Rinaldo Pazzi
Tocca was a dream suspect. As a young man, he had served nine years in prison
for the murder of a man he caught embracing his fiancé in a lovers' lane. He
had also faced charges of sexually molesting his daughters and other domestic
abuse, and had served a prison sentence for rape.
The Questura nearly destroyed Tocca's house trying to find evidence. In the
end Pazzi himself, searching Tocca's grounds, came up with a cartridge case
that was one of the few pieces of physical evidence the prosecution submitted.
The trial was a sensation. It was held in a high-security building called the
Bunker where terrorist trials were held in the seventies, across from the
Florence offices of the newspaper La Nazione. The sworn and besashed jurors,
five men and five women, convicted Tocca on almost no evidence except his
character. Most of the public believed him innocent, but many said Tocca was a
jerk and well jailed. At the age of sixty-five, he received a sentence of
forty years at Volterra.
The next months were golden. A Pazzi had not been so celebrated in Florence
for the last five hundred years, since Pazzo de' Pazzi returned from the First
Crusade with flints from the Holy Sepulchre.
Rinaldo Pazzi and his beautiful wife stood beside the archbishop in the Duomo
when, at the traditional Easter rite, these same holy flints were used to
ignite the rocket-powered model dove, which flew out of the church along its
wire to explode a cart of fireworks for a cheering crowd.
The papers hung on every word Pazzi said as he dispensed credit, within
reason, to his subordinates for the drudgery they had performed. Signora Pazzi
was sought for fashion advice, and she did look wonderful in the garments
designers encouraged her to wear. They were invited to stuffy teas in the
homes of the powerful, and had dinner with a count in his castle with suits of
armor standing all around.
Pazzi was mentioned for political office, praised over the general noise in
the Italian parliament and given the brief to head Italy's cooperative effort
with the American FBI against the Mafia.
That brief, and a fellowship to study and take part in criminology seminars at
Georgetown University, brought the Pazzis to Washington, D.C. The chief
inspector spent much time at Behavioral Science in Quantico and dreamed of
creating a Behavioral Science division in Rome.
Then, after two years, disaster: In a calmer atmosphere, an appellate court
not under public pressure agreed to review Tocca's conviction. Pazzi was
brought home to face the investigation. Among the former colleagues he had
left behind, the knives were out for Pazzi.
An appellate panel overthrew Tocca's conviction and reprimanded Pazzi, saying
the court believed he had planted evidence.
His former supporters in high places fled him as they would a bad smell. He
was still an important official of the Questura, but he was a lame duck and
everyone knew it. The Italian government moves slowly, but soon the axe would
fall.