Dr. Christina Vella - Indecent Secrets

THE PUBLIC'S INTENSE INTEREST in scandalous trials did not begin with O.J. Simpson or Michael Jackson. The Murri affair, which erupted in Italy in 1902, was considered the crime of the century for many years. As late as the 1970s, a movie starring Catherine Deneuve was based on the salacious case.

Bologna, Via Mazzini, 1902, scene of the Bonmartini murder

In Indecent Secrets: The Infamous Murri Murder Affair, Christina Vella provides a riveting account of the scandal. In 1902 in Bologna, Count Francesco Bonmartini was found grotesquely murdered. Bonmartini was the son-in-law of Italy's most prominent physician and scientist. Suspicion fell first on prostitutes Bonmartini had consorted with, then on his wife's brother, Tullio Murri, and then on the wife herself, Linda Murri.

Tullio eventually confessed to the killing, but he had also drawn others into the crime, people who came from the highest and lowest extremes of society. He had involved his lover, a girl whose ten brothers had died from malnutrition. The shadowy involvement of his famous father was always in question; Professor Augusto Murri, though an apparent model of rectitude, was madly obsessed with his daughter and may even have planted the idea for the killing in Tullio's disturbed mind. All together, eight people were indicted for the murder, and several unindicted conspirators were involved as well.

At the center of the story was Linda Murri----the so-called “Enchantress”--- who was either innocent of all the murder plans swirling around her, or who instigated the entire conspiracy.

Four men were madly, slavishly, in love with Linda----her husband, her lover, her brother, and her father. According to credible sources, her husband was the only one with whom she was not having sexual relations.

Small wonder that the crime occupied almost every newspaper in Europe for three years, as the whole continent lined up on the side of the victim Bonmartini---the side of Catholic, landed aristocrats---or Murri side, the side of scientists, socialists and atheists. Many people believed the theory that Tullio had not in fact committed the murder, but had confessed in order to protect the real killer, Linda.

Crowd gathered in front of the Palace of Justice in Turin on a ordinary day of the trial

As the long trial proceeded, secret diaries came to light. Important witnesses began dying under mysterious circumstances. Had they, like Bonmartini, been killed by the powerful Murris? Was Linda truly a malignant spirit, or only the victim of uncontrollable frenzy in the press? The culmination of the trial and its aftermath was a story more bizarre than any novelist could have invented.

As in her previous books, historian Vella uses a dramatic, true event as a framework for telling a larger story: what it was like to live in Italy at the turn of the 20th century, the time when Italians were emigrating en masse to America. She offers many details about such things as housing, meals, medical treatments, morals, the legal system, prisons, travel conditions, newspapers, and peasant life in Italy, and vividly describes cities where the Murris lived---Bologna, Turin, and Venice. The result is an exploration of fascinating characters and a window into Italy's complex society at the dawn of the modern era.

Books and Essays: - Indecent Secrets (2006) - Intimate Enemies (1997) - The Hitler Kiss (2002) - "The Country for Men with Nerve" in Degas and America (1999) - "Dorothy Dix" in Louisiana Portraits (2007) - "El Corazón de España" en Permanencia Cultural de España en Nueva Orleans (2008) - "Paris in the 18th Century," in Concorde: Talleyrand/ Marshall Center (U.S. State Department, 2007) Lecture Topics Biographical and Contact Information	Indecent Secrets
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	"Vella has repeated the success of her earlier Intimate Enemies with a gripping narrative filled with complicated and enigmatic figures that should enthrall a wide readership." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) INDECENT SECRETS The Infamous Murri Murder Affair by Christina Vella The true history of a bizarre 1905 murder case in Venice and Bologna, Italy, involving adultery, incest, perjury, the obsession of four men with the woman at the center of the conspiracy, and---not least---a description of how people in Italy lived at the turn of the 20th century. Free Press, Simon and Schuster (Hardcover, 2006). Signed and personalized to you or a friend available from the author. THE PUBLIC'S INTENSE INTEREST in scandalous trials did not begin with O.J. Simpson or Michael Jackson. The Murri affair, which erupted in Italy in 1902, was considered the crime of the century for many years. As late as the 1970s, a movie starring Catherine Deneuve was based on the salacious case. In Indecent Secrets: The Infamous Murri Murder Affair, Christina Vella provides a riveting account of the scandal. In 1902 in Bologna, Count Francesco Bonmartini was found grotesquely murdered. Bonmartini was the son-in-law of Italy's most prominent physician and scientist. Suspicion fell first on prostitutes Bonmartini had consorted with, then on his wife's brother, Tullio Murri, and then on the wife herself, Linda Murri. Tullio eventually confessed to the killing, but he had also drawn others into the crime, people who came from the highest and lowest extremes of society. He had involved his lover, a girl whose ten brothers had died from malnutrition. The shadowy involvement of his famous father was always in question; Professor Augusto Murri, though an apparent model of rectitude, was madly obsessed with his daughter and may even have planted the idea for the killing in Tullio's disturbed mind. All together, eight people were indicted for the murder, and several unindicted conspirators were involved as well. At the center of the story was Linda Murri----the so-called “Enchantress”--- who was either innocent of all the murder plans swirling around her, or who instigated the entire conspiracy. Four men were madly, slavishly, in love with Linda----her husband, her lover, her brother, and her father. According to credible sources, her husband was the only one with whom she was not having sexual relations. Small wonder that the crime occupied almost every newspaper in Europe for three years, as the whole continent lined up on the side of the victim Bonmartini---the side of Catholic, landed aristocrats---or Murri side, the side of scientists, socialists and atheists. Many people believed the theory that Tullio had not in fact committed the murder, but had confessed in order to protect the real killer, Linda. As the long trial proceeded, secret diaries came to light. Important witnesses began dying under mysterious circumstances. Had they, like Bonmartini, been killed by the powerful Murris? Was Linda truly a malignant spirit, or only the victim of uncontrollable frenzy in the press? The culmination of the trial and its aftermath was a story more bizarre than any novelist could have invented. As in her previous books, historian Vella uses a dramatic, true event as a framework for telling a larger story: what it was like to live in Italy at the turn of the 20th century, the time when Italians were emigrating en masse to America. She offers many details about such things as housing, meals, medical treatments, morals, the legal system, prisons, travel conditions, newspapers, and peasant life in Italy, and vividly describes cities where the Murris lived---Bologna, Turin, and Venice. The result is an exploration of fascinating characters and a window into Italy's complex society at the dawn of the modern era.
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