Murder Made in Italy: Homicide, Media, and Contemporary Italian Culture

Abstract

Looking at media coverage of three very prominent murder cases, Murder Made in Italy explores the cultural issues raised by the murders and how they reflect developments in Italian civil society over the past 20 years. Providing detailed descriptions of each murder, investigation, and court case, Ellen Nerenberg addresses the perception of lawlessness in Italy, the country's geography of crime, and the generalized fear for public safety among the Italian population. Nerenberg examines the fictional and nonfictional representations of these crimes through the lenses of moral panic, media specta. Introduction: making a killing -- Part 1. Serial killing. The "monster" of Florence: serial murders and investigation -- Monstrous murder: serial killers and detectives in contemporary Italian fiction -- "Penile" procedure: law and order in Dario Argento's cinema -- Part 2. Matricide and fratricide: Erika, Omar, and violent youth in Italy. Sono stati loro: Erika, Omar, and the double homicide of Susy Cassini and Gianluca de Nardo in Novi Ligure -- The raw and the cooked: transnational media and violence in Italy's cannibal pulp fiction of the 1990s -- Part 3. Filicide: the bad/mad mother of Cogne and violence against children. The yellow and the black: Cogne; or, crime of the century -- Spectacular grief and public mourning -- Unspeakable crimes: children as witnesses, victims, and perpetrators -- Epilogue: kiss me deadly.