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a backup plan. Hello,

0:33

happy Saturday. So

0:36

as some of you may have heard

0:38

me mention like once or twice, I've

0:40

got this book coming out this week,

0:43

The Sicilian Inheritance. Yeah, I

0:45

mean, I know that I don't talk about it enough.

0:48

It's true, it's true, but I

0:50

do, it comes out on Tuesday. All of you have

0:52

been so supportive and wonderful and ordered the book. If

0:55

you wanna order more, there's more available.

0:57

Tell a friend, we are all influencers.

1:00

We are, we are. You could stop strangers

1:02

on the street if you want and be like, hey,

1:04

have you heard about this awesome book? Let's

1:07

go have a glass of wine and be in a book

1:09

club together. It's a good way to make new friends. It

1:11

is, it is. Today, I wanna

1:13

share something with you that I've been working

1:16

on for a year. The

1:19

Sicilian Inheritance is a novel loosely

1:21

based on my great-great-grandmother Lorenza's

1:24

murder, but it's fiction.

1:26

I just took this like little tiny

1:28

nugget of a story and ran with

1:30

it and created the greatest

1:33

novel that I've ever written. But

1:35

because I am nothing

1:37

if not a thorough content creator,

1:40

once the book was finished, I decided, I've

1:44

gotta solve this murder in real life. Like I don't

1:46

have a choice, I have to do this. So

1:48

I took my three children under the

1:51

age of six to Sicily last summer

1:53

and started reporting and we set out to

1:56

solve this murder. And also, as many of

1:58

you know, I just. got

2:00

back. I went back to Sicily again

2:02

two weeks ago because I got

2:05

access to the mafia and homicide

2:07

records from 1916, which was cool

2:09

as shit, my friends. I mean,

2:12

just crazy pants bananas that I got to

2:14

do this. So I've been

2:16

reporting for a year, digging

2:18

through archives, interviewing people in

2:20

Sicily, interviewing my own relatives,

2:23

talking to the historians

2:25

at Alice Island and

2:27

genealogists from ancestry.com. And

2:29

now, now the Sicilian Inheritance

2:32

True Crime podcast is finally

2:34

here. And it sounds so good. I

2:37

mean, this is what happens because we

2:39

had a fancy production studio making

2:41

this kaleidoscope. Love them so much.

2:43

I mean, this is what a podcast sounds

2:45

like when you have when you put money into it. I'm

2:47

like, Oh, my God, money makes something sound better. Who

2:50

knew? I love this so

2:52

much. Again, it's true

2:54

crime. But also it's a travel

2:56

podcast. It's an adventure podcast. I

2:59

like to describe it as White Lotus

3:01

meets Only Murders in the Building, where

3:03

Nick is totally Martin Short, meets

3:07

Bluey, because I've got

3:09

my three kids with me as you will

3:11

hear in this episode. This

3:13

is the first episode. It's called Lorenzo,

3:15

which was my great, great grandmother's name.

3:18

Like I said, I just want to share it

3:21

with you because I love it so much. The

3:23

pod, the whole podcast is also called the Sicilian

3:25

Inheritance because I like to make things easy for

3:27

people, much like I married Nick

3:30

Astor on my birthday, because I'm

3:32

like, Oh, you should only remember one day and

3:34

then get me a really, really nice present on

3:36

that day. I want to

3:38

call everything the Sicilian Inheritance. So you're like,

3:40

Oh, I heard there's a book or and

3:42

the podcast and what what are they? Oh,

3:45

they're both called the Sicilian Inheritance. So

3:47

please enjoy this. It's a nice thing to

3:50

listen to while you're going about your Saturday.

3:52

And I just I can't

3:54

wait to hear what you think because I've been

3:56

working on this all year and it's such a

3:58

labor of love and Oh, it's

4:01

nice to get things out into the world. It is. I feel like

4:03

I just gave birth to two to

4:05

two book podcast babies All

4:08

right. Here you go Hey,

4:10

babe solve

4:12

a mystery Charlie What's

4:17

wrong with them, I think you had them on upside down man I'm

4:20

sitting by the pool in Scappello Sicily

4:22

with my podcast producer Kate and

4:25

my three kids No

4:32

No Yeah,

4:35

you want this house Charlie is much

4:37

more interested in the very deep pool

4:40

B is freezing. Where is the mystery?

4:43

Everyone's jetlagged and I'm questioning every

4:46

decision that I've ever made about

4:48

my life B's do you

4:50

know why we're here in Sicily? I'm

4:53

trying to solve the mystery of

4:55

my great-great-grandmother of her Can

4:59

I say murder to a three-year-old? Her

5:02

death how she died. Hi,

5:04

we don't know yet We're

5:06

trying to figure it out. We're trying to learn. Do you

5:08

want to help me? I'm not exactly

5:10

sure what possessed me when I made

5:12

this plan Jetting off

5:14

to Sicily with a five-month-old baby

5:16

a three-year-old and a

5:18

six-year-old For a vacation

5:21

slash fact-finding mission to look

5:23

for clues into my investigation

5:25

into my great-great-grandmother century-old

5:27

murder Right here in our

5:29

motherland. Do you know what her name was? Her

5:36

name was Lorenzo, can you say

5:38

that I Keep

5:44

telling myself that if we can learn

5:46

something new something more concrete

5:48

about what happened to her It will all

5:51

be worth it. But just

5:53

being here it all feels more real

5:55

she feels more real and We

6:00

are closer. Closer to figuring

6:02

out if my great-great-grandmother really

6:05

was murdered. Right

6:07

here on this island. And

6:09

if so, why? I'm

6:16

Jo Piazza. Kaleidoscope and I

6:18

Heart Podcast. This

6:20

is The Sicilian Inheritance. Chapter

6:23

One. La Renta. So,

6:40

take me to the love... Do you remember the first time

6:42

you heard this? It's hard to say.

6:44

I feel like I've always known this story. Because

6:47

Italian Americans love to tell stories.

6:50

And they love to embellish stories. And

6:53

especially if it's

6:56

really salacious. Or it could possibly have something to do with the mafia.

7:00

They love that shit. Can

7:02

you just walk me through the... Yeah,

7:04

the story. The story. The

7:07

story is one that I've known all my

7:09

life. I've heard it over and over and

7:11

over again. Not always

7:13

in the same way. And definitely not

7:15

with the same information. It's

7:18

my family's origin story. The

7:20

story of where we, the Piazzas, came

7:22

from. It

7:25

all starts a little over a hundred years ago

7:27

with my great-great-grandparents back in Sicily. The

7:30

ancestral homeland, as far as my dad's

7:33

side of the family is concerned. My

7:36

great-great-grandfather, Antonino, and my

7:38

great-great-grandmother, Lorenzo, lived

7:40

in this tiny village called Caltabolota,

7:42

where they had seven children. One

7:46

by one, around 1910, Antonino and his

7:48

son saved up enough money to sail

7:50

to the U.S., pass through

7:53

Ellis Island, and settle in the Northeast,

7:55

the classic Italian-American story. follow

8:00

them eventually. But she

8:02

never made it. She died

8:04

in Caltibilota. According

8:07

to my family's hundred-year-long game of telephone,

8:09

she was murdered. For

8:13

years, this story has just been

8:15

a mystery for our family, something

8:17

we've enjoyed speculating about. Swapping

8:19

different bits and pieces and versions

8:21

of the story, as

8:24

you'd say in Italian, La Quiera

8:26

Quiera. Idle

8:28

gossip. Hello.

8:32

Hey Sharon, how you doing?

8:35

I'm okay. So now I hear you're

8:37

writing my memoir and I'm gonna become

8:40

famous now, right? You are.

8:42

Yeah. Yeah. And the story was

8:44

always told with a kind of

8:46

hand gesture where you push your

8:48

thumb into your nose and

8:50

lower your voice when you say the

8:53

black hand or the mafia.

8:55

No, consistently they're still from the

8:57

mafia and of course they called

8:59

it the black hand. Which is why for me,

9:01

for a long time, I thought

9:04

the whole thing might be bullshit.

9:06

Well nobody knows for sure. There's

9:08

two stories. But over the years, as

9:10

I've heard it more and more, Lorenz's

9:12

story and her potential murder have

9:14

become a bit of an obsession.

9:17

Maybe that's because we're a family

9:19

of storytellers, sometimes liars,

9:23

definitely myth makers, myself

9:26

included. I'm

9:28

a writer and recently I

9:30

turned my fascination with Lorenz

9:32

into a novel. It's also

9:34

called The Sicilian Inheritance and

9:37

it is loosely, loosely based

9:40

on my family story. A woman is left

9:42

alone, there's an unsolved murder, there's

9:45

just a lot more food and wine and

9:47

sex thrown in. And

9:49

look, my obsession with this story,

9:51

this family story, may have

9:53

ended there. But the writing,

9:56

it got me fixated on the

9:58

real story. and the real

10:00

woman. Who was

10:02

the real Lorenzo Marzala? And

10:05

what actually happened to her? So

10:08

I started digging, and

10:10

I began with my best sources,

10:14

my family. The first thing I'm doing is asking

10:16

different family members what they think

10:18

the story is. What did they know? Good

10:20

luck with that. Good

10:22

luck with that. Oh dear. Hi,

10:25

how are you? Good. This

10:27

is Uncle Jimmy. He's my dad's older

10:29

brother. I want to hear everything you

10:32

know. Well, I don't

10:34

know any more than probably you do, but

10:36

Jimmy and I have been talking about it. And

10:40

our one concern is if it's

10:42

too realistic, you're going to

10:44

wind up starting our vendetta again, and I'm too

10:46

old to go over there and shoot somebody. And

10:51

Jimmy wants to bring his kids over

10:53

there. Are you too old to go

10:55

over there and shoot somebody, Uncle Jim? Are you really?

10:57

Oh hell no. No. Vendetta

10:59

or not, I kept calling relatives. You

11:01

know that you have this book coming out. I

11:04

didn't know it was finished. That was Aunt Gail.

11:06

When I was growing up, she lived down the

11:08

street. She was like a second mom to me.

11:10

I'm sad at writing sex scenes, okay? Like I

11:12

am like, I have to get like real drunk

11:15

to write them. I hope you don't write too

11:17

many sex scenes. Well,

11:19

drunk all the time. Cousin Sissy,

11:21

she's a romance novelist. Cousin Sharon,

11:23

cousin Laura. We have a lot

11:26

of cousins. We are Italian

11:28

Americans. We breed like rabbits. All

11:31

I know is just obviously here

11:33

we say. Okay, so here's

11:36

what I was told. Grandpa, my

11:38

grandpa, Santa Piazza immigrated

11:40

to the US. Santa

11:42

came over with

11:45

his siblings. Large

11:47

family, younger sisters, siblings, and

11:50

immigrations. Then boys came over

11:52

to kind of settle in and you know, all

11:54

of that. So they came through Ellis Island, settled

11:57

in in New York. The boys came over from

11:59

Italy to buy. To we immigrated

12:01

get down to must. Have

12:04

been left behind. Her

12:07

mother behind than other

12:09

ah to sell. The farm

12:11

his wife stayed behind to tend

12:13

to eat. She said they had

12:16

a family farm. What I heard

12:18

was that they're a mom was

12:20

interested in her lan she refused

12:22

to sell else this particular go

12:24

through. I don't know what. Know

12:27

what, you're gone, you're not or

12:29

somebody else. But.

12:31

They had. A vineyard. Endured.

12:36

Present. Network Access to the

12:38

tenured. The

12:41

Black Hand. That's

12:43

how my family tends to refer to

12:45

the mafia in this story. It is

12:48

not how Sicilians refer to the mafia.

12:50

I just want everyone to know that.

12:52

But this right? here. This is the

12:54

reigning theory. Of. How Lorenzo was

12:56

killed. And it's the version of

12:59

the story that's been in my head. The

13:01

longest is the version where the Pr says

13:03

on the farm or as vineyard it is

13:05

unclear. And once Antony know

13:08

and all of Lorenzo sons had been

13:10

gone in the Us for over a

13:12

decade, the Mafia killed Lorenzo to get

13:14

that land. We. Only saw

13:16

me to dinner. They live to be.

13:18

I do. Do to

13:20

him Sergio. Matter

13:23

where usually stolen. someone killed

13:25

her. She solar farm

13:27

and. All the money

13:29

was in the house. Number killed

13:32

or for the money she was murdered while

13:34

the boy for over here. Maybe she had

13:36

already sold the land and the mafia them

13:39

killed her to get some money from the

13:41

lamp. Maybe it was that money that she

13:43

was planning to use. Tell these Sicily and

13:45

finally reunite with her family. Labor Kind of

13:48

super to leave all that money. but. There.

13:50

Are no bank center nursing and.

13:52

That was the money she was going to

13:55

be using to come to the United States

13:57

and get them. Started. As

13:59

much. They were kind of stupid to leave her there

14:01

alone like that. What

14:08

was her name? The

14:10

name of who? Of

14:13

the great-great-grandmother who was

14:15

murdered. Oh. Oh,

14:18

I forget. I forget her

14:20

name. Oh, Lorenzo Marcello.

14:24

For all the times that I've heard

14:26

the story about Lorenzo being murdered, all

14:28

the tellings and retellings, talking

14:30

to my relatives this time made me

14:33

realize how little any of us knew

14:35

about her actual life. Or

14:38

her death, for that matter. Did

14:41

you hear how they killed her? No. I

14:43

never heard any details of her death.

14:46

Aunt Deanna didn't give any details I

14:48

don't remember. That's

14:51

the thing. There have never

14:53

been any real details when this

14:55

story gets told. Things

14:57

that you can prove. And

15:00

that's always what's made me skeptical. Like

15:02

maybe it was never a murder. Maybe

15:05

her story could be as open and shut

15:08

as a case of the flu. Maybe

15:11

she got sick and that's why she didn't make it over.

15:14

A tragedy for sure for her sons and

15:16

her daughters. But

15:18

not exactly worth the legend status.

15:22

Maybe the family needed to make her death

15:24

into something more than just a virus. My

15:27

dad was a claims attorney. My

15:30

Uncle Jimmy's a judge. We're

15:34

a very basic Italian-American

15:36

family. But they

15:38

love imagining that there's some kind

15:40

of adventure and romance in

15:44

possibly being adjacent to the mafia.

15:47

Even though they're absolutely not. And

15:49

this story gives it to them. But

15:51

this story does give them that. This story

15:53

gives them some kind of connection. And I think

15:55

that's what they love about this story. Like if

15:57

she was possibly killed by the mob. Why?

16:00

And like that gives them this link

16:02

to, you know, Goodfellas, the Sopranos,

16:05

the Godfather. When

16:07

I started writing my novel, I didn't want to know the

16:09

real story. I wanted to

16:11

use the small bits and pieces that

16:13

I knew about Lorenzo to get started,

16:16

and then let my imagination run wild with the

16:18

rest. But once the

16:20

book was put to bed, I got this

16:22

tug in my gut. Something

16:25

told me the story wasn't finished.

16:28

And that's when I needed to know the truth about

16:31

what happened to Lorenzo. I

16:33

became obsessed. What really

16:35

sent me looking for answers was this email

16:37

from my dad from about a decade ago.

16:40

Toward the end of his life, he used to send me

16:42

dozens of emails a day. And

16:45

one day, a couple years ago, when I was cleaning

16:47

out my inbox, one of those unopened

16:49

emails caught my eye. It

16:52

was his grandfather's birth certificate,

16:54

Santo's birth certificate. And

16:56

in the email, my dad remarked on how

16:58

beautiful the mother's name was. Lorenzo.

17:03

She was the one who was murdered. He

17:05

reminded me in all caps. That

17:16

email got me to start doing a little more

17:18

digging. Just a little

17:20

bit of reporting. And

17:22

as soon as I scratched the surface, it

17:25

started to look a lot like I had a 100-year-old murder

17:27

mystery on my hands. Would

17:30

there be a police record? Yes,

17:32

only in the case of a marker. One

17:34

that I'm pretty sure I'm going to be

17:36

able to solve. Oh my

17:40

gosh, why would they be murdered together? More

17:45

after the break. Do

17:57

you hear that? That's

18:00

the gentle lapping of the Mediterranean Sea

18:02

on the fine golden sand. By

18:05

the magic of podcasting, you can almost feel

18:07

the heat of the sun, the cool of

18:09

the water, and the smell of the orange

18:11

blossoms. And with a

18:13

few short clicks, you can taste it,

18:15

too, because we have actually

18:18

imported the finest Sicilian olive oil

18:20

inspired by this very podcast. We've

18:23

partnered with Philadelphia's own Cardenas

18:25

Gourmet Foods to bring you

18:27

the Sicilian Inheritance Olive Oil,

18:30

a flavor journey from the

18:32

volcanic soil of ancient groves

18:34

through special terroir that family

18:36

secrets and inherited stories provide.

18:40

It's got a taste of fresh off the vine

18:42

tomatoes and a hint of almonds. You

18:44

can get your own bottle today at

18:46

Cardenas Taproom. Check the show notes for

18:48

the link and all the details to

18:50

buy. It's not only

18:53

an incredible olive oil, but it

18:55

will completely transport you to

18:57

the beautiful and sometimes dangerous

19:00

island of Sicily. So

19:02

please do check out the show notes now,

19:04

and thank you. Also, enjoy

19:07

with something delicious. I

19:18

just spent $300 on ancestry.com. Oh,

19:21

no. Oh, I did. As

19:24

I tried to solve this mystery, I

19:26

forced my husband Nick to be my

19:28

enthusiastic sounding board for all of my

19:30

discoveries. Here is Santo. I've

19:33

got all the dates. There she is. This

19:37

is the- That's her. Wow. Which,

19:39

of course, involved immediately Googling

19:42

genealogy websites. There's a picture of

19:44

her. No

19:46

way. Look at that. Have you ever seen the

19:48

avianuria? No, I've never seen this. Wow. She

19:54

looks unhappy. When you imagine

19:56

an Italian nonna, what do you think

19:58

of? I've got chubby. lady in

20:00

the kitchen making pasta. That

20:03

is not Lorenzo. Lorenzo looks like

20:05

she could kill you with her stare. Her

20:08

cheekbones alone could cut glass.

20:10

She looks like someone who might have been involved

20:13

in some shit. But this is very helpful because now

20:15

we have the death date. Yeah, or

20:17

the alleged death date. Right. Yeah.

20:19

Yeah. Whoa, cool,

20:21

Panda. So before we go much further,

20:23

I think I need to draw my family tree

20:25

for you all. In fact, I now have a

20:27

massive wall in my house where I sketched it

20:30

all out. Lorenzo

20:32

Marcella, my great-great-grandmother on

20:34

my dad's side. She was born in 1862. She married Antonino

20:39

Piazza. Quick note here,

20:42

just to make things extra confusing, in

20:44

Italy, women don't take their husbands last

20:47

names. Did you know that? I didn't

20:49

until we started doing this. So Lorenzo kept

20:52

the last name Marcella. Lorenzo

20:54

Marcella. Sounds like a pasta

20:56

dish. Anyway, Lorenzo

20:59

and Antonino had seven children

21:01

who lived to adulthood. I

21:03

personally have three children, and I think seven is

21:05

a lot of children. Anything more than one is

21:08

a lot of children. Anyway,

21:10

Lorenzo and Antonino's kids. First,

21:13

we've got Santo. He's my

21:15

great-grandfather. Then Joseph, also known

21:17

as Giuseppe, Vito and

21:20

Caligaro, also known as Shirley, and

21:22

the daughters, Josephine, Paulina,

21:25

and Rosa. All of

21:27

them would eventually come to America. The

21:30

men first. Santo, the oldest

21:32

son, and Giuseppe left Sicily in

21:34

1905. Now just to

21:36

set the scene, picture this. Pre-World

21:39

War I, turn of the

21:41

century. A lot of

21:44

Italians were immigrating back then, especially

21:46

the ones living in intense rural

21:48

poverty in southern Italy and Sicily. Between

21:50

1900 and 1910, more

21:53

than two million Italians made their

21:55

way across the Atlantic Ocean. And

21:58

among them were Santo and his brothers. Lorenz's

22:01

son, Santo, is

22:03

my dad's grandfather. Got it.

22:06

And he worked in the coal mines and

22:08

was also a farmer. This is me trying to

22:10

explain it all to Kate. It's

22:12

really hard to keep all this straight. And

22:14

not that Kate is the best at keeping it straight

22:16

either. And presumably Santo told

22:19

him... No, that's the thing.

22:21

So Santo, like a lot of other Sicilians at

22:23

the time, settled

22:26

in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and

22:28

he goes to work in the coal mines. Two

22:31

years later, their father, Antonino,

22:34

joins them, bringing

22:36

along another son. By 1912, most

22:39

of the kids, all of the sons,

22:41

are in the States. Lorenz

22:44

and two of her daughters are still in

22:46

Sicily. In 1916, Lorenz dies,

22:48

and a few years later, her

22:51

daughters would immigrate to the U.S. too. Now

22:55

Santo, the eldest son, he starts

22:58

my particular branch of the family tree. Santo

23:01

is the grandfather, or great-grandfather,

23:03

to all of my

23:05

relatives that you've heard so far. They

23:07

held a big reunion one time with

23:10

all the Piazzans, the

23:12

first generation Piazzans were there. That

23:15

was fantastic. My

23:17

uncles and my dad were playing more,

23:20

which is a finger game, you

23:23

know, rock, stone, scissors almost. And

23:26

they played bocce on a dirt road. It

23:29

was a great time, and it's one of the

23:31

few times I have memories of seeing

23:34

all Santo's bringers

23:36

and sisters. Santo also had a

23:39

lot of children, ten of them. And

23:42

here the family tree gets even more confusing for

23:44

a lot of reasons, namely because

23:46

everyone seems to have the same names. There's

23:49

so many, Giuseppe's, Giuseppe's,

23:52

Josephine's, Vito's, Vinny's, and

23:54

then the names, they get anglicized when people

23:56

come to the U.S. The

23:58

Giuseppe's become J... The

24:01

Larenzes become Lores, the Vitos become Vinnies.

24:04

You get the picture. Santo, at

24:06

some point, lived with each of his

24:08

children. And for as Sicilian as Santo

24:11

was, he didn't like to

24:14

talk about Italy. I remember going there

24:16

and my old great aunts would get

24:18

my face and squeeze it and hurt

24:20

the hell out of me and talkin'

24:22

Italian. Cousin Sharon. She's

24:24

my second cousin. I think. I'm

24:28

bad with the seconds and the thirds.

24:31

Her mom Rose was one of Santo's children.

24:33

Santa was very quiet about his

24:35

past. Growing up, I

24:37

remember he wouldn't, he didn't

24:39

even want to acknowledge that he was

24:42

Italian for a while there. Really? But

24:45

yeah, yeah, it was very strange. Somebody

24:47

would come to the door and see that he was

24:50

clearly Italian with his, you know,

24:52

deep accent. And he'd

24:54

say, you're in America, you

24:57

speak English, no Italian. I mean, he

24:59

didn't want, it was

25:01

strange. He was very close-mouthed about much

25:03

of his younger

25:05

life. Very close-mouthed. So

25:08

it's worth investigating and looking

25:10

into. Santo

25:12

definitely didn't talk about

25:14

what happened to his mother, Lorenzo.

25:17

Your dad knew the most, I think. Didn't

25:20

he? I know. But

25:22

yeah, there's a lot. My dad and

25:24

his siblings and cousins are

25:26

the complete opposite. They're

25:29

obsessed with their Sicilian roots. Santo

25:33

was first generation. He

25:35

wanted to hide being Sicilian so he could fit

25:37

in in this country, which for

25:40

some immigrants was a pretty common

25:42

reaction. My dad, on the

25:44

other hand, he used to

25:46

say things like capiche instead

25:48

of understand, or mozzarella

25:51

instead of mozzarella. Which of

25:53

this, Sicily, 1912. So

25:55

that everyone would know he was

25:58

Italian. mean

26:00

something. My dad loved to pretend

26:03

to be this kind of Tony Soprano tough guy, especially

26:06

with my high school boyfriend.

26:08

Sorry Kurt Siegel. Not with this

26:10

Sicilian thing that's been going

26:12

on for 2,000 years! In

26:16

the early 2000s, my dad started to get really

26:19

sick with a rare form of

26:21

muscular dystrophy. But instead

26:23

of saying housebound or just feeling sorry

26:25

for himself in bed, Lorenzo's

26:28

story became this kind of

26:31

unfinished business, and

26:33

it seemed to light a fire in him. He

26:36

started researching genealogy and taking

26:38

trips to Sicily. By

26:40

that time, he had to use a cane and a

26:42

walker to get around, and

26:44

his obsession had gone into

26:47

overdrive. It's

26:49

like falling in love with Sicily and

26:51

with learning new things about his family

26:54

and he gave him this way to

26:56

escape his broken body. He did some

26:58

crazy stuff too. He got

27:01

this harebrained idea to start importing

27:03

Sicilian organic olive oil. And

27:06

he bought a shit ton of it. I think he

27:08

blew probably about 100 grand on

27:11

local Sicilian olive oil. Then

27:14

there was something wrong with the caps and the

27:16

labels and they leaked and it just sat in

27:18

our garage for years and years. And

27:21

he just pissed away all

27:23

of his remaining money on this

27:26

business that would never exist. But

27:28

that was yet another way to keep him going

27:30

back to Sicily. As

27:32

he got sicker and less mobile, my

27:35

dad could still sit at a computer making

27:38

calls and researching his leads

27:40

on Lorenzo's murder. At the

27:43

time, I found all of it a

27:46

little bit silly. I was so disinterested

27:48

in this and if you think about 2000, I was in college. I

27:51

was 20 years old. I

27:53

graduated. I moved to New York. I'm

27:56

not living with my parents. I could care less

27:58

about my dad's Obsession with Sicily. Mcgrath

28:00

seems like a nice hobby for you that

28:02

I'm I'm happy for your spot. We never

28:04

talked about it. And.

28:07

Now I really wish that we have to

28:09

like now. I really wished I'd paid more

28:11

attention and I'd listened to the things that

28:13

he was. Finding out. what has so much

28:15

of it is also just now gone. I

28:17

can't find anything and his email or a

28:19

cat and Facebook won't let me into his

28:22

Facebook account. so a lot of what he

28:24

learned. Died. With him. A

28:28

lot of parts of him are gone. And.

28:31

He would hate that. He

28:33

wanted to know the answer. To this

28:35

mystery and. I wish that I'd

28:37

been there to help them. But.

28:39

I was on my own journey

28:42

searching for a life partner, falling

28:44

in love, getting married, getting pregnant,

28:47

And then he was gone

28:50

or never properly grieved for

28:52

him at the time, and

28:54

it's just been hitting me

28:57

now, his legacy and what

28:59

he left unfinished. And

29:02

now I feel like I

29:04

owe him something by finishing.

29:06

What He started. To

29:21

get here I is it Really

29:23

like to thank you Dad Used

29:25

to seeing motivation he dead. Or

29:28

I remember, innovation is different than

29:31

Dad's. There's. A part of me

29:33

that wants to do this because he didn't.

29:35

Get. To finish it. There's another part

29:37

of me that wants to do it. But.

29:39

He's I feel like this woman's real

29:41

story deserves. To be told. Like.

29:44

For people to really know the truth about

29:46

what happened. To her instead of just

29:48

becoming. A character and everybody

29:51

elses life. Lorenzo. Marsala

29:53

was born in this village. Called countable

29:55

Lhota. Had a bunch of kids.

29:58

And died there at. 54.

30:02

That's pretty much all we know of her life. When

30:04

she died, it was 1916. She still had

30:08

two young daughters at home. The

30:10

First World War had just broken out. Now

30:13

that I'm a wife and a mother of

30:15

three children, thank God it's

30:17

not seven, her

30:20

story just hits different.

30:23

I'm getting closer to Lorenzo's age

30:25

every year, and

30:27

I can't stop thinking about our

30:30

family's story from her perspective.

30:32

How did she feel about being left

30:34

behind by her husband for more than

30:37

a decade? Did she miss

30:39

him? Or was it

30:41

liberating to finally not just be

30:43

someone's wife, to finally

30:45

not be getting pregnant almost every

30:47

single year? Did she feel

30:50

safe in her own village? Was

30:53

it okay because she had a lot of her family

30:55

members around her? Or maybe

30:57

she was in constant danger in

31:00

this village surrounded by mafia bandits?

31:02

I was asking somebody about her,

31:07

and they

31:10

just looked at me and they kept saying,

31:12

Morte, Morte, no. And they're like, they shut

31:14

it down. They wouldn't talk. Really? You just

31:17

said Renee, and you're like, Lorenzo, Marcella, Piazza.

31:20

And they were like, Morte, Morte, Morte. Interesting.

31:25

Over the years, many of the

31:27

Piazza's have gone back to Sicily

31:29

looking for answers about our family's

31:31

past. And a

31:33

lot of them have returned with

31:35

stories of dead ends and also

31:37

unsettling experiences that happened when they

31:40

tried to find out more about Lorenzo. They

31:42

knew about the murders. They

31:44

knew about it, right? Yeah, they did.

31:47

My Uncle Jimmy claims that when he

31:49

was in Cottobolota, a bunch of police

31:51

officers warned him off this case.

31:53

He said, you'd better drop it.

31:56

Not in any

31:59

threatening matter. whatsoever, but just

32:01

as a matter of, you don't

32:03

want to start it off. You

32:06

don't want the vendetta to continue.

32:11

And if the warnings from the cops weren't enough,

32:13

they also got a sign from above. When we

32:15

were there, we were at

32:17

the church, Lightning struck the church.

32:20

What? We were actually, yeah, we were in

32:22

the church where they got married, and

32:25

Lightning struck the steeple.

32:28

And I remember we were... While you were in it? While

32:30

we were, yeah. Shut up! Yeah,

32:33

while we were in the church. We

32:35

were in with the priest going through

32:38

the records, right, in the rectory, and

32:40

Lightning struck the top of the church. We

32:43

had to get out. Wow! My

32:46

sister-in-law said, that is a sign. Get us out

32:48

of here. I'm

32:57

starting to think that maybe my family

32:59

doesn't want to know what really happened.

33:02

They're pretty attached to the stories that

33:04

they've been telling themselves for all these years.

33:07

Well, that's interesting, because I wonder how people will

33:09

feel. If we actually get to a truth,

33:12

will it be disappointing or

33:14

satisfying or, you know... I

33:17

don't know if my family wants to know

33:20

the actual truth. That's the interesting thing. Like,

33:23

for as much as people have come

33:25

back here and tried to dig

33:28

up more information, I

33:30

think if the truth ended up being less

33:33

interesting than their story, I don't

33:36

think they're going to change their story. I

33:39

think they're going to continue to tell the story the way they want

33:41

to tell the story. But

33:44

I need to know. I have to solve this mystery. I

33:46

don't know if it's for me or for my dad

33:48

or for Lorenzo, but I have to solve it. So

33:51

here I go. I'm looking

33:53

for long-lost relatives. I'm digging

33:56

through archives covered in dust and

33:59

trying to trace back a new story. family history that's

34:01

been twisted by secrets, omissions,

34:05

and vengeance. I

34:07

can't do all of this from my desk in

34:09

Philadelphia. I've gotta

34:11

go back. Back to, as

34:13

my dad liked to call it, the

34:16

motherland. I've gotta

34:18

go to Sicily. To the village of

34:20

Caltibilota, where all of this happened in

34:22

the first place. Back

34:24

to where Lorenzo was born, and

34:26

maybe, just maybe,

34:29

back to the very spot where she

34:31

was murdered. Where is she? There's

34:34

a weird spot. There's a pipe. This is a

34:36

pipe. We have to get food

34:38

at the start of the year. 110% of the people. This

34:41

is it. I want to see a

34:43

picture when she dies. We don't have a

34:45

picture of that. I should lay a video.

34:47

You want to see a video? Videos didn't

34:49

exist. I'm bringing all of you on my

34:51

summer vacation with my husband,

34:54

three kids under the age of seven. Everyone

34:56

is coming to Sicily with me to solve this hundred

34:58

year old murder. Now I think

35:00

it's pretty clear that something

35:03

bad did happen to her. Your

35:05

father had his story that she

35:07

was like the witch doctor. Could

35:10

Lorenzo have been killed by the mafia

35:13

for being a witch? So I'm wondering, how is

35:15

the story similar or different than what you got?

35:17

So I've heard two stories. One

35:19

story is over land. And

35:22

the other story is that she was a witch. Well

35:26

that's even more interesting. What?

35:30

That's all coming up on

35:32

the Sicilian Inheritance. I'd love to know what

35:34

the hell happened. Wouldn't it be

35:37

great to solve this mystery? I feel good. My

35:39

Sicilian witchy powers. I feel like we're on the right

35:41

path. The

35:49

Sicilian Inheritance is a kaleidoscope production

35:51

in partnership with I Heart Podcast.

35:54

The series is produced by Jen

35:56

Kenny, Kate Osborne, Dara Potts, and

35:59

me, Jopiele. With key

36:01

help from Laura Lee Watson of Digging Up

36:03

Your Roots in the Boot and Ciro Grillo

36:05

of Sicily Roots. Many

36:08

thanks to Giulia Paravicini and

36:10

the ancestry.com Research Department. You

36:14

can get your copy of The Sicilian Inheritance,

36:16

the novel, right now at

36:18

truly anywhere that you get your books.

36:21

Anywhere you get your books. It's got the same

36:23

name as the podcast, but with more

36:25

food, wine, and sex. Also,

36:27

do not forget to get a taste

36:29

of Sicily in the form of delicious

36:31

Sicilian olive oil at Cardena's

36:33

Taproom. Make sure to check out our

36:36

show notes for a link to buy it. Or

36:38

if you find yourself in Philly, just

36:40

stop by. Our executive

36:42

producers are Kate Osborne,

36:44

Manga Shatikador, Costas Linos,

36:47

and Oz Woloshin. From

36:49

iHeart, executive producers are Katrina

36:51

Norvell and Nikki Itor. We

36:55

also want to thank Will Pearson, Conal

36:57

Byrne, Bob Pittman, and

36:59

John Marianopoulos. Start.

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