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Italian justice reopens case of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s murder, 51 years after his death
Italian prosecutors have reopened the murder case of writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, killed in 1975, after a new complaint presented previously unknown testimony. The inquiry will revisit whether the teenager convicted of the crime acted alone, a question that has persisted for decades and could shed light on a killing whose official account has long been disputed.
Pasolini was found dead in Ostia, near Rome, on 2 November 1975. Pino Pelosi, then 17, was sentenced six months later to nine years and seven months in prison, but the judge said the evidence strongly suggested he had not been alone; Pelosi later gave conflicting accounts and died in 2017. Lawyer Stefano Maccioni, whose earlier attempts to reopen the case in 2010 and 2023 ended without findings, is now pursuing leads including new testimony, RAI recordings and possible links to Pasolini’s work and Italy’s political violence.
In short
- Prosecutors have reopened Pasolini’s 1975 murder case.
- New testimony may help establish whether Pelosi acted alone.
- Earlier reviews closed without conclusive findings.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Reopening the inquiry is justified if the new testimony or recordings could clarify whether Pelosi acted alone, especially since the original judge reportedly saw signs of other participants and Pelosi later changed his account. A fresh examination may help establish a more complete record of the killing and address enduring doubts about the official account.
The case against
A renewed inquiry should be cautious about treating new leads as proof of a wider plot: decades have passed, Pelosi is dead, and earlier efforts to reopen the case produced no findings. Pursuing speculative links to Pasolini’s work or Italy’s political violence risks diverting attention from what the surviving evidence can reliably establish.
Explained simply
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian writer and film director whose work often engaged with social divisions and politics. He was killed in Ostia, near Rome, in 1975.
A teenager, Pino Pelosi, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to prison. The original judge said evidence suggested Pelosi may not have acted alone, and Pelosi later gave conflicting accounts.
The case has remained disputed, partly because questions about whether others were involved were never resolved. Pasolini’s death also took place amid political violence in Italy, and investigators have considered whether it was connected to his work or to wider events.