Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/83

Rh this remarkable case presents all the peculiarities which modern science knows concerning the relation of lust to lust-murder with anthropophagy, and especially since it was carefully studied, it receives detailed description here:—

Case 21. Vincenz Verzeni, born in 1849; since January 11, 1872, in prison; is accused (1) of an attempt to strangle his nurse Marianne, four years ago, while she lay sick in bed; (2) of a similar attempt on a married woman, Arsuffi, aged 27; (3) of an attempt to strangle a married woman, Gala, by grasping her throat while kneeling on her body; (4) on suspicion of the following murders:—

In December a fourteen-year-old girl, Johanna Motta, set out for a neighboring village between seven and eight o’clock in the morning. Since she did not return, her master set out to find her, and discovered her body near the village, lying by a path in the fields. The corpse was frightfully mutilated with numerous wounds. The intestines and genitals had been torn from the opened body, and were found near by. The nakedness of the body and erosions on the thighs made it seem probable that there had been an attempt at rape; the mouth filled with earth pointed to suffocation. In the neighborhood of the body, under a pile of straw, were found a portion of flesh torn from the right calf, and pieces of clothing. The perpetrator of the deed remained undiscovered.

On August 28, 1871, a married woman, Frigeni, aged 28, set out in the fields early in the morning. Since she did not return by eight o’clock, her husband started out to fetch her. He found her a corpse, lying naked in the field, with the mark of a thong around her neck, with which she had been strangled, and with numerous wounds. The abdomen had been slit open, and the intestines were hanging out.

On August 29, at noon, as Maria Previtali, aged 19, went through a field, she was followed by her cousin, Verzeni. He dragged her into a field of grain, threw her to the ground, and began to choke her. As he let go of her for a moment to ascertain whether there were any one near, the girl got up and, by her supplicating entreaty, induced Verzeni to let her go, after he had pressed her hands together for some time.

Verzeni was brought before a court. He is twenty-two years old. His cranium is of more than average size, but asymmetrical. The right frontal bone is narrower and lower than the left, the right frontal prominence being less developed, and the right ear smaller than the left (by 1 centimetre in length and 3 centimetres in breadth); both ears are defective in the inferior half of the helix; the right temporal artery is somewhat atheromatous. Bull-necked; enormous development of the zygomæ and inferior maxilla; penis greatly developed, frænum wanting; slight divergent alternating strabismus (insufficiency of the internal rectus muscle, and myopia). Lombroso concludes, from these signs of degenera-