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The Monster of Via
Della Consolata
This is probably the single most lovecraftian piece of news from the early
20th
century Turin. It was later made into a rather lurid
novel, in the thirties, caled "Il Mostro dai Piedi di Fauno" ("The
Monster
with Faun Feet"), but what follows are the bare facts as recently reprinted.
The novel has been long out of print.
It all begins in Turin, former capital
of the Kingdom of Italy, in the winter of 1902.
January 12th, 1902 (sunday) - Veronica Zucca, aged 5, disappears in broad daylight while at play in the Piazza Savoia/Via della Consolata Area (an upper class neighborhood in the very center of town). Police investigation leads to the arrest of 16 year old Alfredo Conti, a former waiter in the coffee house managed by Veronica's father. Conti, that can give a convincing alibi, is set free in a few hours.
In the following days, further investigations lead nowhere.
April 1902 - in Via della Consolata, begins the refurbishing of Palazzo Paesana, home of the family of Count Paesana-Saluzzo - an ancient family with plenty of ties both in political and academic circles - (the grandfather of the current count was the founder of the Accademia delle Scienze in the 1800s). Angelo Damiano, one of the carpenters at work on the mansion, enters the maze-like basement of the building and, upon perceiving a distinctive bad smell, finds the body of the child inside a wooden box. Medical examination reveals that Veronica was phisically abused, raped, and then killed with 16 knife stabs in the back.
The case is again in the news. Talk about "Il Mostro della Consolata" (the Consolata Monster) begins.
Alfredo Conti is jailed again, on the strenght of a very confused story told by one of the local children, but again proves his innocence beyond doubt.
Needing a culprit to quiet down the public opinion, the police arrests Carlo Tosetti, 40 years of age, coachman to Count Paesana-Saluzzo. There are no proofs, and the man claims his innocence, but to no avail - in the press he is described as a hulking monster, and death penalty is asked for him. Only after 55 days of jail, the whole thing folds, and Tosetti, clear of all charges, is set free. He has lost his job and the mark of the monster is upon him in the public's eye. He will disappear shortly after, moving out of town.
Once again, further investigations lead nowhere.
May 1903 - Teresina Demaria, aged 5, disappears in broad daylight in Via della Consolata. Informed of the fact, Carlo Tosi, a keeper in Palazzo Paesana, remembering the previous case, runs to the basement and, in short time, finds the child still alive, but in terrible conditions (she has been stabbed three times).
Shortly, Giovanni Gioli, aged 22, a dust-man with free acess to the basement, is arrested by the police.
Pressed by the interrogators, he confesses the acts of violence on both Teresina and Veronica, plus more similar acts on a number of other small children.
About the stabs that killed one child and nearly killed another, he denies the charge, saying that "The knife was no good at slashing, it only punctured".
In the following days, he is examined by doctors and psichiatrists; asked about the reason of his acts, he replies that the cause is bad dreams: he has been sufering from nightmares, recently; he dreamed (in his own words) "of water, vast quantities of water... and a big shadow, a ghost"; the big shadow apparently chased him in his dreams, and forced him to commit his crimes. The man acts like a moron, and is found to be completely insane.
January 1904 - Giovanni Gioli is found not guilty of first grade murder by the Court of Justice, benefits from the insanity plea and is sentenced to 25 years and two months in a mental hospital, the first three of which he will spend in a high security compound.
A lynch-mob quickly forms outside of the Court, and only the intervention of the Carabinieri (military police) prevents the lynching to take place.
And Gioli, that up to this moment has been acting like a mental deficient, suddenly stands tall, and laughing and shouting, hails the mob, grinning and repeating "A quarant'otto anni sarò fuori" ("I'll be out when I'm 48").
And that's all.
Nobody ever mentioned again Giovanni Gioli in the newspapers.
But if all went as expected, he was again free on the streets of Torino, aged 48, in 1929.
