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Rating: "I am a killer, I kill people for a living" Roberto Succo
Schizophrenia. The tragic story of a young man stained with the most monstrous crimes. As always, before reviewing the book, I want to write something about this person and his story, because many of you might not remember him or may have never heard of him...while others remember him very well to this day.
Roberto Succo was a young man from Mestre, handsome, with an athletic build, passionate about cars, martial arts...and animal vivisection! On the evening of April 12, 1981, at the age of 19, Succo killed his parents. He stabbed his mother 32 times, then waited for his father to return home and killed him too. He placed plastic bags over the heads of his deceased parents and transported them into the bathtub. A few days later, the police found the bodies and the blood-stained clothes presumably belonging to their son, Roberto...who had disappeared. The boy was found outside a pizzeria a few days later and was promptly arrested.
"Let me go, I am a policeman...I didn't kill my parents, you killed them, if I could, I would have shot you all with a gun, I am a secret agent" Succo said this to the police when he was arrested. Immediately declared mentally unstable, Succo was locked up in a criminal asylum. By law, a person incapable of understanding or willing is not "responsible" and therefore cannot undergo a trial, but can only be confined in a facility that ensures surveillance and specialized care for the officially declared schizophrenic subject. A period of "detention" of at least 10 years. In the asylum, Succo proved to be a "model patient", didn’t make any trouble, never complained, wanted to earn a degree, and since psychologists and psychiatrists reportedly saw signs of recovery, it was decided to grant Succo special permissions to leave the facility to study.
In 1986, Succo did not return to the facility, he escaped! He vanished without a trace! Over time, it would be discovered that Succo was "hiding" under the name "André" or "Kurt" in France, where he killed at least another 5 people, a brigadier, a doctor, an Italian girl, a Vietnamese girl (the body was never found), and a French inspector. His girlfriend, who naturally knew nothing about him (she knew him as Kurt) reported him, and from there it was discovered that "the full moon killer" was not "André" or "Kurt", but the escaped schizophrenic from Italy, Roberto Succo.
Despite everything, capturing him was by no means an easy task. He terrorized Italy, France, and Switzerland. Succo was free, killing, raping, kidnapping...many were his nicknames "The Black Cherub" "The Veneto Diabolik"...Succo always managed to lose his tracks.
On February 28, 1988, he was finally captured in Italy. By now famous, hordes of journalists were outside the barracks ready to photograph him...he came out with two policemen tightly holding him, Succo winked at the crowd, greeted them "Hi guys" he said to them...smiling, not yet realizing he had been captured. On March 1, 1988, during his first hour of open air, the unthinkable happened, Succo made history. All television broadcasts were interrupted, special editions of the news...Succo was on the prison roof! He incredibly managed to climb to the roof, despite being under strict surveillance, starting a memorable frenzy. Succo stripped down to his underwear, saluted the helicopter flying over the area, the police below aimed rifles at Succo. He threw tiles at people and parked cars below the structure, no one knew what to do. Then he dressed again, hung onto a cable, promised he would escape again...but the cable broke, and Succo fell six meters, breaking various parts of his body. But he didn’t die. Even shattered after the fall, Succo rebelled, agitated, and kept saying they wouldn’t hold him in a cage. Awaiting a second assessment, Succo was transferred to the Vicenza prison. One day in May 1988, a guard went to wake him as every morning but Succo didn’t respond. The concerned guard entered the cell and noticed that beneath the pillow Succo’s head was wrapped in a black plastic bag, a gas canister inside his mouth. Roberto Succo had committed suicide, as he had promised "you won’t keep me in a cage"...Roberto Succo escaped, yet again...and this time no one would ever catch him. He was only 26 years old.
Succo shocked, scandalized, the entire Italy...his macabre adventures, his murderous madness, gradually made him sadly famous worldwide, books dedicated to him, a movie titled simply "Roberto Succo"...and even today there’s a highly successful play titled "Roberto Zucco" (whether Zucco was a deliberate mistake or not is unknown) that speaks of him, his madness, and his whole story. A cursed character but incredibly over time has become almost a mythical figure.
Now, let’s move on to the review of the book which came out recently dedicated to Succo. It’s not the first book published about him, many books are dedicated to this cursed figure. This "The Full Moon Killer" is written by Pietro Battipede, who participated in the investigative phase and his capture. He writes the book through documents, archives, photos, but above all, he writes it using the macabre emotions he felt when looking Succo in the face, "a fixed, evil gaze, seemed like a machine gun, a fierce beast...and the most dramatic thing...he was a kid." "The Full Moon Killer" is thus a book that has been written, but the words were dictated by emotions, memories, pain, and above all the evident mistakes everyone made in this tragic story. We ask ourselves, how could a similar case be "handled"? Why was Succo never closely monitored given his schizophrenia and incredible danger? Could he have been helped? Is it right not to convict a schizophrenic? The answers lie with us.
Of course, I feel no admiration for Succo’s deeds, far from it...it’s a story that personally leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, it leaves me (I confess) also shocked knowing a young man in the eighties managed to do all this, to even become public enemy number 1 in France and Switzerland. It scares me to think how a mental pathology can drive a person to commit such heinous actions without them even realizing it. It’s not easy to talk about, understand, and "judge" a person affected by schizophrenia, which is why the Succo case is more than unsettling, almost moving. We aren’t anything or anyone to judge, Succo took his own life...perhaps in a moment of "clarity" he understood who he was...perhaps in a moment of "clarity" he understood his illness and realized he had been dead for a long time. Perhaps...
"Do you know, madam, with this gun I could kill you?...But I won’t harm you, I am nothing, I am a dead man walking...no one should be like me" A phrase Succo said to a woman he had kidnapped, the woman still remembers today that Succo, while uttering those words, had tears in his eyes...but shortly thereafter, immediately thereafter...his cruel, maniacal, and demonic madness took over again. Fortunately, the woman was saved!
VinnySparrow
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