When gay people were being killed in Rome, and Nicola Calipari broke the silence

The sky above Piazza Navona is the colour of blood – so red, so flesh-coloured and lush that it becomes an urban transposition of the set design from Dracula. The monuments begin to take on a bright silvery hue, whilst a few wisps of cloud dance, dotting the air. A few birds – starlings or seagulls – soar high into the sky. The space—that small spot where the fortune-teller known to everyone as ‘Maga Magò’ reads his tarot cards—is empty, which is unusual. Waiters and doormen from the bars around the square cannot make sense of it. But they do not know that Walter—the man’s real name—is dead. He was found at his home, brutally murdered with seven stab wounds. The blood—no longer the metaphorical blood of the sunset, but the real, painful blood of a gasping, agonising body—had stained the entire bed, and a trail of it had then trickled onto the floor, a small crimson ocean. It was a cold December in 1993. The murder did not go unnoticed. Walter was gay, and several gay men had already been killed. These unsolved murders—or “homicides”—sow panic among individuals who, due to social condemnation and collective stigmatisation, are often forced to live in the shadows. A few months earlier, it had been Giancarlo’s turn, a sixty-year-old former bank clerk. He was strangled in his home in the Trieste neighbourhood. The previous year, another kind of red – the vibrant, crackling red of flames – had made itself known in Appio Latino, where the burnt body of Giuseppe, an actor, had been found. Someone had clumsily attempted to cover up the traces of a murder, but had only ended up attracting even more attention. In the sweltering August of 1992, in Infernetto—a name that speaks for itself, one might say—on the very outskirts not far from Ostia Lido and the sea, and surrounded by a pine forest, the body of a building contractor, Emilio, was found in a small villa. He had been strangled. His servant, a Polish man, had gone into hiding.

The trail of death shows no sign of stopping, sparing no social class or area of Rome. The only common denominator is the victims’ homosexuality. In 1994, Livio, a 36-year-old hairdresser, was stabbed to death in Appio Pignatelli. He was on his way home and was found dead, lying in a pool of blood, right on the landing. In March of the following year, it was the Prenestino district’s turn. Francesco lay on the ground, near a bus stop pole. His skull had been smashed in. Then came Via del Boschetto and Via Tasso. Victims of all ages. At one point, the theory of a ‘homosexual hunter’ – a serial killer – was mooted. In reality, in some cases, male prostitutes – whether Italian or foreign – were arrested. In other cases, the murders went unpunished, like a bad memory that turns sour. In 1996, there were three more violent deaths. Luciano, a thirty-seven-year-old engineer, was killed in his home in Villa Bonelli; Dante, a university professor and critic, was murdered in Via Livorno, in his own home, where he was found strangled with a telephone cord; and finally Mario, a pensioner, in Via Turati.

The mistrust between the gay community, the general public and the police marks a standstill in the investigations: there is little circulation of information, and even less willingness to come forward, speak out and engage in dialogue. It is in this context that the important role of Nicola Calipari emerges; a highly regarded police officer at Rome Police Headquarters, who was to lose his life years later in the line of duty during the operation that would lead to the release of Giuliana Sgrena. Calipari, with extraordinary humanity and great diplomatic intuition, opened a channel for dialogue, overcoming prejudices and reluctance. The last deaths recorded in this vortex of blood date back to 1997. It has never been possible to ascertain for certain whether a killer had infiltrated the world of street cruising and prostitution on Rome’s dark nights, in the style of William Friedkin’s Cruising. To Calipari’s credit, it must be said that following his intervention, the killing spree effectively came to an end.