Sergio was a deaf-mute boy, severely autistic, and prone to violent outbursts. In June 2003, at thirty-nine years old, he was killed by his father, Salvatore, during yet another crisis in which he had attacked his elderly parents. The father was sentenced, in both trial and appeal, to roughly six years of house arrest—a relatively lenient verdict, reached partly through the abbreviated trial procedure, the numerous mitigating factors found in the family history, and above all, the court's recognition of his diminished mental capacity.
In 2006, Salvatore's family petitioned for a pardon, which President Napolitano granted within months of taking office. With Mauro Paissan, whom he had known for years, Salvatore decided—with his wife Elvira's consent—to tell their family's broken story, hoping it might help others in similar circumstances. The case had dominated headlines; soon it would be forgotten.
The authors' intentions are honest: they present only the parents' perspective, shaped by years of isolation as they struggled to raise a son with an impossibly difficult diagnosis. Sergio's late diagnosis of autism—common at the time—compounded by the now-discredited "refrigerator mother" theory and his deafness, made him extremely violent and nearly impossible to manage. The only way to prevent his unpredictable outbursts, often triggered by trivial events, was to give in to his every whim. Usually, even that wasn't enough. His aggression toward his parents could leave them severely injured; he destroyed everything within reach.
Many therapies failed. The social and health services—those theoretically responsible for helping—passed the burden between departments, leaving his parents to fend for themselves. Looking back, one might fault certain decisions these two made. Yet they never abandoned Sergio, despite the toll of caring for him.
Though the narrative's one-sidedness occasionally shows, nothing diminishes the relentless abandonment Sergio's family endured over thirty-nine years from institutions that should have stood beside them. If human justice proved merciful to this father, one can only hope that those with power to address the grave suffering hidden in so many Italian homes might show equal mercy and humanity.
Cristina Tersigni, 2008
