The one up Simone Pianetti it would be a perfect subject for a Quentin Tarantino film – also because it has inspired several creative works over time. But it’s a true story, at least in part. Because a crime story set on the eve of the First World War retains a veneer of myth, of legend, given that, as we know, oral stories pass from mouth to mouth and change. But fortunately there are those who have tried to re-establish the historical truth in the story of the “immortal of Valbrembana”: he is one of his great-grandsons, Denis Pianettiwho wrote the substantial volume “Chronicle of a revenge – The true story of Simone Pianetti”, in its third edition for CorpoNove.
“The book was born from my personal curiosity – Denis Pianetti tells Il Giornale – In the family there was always a bit of shame about this story, so parents and grandparents generally never talked about it. It was a teacher at school who asked me if I was a descendant of Simone Pianetti: from there the family started talking to me about it and I began my research among the news of the time. I’ve always enjoyed investigating but this mystery was incredible. Furthermore, I was fascinated by the psychology of the character, by his reasons, not to justify him but not even to demonize him: the circumstances led him to exasperation.”
Seven murders in three hours
The morning of July 13, 1914 Simone Pianetti, a far-sighted entrepreneur but reduced to poverty due to having suffered ostracism by the inhabitants of his own territory, kills 7 people among Camerata Cornello And Saint John Whiteboth municipalities in Valbrembana. But in reality, on his death list, there could have been many more victims. “Simone Pianetti is remembered as the avenger who goes beyond the institutions, but in reality he is a man who found himself in a difficult moment, hindered by many people, who found the most extreme solution, although there were others – such as, for example, moving to another area. The legend is based on a literary, musical, theatrical and folkloristic sector which over the years has elevated him to a mythical figure”.
At 5.30 in the morning Pianetti in fact starts looking for the notary Giuseppe Arizzi, the innkeeper Canali and the accountant Palanca, without finding them. At 7 he returns home to arm himself and at 9.30 he kills the doctor Domenico Morali. At 10 he goes to the mayor Cristoforo Manzoni’s house without finding him either: instead he finds the secretary at 10.50 Abraham Judges and daughter Valeria. At 11 he kills Judge Ghilardi again in his house, and at 11.10 in the churchyard the parish priest Don Camillo Filippi and the municipal messenger Giupponi. Then another hole: at 12 he goes to the innkeeper Pietro Bottari but he too is absent. The latest murder is that of Caterina Milesi at 12.30. A chronology of death that has a very specific motive: revenge.
“The abuse he suffered drove him to exasperation. He had a very modern entrepreneurial vision, perhaps due to the period in which he had lived in the USA: having returned to an environment that was retrograde at the time, he had to deal with the closed-mindedness of his fellow villagers and with superstitions”.
Why the murders
In 1914 Simone Pianetti is a shadow of himself. He is an aged man, who wanders around San Giovanni Bianco with a piece of paper: there are writings there in one list the people he has to kill. However, no one knows how many or who they are, although various hypotheses have been put forward over time.
Born in 1858, Pianetti had an adventurous life behind him, but he had to swallow many bitter pills. In the village, in Camerata Cornello, it is said that he shot his father on an unspecified date between 1880 and 1881: expert soccer playerit is said that Pianetti missed his aim, which makes the legend even more incredible, because Pianetti never missed.
What is certain is that in 1882 he went to live in the USA, where he found himself courageously facing the Black Handthe American mafia. But upon his return, in 1892, not much had changed: the rumors about him attributed to him anarchist sympathies and it was said – naturally these were unfounded rumors – that he was in contact with Gaetano Bresci.
The following year, 1893, he married Carlotta Mariniwith whom she gave birth to 8 children, including Nino, the eldest born in 1894. The family lived in Camerata Cornello, where lively tourism, especially spa tourism, began to develop. But Pianetti has a stroke of genius: he opens a small hotel, where they are held in the evening dancing evenings.
It would be normal nowadays, but not at the time: the parish priest Don Camillo opposes him, throwing arrows from the altar and slowly begins a boycott by the population. Boycott which ended with the failure of the small hotel and the Pianetti family taking refuge in San Gallo in 1909, accompanied by an “orchestra” of pots and pans from the Daughters of Maryled by Valeria Giudici.
In 1910 the Pianettis moved to San Giovanni Bianco and Simone’s entrepreneurial genius did not stop: the technique of agricultural transformation made giant strides and he decided to open the first electric mill of the area. But, after an initial flourishing period, this business also fails: people are superstitious and say that his is the “devil’s meal”, an ingredient that causes disease. In reality, an epidemic of pellagra in that period it had nothing to do with Pianetti flour.
Who finds himself without a job again. There are many people who have harmed him so far: someone on a bureaucratic level, someone else like Milesi presented a false medical certificate according to which she was poisoned by her flour, there are problems with a property that the parish priest wants to buy below cost from his brother. But the worst problems are with the doctor Morali: the doctor denies Pianetti a certificate of poverty, has disagreements with him over the payment of the flour and finally does not diagnose his son Aristide with aappendicitisa problem for which Pianetti will suffer quite a bit from an emotional and economic point of view. For all these reasons, Simone Pianetti carries out his revenge.
“One of the hypotheses is that he was hindered out of envy: he came from a wealthy family, he had been able to study and live in America. He had a strong character and didn’t let his toes be stepped on, perhaps also for this reason he wasn’t well-regarded in the surrounding area. The character component will have created enmities in him which have had repercussions on his entrepreneurial initiatives. He had even registered on the electoral lists: he wanted to become mayor or at least enter political life, but the municipal secretary was fierce against him. The popular pillory was a reaction to his ambition.”
Simone Pianetti becomes the “immortal of Valbrembana”
Immediately after the seventh murder, Pianetti takes the road into the woods and all traces of him are lost. There are some sightingsnot all exactly confirmed: what is certain is that a few days later the man meets his son Nino, who advises him to turn himself in. “Several journalists came from all over Italy to follow the case. Some even went into the mountains on the back of mules during the search for the fugitive: for them it was a romantic and exciting story, which they told with emphasis. And there was no shortage of people who came to visit the places of the murders and escapes, a bit like what happens today.”
The searches continue and employ 300 men including army, gendarmes, carabinieri and Alpine troops, but Pianetti cannot be found. He was not even present at the trial, which began on May 24, 1915, a date on which something much more important happened – Italy’s entry into the First World War – and therefore the affair, which had so interested the local and international media only, it goes by quietly. Four days later Pianetti was sentenced tolife imprisonment in absentia.
Nothing more is known about him. There isn’t a presumed death certificate – for this reason it is considered the “immortal of Valbrembana”. Over time there are those who claim to have spotted it in South Americato have spoken to us. There are those who say that he committed suicide in 1914 in the mountains. One of the most plausible hypotheses, although daring, is that Pianetti actually migrated, probably with false documents, and then returned to Italy in disguise and died in Milan, perhaps in 1952.
“It is impossible to be certain about the death of Simone Pianetti. The children all died around the 1980s, so I was only able to listen to the family members who had at least met their son Nino. The latter sometimes said that his father had committed suicide, sometimes that he had died at his home in Milan. The escape hypothesis is the most accredited also due to the testimonies and there is a document from the police headquarters which mentions a certain unlikely Simone Pianetti returning from abroad in ’42-’43.
The mystery remains: it is said that he died in ’52, however if he had died earlier, with the same false documents he could have been buried in a Milanese cemetery near his son’s house. But this possibility could never be traced back, because that cemetery was bombed in the Second World War.”