Talk:Franca Viola
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Potentially useful English Language Source[edit]
Could be useful. - A Canadian Toker (talk) 22:25, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
- It is, thank you very much! Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 23:15, 13 May 2018 (UTC)
A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion[edit]
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:
Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 09:08, 8 October 2018 (UTC)
Conflicting sources[edit]
There are a lot of conflicting sources surrounding the abduction, and also about all of Franca's engagements. For example, the German Wikipedia page mentions this source discrepancy in the text itself: 'The sources diverge on the details: some say that she was held at Melodia's sister's house in Alcamo all the time; according to other sources, she was only taken there on the sixth day of her imprisonment'. The main sources used on Wikipedia are either English books (on Google Books) or Italian online newspapers or history websites. Either we'll have to decide which ones we deem more or less reliable, or we'll have to say what each souce or group of sources says about a particular detail. These are the contradictions I've found so far:
- To whom and when has Franca been engaged? Most sources agree Melodia and Franca had been engaged, but I cannot find anyone saying how old she was; Cullen p. 116 just says they had been engaged for 6 months. All sources appear to agree Bernardo demanded Franca to break off the engagement due to Melodia's conviction for theft. Il Post adds that Meloda's gang retaliated 'even before the kidnapping, the family had suffered a series of threats in addition to the burning of their vineyard', which according to Pirro happened only after Melodia's post-kidnapping arrest. Appiah p. 144 states she had been engaged to Ruisi since age 14, while Repubblica says she had 'promised to Giuseppe Ruisi, a contemporary friend of the family.' Meanwhile, Cullen p. 116 adds that Franca had been engaged to Antonio Zagari since January 1965, which had apparently been arranged by her family, but this engagement 'did not survive beyond the court case' (December 1966).
- The resistance performed by Franca's mother and brother, specifically what caused her mother to be wounded (did Melodia's companions hit her, or did she cling to the car and was wounded when they drove away?).
- Franca's brother was released after some hours, or after 2 days (Repubblica).
- Franca was held 8 days at some countryside cottage (Pirro), 6 days at this cottage and then moved to Melodia's sister's home in the village (Repubblica) or 8 days at his sister's home (which was a cottage?).
- On 31 December 1965, Melodia himself contacted Bernardo (il Centro), or Melodia's relatives contacted Franca's relatives on 1 January 1966 (Il Post).
- Bernardo agreed to the marriage while working with the police to set a trap for the kidnappers in the countryside, where they were captured and she was liberated (Storia), OR Franca's parents agreed to the marriage and agreed to meet Melodia's relatives to negotiate the conditions, but only did so in order to find out the location Franca was held, which was raided by the police the next day and Franca was liberated (Il Post), OR apparently Franca was released by the kidnappers after her father had apparently genuinely agreed to the marriage, but when Franca returned home she rebelled against her father and persuaded him to drop the marriage and instead have Melodia and his accomplices arrested and convicted (Pirro).
The biggest problem of them all seems to be that none of them presents their account of all the details, instead opting to mention some details that they find particularly interesting and omitting those they don't care too much about. Cullen is the most elaborate, studying how the newspaper sources as well as the two sides at the trial at the time were heavily conflicted about what had happened and why, with different narratives about how A. Franca had full agency to refuse the marriage and was supported by her parents, or B. Bernardo reclaimed Franca as his daughter because Melodia wasn't his preferred son-in-law (namely Zagari), while Franca's own preferences (namely Ruisi) were much less relevant. Unfortunately Cullen has pages missing from the Google Book preview, which makes this source incomplete as well. Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 19:09, 1 March 2020 (UTC)