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Speaker 1: Hi, babe. Eh, I'm trying to solve a mystery. Charlie, Charlie,

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Speaker 1: what do you need? What do you need? Disco Little

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Speaker 1: Stone War? What's wrong with them? I think you have had

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Speaker 1: them on upside down?

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 3: I'm sitting by the pool in Sciapello, Sicily, with my

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Speaker 3: podcast producer Kate and my three kids and cool easy.

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Speaker 1: Do you want to hear about the family mystery? No? No, yes,

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Speaker 1: yeah you want this.

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Speaker 3: Charlie is much more interested in the very deep pool.

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Speaker 3: O b is freezing mystery. Everyone's jet lagged, and I'm

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Speaker 3: questioning every decision that I've ever made about my life because.

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Speaker 1: Do you know why we're here in Sicily?

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Speaker 4: Wow?

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Speaker 3: I'm trying to solve the mystery of my great great grandmother.

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Speaker 3: Of her can I say murdered it?

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Speaker 1: A three year old? Her death, her deaf, How she died?

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Speaker 1: Ha ha, We don't know yet. We're trying to figure

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Speaker 1: it out. We're trying to learn. Do you want to

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Speaker 1: help me?

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Speaker 3: I'm not exactly sure what possessed me when I made

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Speaker 3: this plan jetting off to Sicily with a five month

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Speaker 3: old baby, a three year old and a six year

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Speaker 3: old for a vacation slash Fact funding mission to look

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Speaker 3: for clues into my investigation into my great great grandmother's

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Speaker 3: century old murder right here in our motherland.

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Speaker 1: Do you want to know what her name was? Her

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Speaker 1: name was, Lorenza. Can you say that, Lorenza.

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Speaker 3: I keep telling myself that if we can learn something new,

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Speaker 3: something more concrete, about what happened to her, it will

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Speaker 3: all be worth it. But just being here, it all

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Speaker 3: feels more real. She feels more real, and we are closer,

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Speaker 3: closer to figuring out if my great great grandmother really

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Speaker 3: was murdered right here on this island. If so, why,

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Speaker 3: I'm Joe Piazza from Kaleidoscope and iHeart Podcasts. This is

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Speaker 3: the Sicilian Inheritance, Chapter one, Lorenza.

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Speaker 2: So take me to the Do you like remember the

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Speaker 2: first time you heard this?

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Speaker 1: It's hard to say.

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Speaker 3: I feel like I've always known this story because Italian

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Speaker 3: Americans love to tell stories, and they love to embellish stories,

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Speaker 3: and especially if it's really salacious or it could possibly

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Speaker 3: have something to do with the mafia.

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Speaker 1: They love that shiit.

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Speaker 5: Can you just walk me through the Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The story, the story.

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Speaker 3: The story is one that I've known all my life.

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Speaker 3: I've heard it over and over and over again, not

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Speaker 3: always in the same way and definitely not with the

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Speaker 3: same information. It's my family's origin story, the story of

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Speaker 3: where we the Piazzas came from. It all starts a

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Speaker 3: little over one hundred years ago with my great great

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Speaker 3: grandparents back in Sicily, the ancestral homeland. As far as

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Speaker 3: my dad said the family is concerned, my great great

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Speaker 3: grandfather Antonino and my great great grandmother Lorenza lived in

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Speaker 3: this tiny village called Caltibalota, where they had seven children.

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Speaker 1: One by one.

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Speaker 3: Around nineteen ten, Antonino and his son saved up enough

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Speaker 3: money to sail to the US, passed through Ellis Island,

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Speaker 3: and settle in the northeast the classic Italian American story.

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Speaker 3: Lorenzo was supposed to follow them eventually, but she never

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Speaker 3: made it. She died in Caltibalotta. According to my family's

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Speaker 3: one hundred year long game of telephone, she was murdered.

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Speaker 3: For years, this story has just been a mystery for

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Speaker 3: our family, something we've enjoyed speculating about, swapping different bits

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Speaker 3: and pieces and versions.

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Speaker 1: Of the story.

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Speaker 3: As you'd say in Italian, La pierra caierra idle gossip.

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Speaker 2: Hello, Hey, Sharon, how you doing.

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Speaker 4: I'm okay now I hear you're writing my memoir and

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Speaker 4: I'm going to become famous now right you are?

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Speaker 6: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's the plan, Yeshi.

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Speaker 3: And the story was always told with a kind of

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Speaker 3: hand gesture where you push your thumb into your nose

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Speaker 3: and lower your voice when you say the black hand

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Speaker 3: or the mafia.

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Speaker 4: Now in Sicily there's still tons of mafia, and of

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Speaker 4: course they called it the black.

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Speaker 3: Hand, which is why for me, for a long time,

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Speaker 3: I thought the whole thing might be bullshit.

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Speaker 2: Well, nobody knows for sure. There's two stories.

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Speaker 3: But over the years, as I've heard it more and more,

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Speaker 3: Lorenza's story and her potential murder have become a bit

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Speaker 3: of an obsession. Maybe that's because we're a family of storytellers,

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Speaker 3: sometimes liars, definitely myth makers, myself included. I'm a writer

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Speaker 3: and recently I turned my fascination with Lorenza into a novel.

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Speaker 3: It's also called The Sicilian Inheritance, and it is loosely,

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Speaker 3: loosely based on my family story. A woman is left alone,

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Speaker 3: there's an unsolved murder, there's just a lot more food

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Speaker 3: and wine and sex thrown in and look, my obsession

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Speaker 3: with this story, this family story may have ended there,

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Speaker 3: but the writing it got me fixated on the real

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Speaker 3: story and the real woman, who was the real Lorenza

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Speaker 3: Marsala and what actually happened to her? So I started digging,

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Speaker 3: and I began with my best sources, my family.

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Speaker 6: The first thing I'm doing is asking different family members

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Speaker 6: what they think the story is, what did they want?

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Speaker 7: Good luck with that? Good luck with that?

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Speaker 8: Oh, dear Hi, how are you good?

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Speaker 1: This is Uncle Jimmy. He's my dad's older brother.

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Speaker 3: I want to hear everything.

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Speaker 5: You know. Well, I don't know any more than probably

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Speaker 5: you do. But Jimmy and I've been talking about it,

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Speaker 5: and our one concern is if it's too realistic, you're

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Speaker 5: going to wind up Startinger Vendetta again. And I'm too

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Speaker 5: old to go over there and shoot somebody. Jimmy wants

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Speaker 5: to bring his kids over there.

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Speaker 6: Are you too old to go over there and shoot somebody?

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Speaker 6: Uncle jim are you real?

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Speaker 5: Well?

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Speaker 1: All no shit, no Vendetta or not.

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Speaker 3: I kept calling relatives.

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Speaker 2: You know that you have this book coming up. I

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Speaker 2: didn't know what was finished.

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Speaker 3: That was Aunt Gail when I was growing up. She

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Speaker 3: lived down the street. She was like a second to me.

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Speaker 2: I sat at writing sex scenes.

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Speaker 6: Okay, like I am, like, I have to get like

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Speaker 6: real drunk to write them. I hope you don't write

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Speaker 6: too many sex scenes.

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Speaker 2: Drunk all the time.

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Speaker 3: Cousin Sissy, she's a romance novelist. Cousin Sharon, Cousin Laura.

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Speaker 3: We have a lot of cousins. We are Italian Americans.

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Speaker 3: We breed like Rabbit's.

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Speaker 5: All I know is just obviously.

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Speaker 6: Okay.

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Speaker 4: So here's what I was told Grandpa. My grandpa said,

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Speaker 4: the Piazza immigrated to the US. Sons came over with

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Speaker 4: his siblings, large family and her grand sisters siblings and immigrated.

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Speaker 6: The boys came over to kind of settle in and

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Speaker 6: you know all of that. So they came through out

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Speaker 6: of island, settled in New York.

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Speaker 2: The boys came over from Italy to by two immigrated.

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Speaker 5: Then Dad came with him, but they left mom behind.

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Speaker 2: They left their mother behind, the mother to sell the farm.

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Speaker 6: His wife stayed behind to tend to She said they

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Speaker 6: had a family farm. What I heard was that the

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Speaker 6: mom was interested in her land. She refused to sell.

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Speaker 4: Now this part, I don't know if it's true. I

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Speaker 4: don't know who told me, whether it was or not

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Speaker 4: or somebody else, but they had a vineyard and the

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Speaker 4: black Hand took over the vineyards, so they have not

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Speaker 4: get access to the vineyards.

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Speaker 1: The black Hand.

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Speaker 3: That's how my family tends to refer to the mafia

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Speaker 3: in this story. It is not how Sicilians refer to

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Speaker 3: the mafia. I just want everyone to know that. But

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Speaker 3: this right here, this is the reigning theory of how

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Speaker 3: Lorenzo was killed. And it's the version of the story

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Speaker 3: that's been in my head the longest. It's the version

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Speaker 3: where the Piazzas owned a farm or a vineyard, it

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Speaker 3: is unclear. And once Antonino and all of Lorenzo's sons

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Speaker 3: had been gone in the US for over a decade,

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Speaker 3: the mafia killed Lorenza to get that land.

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Speaker 5: They owned a farm, and they left her behind it

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Speaker 5: us a transaction and did mafia leisurely strole it from

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Speaker 5: her and killed her.

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Speaker 2: She sold the farm and all the money was in

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Speaker 2: the house, and they killed her for the money.

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Speaker 6: She was murdered while the boys were over here.

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Speaker 3: Maybe she had already sold the land and the mafia

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Speaker 3: then killed her to get the money. From the land.

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Speaker 3: Maybe it was that money that she was planning to

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Speaker 3: use to leave Cecily and finally reunite with her family.

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Speaker 2: They were kind of stupid to leave all that money,

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Speaker 2: but there were no bank center or anything, and that

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Speaker 2: was the money she was going to be using to

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Speaker 2: come to the United States and get them started. But

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Speaker 2: they were kind of stupid to leave her there alone

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Speaker 2: like that.

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Speaker 6: What was her name?

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Speaker 5: The name of whom.

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Speaker 4: The great great grandmother who was murdered?

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Speaker 7: Oh, oh, I forget, I forget her name, Oh, Lorenzo

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Speaker 7: and Marcelle.

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Speaker 3: For all the times that I've heard the story about

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Speaker 3: Lorenza being murdered, all the tellings and retellings, talking to

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Speaker 3: my relatives this time made me realize how little any

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Speaker 3: of us knew about her actual life or her death.

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Speaker 1: For that matter.

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Speaker 2: Did you hear how they killed her?

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Speaker 4: No?

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Speaker 7: I never heard any details of her death.

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Speaker 4: Fancy and I didn't give any details. I don't remember.

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Speaker 1: That's the thing.

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Speaker 3: There have never been any real details when this story

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Speaker 3: gets told, things that you can prove, And that's always

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Speaker 3: what's made me skeptical, Like maybe it was never a murder.

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Speaker 3: Maybe her story could be as open and shut as

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Speaker 3: a case of the foo. Maybe she got sick and

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Speaker 3: that's why she didn't make it over. A tragedy for

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Speaker 3: sure for her sons and her daughters, but not exactly

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Speaker 3: worth the legend status. Maybe the family needed to make

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Speaker 3: her death into something more than just a virus. I mean,

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Speaker 3: my dad was a claims attorney, my uncle Jimmy's a judge. Like,

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Speaker 3: we're like, we're a very basic Italian American family. But

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Speaker 3: they love imagining that there's some kind of adventure and

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Speaker 3: romance in possibly being adjacent to the mafia, even though

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Speaker 3: they're absolutely not.

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Speaker 1: And this story gives it to them.

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Speaker 3: This story does give them that, this story gives them

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Speaker 3: some kind of connection, And I think that's what they

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Speaker 3: love about this story, Like if she was possibly killed

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Speaker 3: by the mob, why and like that gives them this

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Speaker 3: link to you know, Goodfellows as Apana's the Godfather. When

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Speaker 3: I started writing my novel, I didn't want to know

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Speaker 3: the real story. I wanted to use the small bits

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Speaker 3: and pieces that I knew about Lorenza to get started

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Speaker 3: and then let my imagination run wild with the rest.

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Speaker 3: But once the book was put to bed, I got

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Speaker 3: this tug in my gut something told me the story

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Speaker 3: wasn't finished, and that's when I needed to know the

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Speaker 3: truth about what happened to Lorenza. I became obsessed. What

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Speaker 3: really sent me looking for answers was this email from

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Speaker 3: my dad from about a decade ago. Toward the end

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Speaker 3: of his life, he used to send me dozens of

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Speaker 3: emails a day, and one day a couple years ago,

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Speaker 3: when I was cleaning out my inbox, one of those

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Speaker 3: unopened emails caught my eye. It was his grandfather's birth certificate,

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Speaker 3: Santo's birth certificate, and in the email, my dad remarked

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Speaker 3: on how beautiful the mother's name was, Lorenza. She was

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Speaker 3: the one who was murdered, he reminded me in all caps.

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Speaker 3: That email got me to start doing a little more digging,

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Speaker 3: just a little bit of reporting, and as soon as

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Speaker 3: I scratched the surface, it started to look a lot

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Speaker 3: like I had one hundred year old murder mystery on

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Speaker 3: my hands.

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Speaker 1: Would there be a peace record, yes, only in the case.

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Speaker 3: Of Mark one that I'm pretty sure I'm going to

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Speaker 3: be able to solve.

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Speaker 1: Why would they be muttered together.

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Speaker 3: More after the break?

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Speaker 1: Do you hear that? Do you hear that?

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Speaker 3: That's the gentle lapping of the Mediterranean Sea on the

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00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:57,360
Speaker 3: fine golden sand. By the magic of podcasting, you can

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Speaker 3: almost feel the heat of the sun, the cool of

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Speaker 3: the water, and the smell of the orange blossoms.

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Speaker 1: Now, with a.

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Speaker 3: Few short clicks, you can taste it too, because we

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Speaker 3: have actually imported the finest Sicilian olive oil. Inspired by

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Speaker 3: got a taste of fresh off the vine, tomatoes and

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Speaker 3: today at Cardenas Taproom. Check the show notes for the

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Speaker 3: link and all the details to buy. It's not only

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Speaker 3: an incredible olive oil, but it will completely transport you

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Speaker 3: please do check out the show notes now and thank you.

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Speaker 3: Also enjoy with something delicious. I just spent three hundred

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Speaker 3: dollars on ancestry dot com. Oh did as I tried

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Speaker 3: to solve this mystery. I forced my husband Nick to

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Speaker 3: be my enthusiastic sounding board for all of my discoveries.

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Speaker 3: Here is Santa, I've got all the dates. There's there

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Speaker 3: she is.

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Speaker 4: That's her.

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Speaker 3: Wow, which, of course involved immediately googling genealogy websites.

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Speaker 1: There's a picture of her.

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Speaker 6: No way, look at that.

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Speaker 1: Have you ever seen No, I've never seen this.

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Speaker 5: Wow.

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Speaker 1: She looks.

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Speaker 3: She looks unhappy. When you imagine an Italian Nona, what

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Speaker 3: do you think of got chubby lady in the kitchen

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Speaker 3: making pasta That is not Lorenza. Lorenza looks like she

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Speaker 3: could kill you with her stare. Her cheekbones alone could

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Speaker 3: cut glass. She looks like someone who might have been

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Speaker 3: involved in some shit. But this is very helpful because

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Speaker 3: now we have the death date.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, or with the death date right, yeah?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 5: Whoa cool panda.

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Speaker 3: So before we go much further, I think I need

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Speaker 3: to draw my family tree for you all. In fact,

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Speaker 3: I now have a massive wall in my house where

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Speaker 3: I sketched it all out. Lorenzo Marsala my great great

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Speaker 3: grandmother on my dad's side. She was born in eighteen

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Speaker 3: sixty two. She married Antonino Piazza. Quick note here, just

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Speaker 3: to make things extra confusing. In Italy, women don't take

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Speaker 3: their husband's last names. Did you know that? I didn't

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Speaker 3: until we started doing this, So Lorenza kept the last

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Speaker 3: name Marsala Lorenza Marsala sounds like a pasta dish. Anyway,

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Speaker 3: Lorenza and Antonino had seven children who lived to adulthood.

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Speaker 3: I personally have three children, and I think seven is

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Speaker 3: a lot of children. Anything more than one is a

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Speaker 3: lot of children.

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Speaker 1: Anyway.

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Speaker 3: Lorenzo and Antonino's kids, first, we've got Santo, he's my

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00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:10,439
Speaker 3: great grandfather. Then Joseph also known as Giuseppe, Veto and

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Speaker 3: Caligaro also known as Charlie, and the daughters Josephine, Paulina

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Speaker 3: and Rosa. All of them would eventually come to America.

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Speaker 3: The men first, Santo, the oldest son, and Giuseppe left

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Speaker 3: Sicily in nineteen oh five. Now, just to set the

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Speaker 3: scene picture this pre World War One turn of the century.

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Speaker 3: A lot of Italians were immigrating back then, especially the

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Speaker 3: ones living in intense rural poverty in southern Italy and Sicily.

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Speaker 3: Between nineteen hundred and nineteen ten, more than two million

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Speaker 3: Italians made their way across the Atlantic Ocean, and among

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Speaker 3: them were Santo and his.

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Speaker 1: Brother, Lorenza's son.

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Speaker 3: Santo is my dad's grandfather, got it and he worked

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Speaker 3: in the coal mines and was also a farmer. This

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00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:03,080
Speaker 3: is me trying to explain it all to Kate. It's

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Speaker 3: really hard to keep all this straight, and not that

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Speaker 3: Kate is the best at keeping it straight either.

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Speaker 2: And presumably Santo told him.

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Speaker 1: No, that's the thing.

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Speaker 3: So Santo, like a lot of other Sicilians at the time,

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Speaker 3: settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he goes to work in

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Speaker 3: the coal mines. Two years later, their father Antonino joins them,

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Speaker 3: bringing along another son. By nineteen twelve, most of the kids,

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Speaker 3: all of the sons are in the States. Lorenza and

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Speaker 3: two of her daughters are still in Sicily. In nineteen sixteen,

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Speaker 3: Lorenza dies and a few years later her daughters would

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Speaker 3: immigrate to the US. Two Now Santo, the eldest son.

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Speaker 3: He starts my particular branch of the family tree. Santo

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Speaker 3: is the grandfather or great grandfather to all of my

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Speaker 3: relatives that you've heard so far.

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Speaker 5: They held they reunion one time where all of the

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Speaker 5: first generation Piazzas were there. They were fantastic. All my

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00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:12,160
Speaker 5: uncles and my dad were playing more which is the

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00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:16,479
Speaker 5: finger game. You know, rock Stone scissors are most and

326
00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:19,879
Speaker 5: they played bacci on a dirt road and it was

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Speaker 5: a great time. And it's one of the few times

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Speaker 5: I have memories of seen all Santo's brothers and sisters.

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Speaker 3: Santo also had a lot of children, ten of them,

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Speaker 3: and here the family tree gets even more confusing for

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Speaker 3: a lot of reasons, namely because everyone seems to have

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Speaker 3: the same names. There's so many Giuseppes, Giuseppas, Josephine's, Vetos, Vinnie's,

333
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:48,000
Speaker 3: and then the names they get anglicized when people come

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00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,800
Speaker 3: to the US. The Giuseppas become Joe's, the Lorenzo's become Lauras,

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Speaker 3: the Veto's become Vinnie's.

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Speaker 1: You get the picture.

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00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:59,679
Speaker 3: Santo at some point lived with each of his children,

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00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:03,919
Speaker 3: and for as Sicilian as Santo was, he didn't like

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00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:04,840
Speaker 3: to talk about Italy.

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Speaker 4: I remember going there and my old great aunts would

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00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:11,680
Speaker 4: get my face and squeeze it and hurt the hell

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00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:13,760
Speaker 4: out of me and talking Italian.

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Speaker 3: Cousin Sharon, she's my second cousin. I think I'm bad

344
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 3: with the seconds and the thirds. Her mom, Rose was

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00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:23,959
Speaker 3: one of Santo's children.

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Speaker 4: Santa was very quiet about his past growing up. I

347
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:32,040
Speaker 4: remember he wouldn't He didn't even want to acknowledge that

348
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:36,000
Speaker 4: he was Italian for a while there, really, but yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 4: it was very strange. Somebody would come to the door

350
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Speaker 4: and see that he was clearly Italian with his you know,

351
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:48,280
Speaker 4: deep accent, and he'd say, you're in America. You speak English,

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Speaker 4: no Italian. I mean, she didn't want It was strange.

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Speaker 4: He was very close mouth about much of his younger life,

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00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:01,159
Speaker 4: very close mouth. So it's worth to investigate and looking into.

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00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:07,480
Speaker 3: Santo definitely didn't talk about what happened to his mother, Lorenza.

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Speaker 8: Your dad knew the most, I think, didn't I know,

357
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:17,040
Speaker 8: But John, my dad and his siblings and cousins are

358
00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:19,000
Speaker 8: the complete opposite.

359
00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:25,119
Speaker 3: They're obsessed with their Sicilian roots. Santo was first generation.

360
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:28,240
Speaker 3: He wanted to hide being Sicilian so he could fit

361
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Speaker 3: in in this country, which for some immigrants was a

362
00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:35,720
Speaker 3: pretty common reaction. My dad, on the other hand, he

363
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:40,160
Speaker 3: used to say things like capiche instead of understand, or

364
00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:42,879
Speaker 3: mazzao instead of mozzarella.

365
00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:45,960
Speaker 8: Pitch you this Sicily nineteen twelve, so.

366
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Speaker 3: That everyone would know he was Italian.

367
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Speaker 9: Everything from Sicily means something.

368
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:54,040
Speaker 3: My dad loved to pretend to be this kind of

369
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:58,520
Speaker 3: tony soprano tough guy, especially with my high school boyfriends.

370
00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:00,600
Speaker 1: Sorry Curtsey, not.

371
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Speaker 7: With this Sicilian thing that's been going on for two

372
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:05,879
Speaker 7: thousand years.

373
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:09,200
Speaker 3: In the early two thousands, my dad started to get

374
00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:13,359
Speaker 3: really sick with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. But

375
00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:16,640
Speaker 3: instead of saying housebound or just feeling sorry for himself

376
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:22,840
Speaker 3: in bed, Lorenzo's story became this kind of unfinished business,

377
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,159
Speaker 3: and it seemed to light a fire in him. He

378
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:31,080
Speaker 3: started researching genealogy and taking trips to Sicily. By that

379
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:33,399
Speaker 3: time he had to use a cane and a walker

380
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:38,080
Speaker 3: to get around, and his obsession had gone into overdrive.

381
00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:42,680
Speaker 3: It's like falling in love with Sicily and with learning

382
00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:45,679
Speaker 3: new things about his family gave him this way to

383
00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:49,960
Speaker 3: escape his broken body. He did some crazy stuff too.

384
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:53,120
Speaker 3: He started he got this hair brained idea to start

385
00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:57,240
Speaker 3: importing Sicilian organic olive oil, and he bought a shit

386
00:22:57,280 --> 00:22:59,359
Speaker 3: ton of it. I think he blew probably about one

387
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 3: hundred grand on locals.

388
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:05,040
Speaker 1: Silly and olive oil, and then there was something wrong

389
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:05,360
Speaker 1: with the.

390
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 3: Caps and the labels and they leaked, and it just

391
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 3: sat in our garage for years and years, and he

392
00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:16,479
Speaker 3: just pissed away all of his remaining money on this

393
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,680
Speaker 3: business that would never exist. But that was yet another

394
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:21,120
Speaker 3: way to keep him going.

395
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:21,600
Speaker 1: Back to Sicily.

396
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,399
Speaker 3: As he got sicker and less mobile, my dad could

397
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,800
Speaker 3: still sit at a computer making calls and researching his

398
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 3: leads on Lorenzo's murder. At the time, I found all

399
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 3: of it a little bit silly. I was so disinterested

400
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 3: in this. And if you think about two thousand, I

401
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 3: was in college. I was twenty years old, graduate, I

402
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,639
Speaker 3: moved to New York. I'm not living with my parents.

403
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,639
Speaker 3: I could care less about my dad's obsession with Cicily.

404
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 3: I'm like, that seems like a nice hobby for you, Dad,

405
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,800
Speaker 3: I'm happy for you. But we never talked about it,

406
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,600
Speaker 3: and now I really wish that we had. Like now,

407
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:02,680
Speaker 3: I really wish that I'd paid more attention and I'd

408
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:04,719
Speaker 3: listen to the things that he was finding out, because

409
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 3: so much of it is also just now gone. I

410
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:10,880
Speaker 3: can't find anything in his email, I can't Facebook won't

411
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,919
Speaker 3: let me into his Facebook account, So a lot of

412
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:19,320
Speaker 3: what he learned died with him. A lot of parts

413
00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:23,680
Speaker 3: of him are gone, and he would hate that. He

414
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:27,239
Speaker 3: wanted to know the answer to this mystery, and I

415
00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:30,439
Speaker 3: wish that I'd been there to help him, but I

416
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 3: was on my own journey, searching for a life partner,

417
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 3: falling in love, getting married, getting pregnant, and.

418
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:39,800
Speaker 1: Then he was gone.

419
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 3: I never properly grieved for him at the time, and

420
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:49,879
Speaker 3: it's just been hitting me now his legacy and what

421
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:54,680
Speaker 3: he left unfinished, and now I feel like I owe

422
00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 3: him something by finishing what he started.

423
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:12,879
Speaker 1: And why do you think you care about it?

424
00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:15,480
Speaker 6: Is it really like to do this thing for your dad?

425
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 1: Do you feel that you have the same motivation.

426
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:22,120
Speaker 3: He did or I think my motivation is different than Dad's.

427
00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,280
Speaker 3: There's a part of me that wants to do this

428
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:28,119
Speaker 3: because he didn't get to finish it, And there's another

429
00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 3: part of me that wants to do it because I

430
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,720
Speaker 3: feel like this woman's real story deserves to be told,

431
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 3: like for people to really know the truth about what

432
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:40,879
Speaker 3: happened to her, instead of just becoming a character in

433
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:45,280
Speaker 3: everybody else's life. Lorenzo Marsala was born in this village

434
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 3: called Caltabalota, had a bunch of kids, and died there

435
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,800
Speaker 3: at age fifty four. That's pretty much all we know

436
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 3: of her life. When she died, it was nineteen sixteen.

437
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:01,159
Speaker 3: She still had two young daughters at home. The First

438
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,919
Speaker 3: World War had just broken out. Now that I'm a

439
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:08,359
Speaker 3: wife and a mother of three children, thank god it's

440
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 3: not seven, her story just hits different. I'm getting closer

441
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 3: to Lorenzo's age every year, and I can't stop thinking

442
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:24,439
Speaker 3: about our family story. From her perspective, how did she

443
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,400
Speaker 3: feel about being left behind by her husband for more

444
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:31,119
Speaker 3: than a decade. Did she miss him or was it

445
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 3: liberating to finally not just be someone's wife, to finally

446
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 3: not be getting pregnant almost every single year. Did she

447
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 3: feel safe in her own village? Was it okay because

448
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 3: she had a lot of her family members around her,

449
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:50,679
Speaker 3: or maybe she was in constant danger in this village

450
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 3: surrounded by mafia bandits.

451
00:26:53,240 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 9: I was asking somebody about her, and they just looked

452
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 9: at me and they kept saying morte, morte no, and

453
00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 9: they're like they shut it down.

454
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:05,480
Speaker 7: They wouldn't talk.

455
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 6: Really, you just said the name.

456
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 3: You're like Lorenzo Marsala piazza, and they.

457
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 6: Were like.

458
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 5: Interesting.

459
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:19,200
Speaker 3: Over the years, many of the piazzas have gone back

460
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:23,399
Speaker 3: to Sicily looking for answers about our families past, and

461
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 3: a lot of them have returned with stories of dead

462
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:30,600
Speaker 3: ends and also unsettling experiences that happened when they tried

463
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 3: to find out more about Lorenza.

464
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 5: They knew about the murders.

465
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,119
Speaker 8: They knew about it, right.

466
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:37,400
Speaker 5: Yeah, they did.

467
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:39,879
Speaker 3: My uncle Jimmy claims that when he was in call,

468
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 3: a bunch of police officers warned him off this case.

469
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 5: He should, you'd better drop it, not in any trevening

470
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 5: matter whatsoever, but just just as a matter of the

471
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 5: you don't want to start it off, you know, you

472
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:01,360
Speaker 5: don't want the vendetta to continue.

473
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,000
Speaker 3: And if the warnings from the cops weren't enough, they

474
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:05,359
Speaker 3: also got a sign from above.

475
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 7: When we were there.

476
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:08,399
Speaker 1: We were at the church.

477
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 7: Lightning struck the church. Okay, we were actually yeah, we

478
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 7: were in the church where they got married, and lightning

479
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:21,040
Speaker 7: struck the steeple. And while you were in it, while

480
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 7: we were yeah, while we were yeah, while we were.

481
00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:25,600
Speaker 2: In the church.

482
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 7: We were in with the priest going through the records

483
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,119
Speaker 7: right in the in the rectory and lightning struck the

484
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:36,440
Speaker 7: top of the church. We had to get out. Wow,

485
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:39,040
Speaker 7: my sister and Lassa, that is a sign get us

486
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:39,760
Speaker 7: out of here.

487
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 3: I'm starting to think that maybe my family doesn't want

488
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 3: to know what really happened. They're pretty attached to the

489
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 3: stories that they've been telling themselves for all these years.

490
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,280
Speaker 3: Well that's interesting because I wonder how people will feel,

491
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:03,320
Speaker 3: like if we actually get to like a truth, will.

492
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 2: It be disappointing or satisfying or you know, I.

493
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,960
Speaker 3: Don't know if my family wants to know the actual truth.

494
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 3: That's the interesting thing. Like, for as much as people

495
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 3: have come back here and tried to like dig up

496
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 3: more information, I think if the truth ended up being

497
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 3: less interesting than their story, I don't think they're going

498
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 3: to change their story. I think they're going to continue

499
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 3: to tell the story the way they want to tell

500
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:35,920
Speaker 3: the story. But I need to know. I have to

501
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,080
Speaker 3: solve this mystery. I don't know if it's for me,

502
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:41,080
Speaker 3: or for my dad or for Lorenza, but I have

503
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 3: to solve it.

504
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 1: So here I go.

505
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 3: I'm looking for long lost relatives. I'm digging through archives

506
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,920
Speaker 3: covered in dust and trying to trace back a family

507
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 3: history that's been twisted by secrets, omissions, and vengeance. I

508
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,400
Speaker 3: can't do all of this from my desk in filid Alia.

509
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:05,000
Speaker 3: I've got to go back back to, as my dad

510
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 3: liked to call it, the Motherland. I've got to go

511
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 3: to Sicily, to the village of Caltabalota, where all of

512
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 3: this happened in the first place, back to where Lorenzo

513
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 3: was born, and maybe just maybe back to the very

514
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 3: spot where she was murdered.

515
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 1: A landside, there's a landslide. This is a place.

516
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 5: We have the absolutely certainty one hundred and ten.

517
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 3: Honestly, a picture and she died.

518
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 1: We don't have a picture of that.

519
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 6: Actually a video you.

520
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,120
Speaker 1: Can see a video. Videos didn't exist.

521
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 3: I'm bringing all of you on my summer vacation with

522
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 3: my husband, three kids under the age of seven. Everyone

523
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 3: is coming to Sicily with me to solve this one

524
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 3: hundred year old murder. Now, I think it's pretty clear

525
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 3: that something bad did happen to her.

526
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 2: Your father had his story that she was like the

527
00:30:58,640 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 2: witch doctor.

528
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 3: Could Lorenzo have been killed by the mafia for being

529
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:04,680
Speaker 3: a witch?

530
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,200
Speaker 6: So I'm wondering, how is the story similar or different

531
00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 6: than what you got so I heard two stories. One

532
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:14,479
Speaker 6: story is over Land and the other story is that

533
00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 6: she was a witch. Well that's even more interesting.

534
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 3: That's all coming up on the Sicilian Inheritance.

535
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 7: I'd love to know what the hell happened. It wouldn't

536
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 7: it be great to solve this mystery.

537
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 1: I feel good my Sicilian witchy powers. I feel like

538
00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 1: we're on the right path.

539
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 3: The Sicilian Inheritance is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with

540
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 3: iHeart Podcasts. The series is produced by Jen Kinney, Kate Osborne,

541
00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 3: Dara Potts, and me Joe Piazza, with key help from

542
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:54,560
Speaker 3: Laura Lee Watson of Digging Up Your Roots in the

543
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 3: Boot and Chiro Grillow of Sicily Roots. Many thanks to

544
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 3: Julia Pairvi and theancestry dot com research department. You can

545
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 3: get your copy of The Sicilian Inheritance the novel right

546
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 3: now at Truly anywhere that you get your books, anywhere

547
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:13,719
Speaker 3: you get your books. It's got the same name as

548
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 3: the podcast, but with more food, wine, and sex. Also,

549
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,680
Speaker 3: do not forget to get a taste of Sicily in

550
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 3: the form of delicious Sicilian olive oil at Cardena's tap Room.

551
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 3: Make sure to check out our show notes for a

552
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 3: link to buy it, or if you find yourself in Philly,

553
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:36,000
Speaker 3: just stop by. Our executive producers are Kate Osborne, mangsh Hetikador,

554
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,000
Speaker 3: Costas Linos.

555
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 1: And Oz Wolloshan.

556
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 3: From iHeart, executive producers are Katrina Norvelle and Nikki Etour.

557
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 3: We also want to thank Will Pearson, connel Byrne, Bob Pittman,

558
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 3: and John Mary Napolis