Italian prosecutors have reopened the investigation into the 1975 murder of writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was found dead on a beach near Rome on November 2 that year. Lawyer Stefano Maccioni, who has sought a new inquiry for years, said he hopes it will finally resolve the case and urged anyone with information to come forward.
Giuseppe “Pino” Pelosi, then 17, was arrested while fleeing in Pasolini’s car and confessed to killing him, saying the director had tried to rape him. Pelosi spent nearly 10 years in prison. In 2005, he withdrew his confession and blamed three unidentified men who, he said, spoke with Sicilian accents.
Maccioni said DNA tests found traces of other people at the crime scene and suggested Pelosi might not have been there. He called on prosecutors to bring the evidence together.
Theories about Pasolini’s killing have included blackmail, an attack by the far right and mafia involvement. Pasolini was known for challenging bourgeois values, Catholic censorship and the threat of neofascism. His final film, “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom,” a critique of Fascist Italy, was released after his death and provoked outrage over its explicit depictions of violence and sexual abuse.
Sources: Folha Ilustrada.