Terrible Details About These Respected Musicians

Carlo Gesualdo was a 16th-century composer who wrote some of the era's most powerful compositions, and they're pretty dark. The Guardian says it's no wonder he wrote such dark stuff because he was a pretty dark guy.

Let's start with an account of the murder, via The New Yorker music critic Alex Ross. Ross says the double murder happened on October 16, 1590, and officials first found the body of the Duke of Andria. He was covered in blood, shot several times, and stabbed in the chest, neck, face, arms, hands, shoulders, and kidneys. Then they found Gesualdo's wife. She'd had her throat cut, and was also covered in wounds. There was absolutely no doubt as to who the murderer was, as witnesses saw Gesualdo enter the apartment and shout, "Kill that scoundrel, along with this harlot!" Those witnesses testified he came out covered in blood, said he wasn't sure they were quite dead, and went back in.

Since Gesualdo was a prince as well as a composer, the justice system didn't quite do its thing. More stories started popping up about other horrific acts Gesualdo committed, and while a lot of them aren't true, it is true that he married again and had so many affairs his new bride eventually put his mistresses on trial for witchcraft. They were found guilty and locked up in Gesualdo's castle, which presumably wasn't what his long-suffering (and, by all accounts, abused) wife was hoping for.

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