The life of Guido Pierri is inevitably linked to the death of Christa Wanningerthe aspiring actress killed in Rome on a sunny spring afternoon: his homocide will become known as the mystery Of Via Veneto. We say “inevitably” because his role in the story is nuanced, almost imperceptible, yet he himself will be the one to enter the mystery with a phone call to an editorial office in the capital. Initially he passes himself off as an informer, then ends up in handcuffs. Now, however, let’s move back in time until we can hear soft swing or jazz music, depending on the context we want to find. It’s the afternoon of May 2, 1963 and these are the years in which in Rome you can breathe the sweet lifethe Fellini legacy of economic boom. A few years later, bombs exploded in Italy. That afternoon, on the fourth floor of Via Emilia 81, a woman screams out her torment.
The murder of Christa Wanninger
Christa Wanninger is 23 years old and is an aspiring actress and model born in Munich. In the Eternal City Christa dreams Cinecittà, but the climb towards the sweet life is still long. This is why she lives in the Pensione Leonardi in via Sicilia 24, where she keeps many diaries filled with telephone numbers that she keeps next to her bed separated from the world by a simple curtain. On May 2, 1963, Christa telephoned her friend Gerda Hodapp who lives in via Emilia 81, a few steps from via Veneto. He wants to sleep at her place and spend time together, but Gerda tells her that he wants to rest and rejects her offer.
Christa Wanninger doesn’t listen to her. At 2.30pm she arrives in Via Emilia, goes up to the fourth floor and is about to ring the bell of Gerda’s apartment. Someone, however, reaches her on the landing and hits her with seven stab wounds. Christa screams in terror and pain, then collapses on the floor in one pool of blood.
‘La Dolce Vita’ by Federico Fellini created a strong image of Via Veneto as the beating heart of a Rome full of charm and possibilities: the murder of Christa Wanninger and the story of Guido Pierri colored that sweetened world black
Some tenants rush to the fourth floor landing and meet the dying girl. In the meantime, an ambulance arrives and Via Emilia becomes a raid of police, rescuers and journalists. In an instant, the golden veil of Fellini’s dolce vita is torn by a point of black, or noir.
Christa Wanninger was killed a few meters from Via Veneto, in the same places where i paparazzi they lie in wait for VIPs to immortalize to fill the covers of magazines and feed the public passionate about crime news. A morbid earthquake, which now leads information professionals to unite in a single question: Who, and why, killed Christa Wanninger?
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Suspicions about Gerda Hodapp
The first shadows on the case come from Gerda Hodapp. Christa Wanninger’s friend, in fact, remains in her apartment despite the 23-year-old’s heartbreaking screams, nor does she appear while the other residents rush to understand what happened on that landing, right in front of her front door.
When the police question her, Gerda says that at that time he was sleeping and that’s why he didn’t hear any noise. She explained to the officers that that afternoon Christa had asked her for permission to visit her, but she had denied the meeting. The police begin to get suspicious: how could she not have woken up due to her friend’s screams and the excited voices of the other tenants? On charges of aiding and abettingGerda Hodapp is transferred to the for a few weeks prison of Rebibbia.
Did Gerda cover for the killer? Did you direct him to escape from a secondary exit? The investigators have no evidence, so they leave her free. They do the same with Christa’s boyfriend and Gerda’s partner, both covered by iron alibis. The investigations of the commissioner’s men Domenico Migliorini they also focus on the personal columns of the murdered 23-year-old. Among the names marked are those of people influential, but nothing that could be useful to investigators. Who killed Christa Wanninger? The twist comes from door of via Emilia 81, who reveals a disturbing detail to the officers.
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The man in blue
The concierge reports that while Christa Wanninger was being killed, she was on the third floor. Attracted by the girl’s screams, she rushed up the stairs to go up to the next floor and there she met a man who wore a blue dress. The individual appeared calm and was walking in the opposite direction. She asked the stranger what happened, and the man in blue replied: “There’s a girl screaming on the fourth floor.”
The man in blue, the concierge reports, said the same thing to other tenants who were running up the stairs while he, without being upset, headed towards the exit of the building. Who is theman in blue? While the investigators led by Migliorini search for the victim’s closest contacts, the press begins to support the hypothesis of a crime born against the backdrop of the jet set. However, thanks to the woman’s testimony the agents are finally able to trace theidentikit of that mysterious character.
“My brother killed Christa Wanninger”
On March 9, 1964, the journalist was at the editorial office of ‘Momento Sera’ Maurizio Mengoni. The phone on his desk rings, he answers it and a man’s voice comes from the other end. This guy doesn’t qualify, but he says something chilling: “It was my brother, I have his diaries. I will help you get him, but we have to be careful.” The man also asks for a monetary compensation of a certain size, and Mengoni manages to negotiate up to half a million lire.
Mengoni takes his time and tries to keep the man on the phone. In the meantime, his colleagues contacted the police to locate the phone call. The agents discover that the stranger is calling from a phone box of Piazza San Silvestro. When the police arrive on site they find the man still connected to the phone.
Guido Pierri enters the scene
His name is Guido Pierri, he is 35 years old and a painter of Carrara. He has a with him knife. The handcuffs come on. The police search his house and find four notebooks, disturbing paintings and a blue dress. Speaking of the knife, Pierri explains that he had it with him “like a knight carries his sword”. Regarding those writings, however, he explains that they are works of pure fantasy inspired by the murder of Christa Wanninger.
Yet among those texts the agents find one poetry dated “5/2/1963 3pm“, practically half an hour after the crime in Via Emilia. It is true that in the absence of digital devices that can more precisely date a document, those chronological references could be the result of free will. Yet in that poem Pierri defines himself as “servant of a Monster“which “for his own purposes” makes him live in pain, which is why he dreams of disappearing”in the vortex of nothingness“. The alibi for the day of the murder it doesn’t hold up. Furthermore, his appearance is almost consistent with that of the identikit. Is Guido Pierri the murderer of Christa Wanninger?
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Although the contours of the story become more defined, conclusive evidence against Guido Pierri is missing. The painter is jailed for two months for attempted scam And illegal carrying of weaponsthen he gets aamnesty.
The international track and the death of Renzo Mambrini
For many years the mystery of Via Veneto remained beneath other documents, losing all the priority and media interest of the early periods. The beautiful country has changed. In Fountain Squarein Milan, began season of terror. The investigators are trying to unpack all the extra-parliamentary organizations and are chasing militants and exponents who threaten to set Italy on fire, while in the squares peaceful marches alternate with real urban guerrillas.
In 1971 two journalists from the German weekly ‘Quick’ drop a small bomb: after a meeting with Guido Pierri in Carrara they publish a report on the Wanninger case in which they suggest the involvement of SifarThe Armed Forces Information Service. The puzzle of the contacts in the address books of the 23-year-old killed in 1963 seems to be recomposed: did Christa know political and military secrets of international scope?
There is another fact: it is true that Gerda Hodapp’s boyfriend had an iron alibi for the afternoon of the murder, but it turns out that it was a man from Sifar. The Rome Prosecutor’s Office reopens the case. The parallel investigation by is added to the news published by ‘Quick’ Renzo Mambrini.
Renzo Mambrini is the general’s former press secretary Giovanni de Lorenzothe same one that had been convened by the President of the Republic in 1964 Antonio Segni for the Solo Plana contingency plan that turned out to be an attempt to coup d’etat. Mambrini claims to have important information on Guido Pierri and presents a complaint to the Rome Prosecutor’s Office. Suddenly, Mambrini dies in a car accident.
The trial against Guido Pierri
The legal case therefore opens against Guido Pierri. In 1976 one psychiatric assessment defines it as affected by I disturb schizophrenicwhile in 1977 it comes arrested on charges of homocide. In 1978 the Court of Assizes lo absolves For insufficiency of evidence.
In 1985 the Court of Assizes of Appeal overturned the sentence and declared it so guilty Of voluntary homicide. However, according to the Pierri ruling it was incapable of understanding and wanting at the time of the murder. In 1988 the Court of Cassation confirmed the appeal sentence: the painter was guilty of Christa Wanninger’s crime, but while the 23-year-old was perishing under the stab wounds he was incapable of understanding and wanting.
At the moment of the sentence, however, Pierri is recognized as not dangerous, therefore he will not go to prison. Guilty, but free because he was not in himself while he killed Christa Wanninger. There remain many, too many, points to clarify on the matter. One of these is the real position of Gerda Hodapp in the murder of her friend, but also the real motive of the crime. In any case, the curtain falls on the mystery of Via Veneto in every sense. At the age of 23 she is killed while she chases the dream of becoming famous, a fate that turns out to be mocking: she conquers the front pages, certainly, but only when dead and well before making herself immortal.
Photo source: ANSA
