Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 3.02 Marisa Tomei

Actress Marisa Tomei first shot to fame in the movie "My Cousin Vinny," a performance for which she was awarded an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. It would be the first of many award nominations to come, including two more Oscar nominations for "In the Bedroom" and "The Wrestler." Marisa grew up in Brooklyn, New York, but she currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Her strong family ties often bring her back to New York where her parents, Gary and Addie Tomei, still live.

"Being from Brooklyn is part of my identity," Marisa explains, "and so is being Italian." Marisa loves hearing family stories from the past and pouring over old photos. Over the years, her father has done extensive ancestral research about the Tomei side of the family tree, but the family knows far less about her mother's side. There is a legend about Marisa's great-grandfather on her mother's side named Leopoldo Bianchi who was supposedly murdered. The unconfirmed story is that he was shot at a bar for either having an affair with a married woman or owing money to a man. Marisa would like to find out the truth to this family mystery and discover more about her mother's side of the family.

Marisa meets with her parents, Gary and Addie Tomei, and her brother Adam to get further details about her ancestors. Addie shows photos from her side of the family back in Italy and a layout of the Bianchi family tree that she was able to put together on ancestry.com. With this new information, Marisa is ready to delve into the murder mystery of Leopoldo Bianchi and learn more about her great-grandmother's family, the Canovaros.

Marisa arrives in the Italian city of Cecina to investigate the murder of her great-grandfather, Leopoldo Bianchi, in 1910. She meets with her Italian guide, Fabio Di Segni, and begins her search at the Cecina Municipal Cemetery. An archivist fails to find any notable documents mentioning Leopoldo in 1910, but on March 7, 1911 they find the death record that states Leopoldo died outside of Cecina due to an illness. Marisa is surprised that no mention of murder was written in the document and that his death occurred in 1911 instead of 1910, as the family believed. She walks to the gravesite of her great-grandfather and great-grandmother, Maria Canovaro, and is enthralled by the treasure hunt that has opened up before her. "What kind of illness could it have been? Was it an illness?" As Marisa looks at her great-grandfather's gravesite, she believes there are many more details yet to be discovered. She decides to head to Elba, Italy, where her great-grandfather and great-grandmother first met.

The island of Elba is a small island 12 miles off the Tuscany coast with a big history. French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to Elba after European allies halted his conquest and forced him to abdicate in 1814. Napoleon was allowed to rule the island and introduced economic and social reforms that greatly benefited the citizens of Elba. Marisa arrives at the thousand-year-old Parish Church of Rio nell'Elba to look over their archives. She views their baptism registry and finds her great-grandmother's last name, Canovaro, listed in the books going back 10 generations to the 1600s. Knowing that the Canovaro family goes back so far fascinates Marisa, but she is more excited about the personal relationships of her ancestors and how her great-grandfather and great-grandmother met. To find those answers, Marisa continues her search at the Elba Historical Municipal Archives.

Dr. Gloria Peria of the Elba archives meets with Marisa and reveals several documents she has found, including the marriage certificate for Maria and Leopoldo. The certificate shows that they married on June 25, 1904 and that Leopoldo's profession was of a commercial merchant. Dr. Peria theorizes that Leopoldo might have met Maria through his job since the Canovaro family owned a popular kiln business on the island. Marisa also discovers that six years after her great-grandparents were married they moved from Elba to Cecina. Dr. Peria shows a local newspaper article from 1911 reporting on the death of Leopoldo. The article states that her great-grandfather was shot and killed in Castiglioncello, Italy by a man named Terzilio Lazzereschi on March 7, 1911. With this newspaper article, Marisa has confirmed the family legend of death by murder instead of by illness as it was written on Leopold's death certificate. Marisa heads to Castiglioncello to discover more details about the crime.

In Castiglioncello, Marisa meets with Professor Steven Hughes to see if they can figure out why Leopoldo was in this particular city and the motive for the murder. Prof. Hughes shows Marisa a printout from a local newspaper that writes about the murder. The article says that Terzilio, a well off man who worked as a kiln operator, met with Leopoldo outside Pilade Morelli's Cafe around 6:00 p.m. on March 7th and shot him in retribution for being severely beaten the night before by Leopoldo and his brother, Tito. Then Prof. Hughes reads to Marisa the court records detailing the event; the bullet from the gun struck Leopoldo's occipital region (back of the head) and exited the opposite side, causing an immediate death. The documents further states that Leopoldo and Terzilio were business partners with a successful family kiln business, but they had a falling out after Terzilio fired Leopoldo's brother Tito on suspicion of disloyalty. Feeling that Tito's honor was wrongfully called into question, the brothers beat up Terzilio, who then killed Leopoldo as retribution for his severe beating.

Marisa heads next to Lucca, Italy, where the murder trial took place to search court transcripts for more details. She meets with Dr. Francesco Tamburini to discover what the trial documents reveal. Dr. Tamburini shows Marisa that Terzilio was acquitted on the murder of Leopoldo for rightfully defending himself and only had to pay a small fine for carrying a prohibited weapon and serve 38 days in prison. Marisa is shocked to learn the murderer of her great-grandfather was let off with such a small penalty, but Dr. Tamburini explains that Terzilio was a wealthy man and was able to hire two of the most famous lawyers in town for his defense. "A bad person came in and really did great harm to the family," Marisa explains. "When I was a little girl, I pictured the scene of the crime and I pictured the bar and it started to form romantic notions in my mind. Now I frame it in a really different way."

Before Marisa heads back to America to share all the information with her mother, she meets up with Fabio. He has found an old relative of Marisa's named Rosetta Vanucci who knew her great-grandmother. She is too sick to meet with Marisa in person, but she has written a letter to Marisa to give her personal connection to her ancestors. The letter tears Marisa up as she reads about how her great-grandmother moved on after the murder of her husband and found love and happiness with a new man. Rosetta then writes about how Marisa's grandfather, Armondo, was able to seek passage to America on a boat and how his brother Guido, who was already in New York, met him at the docks and was able to sneak him into America to start a new life. Marisa reflects back on her ancestral journey and realizes that "the spirit of the characters was stronger than the actual events because that's what still lives on. And there's a peace to that."

Marisa arrives back in New York City to share the surprising details of her great-grandfather's murder. She meets with her mother and describes how Leopoldo defended the honor of his brother and how Terzilio was able to get off on all charges because of his wealth. Marisa's mother is shocked and pleased by this news; she always had an impression that Leopoldo was a philanderer or villain and caused his family so much pain. Now she is relieved to know it was the exact opposite. "I think all of this absorbs into us and influences our behavior in some mystical way, some spiritual way, and affects the generations even to come."