Original subtitles

[thunder rumbling]

[anchorman] Yesterday, at San Patrignano,

Natalia Berla jumped out of a window.

She was 32 years old.

[tense music plays]

Is there an explanation for this tragedy,

or is everything shrouded in the mystery of life and death?

[Berla] I met Dr. Boschini at the hospital in Rimini.

He was there babbling on,

but he never gave me a real answer.

[Boschini] I knew Natalia.

Her problems probably went beyond her addiction.

I asked to see where it happened.

There was a corridor, and at the end of it there was a small window,

about this big.

But it was quite high up, so I remember thinking,

"But how did she pick up speed

and dive through that hole without even bumping a shoulder?"

I was baffled.

[horse snorting]

It went from the idyllic beginning,

with "the horses, Vincenzo's so kind, so warm, we are like family,"

to throwing yourself from the window because your last thought was

that freedom can only be found in death.

[journalist] Muccioli, how did this tragedy happen?

This incident, apart from the loss of someone dear to me,

doesn't explain

what could have led this girl

to such a tragic end.

Vincenzo didn't really notice Natalia.

And he made the mistake of entrusting her

to a group of narrow-minded people

who didn't understand Natalia and didn't get her peculiarity.

She had to fit the mold of the good little soldier,

and this was the beginning of the end.

[birds squawking]

[Negri] Before Natalia's death,

I was working in the kitchen. We had to help

as there was an important conference at San Patrignano.

I clearly remember rinsing some grapes,

and while I'm there,

I hear thuds coming from a room

at the end of the kitchen, which was the pantry.

I hear a woman screaming,

and then I see that Natalia,

I'm not sure why,

was being dragged by two guys and she was crying.

I also manage to notice a bruise under her eye.

I was with my guardian, who was always with me,

who told me

that this girl was a troublemaker.

She disappeared. I asked about her, but I was advised not to ask questions.

Natalia, two days later, jumped out of a window.

My mother tried to follow this up with the help of a lawyer from Rimini.

From the witnesses I met

who knew her at the time, and who were also guests there back then,

I know that, towards the end, Natalia tried to leave.

And she wrote a note, which apparently was intercepted,

and that's what caused…

confinements, beatings…

[locking door]

[De Stefani] Natalia had written a note to her brother, a cry for help,

saying that if he didn't come to get her, she would be dead.

[Berla] I believe Muccioli should have called and said,

"I can't control your daughter.

Your daughter isn't well. She wants to leave, come get her."

She might have not died,

or maybe she would have died somewhere else.

But for him, every…

anyone who left or escaped, and some guys did leave,

meant failure.

[Boschini] Anyone could leave the commune.

People were… Only in the '80s were people put in that kind of situation.

After that, a lot of people left the commune.

It isn't true that people couldn't leave.

All requests to leave San Patrignano went through Vincenzo.

[chuckles]

Nobody can tell me otherwise.

So Natalia couldn't leave.

[Vincenzo Muccioli] If you come here, it is to stay.

But if you want to give up and leave, that's a no.

I'm not going to let you leave.

[door closes]

[keys jangling]

I know for sure, from many witnesses,

that, towards the end, her time there was very hard.

She was beaten,

locked up in the furriery's safe.

She was…

sprayed with an icy cold water jet.

A system that really

resembles a concentration camp rather than a rehab center.

[theme music playing]

[Vincenzo Muccioli] We're going through a difficult time,

the result of a tragic event that we've all experienced

through the heartache that this situation has caused.

And what are we supposed to do…

[Negri] The day after Natalia's suicide, in the room next to mine,

another guy jumped out of the window.

Sunday morning at San Patrignano, Gabriele De Paola, 22,

a gentle and religious young man,

unexpectedly took his own life.

This guy had only been there for a few days.

He was a police officer from Sicily,

very religious,

who couldn't accept the fact

that on Sundays, he couldn't attend mass at San Patrignano.

[people chattering indistinctly]

He took advantage of the confusion happening

because of some important conferences taking place.

He managed to get away from the guys that were always next to him

and went to the police and asked them to help him leave San Patrignano.

The police thought he was crazy and brought him back to San Patrignano.

The day after, he jumped.

It happened in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, he just jumped out.

After this incident, bars were put on windows.

[tense music plays]

[reporter] Shock and dismay at San Patrignano

where two guests committed suicide over Saturday and Sunday.

This week, two tragic events took place at San Patrignano, two suicides.

Do they have anything to do with the methods used?

[Moratti] Well, here's an answer from a guy

who was a drug addict for ten years.

He said to me, "See, Gian Marco, when we shoot up for the first time,

we know we're heading towards our death.

Their death…

isn't unusual, the fact that thousands of us are alive is.

Look, if I hadn't been lucky enough to meet Vincenzo,

I wouldn't be here to tell the story."

I think the biggest mistake of those early years

was the idea

that loving people

and pushing them towards rehabilitation would work for everyone.

But it's not like that.

There are people who require specific treatments,

such as psychotherapy, more often than not.

[reporter] The second suicide took place during the last part

of a national convention of Volunteers Against Drugs,

during which some amendments to laws against drug addiction were drafted.

[speaking indistinctly]

He clearly started to get involved

in bigger and more important things, uh…

also on a social and political level.

Vincenzo Muccioli is seen as the lion in the fight against drugs in Italy…

[Nigro] Once he was acknowledged by the authorities,

he became a point of reference for the government.

We're now in a position to ask for what we need to improve our service

and suggest the laws needed to avoid the danger

that the current legislation represents for recovering drug addicts.

[Delogu] He had reached such a height

that he started giving suggestions about new laws against drugs.

He proposed a bill to equally criminalize both soft and hard drugs.

Minimizing the threat from drugs isn't good politics.

This law was also referred to as "Muccioli Law,"

because there was an ideological movement

lead by Muccioli.

Professor, isn't it true that this law wants to criminalize drug addicts

to take down the market?

We don't want to criminalize anyone,

we want to direct them to rehab centers.

[Cantelli] That was a turning point towards restrictive approaches.

The Iervolino-Vassalli law passed in 1990.

If you were using drugs, you would go to prison.

But if you then said,

"I want to go to rehab," you could be sent to one of those centers.

San Patrignano became the place to go

for many guys coming from various prisons.

[Delogu] Vincenzo said, "I'll take on the burden."

And obviously, the funds allocated to the prisons from the government

went to San Patrignano instead.

If you look at it economically,

you can see that prisons were being emptied

and the commune was getting fuller with a large number of addicts.

This gave him enormous power.

Every guest who arrived at the commune

had a sister, a brother, a father, a mother at home.

Which meant votes.

And if you have thousands of people in the commune,

you have thousands of votes outside, which brings a huge political advantage.

[crowd clapping rhythmically, chanting] Vincenzo! Vincenzo! Vincenzo!

Vincenzo! Vincenzo! Vincenzo!

[Delogu] When he attended conferences, people applauded him

encouraged him to go into politics.

They said, "Vincenzo, you have a commune with 2,000 people, get into politics!"

[Negri] I'd always seen him as a very aloof person.

When he appeared, the crowds parted and the mics were turned on.

There was a time when they talked about Muccioli as health minister.

And there was a feverish excitement at San Patrignano

because of this possibility, which would have been great for them.

Muccioli as minister.

[crowd clapping rhythmically]

It got to a point where he was the most powerful man in Italy.

Money-wise, we had all we wanted.

I felt like I was leading an important life.

There were plans too.

There was this promise of a big house outside of the commune.

He'd often say to me, "I'll get you a villa,

a house for your wife and your daughter."

And even a swimming pool was mentioned.

[atmospheric music plays]

Vincenzo was good at making you dream.

Go to Mom, come on!

But my partner was eager to leave and start a life together outside.

She didn't feel like part of that community anymore,

and she knew it was time to go,

to leave the commune.

To leave a stressful situation.

[horn blares]

Sometimes, I wouldn't see my wife and daughter for a long time.

But knowing that one day I'd have my own house

and all the things he said,

gave me the strength to resist when my partner would say, "Let's go."

I'd say, "Wait, he'll give us a house and more things."

I was loyal to Vincenzo,

even outside, even with the mob.

I found myself in tough situations,

but I've always been bold and courageous, and I've never betrayed him.

[horse neighs]

[reporter] One of the biggest stables in Europe, San Patrignano.

The guys in the commune look after very expensive horses.

Rimini prosecutors suspect that the thoroughbreds,

worth hundreds of millions of lire,

were declared as cheap nags at the border. Why?

The judge asked Roberto Assirelli,

one of Muccioli's main associates, who has often traveled abroad with him.

-Yes, we also bought horses. -In cash?

-[horse neighs] -Yes, sometimes.

One of your colleagues, a driver…

Robertino Assirelli was one of the most important figures of all

at San Patrignano.

He was, the mob would say, a "consigliori."

In everyday life, you'd say an exceptional economist.

He was an incredible man.

Unfortunately, he's dead now.

He was the one in charge of deals

and of buying horses, dogs.

We're talking expensive horses and dogs.

[horse neighs]

I had the honor and the pleasure to travel

many times with him abroad.

[reporter] One of your colleagues, Walter Delogu, Muccioli's driver,

was arrested at the French border with 300 million lire,

which he tried to smuggle.

Did you have money in the car?

We have driven with money in our car, yes.

[Delogu] When Roberto and I arrived in France,

we were stopped at the border

because our car had been seen traveling too often.

This cop inspected our car.

He pushed a button

that released the hydraulic pistons and our false bottom was revealed.

It was full of cash, a lot of it,

to buy a horse that Vincenzo really wanted.

[tense music playing]

We were arrested and spent a few days in custody,

which was extremely tough and dangerous.

Those days left scars on our souls.

They were hard times spent with extremely violent people.

[groaning in pain]

While in prison, I never said anything

against Vincenzo or against the commune.

Robertino and I started talking…

In fact, he came to me first

and said, "Something's not right here. Something is off.

There's something wrong, Walter."

There are currently investigations into procedures

which don't seem to be pertinent to a rehab center for drug addicts.

And I'd say, "You're right, Robertino. Something's slipping through our fingers."

And it was him, Vincenzo.

[audience cheering]

I noticed that he was detaching himself more and more from reality.

He felt invincible.

And I knew that a lot things weren't right,

from the trips I was doing,

from relationships starting to fail,

and from many other things that weren't ordinary anymore.

And he was traveling a lot then, so…

We didn't spend much time at San Patrignano anymore.

And the commune was being led by the heads of sectors.

[people chattering indistinctly]

[Vincenzo] Every sector is a community within the community.

Luckily, there are supervisors who can make decisions.

And my presence isn't essential anymore for the place to run smoothly

because there are groups now…

[Boschini] Vincenzo tried to set up a group of people

who weren't necessarily better than others.

In fact, they might have been worse.

But they had…

uh, specific attributes which he believed to be suitable

to manage this place.

[Negri] There's a government and there are regions.

Muccioli was the government. The sectors were the regions.

I ended up in a sector whose head

longed to be Muccioli's replica.

I was really suffering because I spent a year and a half with the chemists.

A year after the beating by Mandingo, I went to Muccioli's office

and asked if I could change sectors.

[inhales deeply]

He asked me,

"Do you want to move for any specific reason?"

I said, "Sure, Vincenzo. I can't cope with Mandingo's aggressive ways."

And he went,

"Sometimes he goes a little overboard, doesn't he?

I tell him too. That's okay then."

[people chattering indistinctly]

I joined a new group, the programmers.

And that's when I saw that there were two San Patrignanos…

one that abides and knows everything,

and another that

I'd understand if they said, "I've never seen any beatings."

San Patrignano, another obscure event

which brings the commune under media scrutiny again.

[newsman] One of the guests is in the hospital in a state of shock

and with a ruptured spleen.

We were just horsing around…

[newsman] "We were playing Slap the Soldier,"

downplayed the young man who's not pressing charge.

Muccioli's reply came promptly

with a statement, defining "truly violent"

the approach of those instigating slander and smear campaigns against them.

[De Stefani] Apart from Muccioli's abuse,

we couldn't really see his rank's violent approaches

because they took place in secluded areas.

[Cantelli] There were many small kingdoms

where the control of some groups was assigned to people who…

didn't have the necessary right balance

to play that very delicate role.

[Delogu] Vincenzo was on his own trajectory,

and he started to lose control of the commune.

And as a management group, we talked about it,

with Robertino, with Francesco.

We were quite worried about this

because none of the management team could give him advice.

I could see he had raised a wall,

and I couldn't speak my mind because he wouldn't listen.

Then at some point, I said, "Look, I want to leave.

I can't relate to your approach anymore.

I don't like being here anymore. I have my family, other interests.

So, if you could please help me like you said you would.

You promised you'd give me a house worth over 300 million lire."

And then he said, "Take your rags and go."

And I said, "No, that's not how you behave. I'm not a random junkie.

You know what I've done for you.

I went to prison and never said anything.

I did many things without asking you for a single penny.

So, I beg you,

keep your promise because I can't stay here anymore.

I don't approve of your ways anymore."

And really, the best of his management team,

the best individuals left, Robertino, Francesco, myself.

We all left. And he was left all by himself,

surrounded by just a group of yes-men.

And that's when he lost his way.

[tense music continues]

[Severi] I arrived at San Patrignano in 1992.

San Patrignano at that time was at the height of its expansion.

There were perhaps 2,200 people when I arrived.

Before entering San Patrignano,

I met a friend who shared the same troubles,

and I said, "I want to go to San Patrignano."

And he said, "Are you crazy?

They lock you up."

But I didn't care because I was in a bad place.

From my side, maybe I just wanted to punish myself

by wanting to go there.

I had committed fraud and many crimes with my real name,

always under the influence of drugs.

I grew up in Sassuolo, the world leader of ceramic tiles,

and where there were only a few options.

Either you worked in a factory or you took drugs.

When I arrived, I was tagged as a difficult person.

At the beginning, I was trying to work out where I was and what was going on.

Then I started noticing things I didn't really like.

I remember one night, a guy from the restoration sector,

who shared our room, got hold of a file,

sawed through the bars of the window, and escaped.

I had been there for five months.

On March 8th, 1993,

Vincenzo Muccioli arrives at the canteen of San Patrignano.

He gathers us all, nearly 2,000 of us,

and he tells us that…

something serious is about to happen.

He said, "You'll see it in the papers soon.

But you have to keep calm as we will carry on forever."

He said, "I can't believe that some guys

did something terrible like this."

[news program music playing]

[newsman] The news is going to raise some questions.

San Patrignano is under investigation.

The judiciary of Rimini has reopened the case of a murder

that took place four years ago.

On May 7th, 1989,

when the lifeless body of Roberto Maranzano

was found in Terzigno, near Naples.

[Nigro] In 1993, the unexpected happened.

It was discovered that a man named Roberto Maranzano,

who was found dead in a dump

in Naples, beaten to death,

wasn't killed in a fight among junkies,

but they discovered that he was killed in San Patrignano.

[dogs barking]

[Maranzano] I'm Giuseppe Maranzano.

I'm the son of Roberto Maranzano,

former guest at San Patrignano,

brutally killed…

uh…

in the place that should have saved him.

[newsman] Today, the magistrates from Rimini have discovered the truth

about that mysterious death that was never solved.

[Maranzano] My father was at San Patrignano for two years.

He arrived in the beginning of '88,

but in 1989,

he ran away from San Patrignano.

A farmer found my father's body at Terzigno, near Naples.

When the police arrived,

they noticed that he was wrapped up in a blanket from San Patrignano.

They asked San Patrignano for explanations.

And they were told that he was a guest there,

but he had run away.

They didn't know…

what happened to him,

and they were sorry to hear

he was dead.

They also said, trying to shift the attention away from the commune,

that he ended up that way

because of a drug deal gone wrong in the proximity of Naples.

The police didn't find anything unusual.

He tested positive for heroin,

and they fully believed what Vincenzo Muccioli had told them.

After all, he was just a junkie. Nobody cared that he was dead.

So that was it.

But there was something suspicious

because my dad had always been very laid back, very quiet.

Even though he was a heroin addict, he kept on working.

He was a sales agent before he entered San Patrignano.

When he realized that he couldn't lead a normal life,

he decided to get rid of the habit

because he deeply loved…

[shaky inhale]

…his children.

We never believed that Roberto could have ties with the mob.

Uh, but this stigma stayed with us for three years,

and it left a mark on my teenage nephews

whose lives were badly damaged by this.

And if it wasn't for…

[inhales deeply]

…this…

let's call him "repentant,"

even after 30 years, I'd probably still be wondering

what really happened to my father.

[camera clicks]

[reporter] A young drug addict has confessed.

He used to work in the butchery of San Patrignano.

A young man, a former guest at San Patrignano,

and who had witnessed

the murder of Maranzano,

rid himself…

of this burden

by telling the story to a caregiver.

And the Rimini prosecutor's office found out and opened an investigation.

[reporter] Lorandi, former guest at San Patrignano,

whose statement led to the case being reopened,

has given all the details about the murder of Roberto Maranzano.

Lorandi also described the butchery as the punitive sector

that nobody could leave or communicate from

without permission from its head, Alfio Russo.

[sirens wailing]

[Mini] I was there when the news came out

that they had been arrested. I was in the office.

A lot of police arrived.

[newswoman] Charged with aggravated murder by cruelty and torture,

three former guests of the commune were indicted,

among those Alfio Russo, former head of the butchery.

[camera clicks]

[newsman] No measures have been taken for Vincenzo Muccioli,

but he may be called as a witness.

I was obviously horrified by this story.

It sounds like science-fiction.

When I found out about the murder at San Patrignano,

I wasn't surprised.

A place with 2,500 people that in 30 years has one murder,

it's nothing.

I mean, it's a miracle that there weren't more.

The thought that there are some guys

who could do something like that is inconceivable to me.

If I had known, I would have reported it.

It's obvious that if the whole group commits a crime and says nothing,

how can I find out?

And how can the others find out if something happens within a group?

[Andrea Muccioli] My father does a lot of things

because he makes many decisions every day,

so he has more…

chances to make mistakes than others.

And at some point,

he put people in charge of the sectors who weren't suited for that role.

And if you don't monitor constantly and check what they do daily,

then you take the risk of those incidents happening.

I really think that none of us at San Patrignano,

except for those who committed the murder,

knew about what happened.

So we found ourselves filled with sorrow again, and this…

heavy burden

of having to deal with this crime.

Muccioli, deep down and morally, do you feel any remorse

for the fact that Maranzano died here at San Patrignano?

No, I can't blame myself for this.

I feel deeply sorry.

[Nigro] This event reopened

questions that were not answered during the Chains Trial.

Maranzano was one who wouldn't stick to the rules and deserved to be punished.

But what's the limit of punishment?

[newsman] There have been reactions to the murder, mainly condemning

the use of violence and the punishments used as rehabilitation therapy.

[newsman 2] Controversies surrounding Muccioli's methods have resurfaced.

[Severi] The Maranzano case was all over the newspapers in Italy,

and that broke the trust between Muccioli and his guys.

Once in the public eye, they couldn't detain anyone anymore.

And so, 200-250 guests left.

Many people who had been here for one or two years left their rehab journey.

Here, the journalists were everywhere.

As soon as you stepped outside, they'd be there with mics

asking you questions.

Stop coming here and making a fuss,

because I need to look after these kids… young people.

I can't watch them fall to pieces.

These guys have come here,

and together we have built a place for them.

It has great facilities,

even a fully functional hospital which cares for 500 HIV-positive patients

and 70 patients with AIDS…

[birds squawking]

[Cantelli] After the first time I left San Patrignano,

I went through months of frenzied self-destruction.

After five years in rehab and finding out I was HIV-positive,

I had a terrible relapse.

[jarring music playing]

At some point, I decided…

to get clean again.

On May 28th, 1991, my second season at San Patrignano started.

"Dear heroin, now that we are no longer together,

now that we are strangers, I want to talk about our long love story.

I was willing to sell myself for you, to prostitute myself.

You used me,

but I can't even feel let down by your betrayal.

Your betrayals were addressed to another person…

a man who hadn't been born yet."

[applause]

One day, Vincenzo showed me the commune.

I was astounded by how much it had grown

during that year and a half that I had been away.

At the end of that tour, I said, "Vincenzo, I'd like to ask you something.

I'd like to work with you,

because I know that if I'm close to you, I won't run away. I'll stay."

And once again, he said yes to me.

[speaking indistinctly]

[Cantelli] So I spent those years next to him

as PR manager of the commune,

liaising with the media, newspaper, TV…

Antonio Schiavon and Fabio Cantarelli,

both of you came here to San Patrignano…

A position of responsibility which became…

extremely challenging when…

the whole homicide matter unfolded with all its consequences.

[host] I'd like to ask you now about Alfio Russo.

I'm not saying he was ordered to beat a poor guy to death.

Why did he do it?

Maybe he misunderstood the meaning of discipline?

No, I think it came from a bullying mentality

that we all experienced on the streets where we come from.

Clearly, that was the mindset in that sector.

It was a tightly-knit and closed sector.

And this probably cut it out from the rest of the commune.

Clearly, I acknowledged that a crime had been committed,

no doubt about that.

But I never questioned the values of the commune.

I'm a doctor, and if there was a violent approach here,

we, as doctors,

along with the hospitals in the area, would consistently see,

out of 2,000 people here now, and 5,000 who were here,

would see many people with injuries, and this has never happened.

All those who were unhappy with Muccioli's acquittal and his fame

were finally able to go public again,

fuming with anger,

finally with a pretext.

[newsman] And coincidentally, the judge who ordered pretrial detention

was also the preliminary investigative judge, Vincenzo Andreucci.

The same judge that, in 1985,

presided over the first trial of Muccioli.

This was clearly a murder.

And it was unquestionable that…

if a crime was committed, there had to be a trial.

I ordered a forensic medical investigation

and also a psychiatric evaluation of…

the head of the butchery and pigsty,

Alfio Russo.

[tense music plays]

[man] As a psychoanalyst, I had gained experiences as a psychiatric expert

in cases of serious criminal behaviors,

such as murderers, serial killers, rapists.

[birds chirping]

I met in jail

with Alfio Russo in Rimini about ten times.

Each time for about an hour.

The man I was facing

was quite imposing, with broad shoulders,

with a bull neck,

and who exuded strength and power.

However, he appeared to be quite gentle during our first meeting.

And he seemed almost baffled

by the huge scandal caused by that event.

And he wondered, "How come?

I've always done my job for years and years,

dutifully and in line with the philosophy of the commune,

always doing what Muccioli asked me."

So I thought it would be useful to let him speak openly

about anything from his past history.

[pig squealing]

[indistinct chattering]

[Battistini] He was from Sicily, born in a town near Taormina

to a simple family of farmers.

Alfio Russo's childhood was marked

significantly by the fact that his parents were very old.

So basically, he grew up without a father.

And that had a huge impact on him.

He felt rejected and abandoned.

He starts drinking

and taking cocaine,

and he becomes a drug addict early on in his life.

When he was about 24 or 25, his older brother hears of San Patrignano

and sends him there to get clean.

[Delogu] Alfio Russo,

uh, was a troubled guy.

When I met him in the '80s, as soon as I arrived at the commune,

he was actually, um…

a nice guy you could talk to and have a laugh with.

Typical "wannabe-mobster"

who was never able to get to a higher rank.

Alfio immediately bonds with Vincenzo Muccioli.

He sees him as a God-like figure,

as an extraordinary man who could save him.

He becomes a very loyal assistant to Vincenzo Muccioli

and embraces his therapeutic approach.

Alfio had a borderline personality,

quite violent and impulsive.

And he would be in charge of the most difficult cases,

the rebels, the unruly ones,

those who wouldn't bend to the rules of San Patrignano.

[Boschini] I think Alfio Russo arrived a couple of years after me.

I, personally, would have never thought,

even knowing him well from the early years,

that he could commit such a crime.

Of this, I was never aware.

[Mini] Alfio was there at the same time as me, in 1981.

He was a rough Sicilian…

and he used to work as a butcher.

[loud bang]

Vincenzo visited that sector regularly.

At the beginning, Vincenzo used

the pigsty and Alfio Russo

as a scarecrow, so if you did something wrong, he'd say,

"I'll send you to Russo."

[cow groaning]

The butchers were always among themselves.

They didn't talk to anyone except for their boss

who led this group also by controlling, in a way, their mind.

When you saw them at mealtimes, a few of them always had some bruises.

[pigs squealing]

Alfio Russo used to cuff people to their beds so they couldn't escape.

That way,

they could leave the doors open at nights because it was too hot.

He was physically overpowering.

So when he had difficult people to handle,

in a moment of time as quick as a flash, he'd put them straight.

And if they didn't, they'd be beaten and locked up.

[Battistini] He felt extremely proud

to be considered one of the main assistants of Muccioli.

Muccioli represented the father he had never had.

This was in the early '80s,

but the murder of Maranzano happened in 1989.

In those seven to eight years,

that close daily relationship with Muccioli wasn't there anymore.

In fact, Alfio Russo sees him rarely.

He's now a man absorbed by all the relationships

with all the guests in the commune.

This caused a deep sense of abandonment

and resentment towards Muccioli.

[reporter] Did you know that Russo had a violent nature,

and all these things we heard of in court,

that he was beating the guests of the commune in the butchery?

Any of the guests could have told me the things that were happening.

[Mini] He had a lot of trust in his closest assistants

at a time when the commune was growing exponentially.

I wouldn't have put Alfio Russo in charge of a sector.

[reporter] They seemed terrified of Russo.

Someone is terrified when…

I'm sorry, why are you putting this over my head?

-[woman] Sorry. -No, you can't put his over my head.

[reporter] Do you remember Maranzano?

[Vincenzo] He was a guy who escaped,

then came back after a few days.

Then he wanted to go to another sector, to the drivers.

We didn't think that would be suitable

because outside, he wasn't behaving properly.

So I told him he could either leave or go to another sector.

He went to the butchery,

which was nearby, and was a group that was very…

very small, and they were always together.

And I… put him in that group.

Roberto Maranzano suffered a lot

just for being at San Patrignano.

He wanted to go out,

to try and reconcile with his wife who had left him.

So he was always complaining.

He represented

all the things that Alfio Russo felt too,

like the fear of abandonment,

the hardship of committing to a therapeutic plan

which required a great deal of responsibility.

And while Alfio Russo, with a huge effort on himself,

managed to keep up with it,

he could see that the other didn't put enough effort into it.

And this played with his stability and enraged him.

We don't know what really triggered it.

Maybe Alfio Russo, losing his patience,

ordered Roberto Maranzano to do a job,

and maybe Roberto Maranzano complained or refused.

And then maybe that's what triggered Alfio's rage,

who gave him a first brutal beating,

and maybe asking Persico, Lupo, and others to help him.

So it was a gang beating.

I think the whole group took part in this.

I never allowed

the guys to beat each other up.

After that beating, Roberto was battered.

He could hardly walk.

Alfio decided to let him rest for a day

in the dormitory.

After a day of rest,

he orders his assistants to bring Roberto down,

so that he could get back to work in the pigsty

and unload sacs of feed from a truck.

Every sac weighed about 30 kilos.

When they put the first sac on his back,

Roberto crashed to the floor. He's obviously too weak.

But, uh…

Alfio is now in a state of a frightful uncontrolled ferocity,

and his fury escalates.

He batters Maranzano again

and orders the others to do the same.

My father was badly beaten up.

[sighs]

Put under a cold shower with broken ribs,

poked…

-[pig squeals] -with the electric rods used for pigs.

[pigs squealing]

Poor Maranzano was beaten up

and subsequently,

strangled

by the head of the sector,

a large, heavy man

who literally stood on Maranzano's neck,

breaking his spine.

That was final. Roberto was on the floor, dead.

They beat him up badly,

really badly.

They broke his spine, his ribs.

Uh…

He had burn marks all over his body. Well…

[inhales sharply]

My voice's trembling at the thought of it, but also because I saw those pictures.

[atmospheric, pensive music plays]

[Nigro] Could a man who ran the commune in such an authoritative manner

not know about this?

The question raised was, "Was Muccioli complicit?"

Vincenzo Muccioli appeared in court on his own accord.

[newsman] Vincenzo Muccioli gave his testimony this morning

to the presiding judge.

"I didn't know anything," repeated the founder of San Patrignano.

The chief prosecutor invited him multiple times to think carefully

and to try and remember all that could be useful

to the investigation.

[Andreucci] During the trial, all eyes were on Muccioli

because we knew that…

even his closest assistants wouldn't act without guidance

and without his permission.

-[reporter] Did Alfio Russo visit you? -Nobody ever came.

I wasn't alone that night. People living with me can testify to that.

[reporter] Did the guys from the butchery ever tell you anything?

Absolutely not. But I used to visit the butchery.

Some guys from the butchery came to my place for lunch.

But never a word. Nothing.

We needed to establish who had committed the crime

and if there was anyone else involved.

One of the elements that raised a lot of questions

was the transportation of the body over 600 kilometers away.

The people working in the butchery/pigsty department

certainly didn't have the financial means

to carry out such a plan.

[Andrea Muccioli] What I believe happened is that

as soon as the homicide was committed,

the murderer decided to take

the body there where it was found,

and that he did it…

independently, in the same way he ran the sector independently.

The head of the sector was independent,

autonomous and free to move around,

and he had a car, etc.

[Negri] There was always someone at the barrier.

We did shifts, and I did too.

Every time one comes in or out,

the person at the barrier had to record time in,

time out, the distance driven. There was a detailed record of cars.

I also knew too well how the procedure to get the keys for a car worked.

They couldn't just turn up and take them.

[Cantelli] Everything that happened at San Patrignano was…

recorded, listed, logged.

Vincenzo had a network of informants, a very efficient one,

a sort of Secret Intelligence Service.

[cameras clicking]

[newsman] It's believed that Persico and Lupo

are the ones who transported the body to the long-distance dump in Naples.

[Negri] Lupo and Persico weren't the heads of the butchery.

They were just two guys

who beat people up because they were subjugated by Alfio.

Giuseppe Lupo, who admitted to having smuggled the body of Maranzano

on May 5th, 1989, told the judges yesterday,

"Vincenzo Muccioli must have known from the beginning what happened."

No, I absolutely didn't know from the beginning what happened.

[Andreucci] More details emerged

that lead to seriously suspect Muccioli's involvement

because of his attempt

to mislead the investigation.

To misdirect it.

For example,

when the chief policeman of Terzigno

paid a visit to San Patrignano in 1989

to inspect the place,

he was shown around the commune by the staff,

but he was taken to a different room from the one where Maranzano lived.

[newsman] "I've never been here,"

said the chief policeman of Terzigno, Mario Inverso,

when he walked into the bedroom of the butchery sector at San Patrignano

where Maranzano used to live.

[Cantelli] Initially, Vincenzo denied he knew anything

about the murder of Roberto Maranzano.

[camera clicks]

Shortly after though, he admitted that…

he knew about it.

San Patrignano, Vincenzo Muccioli, Maranzano homicide…

A twist in the murder of San Patrignano.

Vincenzo Muccioli confessed

that he always knew what happened and hid it in order to protect his guys.

Muccioli, this morning, you freely went to the chief prosecutor's office

and disclosed everything you knew.

Yes.

This guy called me in a small room.

He closed the door and said he had something to say

and that it had to be a secret between us.

And then he told me the story. And I was…

We all wondered, "Why then,

if you knew about it,

did you keep quiet?"

"I knew about the murder, but I kept quiet because I had a duty to my guys."

[Maranzano] When faced with the evidence, he had to confess

that he knew what had happened.

He said he withheld the information

to maintain a "secret pact" and to protect his creation,

San Patrignano

and all the guys who were there.

He told me what happened

in exchange for my silence.

Is this a good enough reason?

And I kept silent

in exchange for the information that I received.

Muccioli always claimed

that all the guys at San Patrignano were like his children,

and Alfio Russo was one of them too.

[girl] Muccioli is like a father to us.

He wanted to protect us.

What Vincenzo did, I can guarantee I would have done the same.

He tried to save the commune, but for a very simple reason.

Because he knew well

that if they'd find out about a murder at San Patrignano,

the vultures that were always circling over it

would have quickly swooped down violently.

My role in the commune is that of a doctor who sees a patient,

of a priest who listens to a confession.

-[man] But above all, you are a citizen. -Sure.

So if you know of a murder, you have to report it.

No, if I know of a murder, I could report it.

[continues indistinctly]

For a priest, people who confess to him are believers or sinners…

uh, who confess their sins under the holy seal of confession.

[man] Can you confirm

you heard of the Maranzano murder three months later and not immediately?

It was more than that, four or five and a half months later.

If I had known about it,

it would have been easier to unburden my soul

by reporting it rather than hold the torment of a secret

which I had to keep, as the law allows me to, after all.

[Cantelli] That's when I started to have doubts.

He said things in public

which to me sounded…

not really convincing.

When he said that his silence was…

linked to the responsibility

that he had for our lives.

That sounded like a loophole.

He may have not known on the same day, but surely he must have known…

not months after.

[Andreucci] Who decided to make the 600 kilometer drive?

The perpetrators of the murder?

Or one of Muccioli's collaborators without his knowledge?

The logic of the events would lead to the conclusion

that he knew everything from the very beginning

because he had the money, the means, the resources,

the power to authorize people to travel.

Putting all these things together,

the prosecution claimed that Muccioli couldn't have been unaware,

and so he could have been held responsible for aiding

and abetting the crime.

[reporter] Vincenzo Muccioli received a warrant for aiding and abetting

the homicide of Roberto Maranzano.

His version wasn't convincing enough.

I'm only going to state what I already said.

I won't talk about what I don't know.

[reporter] When did Muccioli hear about the murder,

three months later or on that same day, as some witnesses testified?

Many things that aren't true at all.

On May 16th, Vincenzo Muccioli will stand trial in this courtroom.

[Delogu] The Maranzano murder was a shaking event that really hit him.

I never agreed with the pigsty setup.

It slipped out of his hands

by not putting an end to it from the start and reporting the murder.

The idea of the tape stemmed from the friction

that slowly grew,

uh, between Vincenzo and I.

When we were alone, he talked a lot. He'd say all the things he thought.

Um, and sometimes…

Well, many times, I didn't agree with him.

He used to tell me some things

when we were in the car about the Maranzano murder

that he wouldn't say when we were outside.

I pressed REC, and I recorded him.

[tense music playing|

Before leaving San Patrignano, I said, "Look, Vincenzo,

I want to be loyal to you until the end.

If you mistreat me or hurt me, I warn you that I have taken precautions.

This is the tape."

I pressed "play"

and let him hear the whole recording.

He said, "Did you record me?" I said, "I did."

Another twist in the Muccioli trial.

Sensational statements during the trial today.

A witness makes strong accusations against the founder of San Patrignano.

[newswoman] A tense afternoon

after a mysterious tape was brought in as evidence.

There is a tape which is alleged to have recordings of a conversation

where Muccioli asked his former driver

to kill a witness of the Maranzano homicide.

[Delogu] To this day, many people accuse me

of betraying Vincenzo, but what betrayal?

It wasn't me who betrayed him. It was he who betrayed me.

But let's hear this famous conversation recorded by Delogu.

[tense music rising]

[Vincenzo Muccioli speaking]

[cassette player clicks]

[reflective instrumental music plays]

Subtitle translation by Angelica Lacetera