April 11, 2024 • 32 mins
Every death in the village of Caltabellotta is handwritten in a massive book stored in the heart of the village. What we uncover inside of the book of death shifts the entire investigation.
Want your own taste of Sicily – grab a bottle of The Sicilian Inheritance inspired OLIVE OIL direct from Sicily to BUY - GO HERE .
Snag your copy of THE SICILIAN INHERITANCE, the novel!
Like what you hear? Follow us @kscope_nyc on Twitter and Instagram.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Last time on the Sicilian inheritance.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Who's who's that? What is his job?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
This job is to work for a bird certificate here
in the city hall.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So does he think he has more records or no?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yes, he stopped checking whether they have more writs or no?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Will he exclaimed? What that book is? The book?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Can we see it?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Libro?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
So the book describes how everyone in town died? Yes,
when when it died, when they died, and when it died.
And it's handwritten book. However, can you look at it?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
After being told there was no way I was going
to get to see the records we wanted.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You know, said privacy. Can bring the Book's bring the
Booklet's bring the book.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Here we are houring over a hundred year old book
of deaths, the book from the year that my great
great grandmother, Lorenzo Marsala died.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Lorenzo Marsala. There's her name right there. I see that.
It says mother of paula, wife of Antonino. But does
it say anything about how she died?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And her name is right there, not in the section
devoted to natural causes, but the other section, the section
in the back of the book for so called unnatural
causes an accident maybe or a murder.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Okay, she didn't die at home because war, maybe to
an accident vision that didn't report the caustic.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Sectly why so much information about where and not the why?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
So we now know something did indeed happen, but what
exactly and why? I'm Joe Piazza from Kaleidoscope. This is
the Sicilian Inheritance, Chapter three, the Book of Death.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
M m hm.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I took a picture of the description so we could
have someone read it. I feel like there's.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
More than they.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's weird, that's weird, and where and where.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Here in the commune sort of like a city hall.
I'm buzzing with excitement. I'm pretty overwhelmed right now, and
also a little bit relieved because I've dragged a lot
of people to Sicily to try to solve this murder,
and at least now we have some sort of clue.
And also because all of my other relatives who've come
here to try to see these records, this book of deaths,
(03:20):
they've been shut down, like they literally had the book
shut right in front of them and were told to
get the hell out. But here I am just looking
at these yellowed fragile hand written records from the year
nineteen sixteen. I even sneaked a photo of the entry.
Probably wasn't supposed to do that. I also have to
(03:42):
say that I'm a little bit stunned right now, because
as much as I wanted to believe that this story
was true, that something really did happen to her, and
that my family didn't just make it all up, I
also didn't entirely believe that she was ever murdered. The
town records keeper, Signor Grado. He keeps calling her death
(04:06):
an accident where she died of unnatural causes. The entry
for Lorenzo's death record is confusing. It's confusing to me
because it contains so much detail about exactly where she died.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Says the area five kilometers before entering lockdown on the
left side of the road. The air where she died.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
We know that it's about five kilometers outside of town,
around a bend near the monument of the Fallen Masses,
near a place where there may have been a landslide.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Signed up.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
He suggested it to stop in a place where she
probably died that.
Speaker 7 (04:51):
Area, but why she does that matter?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
He thinks that she could have something could have happened.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
No, he's not he's not sure.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
He's just trying to show us where should die. That
would be did we should stope died?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Just one's harms us see where should die?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, we should stop and to take a look on
the way back. On the way back, But we.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Know nothing about how she died. There's not a single
word in there about the cause of death. I am
someone who has gone through police reports as a reporter,
and I have never seen a death record that doesn't
say something about how someone died. And so it seems
(05:33):
like whoever got the privilege of writing in Longhand the
particulars of this death didn't think it was important to
put down the cause of death, or was someone important
in the town covering this up? Is there a reason
this information is left out of the entry. Sometimes the
(05:54):
things that are missing are just as important as the
things that are there.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I have an idea. I have an idea.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
While we're here, we have another thread to investigate.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So, yeah, we're trying to figure out if she was
a midwife. So can we see if she delivered any
babies or was present at the birth of babies. But
this theory comes out of my dad's belief that Lorenza
may have been a witch. And when I say which,
I mean a healer or perhaps a midwife in the village.
The idea that maybe when she was assisting in a
(06:27):
birth or trying to heal a sick child, that child
didn't make it, and maybe one of the babies died
or the mothers died, and that maybe she was killed
because someone was angry about that.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So we went back a little bit. We started going
through birth records. In birth records, they also contain a
lot of information about place and who was present at
a birth, including sometimes the name of the midwife who
helped assist with the birth.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Can you ask him, ask him and we can see
the the like a few months before, if there was
a baby.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
If a baby died, or a mother died. Okay, So
I'm wondering if we could.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Start actually to see if she was present at any births.
So I'm thinking, if there's any truth in the story
of Lorenzo's death being linked to the death of a child,
then maybe we can find the death record of a
child in the months leading up to the day that
she died, and that would let us go back and
see if she was the midwife. Now he's looking to
(07:30):
see if a baby died. We ask Senior Gatto to
look for records of the death of a child.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
But I know there's a lot of deaths, but this
was in February.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Will he just look, Just look January February for a baby.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Just just that.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
Gena BAMBINII less than a year mom, So.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Just January fab of this year. I write that.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Quanto quaranta quan forty forty fifty.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And you can't find any records of any child dying
in nineteen sixteen when Lorenzo died, or the year prior.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
One more.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
But because we just keep pushing, We're like, let's just
keep looking, Let's keep looking. He flips back to the
page where Lorenzo's death record is and he stops. Senior
Grotto is like, this is big, a big question.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
But is it a baby?
Speaker 6 (09:00):
No, no, a man, not a baby.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So start.
Speaker 8 (09:05):
I didn't say febrio a lega trend.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
The same day.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
This is her.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, you think they're connected, even as the man.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
He thinks they're connected.
Speaker 9 (09:21):
Martino Niccolo Martino.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Niccolo Martino is the name of Niccolo, last name Niccolo.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
On that same day that myle Lorenza died, there's another
unnatural death, the death of a man named Niccolo Martino.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
Martino Noma bensus. Why does the same day at the
same time. So maybe same places at Testrano, but.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
You can turn to the quest RT. That's unusual because
there weren't so many deads the same day in a
small town like this in nineteen sixteen.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
That's the same place Costellos.
Speaker 7 (10:00):
So then, my god, why would they be murdered together?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
He looks closer, but I can barely follow along in
the Italian And what he's explaining is that this man,
this Nicolo Martino, who I have never heard of, not
only died on the same day as Lorenza, but in
the same spot at essentially the same exact time.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Who is this guy? We have to get this exact name,
the husband ten.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
O'clock they came to register this debt.
Speaker 9 (10:54):
Okay, okay, at all, we only know the same location
and the same yeah day, Olga mortaala.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
Not natural death for the both of death.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Nicolo Martino, who are you? Niccolo Martino? He was aged
seventy one, and we know, like Lorenzo, he did not
die a natural death. Now, this entry again very thorough
about where this happened, less information about how this man died,
(11:54):
but it does list his wife, ji Seppa Marsala, And
I'm pretty sure at this point that Giuseppa was the
sister of my Lorenza.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Marito di Marcella.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Giusep Yespa, Giuseppa Massana, the sister of Lorenza, sister of.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
The same day.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You hear me saying there that they were murdered on
the same day, and maybe it was a crime of passion.
I mean, come on, Lorenza died with her brother in law,
her sister's husband. What is happening here?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Who is this guy that she was killed?
Speaker 5 (13:02):
You hear that?
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Do you hear that?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's the gentle lapping of the Mediterranean Sea on the
fine golden sand. By the magic of podcasting, you can
almost feel the heat of the sun, the cool of
the water, and the smell of the orange blossoms. Now
with a few short clicks, you can taste it too,
because we have actually imported the finest Sicilian olive oil.
(13:24):
Inspired by this very podcast, We've partnered with Philadelphia's own
Cardanus Gourmet Foods to bring you the Sicilian inheritance olive oil,
a flavor journey from the volcanic soil of ancient groves
through special tear wir that family secrets and inherited stories provide.
It's got a taste of fresh off the vine, tomatoes
(13:47):
and a hint of almonds. You can get your own
bottle today at Cardanis Taproom. Check the show notes for
the link and all the details to buy. It's not
only an incredible olive oil, but it will completely transport
you to the beautiful and sometimes dangerous island of Sicily.
So please do check out the show notes now and
(14:09):
thank you. Also enjoy with something delicious.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
That was a surprise.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Let me translate that for you. That's our trustee, Chiro,
the Piazza family's Sicilian guide and fixer, admitting that in
all of these years that we have been telling him
this family story about the murder of Lorenzo, he never
believed it. But maybe maybe now, maybe, especially now that
(14:54):
there is this other dude involved, this Nicolo Martino. Now
Ciro's bought in, and and why wouldn't he be. We
have proof that someone else died at the same place,
at the same time, on the side of a road
about five kilometers outside of town with my bis biss
Nona Lorenza Marsala. So yeah, Chiero has finally bought into
(15:18):
this story for the first time in twenty years, and
I gotta say so have I I am in it.
We don't have a ton of time to consider any
of this as we say goodbye to Senior Grotto, who
really wants to close up for the day. The records
are only open for a couple hours at a time,
(15:38):
say to me, Chao Chou, and Chiro has made us
other appointments. He wants us to meet the mayor of
the town to shake his hand and thank him for
the access to the records, which is the polite thing
to do. And then we also have to have our
(15:59):
life unch because being fed is a very big deal
in Sicily, and the mayor has called the one restaurant
in town and asked to make sure that they would
be open for us and ready for what will definitely
become an eight course meal. So we hop in the
car we're gonna watch. We're still reeling this other guy
(16:22):
is really what what?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Like?
Speaker 9 (16:27):
Why was she like?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
That's why why was she with some dude? And so
we know she didn't die in a hospital of natural causes.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
She was in the other side of the book.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
She was in the other side of the bo that
said not not natural, not natural causes, some kind of
accident in quotes with some dude at the same time,
Why would why like, what kind of accident kills two people?
Kills two people? There weren't They're not like people didn't
really have cars in nineteen six a little bit outside town.
Well kind of accident would kill two people outside town.
(17:00):
And it seems like he might have been like her sisters,
like her brother in law, her brother in law, her
sister's husband. The plot thickens. This is the other church
right here, that's a cathedral. This is where I put
my dad's ashes right here, right up there. Hi dad, sho.
(17:22):
We're parking here, we're walking.
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Up yea, yeah, okay, maybe it's better to be good.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
We had to climb some really steep cobblestone roads to
get to the best and only restaurant in town. It's
Mates M. A. T. E. S. Highly recommend it. By
the way, Oh my god, so beautiful. We enter into
a cool interior lined with old farming tools and olive
oil press equipment. The walls are painted cobalt blue. It
(17:54):
feels like we're in a cave or a cellar, and
it definitely feels like we just walked back a hundred
year years ago.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So the Mayor I want to make sure we got here.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Everyone at this table is very eager to follow up
on this insane new bombshell and also go to the
place where we now know that Lorenzo was killed. But again,
this is Sicily, and what is an Italian murder investigation
without a very very long lunch?
Speaker 8 (18:30):
Should we start with appetizer that If.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
You thought we weren't going to do the big Sicilian
lunch scene in this podcast, you were very wrong, my friends.
Speaker 8 (18:40):
After we have two kinds of pasta, But when is
the result too with zucchinis, peppers, mushrooms and means and
the other pasta is us with the statos. Usually we
do starters and pasta and after we ask you.
Speaker 9 (18:59):
If you.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Part of Before we're all sitting at this long table.
There's no menu, no menu. They're just going to bring
us delicious things to eat and to drink a lot
of things to drink.
Speaker 8 (19:16):
It for you, it's good start to passa and after
we will ask you if you're still angry?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, perfect, would.
Speaker 10 (19:22):
You like wine?
Speaker 8 (19:22):
Also Winles or else?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Kate and I are sitting with Chiro and Ettore, our
other translator, and my cousin. Yeah. Did I not mention
that my cousin, Laura on my dad's side, is here,
visiting all the way from Scranton. And if you remember Laura,
she's the one that told me she was inside the
church in Kaltabalota looking for Lorenzo's records years ago when
(19:49):
it was struck by lightning. Basically, Laura moved to Sicily
because she's working on getting her Italian citizenship. So of
course Chiro is helping her because he helps every member
of my family do all the things. And of course
when I told her we were coming to count of Blota,
she pretty much just invited herself along along with her husband,
who's a really nice guy that i'd never met.
Speaker 8 (20:12):
Keep cheese month six months old dry with bread crum
cappers and.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
Cheese and.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
The miracle.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
Did you know it?
Speaker 4 (20:42):
That's good?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
That looks great. I'm gratzy, tier welcome. We just dig
right in.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
At this wine is delightful, and so I'm shoveling food
in my mouth while I'm telling everyone what happened in
the records office. So we discovered new information. We actually,
we actually did detective work. And of course everyone has
their own theory, and this is how my family has
(21:14):
always swapped bits of Lorenzo story over a meal at
a family dinner or a wedding or a funeral. But
this time is really different. This time I'm in her hometown,
just yards away from the home where she lived, and
now I know, just five kilometers away from where she died.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Bullet right, that's weird.
Speaker 8 (21:45):
So probably being killed together, right, he will seventy one?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
See, maybe some maybe it's it's too weird. H that
feels significant like this now feels like it's more impossible. Yes,
(22:12):
it feels it feels way more possible that it was murder.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, we're only on the pasta course at this moment yet,
and I have to tell you what it is, because
that would just be cruel if I didn't. There's also
a busiata al pistachio. It's these perfectly tender little tendrils
of pasta mixed with minced pistachio and almonds and then
(22:35):
simmered with slices of pork.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Cheek so unusual.
Speaker 10 (22:40):
That was amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
There's also a raviolo with a white sausage Ragou. I
think there might be truffles involved. It tastes a little
a little.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Truffly, which Puss you prefer.
Speaker 9 (22:54):
It's that.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Over lunch. As much as we want to talk about it,
we are having a hard time fitting the new information
about Nicolo Martino, who we think is Lorenzo's brother in
law and possibly her lover, into the theories that we
already know. If she was killed with her brother in law,
does that invalidate the theory that she was killed because
(23:20):
someone wanted her to sell her land, or does it
bolster it was he just an innocent bystander. Does it
invalidate the idea that she was a midwife or a healer,
or the entire mafia theory? Or is this just another layer?
Is this just more proof that someone else was caught
(23:42):
up in this crime. And then my cousin Laura chimes
in and adds yet another layer that complicates this entire thing.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
That's the other piece of the all. Yeah, my grandfather's.
Speaker 10 (23:54):
Sharing remembers when her mother got call and to pick
him up and had him in Then he was home,
so I said, okay, So was that the story that
was that's revenge and got.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Lost or was it just okay, I'm so sorry. Here,
maybe recording while you're eating a multi course lunch and
drinking all of the wine, maybe it's not the best
time to get clean audio. But we're in Sicily, and frankly,
you're on my family trip here, so let me help
you understand what we're talking about. Laura starts talking about
(24:33):
a particular wrinkle to our family story that I haven't
told you about yet.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Right now, fast forward, they hit a lost brother.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
This one is more of a whisper than a wrinkle
that got passed around in snippets, and maybe even with
more shame than Lorenza's actual death.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Now here's where it gets interesting and dicey as well.
And this I can tell you first hand because I
remember this.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Sharon, my second cousin. Laura's cousin, tells it best because
she was there when the family actually found out about this.
It was the seventies and Sharon was in her parents' kitchen.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
My mother gets a phone call at her house and said,
there is a man here. It's some sort of mental
health facility. He claims he is your uncle, but he's
very He's not normal, he's having problems mental health issues.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Sharon's mother Rose gets a call from a hospital saying
that her uncle Joseph, her father Santo's brother, meaning one
of Lorenzo's other sons, is at the hospital and needs
to get picked up.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
So they asked my mother if she would be willing
to go get him.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
As Sharon remembers, they go get him and.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
They brought him to my house.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
No one has heard of this guy for years, maybe
even decades. She had no idea who he was. And
he tells his version of the story, and this.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Is honestly all I remember.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
He claims that following his mother, Lorenza's murder, he and
his brothers, who were back in America, drew straws for
who would return to Sicily and avenge her death. And
he claims that he was the one who drew the
short straw and went back and murdered whoever killed his mother.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
And he was the brother that supposedly went back and
killed the black hand.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
All I know is he ran in the head.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
I remember hearing Diddy was hiding in Italy, running in
the Woods, striving to survive in Sicily. He was like
on the lamb for his whole life, right, don't know
when he came or how we came to this country.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
It sounds like a mob movie, but this guy really
did re emerge in their lives in the seventies, and
Sharon was there.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
And honestly, Joe, I don't know what happened after that.
I don't I don't know what happened. I don't know
if he disappeared again or he went back in the hospital.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I don't know either. And this is where the idea
of a vendetta gets turned up to eleven. I mean,
it's almost too cinematic for me. Look, I am a
storyteller and I am a novelist, but like, I don't
know if I were to write this shit. But here
we are in the town where I was told that
she was killed, and now it seems like maybe it's
(27:48):
even shaping up to be a double homicide. So maybe
the part about this lost brother going back to avenge
or death, maybe that's true too.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, was he just unwell? Did he make it up
because he was crazy?
Speaker 1 (28:05):
My cousin Laura again.
Speaker 10 (28:06):
Actually, so this is how our aunts were. They didn't
even talk about that, even when you know they were
telling the stories. I think it was like the very
very end of Anna's life and somebody brought it up
and I said, what are you talking about? And I
remember Anana saying, Okay, she's old enough. We could probably
tell him now because they didn't even talk about that
(28:29):
aspect of it.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Mm hmmmm.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
This podcast is we're going to figure it out.
Speaker 10 (28:53):
We met a gentleman and Trapta, and he said, I
told him the reason that we coming here today, and
he said, let it alone.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
There's so mafia.
Speaker 10 (29:04):
He said, you just need to let it alone.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
All right, Okay, all right, so yeah, yeah, he's just like,
you don't need done. Yeah, you don't need to scrape
at old wounds.
Speaker 10 (29:16):
There's still there's still mafia out there. You just need
to let it alone.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, maybe I should let it go, Let the sleeping
dogs lie, let the wounds heal. Yeah, but I'm not
going to next time on the Sicilian inheritance.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Oh, I don't think we did come in on that.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
We're going to the scene of the crime.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
We're searching, all right. So now now we're searching for
the spot where she was murdered. Senior Grotto was very
specific about where it was. What did what did? Detail
by detail? So what did he tell us.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Tell about this place where there's this fountain kind of
found somewhere the caddles horses is five.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Kilometers outside of side.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
What do you think they were doing out here?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Was this the farm had been out here? Well, that's
what I want to know.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Do you think that was her land?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (30:11):
My god?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
If she was killed on the land, then there's a
house down there. I feel like this is the part
in Cereal where they go to Best Buy.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
The Sicilian Inheritance is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with
iHeart Podcasts. The series is produced by Jen Kinney, Kate Osborne,
Dara Potts and me Joe Piazza, with key help from
Laura Lee Watson of Digging Up Your Roots in the
Boot and Chiro Grillow of Sicily Roots. Many thanks to
Julia Parravuccini and Theancestry dot com research department. You can
(31:02):
get your copy of The Sicilian Inheritance the novel right
now at Truly anywhere that you get your books, anywhere
you get your books. It's got the same name as
the podcast, but with more food, wine and sucks. Also,
do not forget to get a taste of Sicily in
the form of Delicious Sicilian olive oil at Cardena's tap room.
(31:23):
Make sure to check out our show notes for a
link to buy it, or if you find yourself in
Philly just stop by. Our executive producers are Kate Osbourne,
Mangesh Tatikador, Costas Linos, and Oz Walloshan. From iHeart, executive
producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etour. We also want
(31:44):
to thank Will Pearson, Connell Burn, Bob Pittman, and John
Marynapolis
Last time on the Sicilian inheritance.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Who's who's that? What is his job?
Speaker 3 (00:16):
This job is to work for a bird certificate here
in the city hall.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So does he think he has more records or no?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yes, he stopped checking whether they have more writs or no?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Will he exclaimed? What that book is? The book?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Can we see it?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Libro?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
So the book describes how everyone in town died? Yes,
when when it died, when they died, and when it died.
And it's handwritten book. However, can you look at it?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
After being told there was no way I was going
to get to see the records we wanted.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You know, said privacy. Can bring the Book's bring the
Booklet's bring the book.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Here we are houring over a hundred year old book
of deaths, the book from the year that my great
great grandmother, Lorenzo Marsala died.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Lorenzo Marsala. There's her name right there. I see that.
It says mother of paula, wife of Antonino. But does
it say anything about how she died?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And her name is right there, not in the section
devoted to natural causes, but the other section, the section
in the back of the book for so called unnatural
causes an accident maybe or a murder.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Okay, she didn't die at home because war, maybe to
an accident vision that didn't report the caustic.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Sectly why so much information about where and not the why?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
So we now know something did indeed happen, but what
exactly and why? I'm Joe Piazza from Kaleidoscope. This is
the Sicilian Inheritance, Chapter three, the Book of Death.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
M m hm.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I took a picture of the description so we could
have someone read it. I feel like there's.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
More than they.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That's weird, that's weird, and where and where.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Here in the commune sort of like a city hall.
I'm buzzing with excitement. I'm pretty overwhelmed right now, and
also a little bit relieved because I've dragged a lot
of people to Sicily to try to solve this murder,
and at least now we have some sort of clue.
And also because all of my other relatives who've come
here to try to see these records, this book of deaths,
(03:20):
they've been shut down, like they literally had the book
shut right in front of them and were told to
get the hell out. But here I am just looking
at these yellowed fragile hand written records from the year
nineteen sixteen. I even sneaked a photo of the entry.
Probably wasn't supposed to do that. I also have to
(03:42):
say that I'm a little bit stunned right now, because
as much as I wanted to believe that this story
was true, that something really did happen to her, and
that my family didn't just make it all up, I
also didn't entirely believe that she was ever murdered. The
town records keeper, Signor Grado. He keeps calling her death
(04:06):
an accident where she died of unnatural causes. The entry
for Lorenzo's death record is confusing. It's confusing to me
because it contains so much detail about exactly where she died.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Says the area five kilometers before entering lockdown on the
left side of the road. The air where she died.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
We know that it's about five kilometers outside of town,
around a bend near the monument of the Fallen Masses,
near a place where there may have been a landslide.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Signed up.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
He suggested it to stop in a place where she
probably died that.
Speaker 7 (04:51):
Area, but why she does that matter?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
He thinks that she could have something could have happened.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
No, he's not he's not sure.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
He's just trying to show us where should die. That
would be did we should stope died?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Just one's harms us see where should die?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, we should stop and to take a look on
the way back. On the way back, But we.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Know nothing about how she died. There's not a single
word in there about the cause of death. I am
someone who has gone through police reports as a reporter,
and I have never seen a death record that doesn't
say something about how someone died. And so it seems
(05:33):
like whoever got the privilege of writing in Longhand the
particulars of this death didn't think it was important to
put down the cause of death, or was someone important
in the town covering this up? Is there a reason
this information is left out of the entry. Sometimes the
(05:54):
things that are missing are just as important as the
things that are there.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I have an idea. I have an idea.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
While we're here, we have another thread to investigate.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So, yeah, we're trying to figure out if she was
a midwife. So can we see if she delivered any
babies or was present at the birth of babies. But
this theory comes out of my dad's belief that Lorenza
may have been a witch. And when I say which,
I mean a healer or perhaps a midwife in the village.
The idea that maybe when she was assisting in a
(06:27):
birth or trying to heal a sick child, that child
didn't make it, and maybe one of the babies died
or the mothers died, and that maybe she was killed
because someone was angry about that.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So we went back a little bit. We started going
through birth records. In birth records, they also contain a
lot of information about place and who was present at
a birth, including sometimes the name of the midwife who
helped assist with the birth.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Can you ask him, ask him and we can see
the the like a few months before, if there was
a baby.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
If a baby died, or a mother died. Okay, So
I'm wondering if we could.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Start actually to see if she was present at any births.
So I'm thinking, if there's any truth in the story
of Lorenzo's death being linked to the death of a child,
then maybe we can find the death record of a
child in the months leading up to the day that
she died, and that would let us go back and
see if she was the midwife. Now he's looking to
(07:30):
see if a baby died. We ask Senior Gatto to
look for records of the death of a child.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
But I know there's a lot of deaths, but this
was in February.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Will he just look, Just look January February for a baby.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Just just that.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
Gena BAMBINII less than a year mom, So.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Just January fab of this year. I write that.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Quanto quaranta quan forty forty fifty.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
And you can't find any records of any child dying
in nineteen sixteen when Lorenzo died, or the year prior.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
One more.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
But because we just keep pushing, We're like, let's just
keep looking, Let's keep looking. He flips back to the
page where Lorenzo's death record is and he stops. Senior
Grotto is like, this is big, a big question.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
But is it a baby?
Speaker 6 (09:00):
No, no, a man, not a baby.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So start.
Speaker 8 (09:05):
I didn't say febrio a lega trend.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
The same day.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
This is her.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, you think they're connected, even as the man.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
He thinks they're connected.
Speaker 9 (09:21):
Martino Niccolo Martino.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Niccolo Martino is the name of Niccolo, last name Niccolo.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
On that same day that myle Lorenza died, there's another
unnatural death, the death of a man named Niccolo Martino.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
Martino Noma bensus. Why does the same day at the
same time. So maybe same places at Testrano, but.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
You can turn to the quest RT. That's unusual because
there weren't so many deads the same day in a
small town like this in nineteen sixteen.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
That's the same place Costellos.
Speaker 7 (10:00):
So then, my god, why would they be murdered together?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
He looks closer, but I can barely follow along in
the Italian And what he's explaining is that this man,
this Nicolo Martino, who I have never heard of, not
only died on the same day as Lorenza, but in
the same spot at essentially the same exact time.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Who is this guy? We have to get this exact name,
the husband ten.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
O'clock they came to register this debt.
Speaker 9 (10:54):
Okay, okay, at all, we only know the same location
and the same yeah day, Olga mortaala.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
Not natural death for the both of death.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Nicolo Martino, who are you? Niccolo Martino? He was aged
seventy one, and we know, like Lorenzo, he did not
die a natural death. Now, this entry again very thorough
about where this happened, less information about how this man died,
(11:54):
but it does list his wife, ji Seppa Marsala, And
I'm pretty sure at this point that Giuseppa was the
sister of my Lorenza.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Marito di Marcella.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Giusep Yespa, Giuseppa Massana, the sister of Lorenza, sister of.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
The same day.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You hear me saying there that they were murdered on
the same day, and maybe it was a crime of passion.
I mean, come on, Lorenza died with her brother in law,
her sister's husband. What is happening here?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Who is this guy that she was killed?
Speaker 5 (13:02):
You hear that?
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Do you hear that?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's the gentle lapping of the Mediterranean Sea on the
fine golden sand. By the magic of podcasting, you can
almost feel the heat of the sun, the cool of
the water, and the smell of the orange blossoms. Now
with a few short clicks, you can taste it too,
because we have actually imported the finest Sicilian olive oil.
(13:24):
Inspired by this very podcast, We've partnered with Philadelphia's own
Cardanus Gourmet Foods to bring you the Sicilian inheritance olive oil,
a flavor journey from the volcanic soil of ancient groves
through special tear wir that family secrets and inherited stories provide.
It's got a taste of fresh off the vine, tomatoes
(13:47):
and a hint of almonds. You can get your own
bottle today at Cardanis Taproom. Check the show notes for
the link and all the details to buy. It's not
only an incredible olive oil, but it will completely transport
you to the beautiful and sometimes dangerous island of Sicily.
So please do check out the show notes now and
(14:09):
thank you. Also enjoy with something delicious.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
That was a surprise.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Let me translate that for you. That's our trustee, Chiro,
the Piazza family's Sicilian guide and fixer, admitting that in
all of these years that we have been telling him
this family story about the murder of Lorenzo, he never
believed it. But maybe maybe now, maybe, especially now that
(14:54):
there is this other dude involved, this Nicolo Martino. Now
Ciro's bought in, and and why wouldn't he be. We
have proof that someone else died at the same place,
at the same time, on the side of a road
about five kilometers outside of town with my bis biss
Nona Lorenza Marsala. So yeah, Chiero has finally bought into
(15:18):
this story for the first time in twenty years, and
I gotta say so have I I am in it.
We don't have a ton of time to consider any
of this as we say goodbye to Senior Grotto, who
really wants to close up for the day. The records
are only open for a couple hours at a time,
(15:38):
say to me, Chao Chou, and Chiro has made us
other appointments. He wants us to meet the mayor of
the town to shake his hand and thank him for
the access to the records, which is the polite thing
to do. And then we also have to have our
(15:59):
life unch because being fed is a very big deal
in Sicily, and the mayor has called the one restaurant
in town and asked to make sure that they would
be open for us and ready for what will definitely
become an eight course meal. So we hop in the
car we're gonna watch. We're still reeling this other guy
(16:22):
is really what what?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Like?
Speaker 9 (16:27):
Why was she like?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
That's why why was she with some dude? And so
we know she didn't die in a hospital of natural causes.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
She was in the other side of the book.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
She was in the other side of the bo that
said not not natural, not natural causes, some kind of
accident in quotes with some dude at the same time,
Why would why like, what kind of accident kills two people?
Kills two people? There weren't They're not like people didn't
really have cars in nineteen six a little bit outside town.
Well kind of accident would kill two people outside town.
(17:00):
And it seems like he might have been like her sisters,
like her brother in law, her brother in law, her
sister's husband. The plot thickens. This is the other church
right here, that's a cathedral. This is where I put
my dad's ashes right here, right up there. Hi dad, sho.
(17:22):
We're parking here, we're walking.
Speaker 8 (17:23):
Up yea, yeah, okay, maybe it's better to be good.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
We had to climb some really steep cobblestone roads to
get to the best and only restaurant in town. It's
Mates M. A. T. E. S. Highly recommend it. By
the way, Oh my god, so beautiful. We enter into
a cool interior lined with old farming tools and olive
oil press equipment. The walls are painted cobalt blue. It
(17:54):
feels like we're in a cave or a cellar, and
it definitely feels like we just walked back a hundred
year years ago.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So the Mayor I want to make sure we got here.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Everyone at this table is very eager to follow up
on this insane new bombshell and also go to the
place where we now know that Lorenzo was killed. But again,
this is Sicily, and what is an Italian murder investigation
without a very very long lunch?
Speaker 8 (18:30):
Should we start with appetizer that If.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
You thought we weren't going to do the big Sicilian
lunch scene in this podcast, you were very wrong, my friends.
Speaker 8 (18:40):
After we have two kinds of pasta, But when is
the result too with zucchinis, peppers, mushrooms and means and
the other pasta is us with the statos. Usually we
do starters and pasta and after we ask you.
Speaker 9 (18:59):
If you.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Part of Before we're all sitting at this long table.
There's no menu, no menu. They're just going to bring
us delicious things to eat and to drink a lot
of things to drink.
Speaker 8 (19:16):
It for you, it's good start to passa and after
we will ask you if you're still angry?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, perfect, would.
Speaker 10 (19:22):
You like wine?
Speaker 8 (19:22):
Also Winles or else?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Kate and I are sitting with Chiro and Ettore, our
other translator, and my cousin. Yeah. Did I not mention
that my cousin, Laura on my dad's side, is here,
visiting all the way from Scranton. And if you remember Laura,
she's the one that told me she was inside the
church in Kaltabalota looking for Lorenzo's records years ago when
(19:49):
it was struck by lightning. Basically, Laura moved to Sicily
because she's working on getting her Italian citizenship. So of
course Chiro is helping her because he helps every member
of my family do all the things. And of course
when I told her we were coming to count of Blota,
she pretty much just invited herself along along with her husband,
who's a really nice guy that i'd never met.
Speaker 8 (20:12):
Keep cheese month six months old dry with bread crum
cappers and.
Speaker 9 (20:31):
Cheese and.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
The miracle.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
Did you know it?
Speaker 4 (20:42):
That's good?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
That looks great. I'm gratzy, tier welcome. We just dig
right in.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
At this wine is delightful, and so I'm shoveling food
in my mouth while I'm telling everyone what happened in
the records office. So we discovered new information. We actually,
we actually did detective work. And of course everyone has
their own theory, and this is how my family has
(21:14):
always swapped bits of Lorenzo story over a meal at
a family dinner or a wedding or a funeral. But
this time is really different. This time I'm in her hometown,
just yards away from the home where she lived, and
now I know, just five kilometers away from where she died.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Bullet right, that's weird.
Speaker 8 (21:45):
So probably being killed together, right, he will seventy one?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
See, maybe some maybe it's it's too weird. H that
feels significant like this now feels like it's more impossible. Yes,
(22:12):
it feels it feels way more possible that it was murder.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah, we're only on the pasta course at this moment yet,
and I have to tell you what it is, because
that would just be cruel if I didn't. There's also
a busiata al pistachio. It's these perfectly tender little tendrils
of pasta mixed with minced pistachio and almonds and then
(22:35):
simmered with slices of pork.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Cheek so unusual.
Speaker 10 (22:40):
That was amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
There's also a raviolo with a white sausage Ragou. I
think there might be truffles involved. It tastes a little
a little.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Truffly, which Puss you prefer.
Speaker 9 (22:54):
It's that.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Over lunch. As much as we want to talk about it,
we are having a hard time fitting the new information
about Nicolo Martino, who we think is Lorenzo's brother in
law and possibly her lover, into the theories that we
already know. If she was killed with her brother in law,
does that invalidate the theory that she was killed because
(23:20):
someone wanted her to sell her land, or does it
bolster it was he just an innocent bystander. Does it
invalidate the idea that she was a midwife or a healer,
or the entire mafia theory? Or is this just another layer?
Is this just more proof that someone else was caught
(23:42):
up in this crime. And then my cousin Laura chimes
in and adds yet another layer that complicates this entire thing.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
That's the other piece of the all. Yeah, my grandfather's.
Speaker 10 (23:54):
Sharing remembers when her mother got call and to pick
him up and had him in Then he was home,
so I said, okay, So was that the story that
was that's revenge and got.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Lost or was it just okay, I'm so sorry. Here,
maybe recording while you're eating a multi course lunch and
drinking all of the wine, maybe it's not the best
time to get clean audio. But we're in Sicily, and frankly,
you're on my family trip here, so let me help
you understand what we're talking about. Laura starts talking about
(24:33):
a particular wrinkle to our family story that I haven't
told you about yet.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Right now, fast forward, they hit a lost brother.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
This one is more of a whisper than a wrinkle
that got passed around in snippets, and maybe even with
more shame than Lorenza's actual death.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Now here's where it gets interesting and dicey as well.
And this I can tell you first hand because I
remember this.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Sharon, my second cousin. Laura's cousin, tells it best because
she was there when the family actually found out about this.
It was the seventies and Sharon was in her parents' kitchen.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
My mother gets a phone call at her house and said,
there is a man here. It's some sort of mental
health facility. He claims he is your uncle, but he's
very He's not normal, he's having problems mental health issues.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Sharon's mother Rose gets a call from a hospital saying
that her uncle Joseph, her father Santo's brother, meaning one
of Lorenzo's other sons, is at the hospital and needs
to get picked up.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
So they asked my mother if she would be willing
to go get him.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
As Sharon remembers, they go get him and.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
They brought him to my house.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
No one has heard of this guy for years, maybe
even decades. She had no idea who he was. And
he tells his version of the story, and this.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Is honestly all I remember.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
He claims that following his mother, Lorenza's murder, he and
his brothers, who were back in America, drew straws for
who would return to Sicily and avenge her death. And
he claims that he was the one who drew the
short straw and went back and murdered whoever killed his mother.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
And he was the brother that supposedly went back and
killed the black hand.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
All I know is he ran in the head.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
I remember hearing Diddy was hiding in Italy, running in
the Woods, striving to survive in Sicily. He was like
on the lamb for his whole life, right, don't know
when he came or how we came to this country.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
It sounds like a mob movie, but this guy really
did re emerge in their lives in the seventies, and
Sharon was there.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
And honestly, Joe, I don't know what happened after that.
I don't I don't know what happened. I don't know
if he disappeared again or he went back in the hospital.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I don't know either. And this is where the idea
of a vendetta gets turned up to eleven. I mean,
it's almost too cinematic for me. Look, I am a
storyteller and I am a novelist, but like, I don't
know if I were to write this shit. But here
we are in the town where I was told that
she was killed, and now it seems like maybe it's
(27:48):
even shaping up to be a double homicide. So maybe
the part about this lost brother going back to avenge
or death, maybe that's true too.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, was he just unwell? Did he make it up
because he was crazy?
Speaker 1 (28:05):
My cousin Laura again.
Speaker 10 (28:06):
Actually, so this is how our aunts were. They didn't
even talk about that, even when you know they were
telling the stories. I think it was like the very
very end of Anna's life and somebody brought it up
and I said, what are you talking about? And I
remember Anana saying, Okay, she's old enough. We could probably
tell him now because they didn't even talk about that
(28:29):
aspect of it.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Mm hmmmm.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
This podcast is we're going to figure it out.
Speaker 10 (28:53):
We met a gentleman and Trapta, and he said, I
told him the reason that we coming here today, and
he said, let it alone.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
There's so mafia.
Speaker 10 (29:04):
He said, you just need to let it alone.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
All right, Okay, all right, so yeah, yeah, he's just like,
you don't need done. Yeah, you don't need to scrape
at old wounds.
Speaker 10 (29:16):
There's still there's still mafia out there. You just need
to let it alone.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Yeah, maybe I should let it go, Let the sleeping
dogs lie, let the wounds heal. Yeah, but I'm not
going to next time on the Sicilian inheritance.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Oh, I don't think we did come in on that.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
We're going to the scene of the crime.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
We're searching, all right. So now now we're searching for
the spot where she was murdered. Senior Grotto was very
specific about where it was. What did what did? Detail
by detail? So what did he tell us.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Tell about this place where there's this fountain kind of
found somewhere the caddles horses is five.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Kilometers outside of side.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
What do you think they were doing out here?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Was this the farm had been out here? Well, that's
what I want to know.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Do you think that was her land?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (30:11):
My god?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
If she was killed on the land, then there's a
house down there. I feel like this is the part
in Cereal where they go to Best Buy.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
The Sicilian Inheritance is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with
iHeart Podcasts. The series is produced by Jen Kinney, Kate Osborne,
Dara Potts and me Joe Piazza, with key help from
Laura Lee Watson of Digging Up Your Roots in the
Boot and Chiro Grillow of Sicily Roots. Many thanks to
Julia Parravuccini and Theancestry dot com research department. You can
(31:02):
get your copy of The Sicilian Inheritance the novel right
now at Truly anywhere that you get your books, anywhere
you get your books. It's got the same name as
the podcast, but with more food, wine and sucks. Also,
do not forget to get a taste of Sicily in
the form of Delicious Sicilian olive oil at Cardena's tap room.
(31:23):
Make sure to check out our show notes for a
link to buy it, or if you find yourself in
Philly just stop by. Our executive producers are Kate Osbourne,
Mangesh Tatikador, Costas Linos, and Oz Walloshan. From iHeart, executive
producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etour. We also want
(31:44):
to thank Will Pearson, Connell Burn, Bob Pittman, and John
Marynapolis
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.