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The Italian ‘Chocolate Killer’
Death is sweet when it comes in a chocolate box
“The Scabini family is really plagued by bad luck this year.”
That’s what everyone in Montù Beccaria — a tiny, sleepy village in Northern Italy — keep saying in the summer of 1967.
The Scabinis are honest, hard-working farmworkers; early to bed, early to rise, church on Sunday mornings. No secrets, no scandals, no skeletons in their tidy closet.
Giuseppe Scabini, the head of the family, is a sturdy man in his early fifties: he served as a marksman in WWII, and he works from dawn till dusk every day of the week. He only allows himself one little luxury: a glass of wine at the local bar every Sunday evening.
A Sudden Death
On the evening of Sunday, June 18, 1967, Giuseppe Scabini is having a chat with his cousin, Ermanno, as per usual. He even offers him some chocolates someone has recently gifted him, but his cousin refuses: he prefers a glass of wine. They’re drinking and talking business when Giuseppe suddenly starts suffering from severe chest pain: he struggles to breathe, his lips turn an alarming shade of blue, and he asks Ermanno in a whisper to call the doctor and drive him home.
When the town doctor arrives at the Scabini farmhouse he finds Giuseppe motionless, his hands tightly clenched in fists. He realizes straight away that there’s nothing he can do to help him, but he still makes an attempt to revive him. Giuseppe’s wife Linda and their teenage daughter, Ivana, are distraught when the doctor breaks the news: their loved one had died of a sudden heart attack.
Tragedy Strikes Again
Giuseppe’s sudden departure is unfortunate, but things like that happen all the time.
A week after his death the Scovennas, a couple of relatives, come from Milan to pay their…
