On April 5th he was arrested without any charge but on May 2nd, while imprisoned, he was the victim of a strong mental crisis and attempted to kill himself. The scandal of a man imprisoned without reason and crazy exploded and Cafiero was released with only the choice between forced residence in Barletta, his birth town, or exile to Switzerland. Cafiero chose the exile in the small town of Chiasso. Emilio Bellerio took Cafiero to his house in Locarno and Errico Malatesta wrote about him "if his mind is ill, his heart is still healthy...". In February 1883 Cafiero left for Florence, but was found in a street very shocked, so some doctors transferred him to a lunatic asylum in the city. After the lunatic asylum for the rest of his life had problems, Olimpia Kutusoff, mate of Cafiero, returned from Russia in September 1883 to assist him in the asylum of Imola. Olimpia left him after one and a half years because Cafiero in his crises was violent with her. Carlo expressed the will to return in Barletta where he arrived in the second half of ’89. However his brothers turned him away and after living some time in a hotel he was taken in by his brother Pietrantonio. In 1891, following another crisis, Carlo Cafiero was confined in the asylum of Nocera Inferiore where he died on Sunday July 17, 1892.