Wilma Montesi

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Wilma Montesi

Wilma Montesi (born February 2, 1932 in Rome , † April 9, 1953 in Torvaianica (district of Pomezia ) near Rome) was an Italian fashion model . Her death was the starting point of an affair that led, among other things, to the resignation of the Italian Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni and a police chief. Piccioni's son, Piero, was the prime suspect for years but was acquitted in 1957, as was another suspect, Marchese Montagna. The case has not yet been resolved.

The fate of Wilma Montesi is closely linked to the subsequent scandal in the Roman Dolce Vita milieu ("Il caso Montesi"). The affair of corruption, drugs and sexual entanglements among politicians, aristocrats, celebrities and an alleged murder victim was to occupy the Italian public in the 1950s and inspired Federico Fellini to write his 1959 film La dolce vita (“The sweet life”).

chronology

Corpse discovery and first investigation

Wilma Montesi was the daughter of a carpenter and engaged to a police officer. On the afternoon of April 9, 1953, she left her parents' apartment in Rome. Her body was found on the morning of April 11, 1953 on the beach at Torvaianica south of Rome. The government's theory that she committed suicide or drowned after a fainting spell received little public faith. Various indications spoke against it, including that the body was found half-dressed, but the rest of the clothes were not. However, further investigations were initially discontinued.

In the period that followed, a different kind of suspicion arose in the city's rumor mill : the Capocotta estate , formerly a royal hunting ground managed for an exclusive club, is located near the beach . It was said that prominent visitors organized orgies and consumed drugs there. Wilma Montesi was seen there accompanied by the jazz musician Piero Piccioni , the son of the then Italian Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni , and the wealthy Marchese Montagna. The assumption that she was drugged at this club and dumped on the beach to cover up was readily accepted by the public, but the matter was largely forgotten at first.

Beginning of the affair

The journalist and editor Silvano Muto published a hearsay article in his own small magazine Attualità in October 1953 about the case in which he - without naming - the rumors of involvement of the above celebrities and other members of the Roman high Society took up and continued. The only specific statements Muto referred to were the "easy girl" Adriana Bisaccia, whom Muto met in a relevant bar and who - according to the later suspicion of the investigating authorities - only wanted to play.

It was mainly two reactions to the article that rewarmed the case and ultimately turned it into a scandal. The Roman police summoned Muto and urged him to refrain from his suspicions, which Muto initially did willingly. It remained unclear whether the officials acted on their own initiative or were pressured to do so by a higher authority. In any case, the measure seemed disproportionate, which led to suspicions that something was being covered up. The second key reaction to the article was that of a new witness in the case, Anna Maria Moneta Caglio, the daughter of a distinguished Italian family who at the time had been a playmate of the suspected Marchese Montagna. According to her own statement, she recognized the dead woman in the photo published in the article. Caglio not only incriminated Montagna by saying that she had seen him with Wilma Montesi some time before her death, but also Piero Piccioni, since she testified that Montagna had given Piccioni a false alibi and had successfully intervened with investigative authorities against an investigation. Caglio, who was a colorful personality and whose motivation and involvement in the case also produced numerous rumors, including above all that her statements were simply revenge for the lack of loyalty of her lover at the time, was nicknamed "Daughter of the Century" during the affair. Encouraged by the unexpected support, Muto also abandoned his reserve and claimed that he had been compelled to distance himself from his article. However, Muto changed his statements a few times later, which is why he was later considered completely implausible and was only interested in keeping himself in touch.

The press campaign that began soon took on almost hysterical features. There was wild speculation. False eyewitnesses selling their fabricated stories to the press appeared. In addition to the club operator of the Cappocota , Prince Moritz of Hesse , grandson of the abdicated Italian King Viktor Emanuel III , also temporarily got . , suspected because he was said to have been seen in Capocotta on the evening in question. The event led to the resignation of Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni and the responsible police chief lost his office. The film actress Alida Valli , best known for her role in the film The Third Man , was also drawn into the case. She had also given Piero Piccioni, with whom she was friends, a questionable alibi for the time of the crime. This sparked further speculation.

New investigation and trial

The further investigation turned into a farce, as it was resumed several times for a short time, but repeatedly suppressed. In the meantime, high-ranking Italian politicians such as the then Interior Minister and later Prime Minister Mario Scelba intervened in favor of ending the investigation, while Scelba's political competitor, Amintore Fanfani , campaigned for a continuation. One of the witnesses, Adriana Bisaccia, fell over during the affair, claiming that all of her statements were fabricated. This change of heart is said to have brought in considerable sums of money for the until then more or less penniless Bisaccia. Calgio, on the other hand, insisted on her version, which brought her half admiring, half mocking characterizations such as "the Maid of Orleans without a virginity".

Mainly because of the Roman population storming against alleged or actual cover-up and corruption, a trial against Piccioni and Montagna finally took place, which was led by judge Raffaele Sepe and who had the two arrested. In particular, the arrest of the well-protected Montagna was seen as a trial of strength between the court and the Roman establishment. During the process, which was particularly unfavorable for the Marchese Montagna, as there were various at least half-silly and morally questionable activities in the wake of the investigation into the case, but also specific violations of the law in terms of corruption (especially in conjunction with the Democrazia Cristiana ), drug trafficking and prostitution were uncovered, two groups formed in public and in the media, the opponents and defenders Piccionis and Montagnas, who fought each other to the blood in a sometimes grotesque mud battle.

The opponents of Piccioni and Montagna also used highly questionable methods and eagerly attacked any suspicion, no matter how absurd, against individual people around Piccioni and Montagna, which in some cases significantly violated the personal rights of those affected. The defenders of the two in turn presented various other suspects, which slowed the investigation again and again. However, none of the suspicions stood up to closer examination. Sepe had alleged witnesses on both sides, whose statements were obviously absurd, locked up for false statements until they voluntarily admitted to having invented their stories. Witnesses, to whom Sepe attached great importance, had their passports withdrawn regardless of their status, in order to prevent a possible escape.

Despite the strict litigation, Sepe brought to light above all political and social abysses in Rome and all of Italy, less concrete progress in the negotiated case. In an expert opinion requested by the court, a respected coroner had at least determined that Montesi must have been a victim of a sexually motivated crime and that the first examination of the corpse had overlooked numerous facts, including evidence of cocaine in the body, traces at least one attempted rape and evidence that Montesi did not drown, but was drowned. In addition, Sepe was able to prove that various officials, such as the then police chief of Rome, Saverio Polito, had deliberately concealed and misappropriated evidence. Depending on the current course of the process, Sepe, who was later certified by an independent party as being remarkably objective and incorruptible, was defamed as a communist, fascist or member of the mafia.

The trial ended in 1957 with the acquittal of the defendants "for proven innocence". Some, but by no means all, of the alibis had proven to be sufficient after intensive research and, according to Sepes, the bottom line at best was vague evidence and no solid evidence of guilt or complicity of the suspects. The circumstances of Wilma Montesi's death are still unclear.

reception

Even contemporary media reports towards the end of the trial, as well as numerous retrospective reports on the affair later, established that the entire dispute revolved less about the actual course of the alleged murder or manslaughter, but about one that was pent up in large parts of the population and in the affair erupting anger against a decadent and corrupt ruling class. Today it is considered a joke in history that a presumably false suspicion led to numerous revelations, which seemed to confirm the popular allegations against the country's elites, with the exception of the Montesi case. The unscrupulous handling of the case by the authorities, influenced by high-ranking politicians and honorable citizens, is also seen as a major contributing factor to the affair that has arisen.

At the height of the affair, various Italian, especially Roman newspapers found that democracy in the country was in acute danger, as any trust in democratic discourse and the rule of law was in danger of dissolving through the public mud fight. Above all, the conservative media warned of the danger of communism and feared that the communist parties could profit from the dissatisfaction of the masses in their own elections. This was later portrayed as excessive. In fact, many Italians, especially in other parts of the country, perceived the affair, in particular the media battle in the mud, as a "big-city provincial farce". The conduct of the Raffaele Sepes litigation, who, according to many commentators, has restored the Italians' confidence in the non-partisan rule of law, has received positive accolades.

literature

Web links

Commons : Wilma Montesi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Schmid: The Marchese, the Black Swan, the corpse and their uncle ( memento of October 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Telepolis article of October 7, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Montesi, Wilma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian model and murder victim
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1953
Place of death Torvaianica near Rome