Girolimoni, the Monster of Rome

Serial killers exist despite hour of the day or political temperament of a country. However, their sordid crimes do illuminate the underbelly of society. During the Nazi occupation of Paris in the late 1930's and early 40's, Marcel Petiot used the cover of the Holocaust to murder dozens of people and then the ensuing collapse of the city to evade arrest (read the excellent book "Death in the City of Light"). Of course, there's also German killer Peter Kurten whose crimes have spawned a variety of films from Fritz Lang to Robert Hossein.Likewise, in Mussolini's Italy of the 1920's, a child killer walked the streets and killed a number of young girls, and that's where Damiano Damiani's "Girolimoni, the Monster of Rome" begins. An angry mosaic of the times and repercussions in a fascist society, the film is mostly about hysteria before it turns to a damning exploration of just how repressive a regime can be with the truth.The hysteria begins when a series of missing children stuns Rome.…