Rome Reopens the Pasolini File, Fifty-One Years On

The New York Times reported on Monday that Rome has greenlit a new investigation into the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini, 51 years after the writer and filmmaker was found bludgeoned to death in 1975. The paper's account places the decision inside a case that has never fully closed.

The Local Italy, citing Agence France-Presse, reported that Italian prosecutors had re-opened an investigation, and that the lawyer who made the request had spoken to AFP on Monday. Neither account names a suspect in connection with the reopened file, and neither describes new physical evidence.

The uncertainty the Times identifies is old. A young escort confessed to the killing but changed his story over the years, and the paper says that shifting account has left the case unsettled ever since.