"ON THE night of December 27th, I was also there on the Cavallosa flyover. There were eight of us . .. We realised we'd done something serious when we saw the flashing lights of the police cars as they arrived on the spot. We got out of there before we were arrested.
"We took the rocks from a supermarket car park nearby ... I hung back a bit but I saw them throw the rocks. Two of them passed the rocks up to another two who stood on the guard-rail and threw them down. They kept on throwing even when they realised that they had hit some cars. Indeed, they were delighted with this and celebrated."
This is an extract from evidence given by one of a group of eight young people suspected of having participated in the events leading to the death of Maria Letizia Berdin, a 31-year-old woman who was killed by a rock thrown at her car as she and her husband, Lorenzo, drove along the Piacenza-Turin autostrada shortly before eight o'clock on the night of December 27th.
The death of Maria Letizia Berdin has inevitably generated much public interest. Not only did it occur right in the middle of the Christmas and New Year festivities, but it also generated something akin to nationwide paranoia, prompted by the not unreasonable fear that there may be plenty of "copycat" killers around, just waiting for the chance to stage a repeat.
For three weeks now, newspapers and TV news bulletins have carried photographs of Maria Letizia, many of them taken as she and her husband recited a prayer together on their wedding day five months ago.
The investigation into her death has concentrated on Tortona, a provincial town near Milan. At the heart of the inquiry is the alienation of small town provincial life, as interpreted by the Furlan family. Investigators believe that four Furlan brothers - Gabriele, Paolo, Sandro and Franco - were among the eight people on the flyover the night that Maria Letizia died.
The investigators furthermore believe that, for the brothers throwing stones at passing cars on the autostrada below was merely a game, a cynical pastime that followed on from the meaningless video games they allegedly played for hours at their local bar the Cafe Teatro in Tortona.
"These guys have empty heads, empty in a way none of you can begin to imagine," commented the Tortona state investigator Aldo Cuva, the man who has led the investigation. "I have met the abyss, nothingness," he added.
Apparently, the rock throwing game had a set of rules. First and foremost, only reasonably heavy stones could be used. Secondly the thrower had to stand on the flyover guard-rail, in itself a risky business since there is always the possibility of losing one's balance and falling 30 feet down on to the autostrada below.
Thirdly, and just to make the sick "game" more "interesting" the thrower stood with his back to the oncoming traffic, assessing speed and vehicle dimension by the noise of the engine and the proximity of the lights. Whenever the deadly missile launchers hit the "target", up went the cry "Bingo" to general delight.
Inevitably Italian media coverage has paid much attention to the economically limited circumstances of the Furlan family. Giulia Furlan (50), mother of eight including the four under investigation, works as a cleaner at Tortona railway station.
Her husband was injured in a tractor accident more than 19 years ago and is now semi invalided. Her sons drift in and out of work, as bricklayers, builders' labourers and house painters. One of the sons, Paolo (25), already had a modest criminal record following minor acts of vandalism.
When another of the sons, Sandro (23), announced from his prison cell in Voghera that he wished to speak with the media, journalists were hopeful of a "scoop". Sandro's message to the outside world, however, was to specify that he supported Internazionale Milan soccer club, not the Turin-based Juventus.
Early media reports had spoken of the bedroom walls in the Furlan family home being covered with Juventus posters, apparently much to the annoyance of the punctilious Sandro. That family home, too, is a modest building standing right next to the busy Tortona-Alessandria secondary, road, furnished cheaply and heated by paraffin heaters.
Inevitably perhaps, public opinion seems less than sympathetic to the relatively deprived circumstances of the Furlan family. When two of the brothers were led out of the Tortona police station last week, the crowd shouted "hang them". When the Ferrari Formula One driver, Michael Schumacher of Germany, was asked his opinion of the killing, he called for a "hard line" to be taken with those responsible.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior intends improving the lighting on autostrada flyovers in an attempt to discourage copycat rock throwers. The new lighting may help make flyovers safer but it is unlikely to deal with the real culprit - big time alienation in a small town.