Rome Reopens the Pasolini Murder File, Fifty-One Years On

Italian prosecutors have re-opened an investigation into the 1975 murder of the writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, according to The Local Italy, which reported on Monday that the lawyer who made the request had confirmed it to AFP. The report gives the fact of the reopening, and the route by which it came — a request from a lawyer — rather than its contents.

The New York Times reported the same decision on Monday evening under a headline counting fifty-one years. Its account recalls the essential facts: Pasolini was found bludgeoned to death in 1975, and a young escort confessed to the crime but changed his story over the years, leaving a certainty that never held.

Neither account sets out what new material prompted the request, whether anyone has been placed under investigation, or what timetable prosecutors have attached to the file. The foreign coverage rests on the fact of the reopening; the substance of it lies outside what the wire carries.