Rome Reopens the Pasolini Case, Fifty-One Years On

The Local, citing Agence France-Presse, reported on Monday that prosecutors in Rome have reopened an investigation into the 1975 murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini, at the request of the lawyer who asked for it. The New York Times reported the same development, counting 51 years since the killing. Pasolini, a poet, novelist, essayist and filmmaker, was found bludgeoned to death in 1975.

Both accounts turn on a confession that did not hold. The Times notes that a young escort confessed to the crime and then changed his story over the years, leaving the file uncertain. Neither report says what new element, if any, the lawyer brought to prosecutors, or what the inquiry will examine first.

The two items differ in emphasis. The Local, working from AFP, frames the news as the lawyer's request having been granted; the Times frames it as the city greenlighting an investigation. Both describe an inquiry rather than a charge, and neither names a suspect.