Author:
Stephen Nazzi
Publishing house:
Mondadori
Date of publication:
09-05-2023
“Why did he do that?” We often wonder this in the face of particularly vicious crimes, especially when they are unmotivated and therefore appear even more incomprehensible to us. Our instincts lead us to believe that evil is the result of madness or a murderous spree, because this thought calms us, distancing us from a much more disturbing fear. And that is that there are evil people.
Instead, not everything can be attributed to a sick mind, pathologies of the psyche, or an abrupt loss of self-control. Indeed, every violent action, even the one that seems most sudden, is always the consequence of what has been building up over time.
Stefano Nazzi demonstrates this to us in this collection of disturbing stories. With tight, engaging prose, he tells us the stories of ten people who have done evil and represent it well: men and women of different ages who have been guilty of heinous crimes in Italy, often with nonexistent motives. From the best known, such as Nicola Sapone of the Beasts of Satan or Luigi Chiatti, the Monster of Foligno, to lesser known names, such as the serial killer Gianfranco Stevanin, the “Black Cherub” Roberto Succo or, again, the three girls who murdered a nun for no reason in Chiavenna.
Nazzi tells us how they were and how they became “monsters,” often without anyone around them suspecting what was happening. And it also tells us what happened afterwards: some continued to kill, others wanted to disappear; there are those who still have not fully realized the pain they caused and those who continue to proclaim themselves innocent.
No one can know where the evil comes from, or why these murderers did what they did.
What is certain is that evil is like a stone thrown into a pond: it spreads in concentric circles, causing pain not only to the victim, but to everyone around her. But unlike those in water, “Circles of evil do not disappear after a few seconds. They last for a long time, sometimes forever.”