Two small liqueur glasses, a tray of Sperlari candies, a gold watch, and a ring: the only items left in order inside an apartment “in utter disarray, staged to look like a robbery.” Then two photographs, published togetherin Saturday’s Corriere, were used to piece together the profile of an alleged serial killer.The faces were those of his victims:Elisa Casarotto, stabbed to death in 1964, andAdele Margherita Dossena, who met the same fate in 1970, leaving behind two daughters. One of them isAgostina Belli.
Anomalies
The 71-year-old actress reveals the profound strangeness of the scene she witnessed a year after the murder, when the police removed the seals and she returned to the apartment at 18 Via Copernico—a sort of office-cum-home where her mother ran a boarding house. But alongside the research of criminologist Franco Posa, who is working on the hypothesis ofa “Monster of Milan” responsible for the deaths of (at least) seven women—all unsolved cases, including the most high-profile one, the murder ofSimonetta Ferrero ina bathroom at the Catholic University—the actress’s admission takes on significant weight: “My mother and Elisa were friends. Very close friends. As for those items in the apartment, some things seemed strange. The glasses and the tray of candies placed on the table confirmed that the killer was a man they knew. Mom let him in and showed him to a seat. After that, the presence of a watch and a ring—which, incidentally, were prominently displayed on a nightstand—ruled out the possibility of a predator looking for jewelry and money, and yet… And yet, just twelve months later,the investigation was closed. Why? I’ve been asking myself that for half a century.”
The Inn
Despite their 20-year age difference, their backgrounds (the Giambellino neighborhood for Adele Margherita, the province of Mantua for Elisa, who later lived in the suburb of Villapizzone), and the diametrically opposed paths they had taken— Dossena, with her family and a thriving inn not far from Central Station, and Casarotto, a former hairdresser who in 1964 worked as a prostitute in a poplar grove in the suburbs—the two women were friends. “I have memories of their outings.” Far from the media frenzy, having retired to the Lazio countryside, Agostina Belli makes no grand statements nor does she seek special treatment. While waiting for word from the District Attorney’s Office, “at least to dispel any doubts or, conversely, to start from the evidence uncovered and analyze it with respect for the victims and their families,”the actress reflects on a year: 1974. The year of the film “Profumo di donne,” directed by Dino Risi, starring Vittorio Gassman and Belli herself. “I decided to invest resources to conduct further investigations. I lived outside the city, in an isolated area. First they poisoned my dog, then they stole my car, and then the anonymous phone calls began.Disguised voices repeating: ‘Stop it or you’ll end up like your mother.’ I was afraid; as I said, I was alone, defenseless. I spoke to the police, who immediately suggested I drop it—drop it, exactly like that—and carry a gun. So I got a gun permit. But frightened by those calls, well, I gave up on the search for the truth.”
Archiving
All things considered—giventhe absence of a single suspect and the swift dismissal of the case against Adele Margherita Dossena, who, like the other victims, was struck by the first blows from behind—the bulk of the investigative efforts focused on the boarding house’s guests. The actress says, making no secret of her personal conviction that she had little faith in that lead: “They were mostly university students and railroad workers who stopped to rest because they were working on long routes.” Even back then, under Adele Margherita’s management, the guesthouse was known for its order, cleanliness, careful selection of guests, and strict enforcement of the rules. The suggestion—precisely because the killer was never identified—that the woman, a 55-year-old divorcee, was leading a double life was a rumor spread by who knows whom and for what purpose. No one, the actress points out, “has ever raised the possibility of a common perpetrator, which is precisely what Dr. Posa is considering.” His team of criminologists has so far mapped, using expensive and complex American software,a geographical triangle in central Milan between Via Filzi, Piazza Cordusio, and Via Pace. This is where the hypothetical serial killer lives or has lived.