Hello,
I'm sure this can be a family secret and maybe you feel shame.
If you know he was a prisoner in Italy, you can find the prisoner records in the following Archivio di Stato:

Archivio Centrale dello Stato - Roma
(Rome Central Main Archive - it also contains documents related to Italian Prisoners of War -WWI and WWI)

Ascoli Piceno - Bologna - Caltanissetta - Caserta - Catania - Cosenza - Enna - Firenze - Genova - Livorno - Lucca - Mantova - Massa - Messina - Milano - Modena - Napoli - Palermo - Parma - Pavia - Pisa - Pistoia - Potenza - Ragusa - Reggio Calabria - Roma - Salerno - Savona - Siena - Siracusa - Terni - Torino - Trapani - Trento - Treviso - Trieste - Udine - Venezia - Vercelli - Verona -

Most of the italian Archivio di Stato keep penal sentences of local judge.
If you don't want to show to the listers your shy/shame about it (if any), I will be more than happy to help you if you write me a pm.
Regards
Riccardo

Riccardo - I have heard a story of a specific person who was murdered in a field in my grandfather's town. Does this mean I can verify this? Or will I need the prisoner's name? I only have the victim's name now.

this could be very interesting to anyone with western sicilian ancestry... i know of no one specific in my family who was jailed, but have read that during certain periods of crackdown on mafia connections, some small towns lost large percentages of their male population to prison. i have always wondered if it touched any of my branches...

thanks for the information Riccardo.

Cathy wrote:

Riccardo - I have heard a story of a specific person who was murdered in a field in my grandfather's town. Does this mean I can verify this? Or will I need the prisoner's name? I only have the victim's name now.

Cathy,
yes, you can verify this, because Cosenza state archive should have all the papers of the court house and judje about that time.
For sure you need to know the name of the person killed, where it happened and when
I hope it helps
bye Riccardo