"I'm afraid of ending up like Gisella. Like her, I too have fallen into the hands of people who have me firmly in their grip. I have the possibility of nailing many people and even two of Gisella's murderers. I am willing to confess and report if other girls do the same." The letter that a young woman wrote to L'Unione Sarda in the days when Carbonia was overwhelmed by the news of the brutal murder of Gisella Orrù ended with the appeal "Hurry up." It was July 7, 1989 and the discovery of a woman's body had put an end to the search for the young student who, nine days earlier, had not returned home to her grandmother. For that death, preceded by sexual violence and a terrible execution, two people were sentenced to thirty years in prison but for many that sentence was not enough and even today people are asking for light to be shed on "the other truth" that has never emerged.

The doubts

Licurgo Floris, acquitted in the first instance and convicted on appeal and in the Supreme Court, killed himself in prison, shouting his innocence until the end. The other convicted man, Tore Pirosu, (the “uncle Tore” friend of Gisella’s family who had his sentence reduced for collaborating with the investigation) disappeared into thin air after being released from prison under a pardon. Escaped or killed and made to disappear? Nobody knows. In all these years – 35 have already passed since that cursed 7th July – few have believed that the story is over with Floris and Pirosu: «Too many truths kept hidden, too many silences. – says Clorinda Orrù, sister of Gisella’s father – Talking about her, even after thirty-five years, causes immense pain, but if it can help bring out the truth about her death then it is right that we talk about it. Because what happened in those days has never really been revealed and our appeal, today as then, has not changed: those who know, speak up». What has made this story that no one has ever forgotten relevant again is the book “La donna nel pozzo” by the Cagliari writer Pierluigi Pulixi, in bookstores for a few days. Pulixi was inspired by Gisella’s case to tell a story that, in the writer’s imagination, reaches a decidedly different ending: “I have no new documents or unpublished confessions – Pulixi began in recent days – but I believe that Gisella’s family and the entire city deserve to know how things went”.

The Widow

A belief that Luciana Cogoni, the widow of Licurgo Floris, who has been asking for decades for the case to be reopened, certainly supports: "I have the bitter certainty that this appeal will not be heard until those who know the truth overcome their fear," the woman says, "but I find it absurd that after so many years there are those who manage to live with this terrible secret and know that Gisella's murderers and those who ordered it are still around. And yet there would be many ways to safely get the truth to those who need to investigate." The fear is great because revealing the behind-the-scenes of that paid sex market into which at the time several young girls ended up in exchange for a few pennies and into which Gisella stumbled against her will mean shedding light on a certain "Carbonia bene" who is said to have always been kept safe from investigations.

The mysteries

"I believe that in the city there are still those who do not sleep at night because of remorse and the memory of the evening in which Gisella was killed - says Sandro Mantega, a reporter who followed the case at the time for L'Unione Sarda - but I believe that no one will find the courage to expose themselves to shed light on a truth that the official investigations have only partially revealed. I believe that at the time the investigation was dug in one direction only and this has left too many points unclear".

Fear kept everyone's mouths shut, especially those of the girls who were perhaps present at the last party or the previous ones, shocked by the details of Gisella's macabre execution. The murder of a woman in Villaperuccio, the suicide of a student from Perdaxius a month before Gisella's murder and the attempted suicide of another girl, clearly show the climate of the time: "A climate of crazy fear - confirms Vincenzo Panio, at the time commander of the municipal police who actively took part in the investigation - and how can you blame these girls? There were many questions left unanswered, mysteries such as the disappearance of the recordings with the voices of those who reported precious information on the investigations to the municipal police and the carabinieri. The list of inconsistencies is long, but I doubt that those who have the truth after 35 years have the desire and courage to speak. Too many people are still present in the city and others are no longer there and calling them into question today would make little sense because there would be no support from concrete evidence".

Wounded city

So is there nothing left to do but resign ourselves to keeping this wound open? "A very painful wound," says Antonangelo Casula, former mayor of the mining town, "at the time of Gisella Orrù's murder my mandate had already ended, but I have a very clear memory of the climate that was felt. One example for all is the "walk", via Manno, where before the murder thousands of young people, from Carbonia and beyond, would meet every evening. After those tragic events the walk emptied, the kids moved to via Gramsci, many parents understandably imposed strict curfews on their teenage daughters." A very heavy climate as confirmed by Francesca Marongiu, a friend of the Orrù family: "All of us girls were shocked," she recalls, "I was very young but I remember both Gisella and her younger sister Tiziana well because we attended the same oratory. None of us ever believed that Gisella was part of that terrible circle, and besides, it has never been proven. All of our parents were very scared, even going for a walk with a friend, maybe to the cinema, alone, was considered a risk. It changed our lives, it was terrible, we all deserve to know the truth. Those who know must find a way to talk."

Stefania Piredda

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