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Serial Killers in the Antipodes: the Case of Carlo Lucarelli and Paul Cleave

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Serial Killers in the Antipodes: the Case of Carlo Lucarelli and Paul Cleave SERIAL KILLERS IN THE ANTIPODES: THE CASE OF CARLO LUCARELLI AND PAUL CLEAVE BARBARA PEZZOTTI (Victoria University of Wellington) Sommario La relazione tra il detective e la città nel giallo contemporaneo è stata ampiamente analizzata. Sono scarsi invece studi critici sul rapporto fra il serial killer e lo spazio urbano. Nel confrontare Almost Blue (1997) e Un giorno dopo l’altro (2000) dello scrittore italiano Carlo Lucarelli e The Cleaner (2006) e Cemetery Lake (2008) dell’autore neozelandese Paul Cleave, questo articolo mira a dimostrare che nella crime fiction contemporanea la figura dell’assassino seriale arriva a spodestare l’investigatore della sua tradizionale funzione epistemologica, conferendo un nuovo senso allo spazio urbano, configurandosi così come un nuovo, postmoderno flâneur. Several studies analyse the prominence of setting in contemporary crime fiction with a focus on the relation between the detective and the urban environment 1. By contrast the serial killer’s view on the place he moves in has been neglected and no studies have been published on Italian crime fiction from this perspective. In this article I aim to fill this gap, arguing that the serial killer may assume an important role in making sense of the urban environment, undermining the traditional function of the police detective or the private eye. In order to prove this point, I compare the works of two 1 After the pioneering work of Walter Benjamin (1938), see especially Geherin (2008), Most (2006), Hausladen (2000), Howell (1998), Prendergast (1992), and Roth (1995). 127 crime fiction writers, the Italian Carlo Lucarelli (b 1960) 2 and the New Zealander Paul Cleave (b 1978) 3. Working in the Antipodes, these two writers share some important features. Firstly, both introduced the character of the serial killer 4 into local crime fiction 5, and both describe their serial killers in their everyday lives showing them, in Eichmann Arendt’s words, as “terribly and terrifyingly normal” (cited in Halbertstam, 1991:37-53); secondly, both are notable for their cinematic style and, in particular, for intertwining various narrative strands in their stories, shifting from the first-person point of view to the third-person narration; thirdly, both juxtapose the official image of the city where they set their stories with a darker reality of crime and corruption; in both writers the perception of the city is delivered through different characters, such as the police detective or the private eye, various people involved in the investigation and, most interestingly, the serial killer; finally, the cities they depict in their novels, namely Bologna and Christchurch, are similar, insofar as they are both university cities pervaded by a youth and punk culture. In particular, Bologna, called la 2 Lucarelli was born in Parma. A former crime reporter, he is now a TV celebrity and hosts a show about unsolved crimes and mysteries in Italy. He is the author of historical detective novels set in the 1930s and 1940 and has written two series set in contemporary Bologna. The second series, analysed in this article, includes Lupo Mannaro (1994), Almost Blue (1997) and Un giorno dopo l’altro (2000). 3 Cleave was born in Christchurch. He worked for seven years as a pawnbroker, before turning his full attention to being a writer. His first published novel, The Cleaner , was released in 2006 and became an international best-seller. The Killing Hour (2007), Cemetery Lake (2008) and Blood Men (2010) followed. 4 The term ‘serial killer’ was first coined by F.B.I. special agent Robert Ressler, whose accounts of tracking serial killers were very successful with U.S. readers. See Mark Seltzer (1993). 5 In Italy the figure of the serial killer has subsequently and successfully been used by Giorgio Faletti in his internationally acclaimed crime stories. Moreover, in the 2000s a movement called Roma noir was born, gathering various writers, such as Marco Minincangeli, Antonio Tentori, Alda Teodorani, and Ivo Scanner. In their stories these writers provide the criminal’s point of view. See Elisabetta Mondello (2005). Although New Zealand writers have cultivated crime fiction (internationally the most successful of them is Ngaio Marsh [1895-1982]), it is not until the Cleave’s series that there is a change of perspective from the police detective’s or the private eye’s point of view to the serial killer’s perspective. See Joan Stevens (1966). 128 dotta , the erudite, as it hosts the most ancient university in the western world (it dates back to 1088), is a prestigious university centre, has long been considered a model of good and efficient local administration, and one of the best cities to live in. This image was first spoiled in the 1970s with the death of the student Francello Lorusso who was killed by the police during an anti-Government demonstration; it was subsequently shaken by the strage di Bologna in 1980, a series of still unsolved murders at the University of Bologna between 1982 and 1983, and by the notorious case of the Uno Bianca gang between 1987 and 1994. For its part, Christchurch, which hosts the prestigious University of Canterbury, is considered the Garden City of New Zealand, and often appears in various international lists as one of the friendliest cities in the world. The image of Christchurch as a peaceful place was also shaken by crime news stories, such as the notorious Parker-Hulme case, that is, the murder of a woman committed by her own daughter and a girl-friend in 1954 6. Taking all these contact points, it is interesting to compare these two authors and see how they represent Bologna and Christchurch and the use they make of the figure of the serial killer in their stories. To illustrate this issue I will compare Almost Blue (1997) and Un giorno dopo l’altro (2000) by Lucarelli and The Cleaner (2006) and Cemetery Lake (2008) by Paul Cleave. Almost Blue , which takes its title from a song by jazz musician Chet Baker, is about the hunt for the Iguana, a serial killer who assumes the features and identities of his victims, that is, all Bologna University students. Inspector Grazia Negro, one of the few female police detectives in Italian crime fiction, manages to arrest the serial killer with the help of a blind man, Simone, who overheard the Iguana’s voice and is the only person able to recognise him. In Un giorno dopo l’altro Inspector Negro is in search of another serial killer 6 This case inspired Peter Jackson in making the award winning movie Heavenly Creatures (1994). In 2009 five bodies found in six weeks made the front pages of national newspapers and the city was re-christened the murder capital of New Zealand. See http://www.stuff. co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/2882838/Five-bodies-in-six-weeks-haunt-Garden-City (retrieved on 22 February 2010). See also “What lies beneath” (2010). 129 called the Pit Bull. In this case she is also helped by a witness, Alessandro, a young man working for an Internet provider who by chance intercepted an awkward email conversation between Pit Bull and his boss. Both stories are told from three different points of view. In Almost Blue , the narrative intertwines three strands, using first person narrative in the case of Simone and the Iguana, and third person in the case of Inspector Negro. The same organisation of shifting perspectives is used in Un giorno dopo l’altro , where the narrative voice is also shared by three characters, Alessandro, Vittorio, aka the Pit Bull, and Inspector Negro. The Cleaner is the story of Joe, a serial killer, who by day works as a janitor in a Christchurch police station, and tortures and kills young women by night. The main narrative focuses on the serial killer, while some chapters provide the point of view of a young woman, narrated in the third person: it is thanks to Sally, Joe’s colleague, that the police are finally able to realise he is the serial killer and arrest him. Finally, Cemetery Lake features Theodore Tate, an ex-police detective, who investigates some cold cases that turn out to be murders committed by a serial killer in Christchurch. In this case the narrative expresses Tate’s perspective through the stream of consciousness technique. A tale of two cities Lucarelli chose to set most of his stories in Bologna as this city was for him the quintessence of mystery in Italy with its image of quiet and peacefulness hiding a heart of darkness (Lucarelli, 2007:56). In other words, he was intrigued by the juxtaposition of the official image of the city with the reality of crime and chaos, first described by Loriano Macchiavelli in the sergente Sarti series 7 and ultimately exposed to the public through the Uno Bianca case. Cleave seems to have done exactly the same. In an interview, he explained that “Christchurch is a great setting for crime – it has two sides to it, 7 According to Michele Righini (2005), Macchiavelli contributed to creating the topos of ‘Bologna nera’, a new way at looking at the city that still survives in Italian public opinion. 130 there’s the picture perfect setting you see on postcards everywhere, but there’s also a dark, Gotham City feel here which has, sadly, turned this city into the murder capital of New Zealand” (Crime Time , 2009). In both writers’ books, streets and places are cited, but Lucarelli and Cleave often manage to recreate the “culture or mindset” (Geherin, 2008:179) of the city without using detailed geography. They make clear from the very start that the setting of their stories is respectively Bologna and the Via Emilia, and Christchurch.
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