DIAVOLO, FRA (1771-1806), the popular name given to a famous Italian brigand. His real name was Michele Pezza, and he was born of low parentage at Itri ; he had committed many murders and robberies in the Terra di Lavoro, but escaped cap ture, whence his name, popular superstition having invested him with the characters of a monk and a demon, and it seems that at one time he actually was a monk. Fra Diavolo was made leader of one of the bands raised by the Bourbon king, Frederick IV. against the French occupation, and succeeded in interrupting the enemy's communications between Rome and Naples. But although he wore a military uniform and held military rank, and was even created duke of Cassano, his atrocities were worthy of a bandit chief. On one occasion he threw some of his prisoners, men, women and children, over a precipice, and on another he had a party of 7o shot. He was for a short time imprisoned in the castle of St. Angelo, but was soon liberated. Joseph Bonaparte put a price on Fra Diavolo's head. For some time he evaded his pursuers, but at length, hungry and ill, he went in disguise to the village of Baronissi, where he was arrested, tried by an extraordi nary tribunal, condemned to death and shot: His name has gained a world-wide celebrity as the title of a famous opera by Auber.
See A. Luzio, Profili e bozzetti storici (Milan, 1906) .