Italian Corruption and Church Complicity Left a Murderer Free to Kill Again

By Alice Ross
Bureau of Investigative Journalism
March 7, 2012

http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/03/07/italian-corruption-and-church-complicity-left-a-murderer-free-to-kill-again/

The Italian town of Potenza

One Sunday morning in 1993, Elisa Claps vanished in her home town of Potenza. She was 16 years old. Despite suspicion immediately falling on local oddball Danilo Restivo, his family connections and an apparent cover-up by Catholic priests ensured it would be another 17 years before her body was found. In that time, Restivo killed again: his victim was Heather Barnett, a British mother of two.

British journalist Tobias Jones, who was living in Italy in the years following Elisa Claps' disappearance, became fascinated with the case. His new book, Blood on the Altar, charts how the Claps family battled for almost two decades to bring any kind of closure to the case.

From the start, the investigation was hopelessly bungled and probably corrupt. Danilo Restivo, an awkward teenager with a habit of cutting chunks out of girls' hair, had been due to meet Elisa that morning. He arrived home late, with a cut in his hand and an improbable explanation. But his father, a well-connected local figure, helped block the investigation, preventing investigators from taking away his clothes and enlisting his high-up friends to slow the investigation.

At best, this investigation was incompetent. But Jones unpicks Potenza's small-town society, showing that a web of favours, social standing and outright corruption may be more to blame for the Claps family's long fight for justice. A string of rumours, lies and false leads distracted investigators – and it never became clear whether these were pranksters or deliberate attempts to sow confusion.

Years later, it emerged that Restivo's father even had the personal phone number of the magistrate who was directing the investigation.

And it appears the church was complicit in hiding Elisa's body: Don Mimi, the local priest who allegedly had secrets of his own, left town the day of Elisa's disappearance and refused to allow police to search the church, La Trinita, where Elisa had been due to meet Restivo.

In 2010, Elisa's mummified body was discovered in the attic of La Trinita, metres from where she had disappeared. Most confusingly of all, it appears that some connected to the church had known the body was there but had chosen not to reveal it.

Nine years after Elisa disappeared, Heather Barnett, a British mother of two, was killed and mutilated in a brutal attack at her home in Bournemouth, Dorset. A lock of hair was found in each of her hands. Danilo Restivo, a near neighbour, comforted her children after they returned from school and found her body.

Yet despite the police knowing of the suspicion that had surrounded Restivo in Italy and placing him under intense surveillance, Restivo wasn't charged with a crime until 2010, just after Elisa's body was discovered. Shortly before Elisa was buried, Restivo was found guilty of Heather's murder; he was later convicted of Elisa's too.

It's a compelling story, and Jones paints a damning portrait of certain aspects of Italian society: the close relationships between a town's upper echelons, corruption in the church, and an obsession with scandalous explanations, no matter how far-fetched, that distract from the answer that's right under the authorities' noses.

It can be a little slow – in Italy, Jones embarks on lengthy digressions exploring the region's landscape and history that are better suited to a travelogue than a grisly double murder story. While charting the UK end of the investigation, his fascination with forensic gadgets leads to some similarly meandering passages.

At other points, Jones's closeness to the story and to the Claps family intrudes onto his writing: when Restivo appears on trial in England, Jones is unable to contain his contempt for the man in the dock.

It's also hard not to feel sorry for Heather Barnett: although two women were killed by Restivo (and there is the suggestion that a second Bournemouth murder may bear some of his hallmarks), she is a minor presence, and there is little explanation as to why the investigation into her death took eight years to bring Restivo to trial.

In the end, Blood on the Altar is about Italy, Italian justice, and the structures that prevent it from working. It's also about Italian family solidarity – for better or worse – and the steadfast determination of Elisa's mother and brother to bring her home.