Dear Feltri,
I am horrified by the words of the father of Filippo Turetta, Giulia Cecchettin’s murderer, uttered in prison, during a visit to the boy. The man seems to justify his son’s actions, consoles him, tells him that he is not the only one to have committed a femicide, that there have been others and that, after all, he could not control himself.
Is this a joke or what?
What kind of father is this?
Marco Vizzari
Dear Marco,
You may not like the content of my letter but I cannot help but express my thoughts honestly, without being swept away by a wave of collective indignation that is currently affecting a poor man who has committed no crime, where we agree that having a son who is guilty of murder is not a crime but a tragedy. Good. You feel horrified, like many, almost everyone, the entire community, by the statements of Turetta’s father during what was – and this is worth pointing out – the first visit to his son in prison, that is, the first meeting between the boy and his parents once the former was arrested in Germany and transferred to Italy. It was December 2023 and these wiretaps, which concern a moment of pain, intimate and private, are now being disclosed by the prosecutor’s office and are ending up in the newspapers. The content of this conversation, accompanied by photographic images, did not come out on its own, opening the door, from the palaces of justice. Someone gave it to some journalist, without caring about the consequences, which could also be serious for these parents, especially the father, Nicola Turetta, who will be the target of hatred, hatred that can easily turn into violence. The material in question, moreover, has no investigative value and no procedural relevance, it does not constitute evidence in relation to the charges to which the boy must respond, who confessed to the crime and renounced the preliminary hearing to immediately enter into the heart of the rite. So we must ask ourselves why this wiretap was published. The answer is obvious: so that public opinion would be indignant and this father would be thrown to the hungry masses. Journalists sometimes indulge the worst appetites of the people. And they do it in an unscrupulous manner, trampling on every value and every ethical principle.
But I am not outraged. I am not outraged by a traumatized father, bent over by grief, who, after having obtained advice from psychologists on how to relate to his son, meets him in jail, after having feared that he had committed suicide, a father who has difficulty accepting and metabolizing that the one he brought into the world, who he saw as a child, could have committed such a horrible crime, could have had the coldness to stab a living being, a human being, a girl, his ex-girlfriend, Giulia. Mr. Turetta has absolutely not justified his son’s conduct. He says: “You did something, but you are not a mafioso, you are not someone who kills people, you are not a terrorist, you had a moment of weakness. You have to be strong.” Nicola Turetta almost tries to persuade himself, to reassure himself, not just his son: no, you are not a murderer, it is not possible that you are. Furthermore, as a good father he tried to console Filippo and make him understand that he will not abandon him. What would he have had to say to make you like him: “Kill yourself, you will never see us again, we hate you, from today you are no longer our son”? You all talk about Christian values, you are shocked by insults to the Christian faith, and yet when someone applies the word of the Lord, when a father does not disown his son who has made a terrible mistake, you are scandalized.
I see contradiction and hypocrisy in all this.
I am outraged, if anything, by the immorality of those who spread and published these wiretaps, which are part of an absolutely private and intimate conversation and which should have remained private and intimate.