The exclamation “crime in Italy” is a variation of criminently, or criminy, both euphemisms for Christ. This is part of a complete episode.
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Just wanted to say I picked this expression up from watching the Daniel Boone TV show in the 1960s. Daniel’s son, Israel, used to say it all the time. I was about Israel’s on-screen age at the time so I identified with him. He didn’t enunciate the ‘a’ in Italy but I thought that was just a woodsman’s frugality with syllables. It never occurred to me he wasn’t actually saying, “Crime In Italy!” or as I imagined it would have been written, Crime In It’ly!