Jealousy led to Murder
Jealousy, that dragon which slays love under the pretense of keeping it alive. (Havelock Ellis)
Read in an Italian newspaper that a man called Giuseppe Castro (35) killed his wife Maria Pia Scuto (41) by decapitating her with a Stanley knife whilst she was chatting to her alleged internet lover on the computer. Apparently she had been spending a lot of time on the internet chatting to people and when he came home on 30th March and found her chatting to her new internet lover, he grabbed a Stanley Knife and decapitated her.
Stanley Knives are used for cutting carpet, cardboard and similar items, with a metal or plastic housing, within which is a very sharp blade. One wonders how he managed to decapitate her with a Stanley Knife though, because although very sharp, they are not very large knives, and it must have taken some time. I would have thought it would have taken more than enough time to suddenly step back and think ’hey what am I doing, this is not right, I must stop right away’ or some similar thought, but apparently his jealous rage lasted long enough to complete the entire process. He was then happy to let his 15-year old son take the blame; apparently the son volunteered to do this, so that his younger sister would not have to grow up without a father.
British Newspapers reported that Castro stabbed her with a kitchen knife and then decapitated her, allegedly in front of the mother-in-law and his 15 year old son. Again, the son offered to take the blame for the entire incident, but Castro rang the police and confessed to the murder.
I do not really know why I am so affected by this story. I guess it suddenly brought home to me the absolutely diabolical nature of jealousy. The fact that it actually absolutely destroys that which it is trying to preserve. The fact that a young child would want to take the blame for the incident, so that his younger sister would still have a parent (although a parent who killed her mother). The absolute futility of the action, yes, she will stop chatting to her ‘lover’ now, but she will never be your lover again either.
I think that what affected me most is, that when drinking coffee with some acquaintances, who were talking about the story, one of them said ‘that poor man, how he will suffer if he finds out that in fact his wife was not having an affair.’ What? He killed her, and if he finds out that he killed her for the ‘wrong reason’ he will feel bad about it? Does that mean that if she were having an affair, him killing her would have been somehow acceptable?
Some people think of jealousy as an inevitable side-effect of being in love or loving someone. There is even an old Russian proverb that says that love and jealousy are sisters. I believe nothing is further from the truth. To love someone is not about possessing them, it is about letting them be who they are. Giving that person the freedom to grow, even if that might mean they might grow away from you and grow towards someone else. Of course that is very painful, but it does not justify killing the other person, just so that they cannot be with someone else. Jealousy is the antithesis of love, it is about ownership and control, love is never about either of those two things.
And finally, two children without parents.
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