Murder! Italian Style

It happened again where it shouldn’t happen, away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities, in a big village - where people aim to simplify life and smooth as much as possible what makes them different from each other. Nothing ever happens in these small towns and that’s ok . But sometimes they are the picture perfect scenario for the unthinkable such as… a heinous crime.
The victim, Chiara Poggi, 26 years old at the time of her death. She laid in a pool of blood half way up an internal marble set of stairs that led from her living room to the basement of her house. She was hit on the head, repeatedly, with a sharp object that was never found or identified on a sweltering hot August  morning, then thrown down the stairs to slowly bleed to death. 

The murder of the Olgiata was for two decades a black hole in the Italian black chronicles news.  As it always happens in the galaxy of conspiracies and unsolved crimes it was attributed to secret services, criminal gangs, the husband or an alleged serial killer. There were dozens of interrogations, two main suspects, DNA tests and telephone tappings. The prosecution and the Carabinieri dedicated huge amounts of money to the investigation, accounts were pursued in Switzerland, but no one was able to determine who the hell could have sneaked between 9.15 - when  daughter Domitilla called the room without receiving an answer - and 10.30, moment when she returned with one of the waitresses and found her mother lying on the floor with her head wrapped in a bloody sheet. It took twenty years to solve the murder, this is the story of Countess Alberica Filo Della Torre. 

Elisa Claps was a geeky 16-year-old with a warm smile and long, brown hair who disappeared without a trace on September 12, 1993 In Potenza.

She was last seen near the Santissima Trinita church by a young man named Danilo Restivo, who she had arranged to meet behind the altar after morning Mass. Restivo was courting Claps, who, he said, could only stay in the dark apse for 10 minutes because her family was waiting for her to join them on an outing in the Basilicata countryside. Her family waited for nearly an hour before looking for her. By then, she was gone. It would take 20 years to find her body.

Pietro Maso, with the help of some friends, killed his parents the 17th of April 1991 - just because that was the fastest way to become rich: by acquiring their money. A second part of the plan contemplated also killing his siblings.  What could possible drive a 19 years old young man to commit such a violent omicide?

What have the Romans ever done for us? Well, they built an aqueduct for a start which is still in use 2000 odd years later. The fertile soil and ample water sources of the area in which the town is situated have made the region an agricultural greenbelt. The chief crops are grapes, olives, and vegetables. We are not in Italy but it’s here that our story begins… or rather it is here, in Zaghuan, a city 50 miles south of the capital Tunis that Raffaella and her son Yussuf rest in peace - forever. They are far from home but Raffaella then husband Azouz wanted them close to him and not buried in the north of Italy, in Erba, where they died along with two other innocent people the night of December 11, 2006. 

This case shocked the entire country, at the end of a hot summer in 2010. It is about the tragic disappearance of a 15 years old girl, a small town in southern Italy and the mediatic circus that kept the country glued to their TV for almost 3 years.

This week we bring you case of Sarah Scazzi.

Italy and Murder go together as spaghetti and tomato sauce. Follow our podcast to find out why!

While we were picking our possible stories for our first episodes, the story of the kidnapping of  Lady Gaga’s dogs just broke in the news. It was then that we found out that Lady Gaga is in Italy to shoot the film on the murder of Maurizio Gucci, playing Lady Gucci herself.

This case shook Italy for a variety of reasons, the coldness of the crime, a window into a world of absurd luxury, two years to solve and way too many cooks in the kitchen. 

This week we bring you the story of the Black Widow.