The real story of the Porco case has intrigued the world for years. The body of Peter Porco lies sprawled on the floor of his home. His face has been smashed by an axe that is also lying on the floor. In the bedroom, his wife Joan is lying on something that looks more like a sea of blood than a bed. Like her husband, she has been savagely attacked with the same weapon.
Someone had tampered with the home alarm and cut all the phone lines so that no one would interrupt or discover their actions. Who was capable of committing such a bloodthirsty crime on a peaceful married couple with no enemies? Who took the time to manipulate everything in such a cold and calculated way?
More surprises await the police and paramedics who have rushed to the crime scene: Joan Porco has survived the attack despite serious head injuries.
The police, trying to find a quick answer to such a macabre finding, inquire about the Porco couple’s sons: Jonathan, Chris, and Peter. The first is studying at the University of Rochester, and the third is at a military base in faraway China. A police officer asks Joan if Chris, the youngest of the three, is responsible. She nods in agreement.
After surgery and fully recovered, Chris’ mother denied that her son had been the attacker. However, the police had serious suspicions about the young man and arrested him for trial. During the trial, Joan defended him and stood by his side at all times, denying again and again that he was responsible for the crime against her husband.
Chris Porco was convicted as the murderer of his father and found guilty of attempted murder against his mother. For this, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison in the maximum security prison in Dannemora, New York.
Photographs taken at the crime scene reveal gruesome details that are hard to believe. The Porco couple was attacked in their bed while sound asleep. However, Joan was the only one found in her bed by police and paramedics. Where was her husband? What did he do after he was attacked? The following sequence records the steps Peter took through his home:
Peter did not call the police even when he saw his wife at his side bleeding to death and mortally wounded. He woke up as if it was a normal day and went into the bathroom.
He then headed for the kitchen:
Finally, he fell dead on the floor of the lobby. Why does a man with such severe injuries, who was attacked by his own son and who sees himself covered in blood, as well as his wife, have the strength and willingness to go about his routine as if nothing had happened? Are these symptoms of a man who is in shock or who was mentally impaired due to his head injuries?
The case of Chris Porco was taken to television in 2013 in the production Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story, aired by the Lifetime network. The United States has an unfortunate tradition of intrafamily crimes that have shaken the world and have been a source of controversy about what is generating these events.
This story was originally published in Spanish in Cultura Colectiva
