December 18, 1966: Franca Viola wins a court case. In so doing, she wins honor -- not just for herself, but for millions of women in her country.
She was born on January 9, 1948 in Alcamo, a rural town on the Italian island of Sicily. In such places, old traditions died hard. At 15, became engaged to Filippo Melodia, the 23-year-old nephew of a local Mafia figure. He was soon arrested for theft, and her father demanded she break off the engagement. She did. He fled to Germany.
In 1965, at 17, Viola was engaged to another man, and Melodia had returned to Alcamo, and was trying unsuccessfully to re-enter her life, stalking her and threatening both her father and boyfriend.
In the early hours of December 26, 1965, Melodia and a group of 12 armed companions broke into the Viola home, and kidnapped Franca by dragging her into a car, in the process beating up Viola's mother, and also taking Franca's 8-year-old brother Mariano, who refused to let go of his sister.
Mariano was released a few hours later, but Franca was held for 8 days in the home of Melodia's sister and her husband, a farmhouse on the outskirts of the town, where she was repeatedly raped. Melodia told her that, now, she would be forced to marry him, so as not to become a "dishonored" woman -- honor being something Mafia figures have always claimed to value.
She told him she had no intention of marrying him and, moreover, that she would have him sued for kidnapping and rape. So he decided to do what, in his mind, constituted "going over her heard": On December 31, Melodia contacted Viola's father Bernardo for the paciata (Sicilian for 'appeasement', striking a deal between the families of the man and woman who "eloped").
In Italian law, if a woman married her rapist, the crime was expunged from the record: It was known as matrimonio riparatore: A "rehabilitating marriage." In Italian culture, if a woman refused her husband, or if she refused her father's setup of a marriage, it was considered dishonorable. For all Italy's experimentation in art, music and (especially in the 1960s) film, it was then, and remains today, a rather conservative country.
Bernardo pretended to negotiate with the kidnappers, saying he agreed and consented to the marriage, while collaborating with the Carabinieri (Italy's national police) in preparing a rescue. Viola was freed and her kidnappers arrested on January 2, 1966, 7 days before her 18th birthday. She said her father asked her if she really wanted to marry Melodia. When she said she did not, he told her he would do everything possible to help her.
After Viola's refusal to marry the man who raped her, her family members were reportedly menaced, ostracised, and persecuted by most townspeople. Their vineyard and barn were torched. These events, and the eventual trial, resonated powerfully with the Italian media and public.
Melodia's lawyers claimed Viola had consented to an elopement, fleeing voluntarily to get married secretly, rather than being kidnapped. A jury refused to accept this, and, on December 18, 1966, found Melodia guilty. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, later reduced to 10 years. Five of his friends were acquitted, and the others received relatively mild sentences.
Melodia was released from prison in 1976, and was killed on April 13, 1978, in a Mafia-style execution before he could return to Sicily.
In Italy, the article of law whereby a rapist could vacate his crime by marrying his victim was not abolished until 1981. And sexual violence became a crime against the person, instead of against "public morality," only in 1996.
In December 1968, shortly before turning 21, Franca Viola married the man she loved, Giuseppe Ruisi. The President of Italy (head of state, not head of government), Giuseppe Saragat, sent the couple a wedding gift. Pope Paul VI received them in a private audience soon after the wedding. They had two sons and one daughter. In 2014, President Giorgio Napolitano awarded her the title of Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica (Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic), one of Italy's highest honors. As of December 18, 2022, Franca and Giuseppe, and their children, still live in Alcamo.
Franca Viola's story has been fictionalized in film, in 1970 with The Most Beautiful Wife, starring Ornella Muti; and in 2022 with The Girl from Tomorrow, starring Claudia Gusmano.
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December 18, 1966 was a Sunday. Elsewhere in Italy, future soccer star Gianluca Pagliuca was born.
This was the last week of the regular season in the NFL, and these games were played:
* The New York Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 17-7 at Yankee Stadium.
* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Redskins, 37-28 at District of Columbia Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium).
* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 57-33 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium).
* The Chicago Bears beat the Minnesota Vikings, 41-28 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Cleveland Browns beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 38-10 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 27-23 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
* The Baltimore Colts beat the San Francisco 49ers, 30-14 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.
* And, with an odd number of teams in the NFL that season, each week had one team with the week off. This week, it was the Detroit Lions.
There were 3 games in the American Football League:
* The expansion Miami Dolphins beat the Houston Oilers, 29-28 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
* The Buffalo Bills beat the Denver Broncos, 38-21 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.
* And the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers, 27-17 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego. This was the last game the Chargers played there: The next season, they moved into the new San Diego Stadium, which was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium in 1981 and Qualcomm Stadium in 1997. They played there until 2016, moving back to their original city, Los Angeles.
Baseball was out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA. The Cincinnati Royals beat the Baltimore Bullets, 138-114 at the Cincinnati Gardens. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 127-125 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Jerry West scored 35 points.
And in the last season of the NHL's "Original Six Era," all of the not-so-original 6 teams were in action:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 5-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Boston Garden.
* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at the Chicago Stadium.
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