“Commander”, “Engineer”, “Mage”, “Patriarch”, “Great Old Man”, “Drake”. The list of nicknames that accompanied Enzo Ferrari in an existence painted red and smelling of tires is long. But – although dozens of books have been written about him – there is a title that has always remained in the shadows, like a stain of motor oil frozen in the corner of the garage: “Presumed Guilty.” Even “murder”.
No, Enzo Ferrari never ended up in jail for being a co-perpetrator of the “massacre”, but he was tried for this terrible crime. And justified.
A real drama, unknown to most, which Luca Dal Monte has the honor to tell with a documentary attitude in the book “Ferrari, allegedly guilty” (Cairo).
The author explains: “This is a little-known story of the murder trial of one of the most famous Italians of all time. A process that could destroy Enzo Ferrari and thereby change the history (with a capital letter, and not just sports history) of this country.
Second Sunday in May 1957: During the 24th Mille Miglia race, the Rossa, driven by the Spanish Marquis Alfonso de Portago, went off the road, hitting a group of spectators watching the race, killing nine of them, including five. children; De Portago and his partner, American Edmund Nelson, also died in the accident.
The race, incredibly, is not suspended. Newspaper headlines: “Shame, who’s to blame?”. DePortago is dead. We need a scapegoat. And who better than the creator of the “killer car”? Actually, Enzo Ferrari. Thus, he finds himself in the dock in an investigation aimed primarily at appeasing public opinion shaken by the drama. Ferrari’s license and passport are confiscated, as if he were driving a “killer car”.
Added to the accusation of “multiple manslaughter” is the moral anathema of the Church, which in the Osservatore Romano leaves behind a ruthless portrait of the Modena businessman, calling him “a modernized Saturn devouring his own children”, where children are understood to be pilots who made sacrifices on the altar of the god of money.
The pages written by Dal Monte run away without lowering the speedometer of attention. There is enough rhythm and acceleration.
Last chapter: “Sentence”. With Defendant Enzo Ferrari “acquitted for not committing a crime”: a predictable but not obvious judicial epilogue. We are still in Italy…