Forte and Catarina Lucia Forte. The family of Onorato were known as i Neratieglie)

He was a young man in the 1860s, when there was great disorder in our region. There were large numbers of men operating in the underworld or as self appointed soldiers from the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States. They travelled through, or sheltered in our mountains and brigandry was rife in the whole area. The local farmers and poor defenceless shepherds were constantly threatened. In order to defend his own family, Tommaso got to know these individuals, became their friend and slowly became a bandit himself.

When he realised that it was too dangerous to live in this way and remain with people he knew, he took the first opportunity to secretly board a ship in Naples bound for America. And so began his great adventure along with so many other Italian emigrants heading off to the New World.  Even there, he had little desire to work but wanted to make his fortune as quickly as possible. Things did not go well and, a few years later, he tried to board an Italian transatlantic ship from New York heading for Naples, but without any documents or passport, he struggled to find a ship's captain who would let him stow away on board.

Finally he found a Neapolitan captain who would help, and so he boarded his ship and promised to pay a high price for his fare as soon as they arrived at their destination. The captain understood immediately that Tommaso had a small fortune hidden in his old suitcase, and as soon as they were out of harbour, he advised him to keep his suitcase in safekeeping in his personal cabin.
On arrival at Naples, when he went to his trusty friend the Captain to settle the bill, the Captain said that he didn't know poor Tommaso and gave him a few minutes to leave the ship before he would call the police to arrest him as a stowaway. And so Tommaso fled the ship in a hurry, leaving behind his suitcase and ill-gotten gains in the hands of someone even more dishonest than him.

Without any money and dressed in rags, he presented himself before his brothers who were with their herds in the mountains near Mortale. He was very tired as he had had to return from Naples on foot. It appears that he started to order his brothers to go and fetch new clothes from Mortale so that he could change out of his rags and leave behind his miserable American adventure. His brothers were so afraid of him that they obeyed his orders.

After this disaster in America, he immediately teamed up with his old friends and so began the second stage of his life of brigandry. He was arrested a few months later, sentenced to 5 years and sent to a prison near Genova. The jail was very near the beach. One day, after a storm, he spotted something a good distance from the shore. The jailer made a bet: that it would be impossible for any prisoner to swim to the shore that you could barely see with the naked eye. If someone took up the challenge, they would be rewarded. Tommasone was an excellent swimmer, but even risking drowning himself, he swam to the shore carrying the arm from a wooden statue, undoubtedly from a shipwreck. He was cheered by his companions and, as a reward, he was moved from prison to prison and, after just a few months, was freed subject to certain conditions.

On his return, he could do no more than find his old friends from the underworld, but he soon realised that it was time to leave these young tearaways. However, the brigands soon realised what was happening and, fearing that he would turn them in, a chap from Casalvieri shot him in the foot in the locality of Casetta, halfway between Mortale and Casalattico at the junction for Montattico, saying that he was lucky that he hadn't wanted to kill or wound a friend.  In reality though, Tommaso sustained a serious injury to his right foot and could not walk anymore, so his brothers took him away and hid him in a small haystack in the woods at Chiarapendoli, an area owned by the family.

The brothers were concerned for him and visited him daily in his hideaway, bringing him food and whatever he needed.

Meanwhile back at La Soda, the main square which is now the entrance to Mortale, the Marshall and the carabinieri arrived one day to capture Tommasone and interrogated anyone they could see.
Tommasone's brother, Angelo, was there and when interrogated by the Marshall, he continuously repeated, "Figlio a Neratiegle, sì - fratello a Tommasone, no". (Son of Onorato, yes - brother of Tommasone, no). Cleverly the Marshall said to Angelo, "If you don't know where he is and if you don't know who he is, we'll take you to the police station and then we'll see". On hearing this threat, Angelo's wife, screamed "Tell him! Tell him! Otherwise they'll take you away". The poor brother pointed at the woods and said "He's in a haystack up there".

Tommasone was arrested and on the way to prison, passed through La Soda in Mortale, where he said to the Marshall, "I would like to see and kiss my brother Angelo", but the marshall slapped poor Angelo and said, "You've betrayed your brother, knowing that I couldn't have arrested you instead of your brother". They both burst into tears.

Tommasone the Brigand died in prison.