The Ghost Who Solved His Own Murder?

On 13 February 1936, a passer-by spotted a mangled corpse, lying on rocks in shallow water, underneath the Morandi Bridge in the Italian city of Catanzaro. The body was quickly identified as that of Giuseppe “Pepe” Veraldi, a local young man. Despite protestations from the man’s family that he had been in good spirits and not in the least suicidal, authorities concluded that he had most probably decided to end his life by leaping from the bridge. As his injuries appeared consistent with a fall from a great height, the matter was laid to rest, along with Pepe, and foul play was not suspected. The tragedy initially drew the attention of local newspapers, although, with the exception of those closest to the deceased, the incident soon faded from the collective memory of the community.

Fast forward three years and things started to get weird. In January 1939, Maria Talarico, a local teenager, was wandering over the Morandi bridge when she claimed she suddenly felt compelled to walk to the very spot from which Veraldi had apparently leapt to his death. Thereupon she became light-headed and passed out. The unconscious young lady was discovered, brought home and put to bed, where she slept for several hours. A doctor called by her concerned parents was mystified, as he could find nothing wrong with the girl to explain her apparent malaise.

When she eventually awoke, all was not as it should have been. She spoke in a low male voice, and claimed to be Pepe Veraldi, the dead man. Maria, or Pepe as she now insisted on being called, announced that she, or he, needed to see Pepe’s mother as a matter of urgency. He/she also demanded cigarettes, wine and playing cards. These requests would have been most out of character for Maria, who was a teenage girl who didn’t drink or smoke, but not, apparently, for Pepe. The family of Maria were understandably alarmed at these strange developments, and so at a loss as to know what to do for the best, they decided to contact Catarina Veraldi, Pepe’s mum, and ask her to come over. Catarina, assuming this was some kind of sick prank, came anyway, to see for herself what all the commotion was about. However, when she arrived she quickly formed the opinion that Maria had indeed been possessed by the spirit of her dead son. Not only did she recognise his voice, but Maria’s handwriting now also resembled that of Pepe.

The purpose of the possession soon became apparent, when the spirit of Pepe’s mood became dark, and he told his mother that he had not committed suicide, but had been murdered by a group of four people he had thought were his friends. He had, he said, been beaten and thrown to his death from the bridge. Having imparted this information to Catarina, the girl then apparently rushed out of the door and ran back to the bridge, and upon reaching the point where the tragedy took place, passed out once more. Those present at Maria’s house followed her to the bridge and Pepe’s mother beseeched him to leave the poor girl in peace. Subsequently, Maria came to, and seemed to be her old self once more, with no recollection of what had just occurred. 

With no proof of murder, and no idea which so called friends he might have been referring to, there was little to be done. The police were certainly not going to entertain the notion that a ghost or spirit had returned from the dead to put the finger on his killers. And so that would probably have been that, were it not for a truly bizarre turn of events that took place nine years after the alleged possession of Maria. One day, Catarina received a letter from an old friend of Pepe’s called Luigi “Toto” Marchete. Marchete had emigrated to Argentina shortly after Veraldi’s death and in his letter he confessed to murdering Pepe, along with three accomplices in a fit of jealousy over a woman, just as Pepe, through Maria, had claimed.

Apparently Marchete had written the letter some time previously, and had placed it in an envelope addressed to Catarina Veraldi, with strict instructions that it was to be mailed to her in the event of his death. As he had subsequently passed away, the letter was duly sent as instructed. His will also left all his assets to Catarina in atonement for her loss at his hands. Now the police were interested. The case was re-opened, and the three surviving culprits were quickly apprehended, charged with murder, and subsequently convicted. 

So, what conclusions can we draw from such an astonishing series of events. If accounts are to be believed, Maria was a young teenager at the time of her involvement, and had never heard of Pepe Veraldi, or of his supposed suicide three years previously, let alone the exact spot on the bridge from where he had been thrown. The most likely explanation is that the supposed possession was some kind of hoax. Pepe’s friends and relatives never accepted the suicide hypothesis, and may well have harboured suspicions as to the perpetrators of the crime, leading them to stage a dramatic deception, in the hope of reigniting the interest of the wider public and the authorities in the case. On the other hand, it seems remarkable that the hoaxers got it pretty well spot on, correctly identifying the number of assailants involved, despite the fact that there were no witnesses.

So, if not a hoax, what are we left with. Did Maria either possess some kind of precognitive ability to foresee the contents of a letter nine years in advance, or had she some kind of extrasensory ability to have perceived a past event she had not personally witnessed? Or did the ghost or spirit of Pepe Veraldi really take temporary possession of Maria Talarico, in order to make the terrible truth known and to seek justice for his murder? As the killing took place in the mid 1930’s, most, if not all, of those involved will have long since passed away themselves, taking any secrets with them to their graves. Ultimately I guess it will depend on your point of view, whether cynic, sceptic, or believer in things paranormal. Whichever way you lean, a remarkable story nonetheless.

Sources:

mysteriousuniverse.org

realitypod.com