Premium Episode #5 - Franca Viola
🕑 Added 2022-05-14 07:40:04 +0000 UTCIn 1963, on the Italian island of Sicily, a wealthy young bachelor named Filippo Melodia began a courtship with a teenager named Franca Viola, much to the displeasure of Franca's father.
Team:
Anonymous Host - narration
Holly Boyd - research, writing
Mike Migas - production, music
Andrew D.B. Joslyn - music
Milly Raso - creative direction
Comments
Lauren M
Amazing story, beautifully & respectfully written. I can only echo what others have already said: what a courageous woman - a true hero. Thank you for sharing this story.
mbx
Great story thanks for sharing
Crysalyn Lopez
Hey bob, why don’t you look up the term “toxic masculinity” before you get all defense.
Bob Trenwith
You know, it is possible to make the statement you wanted to make without attacking all men.
David J Osborne
What an incredible story and what a strong woman well girl at the time.
Stacey Carson
What an amazing choice of story. What an inspiration this young woman and her family are.
Asia Szczepanik
What an incredible and brave woman
David Rogosaroff
Hey! Great episode, well told story, especially the historic context was very informative. Franca is a true hero! If I may nitpick: There was no Champions League in 1978. The competition you are referring to was simply called „European Cup“. Also it was not entirely clear to my why Filippo was assassinated. Cheers David
HelpFind Ajax&Stamp
Like =like the production but hate the crime. Frances was so brave, as was her family. Those laws were freaking unbelievable!! And those cowardly villagers and the Church / clergy who performed those forced marriages, all were rotten scumbags.
Maurice Velasquez
Franca is a hero! Giuseppe rules too! Amazing episode! This is the first episode that actually made me cry
Tara Z
Thank you for sharing this story!!! I love the breadth of true crime that you cover - never the same old same old cases.
Mandy G
Oh my gosh, what a beautiful ending to such a horrifying story. This episode made me ugly cry! 😭
Carolyn Barry
This is why I love you casefiles! Thanks for covering such a wide variety of true crime and including cases with such a historical impact. As a woman in the US I needed this type of empowering story today.
Mark Ofmalovia
I agree with everyone else. I can't believe it took 15 years to repeal this law. One question: how do you track a person down to an empty house?
John M
I was prepared for the worst but so glad there was a happy end to this story (given the circumstances) and not only a just one.
Laura B
Thank you for this one! This is a very important story that needs to be told!
Kerry Weinstein
Awesome that toxic masculinity didn’t prevail in this story!
Andrea Johnson
Wow. I knew that rewarding rapists by forcing their victims to marry them is prescribed in the Bible but I honestly had no idea European women were subject to such barbaric laws in the late 20th century.
emily
💜💜💜
Demi
Thank you for sharing this. This one was hard to hear but uplifting at the same time. I think I scared a few people when I cheered for Viola walking down the aisle to Giuseppe because she was not gonna let Filippo Melodia dictate the rest of her life.
Monica
“Honour is lost by those who do certain things, not those who suffer them.” Powerful words and what a courageous young lady. It’s sickening to think how sure he was he would get away with his crimes by forcing her to marry him but given it was literally the law I can see why he was so confident.
Jess Ashlee
Love this story!! At every moment, I expected it to go a different way- unjust, unfair and tragic; what a pleasant surprise at how cool this story turned out. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Bob Trenwith
Good to see that Franca and Giuseppe are still going strong today after 53 years of marriage.
Emily Moore
Franca is an absolute badass and my ultimate hero. Beautifully-written episode
Helen
What a courageous woman Franca is, and the Viola family too. So well written and gripping, thank you Holly 👏
James Franey
Wow - this is powerful!
izette
As I was in the early stages of the episode I found myself as usual shaking my head at the tragic injustices women have faced and began to wish stories could be found of where the tide began and we saw those standing up against such injustices - and boy oh boy did the casefile team deliver just that! Powerful stories to conclude on.
TheodoraTheExplorer
Thank you for covering this case so thoroughly and respectfully. An excellent listen.