According to the Report Religious Sects and new movements of magic in Italy, compiled by the Central Direction of the Prevention Police in 1998, “…to circumscribe the significance of the term Satanism in a clear and definite area is not easy. It is, in fact, more of a trend than a real and proper movement”(1).
Now, if on the one side we share this opinion, on the other side, we consider that Satanism is more than a trend; in fact, it can be thought of as a kind of religion which contemplates a particular vision of life and the world which is diametrically opposed to the Christian way, and its rites, for their nature, are not only against the Christian morals, but also against the common morals.
J.K. Huysmans (1848 – 1907), underlines that Satanism “consists in a sacrilegious practice, in a moral rebellion, in a spiritual orgy and in an aberration which is, in no way ideal or Christian; It lives in pleasure, tempered with fear, (…) and in the forbidden joy of transferring to Satan the homage and prayers which are due to God; it consists in the non-observance of the Catholic precepts which are followed in the opposite way, committing, in order to offend Christ more gravely, the sins which he had expressly condemned: the contamination of the religious cult and carnal orgy”(2).


Classifications and types

Massimo Introvigne, the well-known expert on sects, distinguishes four Satanist currents, to each of which are accorded the various groups, even if, in practice, the distinction is never so sharp and often, the rites and motivations are mixed and overlapping.
- Occultist Satanism. Accepts the vision of the world described in the Bible, the story of the creation, the expulsion from Heaven of the rebellious angels, which became demons, aligning themselves, however, “on the other side” in the service of the devil.
- Rationalist Satanism. This sect conceives Satan as the Evil Spirit or the symbol of Evil and has an anti-Christian, hedonistic and immoral vision of the world.
- Acid Satanism. The cult of the devil is simply an excuse for excesses and depravation, the rites are based on the use of narcotics, orgies and psychological and sexual abuse.
- Luciferism. It is the Satanism of Manichean or Gnostic derivation. Lucifer and Satan are objects of veneration within cosmogonies which make them a “good” or, at least, a necessary aspect of the sacred.
The above mentioned Report of the Central Direction of the Prevention Police refers that in our Country “all these components seem to be present with a prevalence of the first and the third components”(3).
The American scholar, Marcello Truzzi subdivides Satanists into two large categories: the Satanists “Independent or solitary” and those “Affiliated to groups”(4).
- "Independenti" or "solitary" satanists. As the very expression indicates, the independent or solitary Satanists are isolated individuals who abide by and live through their satanic cultural experience, be it true or presumed, on their own. They subdivide into traditional Satanists, Acid Satanists and psychotic Satanists.
°“Traditional” Satanists. The so-called occult operators and, in particular, the black magic practitioners, belong to this category. They are mostly clever charlatans and cheats, who speculate on the credulity of the common people, and those who think they can solve their problems through magic. At times, they perpetrate real crimes to the damage of their incautious clients.
°“Acid” Satanists. According to some scholars’ opinions, there seems to “a tie between the hallucinatory experience of the drug culture and the re-awakening of interest for the devil”(5). "Acid” Satanists are nothing more than drug addicts with some knowledge of “occultism”; they, in their trips, are convinced to invoke and meet the Devil(6).
°“Psychotic” Satanists. It is more or less a matter of individuals with psychiatric disturbances who interest themselves in Satanism and occultism.
- “Affiliated to groups” Satanists. Truzzi subdivides the Satanists “affiliated to groups” into two categories: “pure or stereotype” Satanists and "non- stereotype” Satanists.
° “Pure or stereotypes” Satanists. Those who worship an entity whose characteristics derive integrally from the Satan of the Bible.
They subdivide into four groups:
* “traditional” satanists. Those who adhere to the model described in the trials of the Medieval Inquisition. It is doubtful that these models ever existed.
* “acid” satanists". Those connected to the drug culture, no longer isolated, but united in groups where the drug cocktail and Satanism can generate really dangerous behaviour.
* “sexual” satanists". These are divided into two sub-categories: sadomasochists and orgiastic-sex. They have given themselves up to ritualistic sexual activities both heterosexual and homosexual, within the framework of satanic liturgies where elements inspired from the ceremonial magic of A. Crowley are often present(7).
* “anti-christian” satanists. Their main objective is the profanation of Christian rituals and, in particular, the Catholic Mass and the sacrament of the Eucharistic.
° “Non-stereotype” satanists. Those who worship the personage of Satan, but re-elaborate the biblical theology which regards him.
They are sub-divided into three groups:
* “baphomettist” satanists. Their name derives from the name of the idol Baphomet, the worship with which the Temple Knights were already reproached. Their liturgy is Manichean(8) ; they appeal to Satan as “Lord of the Earth”, together or in opposition with God as “Lord of the Heavens”.
* “charismatic” satanists. They depend on the “revelations” or on the re-elaboration of the sacred story of their leader, (a typical example is the group of “Our Lady of Endor” led in Toledo, Ohio, by Herbert Arthur Sloane and practically finished after his death in the 80’s.) For the mythology of this second Satanist group, the God of the Bible is identified with a bad demiurge who has damaged the world, and Satan identified with the Gnostic guide, who is necessary to us, to escape from the corrupt world.
* “rationalist” satanists. In reality, they do not believe in the supernatural world, at all, but celebrate the worship of the devil and the satanic rites as therapeutic psychodrama where people liberate themselves, denying strongly the Christian ‘superstitions’.
Obviously, these subdivisions do not necessarily represent exact differences because in reality, these are often confused and mixed up.


Satanism and criminal behaviour

Regardless of what is reported in daily newspapers and picture magazine articles, it is rare, at least in Italy, to obtain reliable information about groups which are dedicated to cult practices, devoted directly and explicitly to the devil and demons; also the bibliography in this area is extremely scarce.
Moreover, according to the opinion of some scholars, if one excludes the so-called churches of Turin and the Lucifer churches (in which the vision of the Prince of Darkness is substantially positive), the forms of pure Satanism are very rare(9).
In this regard, the report of the Central Direction of the Prevention Police, reads as follows: “Given the natural tendency of the Satanist groups to operate secretly, the estimated figures are increasingly uncertain, even more so, since the relative information is often obtained indirectly (by self-styled exiles from these cults or from journalistic sources) and as such, impossible to verify, but one can categorically disregard the abnormal figures (e.g. hundreds of sects with thousands of followers), sometimes divulged by the information media or by would-be experts. It is, obviously, also pure fantasy, the statement that these heterogeneous secret meetings are connected to a central organization, some sort of “Satanic International”, lead by a Black Anti-pope.
However, it cannot be denied that, here and there, there have been and continue to be, in the countryside (in the open, in caves, in desecrated chapels) or in urban peripheral areas (ruined buildings, abandoned structures and premises) traces that prove the celebration, strictly nocturnal, of Satanic ceremonies.”(10)
Furthermore, besides the fact that it is difficult to establish, precisely, what is intended by the expression pure Satanism, it must be remembered that for more than a decade, there has been a remarkable diffusion of information, both from the lay(11) and religious press(12), about the diffusion of demoniac cults in Italy, often in reference, as previously mentioned, to criminal episodes.
Now, the fact that Satanism could be considered as a sort of religion, characterized by a particular conception of life and the world, radically opposed to the Christian conception of life, and that, for their nature, its rites are deviant with respect to the Christian morality, does not mean that the profession of Satanism and the practice of its rites, necessarily implies the committing of a crime. However, it is true that it should be established, case by case, whether or not, the practice of certain satanic rites really does constitute infringements indictible by the Law.
In other words, if a person declares to be a Satanist or even founds an association devoted to the cult of Satan, he cannot be legally prosecuted unless there is an infringement of the law (13).
Now, it could be objected that, among the members of these sects, there is a certain promiscuity regarding sexual practices; however, as long as these events take place in private and do not involve minors, incapacitated or non-consenting persons, it is evident that this comes within the private life of the people concerned.
However, it is also true that, in some specific cases, one can speak of criminal Satanism, i.e. of that particular criminal behaviour which is, directly or indirectly, in relation to the ideology and the practice of Satanism.
In the following, therefore, that deviant and criminal behaviour engaged in by Satanists, both individually and as a group, will be analyzed.
According to the above mentioned analysis of Truzzi, as will be remembered, traditional Satanists are defined as occult operators and, in particular, black magic practitioners. It is mostly a matter of charlatans and clever swindlers who speculate on people’s credulity.
It is not infrequent that they commit crimes such as sacrilege and concealment of corpses, carnal violence and violent acts of lust, abduction of minors for lustful ends, abrogated and substituted by the law 66/1996, Art 609 bis and following, the kidnapping of persons, sexual violence, private violence, extortion, fraud, induction, and aiding and abetting, and exploitation of prostitution.
To these crimes can be added, the abusive practice of the medical profession and the circumvention of the incapacitated.
In the above mentioned cases, it is certainly difficult to exercise repression; these episodes, in fact, for fear of retaliation and shame, on the part of the victims, often go unreported.
We believe, therefore, not unreasonably, in the monitoring of all the occult operators, several of them already known to the Criminal Investigations Department and the Magistracy, with an end to single out and prevent criminal behaviour.
The question tied to other types of Satanists is far more complex. These, usually in groups, can commit other type of crimes, for instance, the violation and sacrilege of tombs and corpses, the destruction, suppression or theft of corpses, instigation to suicide, sexual acts with minors and group violence. Sacrilegious thefts of sacred objects, vestments and consecrated hosts are also attributed to these people. It is, in our opinion, even more difficult to speak of prevention in such cases.
In fact, it is well-known that in our national territory, no real and proven satanic groups, perpetrators of similar crimes, or at least, potential perpetrators, have been identified; also legal proceedings against various santanic groups, for example, “The Luciferan Satan children” ended with the acquittal of all the defendants.
In any event, even the single cases(14), do not provide sufficient proof to speak in terms of a “social phenomenon” and cannot warrant the intervention of the Criminal Investigations Department.
The aforementioned is confirmed by the legal case involving the group, “The Beasts of Satan”, suspected authors of multiple homicide and instigation to suicide.
The “Beasts of Satan” come under the classification of the “acid Satanists” and constitute an exception in the Italian criminal panorama; it is, so far, a unique case of a group which kills in a socio-cultural context which is referable, but only in certain aspects, to the figure of the Devil(15). Moreover, the homicide modality used by the group, is not in line with the ritual which characterizes the true satanic sacrifices(16).
At the same time, we cannot under-estimate the suicide cases of young people who, in life, seemed to have some, more or less, presumed connection with a Satanist congregation. Let us see some examples.
On the 29th of December 1995, the national press carried the news of an engaged couple, whose bodies were found on a cliff in Crete, the 23rd of December: they were Deborah Portoghese, 23 years old, from Montecchio Maggiore and Giovanni Baù (also known as Wizard Bauer), 43 years old, from Arsiero. The two smashed bodies were found embraced and tied with a rope(17).
According to mass media, although not discarding other hypotheses, including a possible camouflaged homicide(18), investigators are oriented towards the hypothesis of a ritual suicide of a mystic and esoteric background(19).
There are elements which support this theory; the victims had a certain passion for magic and esoteric rites; at the place of the tragedy, certain signs and objects were found which, according to expert opinion, would suggest a satanic ritual(20).
Towards the middle of 1996, at Cisterna in Latina, a 17 year-old boy, Christian Pietrosanti committed suicide; he seemed to have been in touch with some demoniac sect(21).
The Power of Attorney of the Republic, at the Court of Syracuse, opened proceedings against “unknown persons” to ascertain the causes of the suicide of Paolo Pannuzzo, on the 5th of July 1997: The young boy appeared to be affiliated with a local Satanic sect.
On the 14th of March 2000, the known Television show “Who has seen him?” reproposed the case of Fabio Rapalli, 31 years old, who disappeared from his home in Montù Beccaria (Pavia) the 19th of May 1996, and was found dead, the 7th September, of the same year.
Rapalli’s mummified body, with the head detached, lay in a ravine near Pontremoli (Massa Carrara), half way between Genoa and Parma; the presence of a rope and a noose lead to a theory of suspected suicide. In 1998, a few hundred metres from where Rapalli’s body was found, the body of Roberto Rossi, the same age as Rapalli, was also found.
The death of the latter was caused by the ingestion of caustic soda. The investigations, according to the newspapers, seem to be oriented towards the world of satanic sects.
Now, with regard to the solitary Satanists, their criminal behaviour is often bound to a type of musical culture and fashion.
Let us consider the adventures of the 30 year-old Davide Zanotti of Arcola (La Spezia) arrested in August 1996, after a long series of investigations, on the charges of violation of tombs, profanation and theft of corpses, devastation and looting.

The young man, the newspapers report, lived in a room with “black painted walls, the blinds were nailed to prevent the slightest ray of light from entering; there was great disorder everywhere and a terrible stench. It seemed more like a den than a room: at the end of this ‘cavern’ could be seen a great black and violet altar with three large crosses made from human bones and placed upside down.
On the black veil of the altar, among demoniac books and satanic symbols, lay thirteen blood-covered skulls and hundreds of human bones. At the sides of this grim altar, there were the “trophies” gathered from the profaned cemeteries: photographs of dead children, small lights, dried wreaths and funereal objects.
In a corner there was even a statue of the Madonna, with the head and hands cut off; it was covered with blood and the eyes and body were pierced with long rusty nails (…) In a box on the altar, there were 42 sacred hosts, stolen from the church of the cemetery of the Boschetti, which had been profaned a few months earlier”(22).
Zanotti explained that his behaviour had, undoubtedly, been influenced by a certain type of music: the black metal. He was a great fan of groups like Venom, Deicide, Mortuary, Necromass, etc., which make explicit reference to Satanism and its practices.
It was ‘thanks’ to his passion for this music that he contacted the “Church of Satan” of Anton La Vey and the sect of “The Children of Satan”.
Moreover, he kept an assiduous correspondence with many other people, mainly young, who shared his same tastes and, perhaps, emulated his same deeds(23). On Friday the 6th of December 1996, after four months of home-arrest, Davide Zanotti was freed.
Similar to what has been observed for the traditional Satanists, also for the other classifications of Satanism, one can delineate forms of criminal behaviour which are scarcely foreseeable by the Criminal Investigations Department, therefore, we hold that an activity of monitoring of all these groups is reasonable, which, for their own nature, tend to shoot up and proliferate in a general climate of conspiracy, fear and sometimes blackmail.
It must not be forgotten, in fact, that every group has its own precise set of rules, tending to manipulate members in order to ensure their obedience, and that the effect of such manipulation can be dangerous for both the individual and for the society as a whole(24).
We believe it opportune to underline another eventuality, which can not be under-estimated and that is the simulation of satanic rites in order to discredit the investigative capabilities of the Law Enforcement agencies, as well as to destabilize public opinion thanks to the rebound effect produced by the mass media(25).
Such operations recall the incident of the 2nd of November 1984, when posters (those usually used for death announcements) appeared on Verona walls, on which were printed in blood red ink; ROSEMARY’S BABY IS BORN(26-27).
Authors of the macabre poster were, most likely, young people who belonged to a group called “Babalon Studies Researches” which follow the theories of the “Temple Of Psychik Youth” of London(28).
The young people affirmed that they were not Satanists and to have done this in order to “break the scheme and the stereotypes and to provoke the favouring of an interior research of the individual”(29).


The satanic scene

The scene of satanic crimes is as varied as the imagination and originality of the officiating members.
The following is an excerpt of an index elaborated for the American police by Dale Griffis, noted observer of Satanist facts.

In the first case, the destruction is carried out irrationally, without logic or motivation.In general, the targets are easily frangible objects, such as crosses, marble slabs, statues, and even if not frequently, coffins are broken open and the remains spread about. The impulsivity, the lack of logic and the violence characterize the shor-circuit action which is typical of vandals(31).
Vandal raids are often conducted under the effects of substances with psychotropic action, in particular, alcohol(32); furthermore, such behaviour could be reinforced by particular forms of conditioning, such as musical, as in the already mentioned case of Davide Zanotte, who describes one of his incursions in this way:
“It was the Portovenere cemetery. We went in, me and my friend, almost as a game. I didn’t know what I wanted, we didn’t have any particular plan. I felt excited.., strong…, out of my head. It was a fantastic sensation, as if you were under the effect of some drug: we destroyed a whole lot of tombs in the kids’ area and took away a lot of stuff”(33).
However, sometimes it can happen that groups of vandals disguise their raids behind a screen of Satanism. An example of such simulation recently stirred-up great public indignation(34) .
Investigators managed to identify the vandals responsible, who, themselves, admitted that their action had nothing, whatsoever, to do with Satanism(35). Other times it may be that the cemetery raids are carried out by groups of youths who share some sort of culture connected to death and to everything that surrounds it; a sort of necrophilia mixed up with crude forms of Satanism(36).
In the second case, the theft attempts can be carried out with an end to steal valuable objects, possibly left with the corpse, like gold teethes, ring, chains, watches, etc(37).
In this case, to reach the corpse is obviously necessary to violate the tomb and intervene on the corpse to find the material to steal. As a consequence, the corpse will be mutilated in particular parts, such as the head, the jaws and the fingers.
It is not unlikely that these kinds of actions are disguised as acts of pure vandalism, in order to mislead the investigators. In all events, the signs left by the use of instruments will always remain as indicative clues.
The third case is certainly more interesting. That is, the celebration of a necromantic, satanic or black magic ritual.
Necromancy (from the Greek nekrIV = dead, and manteAa = art of divining) is a sort of divinatory praxis through which, attempts to make the dead appear and talk are practiced. The objective is to know future events or, in any case, to know something which - in some fashion – is beyond the capacity of human reasoning.
According to some scholars, necromancy is also called negromancy. Now, the word ‘negromancy’, deriving from the word ‘necromancer’, meaning magician or one who has the gift of prophecy, (through contact with the dead) is a popular corruption of the word ‘necromancy’ in which the idea of ‘negro’, ‘nero’ (black) and ‘nekrIV (death) has replaced ‘necro’, for easier analogy of sound and word significance, thus alluding to the night time when necromancy is practiced and to the infernal events which were thought to favour it: hence, also the term black magic(38).
A variant of necromancy is nechiomancy (from the Greek nikuia = ritual for the evocation of the dead, and manteAa = art of divining), which does not attempt to evoke the soul of the dead, but bases divining skills on the observation of the corpse, in particular, on the putrefaction, the bones and the tendons(39).
The term nechiomancy usually indicates also the divinatory praxis made through the objects which have had a strict relation or contact with a corpse. For example, the rope of the hanged(40).
“In the Middle-Ages, the necromancers, profaning tombs, prepared magic potions and ointments with the fat an blood of the corpses, mixing them with aconite, belladonna, poisonous mushrooms, powder of dried toads and ashes of consecrated hosts; then they rubbed their temples, hands and breast with the infernal ointment, traced the diabolical pentacle and evoked the dead in abandoned cemeteries.
The procedures of Black Magic have the objective of deranging the reason and to provoke all the feverish exaltations which give the courage of great crimes. The magic books which, in the past, were sought and destroyed by the authorities, were not innocuous books.
In almost all black magic procedures, sacrilege, murder and theft are understood to be necessary for any successful undertaking. Thus, in the “Great Magic Book” and in the “Red Dragon”, a modern imitation of the first, one can read a recipe entitled: “Death composition or philosophical stone”. It is a sort of consommé of nitric acid, copper, arsenic and verdigris.
There are also necromancy procedures which consist in: - “search the earth of the tombs with the nails, pick up the bones which will be kept on the breast. In this way participate in a Christmas midnight mass and, at the moment of the Elevation of the Host, get up and rush away, crying, “the dead are rising from their graves!” Then return to the cemetery, take a fist full of earth from near the coffin and rush back to the doors of the church…lay down the bones in the form of a cross, crying again, “the dead are rising from their graves!” (….) leave slowly and count four thousand, five hundred steps, without turning back or deviating.
At the end of the 4500 steps, after having strewn the earth which you have in your hand in a cross formation, lie down on the ground in the attitude of lying in a coffin, repeating in a mournful voice, “the dead are rising from their graves!” and call three times the one you wish to see”(41).
From what has been said so far, it cannot be excluded that in some cases, tomb profanations are done for divinatory purposes.
The profanation of tombs can also be done for the purpose of ‘casting a death spell’ on someone, through the putrefaction method.
”With this method one employs the properties of deteriorating organic substances.
In general, animal parts are used, put together with personal ‘tokens’ of the victim, so that, as the putrefaction advances, the spell is strengthened.
The most simple system is the use of a slice of flesh or an animal skin which enclose the personal tokens of the victim: for example, hair, nails, the victim’s photograph or, in the worst case, only the name and personal data of the victim.

The “token of identity” can also be an object owned by the victim, such as a handkerchief, a broach, a hair clip. At other times, the tokens are wrapped in vegetable remains, such as a fruit skin. A rather macabre method is to place the victim’s token (a picture or some personal belongings) in the coffin of a dead person.
Thus, the spell is slowly reinforced with the decomposition of the corpse.
When it is not possible to place the “token” directly in a coffin, then it can be buried in a cemetery, choosing a tomb of someone recently buried and who, possibly, has the same Christian name as the victim(42).
Another method of casting a bad spell is by throwing the victim’s token, usually some piece of clothing, into a fire.
Also, in the same procedure, dark coloured, virgin wax candles are used; even more effective if they are hand-made by the ill-disposed operator. Small cemetery lamps are much employed, better still, if taken directly from a tomb or made-up from the remains of others(43). ”
This fact could possibly explain the frequent theft of votive lamps from the tombs.
Still on the subject of black magic, it is opportune to remember that bones, hair or other human parts are used in the making of love potions(44).
In addition, it can happen to find near a tomb or coffin, black candle ends, burnt roosters’ heads and feathers. Occult operators believe these are necessary elements to make death spells(45).
Lastly, it is always advisable to check the terrain surrounding a tomb. According to the rules of witchcraft, it is here that the fetishes for casting evil spells, must be buried(46).


Conclusion

The phenomenon of Satanism and criminal Satanism, in particular, is complex and in many aspects, still unknown, at least in Italy.
The Monitoring of this phenomenon cannot be carried out, in fact, by the Department of Criminal Investigations or the Magistracy for a series of understandable reasons.
In our modest opinion, we reasonably believe that the instrument of information research can and must perform this function, with the objective of preventing, not only repressing, all those crimes connected with the culture, philosophy and the practice of the cult of Satanism.