Skull of Giuseppe Villella

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Giuseppe Villella (May 2, 1802 – November 16, 1864) was a poor farmer from Motta Santa Lucia in Calabria, Italy. He worked as a shepherd and a seasonal laborer. In 1843, Villella and an accomplice robbed a farm at gunpoint, taking a small amount of food and goods. He was convicted, given six years in prison, and fined. He was released around 1847, the same year his daughter Francesca was born. In 1863, Villella faced more theft charges and was caught in the act. After Italy’s unification, many Southern Italian prisoners were sent to Northern prisons, and Villella ended up in a prison in Pavia. He died there on November 16, 1864, from ulcerative colitis.

Villella’s skull became famous because the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso studied it after Villella’s death. Lombroso noted a feature called a “median occipital dimple” at the back of the skull and claimed it showed atavistic, or primitive, traits linked to criminality. He argued that Villella’s skull helped spark his ideas about criminal anthropology, a theory that looked for physical signs of crime.

Modern researchers have questioned this story. Maria Teresa Milicia, a university scholar, found new archival information showing Villella was a common thief rather than a rebel against Italian unification. She showed that the label of “brigand” was often used to justify racism against Southern Italians.

Lombroso’s ideas had a big impact on European science and on attitudes toward Southern Italians, sometimes fueling racism. In 2010, the Cesare Lombroso Museum of Criminal Anthropology in Turin reopened, sparking protests by Southern Italian activists who wanted Villella’s skull returned to Motta Santa Lucia for a proper burial. A local lawsuit led to a court ruling that the skull could remain at the museum, because Lombroso’s theories—though now outdated—shaped the history of science and helped people understand past ideas. The skull still stays at the Cesare Lombroso Museum in Turin today.