The 'Marotta Case', 1965-66

In 1964 Domenico Marotta, founder of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and its head until his retirement in 1963 (see C.14), was prosecuted on various charges of malfeasance and misappropriation of funds. The trial lasted over eight months and in July 1965 Marotta, then almost eighty, was found guilty and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. Among others charged with similar offences were Giordano Giacomello, Marotta's successor as Head of the Istituto, who received a sentence of three years, five months and Italo Domenicucci, sentenced to six years, five months.

When the case was heard, Chain was at Imperial College, London. He offered to give evidence but was not called; an expression of sympathy in a letter to Domenicucci's wife, however, was quoted by the public prosecutor, Renato Ricciardi, who went on to accuse Chain of contempt of the judiciary. A prosecution was set in train, and counsel engaged, but the charges were dropped under an amnesty declared in May 1966 as part of the celebrations of the twentieth anniversary of the Italian Republic.

Chain's anger and distress at the proceedings against both Marotta and Giacomello arose not only from his personal regard for them but because part of the funds allegedly misappropriated by them were his own research grants from American sources which were administered as a matter of form by the Director in place.

The material includes correspondence with lawyers, friends and colleagues, press-cuttings, and legal depositions. It runs in a roughly chronological sequence from February 1965 to May 1966.