Noble Blood - The First Malatesta Murder

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

In Dante's Inferno, Dante meets two lovers, Paolo and Francesca. Francesca was married to Paolo's brother, but the two had a secret affair, until they were discovered and things took a deadly turn. But theirs is just one of the many murders and betrayals in the Malatesta family tree... Support Noble Blood:— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'        See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. This is Amy Rovock alongside T.J. Holmes from the Amy and T.J. Podcast. And there is so much news, information, commentary coming at you all day and from all over the place. What's fact? What's fake? And sometimes what the F. So let's cut the crap, okay? Follow the Amy and T.J. podcast, a one-stop news and pop culture shop to get you caught up and on with your day. And listen to Amy and T. T.J. on the TV. And listen to Amy and T. the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. The feast was going to be extravagant. The year was 1324, and cousins Ramberto and Frantino and their uncle, Pandolfo Malatesta, were making the final preparations for the meal at Rumberto's estate, a castle nestled in the rolling hills of what is now the region of Amelia Romagna in Italy, then simply called Romagna. Their sole invitee to this party, their other cousin slash nephew, Uberto, and he was making his way toward the castle, blissfully unaware that he was riding to his death. The three hosts had planned the murder of their kinsmen

perfectly. A theatrical assassination disguised as a friendly family dinner, which would serve as revenge for sins spanning a generation. Uberto Malatesta's death at the hands of his family members is a dramatic episode in a particularly bloody era of Italian history, but not, actually, the topic of today's episode. A few decades prior to that, faithful family banquet, Ramberto's father, a man named Gianchoto, actually killed Uberto's father. Remember, Rambarto and Uberto were cousins. Their fathers were brothers, and John Choto discovered his brother having an affair with his wife. After catching them red-handed, he killed them both. The adulterous affair and subsequent murder of John Choto's brother, Paolo, and his wife Francesca,

would go on to be immortalized by the Italian writer Dante Aligari as two of the damned characters he meets during his visit to hell. But what Dante failed to record in his inferno were the numerous intrafamilial murders, political assassinations, revenge killings, and even an attempted mass family murder that plagued the Malatesta family for nearly 50 years after Paolo and Francesca's stories end.

So let's start from the beginning. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Paolo and Giancioto Malatesta were meant to carry on a great legacy. Theirs was a family new to nobility, but their father's explosive rise to power had quickly carried the brothers to prominence. Malatesta de Verucchio was a powerful condottieri, or commander of a mercenary company.

Many condottieri became the sort of military princes who served a pope or other ruler, but often had sovereignty of their own as dukes or counts. Malatesta da Verucchio had come into his power ruthlessly. Northern Italy during this period was embroiled in the after effects of the investiture controversy, which resulted in conflicts between Pope supporting Guelphs and Holy Roman Emperor supporting Ghibolines.

Malatesta was the leader of the Guelphs in Romania and became Podesta or chief magistrate of Rimini in 1239. In 1295, he would go on to kill or expel the leading members of the Ghiboline faction in Rimini, making himself the city's undisputed and unchecked ruler. Between two marriages, he had seven children, each of whom he would use to expand his power, either through warfare or marriage. For our purposes, we'll focus on his four sons. Malatastino, John Shodo, and Paolo from his first wife, and Pandolfo from his second wife. Malatestino and Pandolfo will be important in next week's episode, but for now all you really need to know about them, is that they would go on to inherit, in succession, their father's lordship of Rimini. But for now, we're focused on the brothers, Paolo and Jan Choto.

If anything in their early lives pointed to the roots of Paolo and Jan Choto's storied and eventually deadly rivalry, it would probably be the fact that Paolo was known throughout his life as Ilbello, Paolo the Handsome. The name Gianchoto was actually a diminutive of Giovanni, an emasculating nickname that John Choto still might well have preferred to his other nickname Los Ganchato, or The Lane. Sources, many of which were written long after the fact, describe Jan Choto variously as disabled, disfigured, or simply visually unappealing. In any case, a stark constant. A stark conchoto. Describe John Choto, variously as disabled, disfigured, or simply visually unappealing. In any case, a stark contrast to his strapping, handsome younger brother.

The lives of the sons of Condotieri were often defined by war and political intrigue, and Paolo and John Choto were no exception. Apparently not content to rest on his handsome laurels, Paolo showed himself to be an astute politician, and he became an experienced military leader. At just 19 years old in 1265, he followed his father in fighting the Ghibolines, aiding in several decisive battles. John Choto, too, proved to be an asset to his father in war, becoming known as much for his bravery as for his unsavory appearance. By around 1275, John Choto also proved a useful political chesspiece, when his father promised him in marriage, to Francesca da Palenta. Francesca was a young noblewoman from nearby Ravenna, the daughter of one of its two lords,

Guido Ipollenta. Guido shared power with his relative, Guido Riccio de Palenta over Ravenna. Their balance of power was uneasy to begin with, but they both also had to contend with the powerful Traversari family opposing them within the city, as well as, as the power. various threats from without, most especially the Lord of Urbino, Guido. Again, I'm sorry, another Guido, the first, de Montefelto. Guido da Montefeltro had recently bested Malatesta de Veruccio in battle. Although Ravenna and Rimini had themselves been at war, Malatesta and Guido de Palenta were united by this common enemy. And so Guido de Palenta's daughter, franchise

became at once a reward for Malatesta's support and a means of consolidating power, which would allow Guido de Palenta not only the ability to fend off his enemies, but also to seize sole control of Ravenna. Decades later, the humanist writer Giovanni Boccaccio would write that Malatesta de Verrocchio used Paolo to trick Francesca into her marriage to Gio. Gianchoto. By this time, Paolo had actually already been married for some six years in a political match of his own. It was not uncommon in this period for noble marriages to be executed by proxy, with someone else standing in for one or both of the marrying parties during the ceremony.

Paulo, as the married brother of the groom, would have been a perfect candidate to stand in and marry Francesca by proxy. Boccaccio wrote that Malatesta deliberately misled Francesca about this arrangement, and that when she walked down the aisle and laid her eyes on a handsome, charming man waiting at the end of it, she thought it was Paolo that she was going to marry. Of course, she was wrong. Boccaccio reasoned that Malatesta worried that she or her father would have refused the marriage, had she known that her betrothed was the uglier brother. As dramatic a tidbit, that is,

there is no hard evidence that this is how Paolo and Francesca's affair began. It's quite likely that Francesca already knew who Paolo and Jan Choto were and knew that Paolo was married as well, given her family's close and long-running dealings with the Malatesta family. But, however, the marriage began and, Whatever Paolo's role in its beginnings were, before long Francesca and Paolo would find themselves entangled and an affair that would rock the Malatesta family and define its legacy for centuries. The poet Dante Aligari spent the final five years of his life living in Ravenna. famously exiled from his native Florence in 1302, he had spent over a decade living in various parts of northern Italy,

hosted by sympathetic friends and supporters. In 1316, he was invited to stay in Ravenna by its recently crowned lord, Guido II de Palenta. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so many Guidos. This Guido was the nephew of the now decades dead Francesco da Palenta. We're fast-forwarding here. Scholars believe it was during this visit to Ravenna that Dante learned of the tragic tale of Paolo and Francesca's love affair before he would cement it

in one of the most celebrated works of literature in Italian history. The Divine Comedy, completed shortly before the author's death in 1321. It's only because of Dante that we know any of the details of what happened next in Paolo and Francesca's story. Knowing that he likely learned the story from a family member of Francesca's offers his version some credibility. However, remember, this was written

decades later, and there is no independent historical record confirming any of it. So we will never know exactly whether, or where, Dante took liberties. We find Paulo and and Francesca in Dante's inferno as a pair of souls damned to hell for their illicit romance. As Dante and his imagined guide, the Roman poet Virgil, entered the second circle of hell, the one reserved for those who fell prey to their lust, they find the two lovers' spirits flying aimlessly through the air, blown about in an infernal storm, yet remaining inseparably entangled, with one another, as if they were one single spirit. Dante calls to them as they float by, and it's Francesca who regales the visitors with their tale, as her beloved Paolo weeps and wails

alongside her. As she tells it, Francesca's love story with her husband's brother started out innocently enough. They spent time together in a friendly way, a pleasant outcome to her essentially political marriage. Things took a turn rather suddenly, however, when one day the pair were reading the story of Lancelot and his forbidden love with Gwynnevere, the story of Lancelot's brother in arms, King Arthur. Describing a scene that seems to predict the modern rom-com, Francesca's spirit tells Dante how, as they read, their eyes kept meeting, sparks flying between them before they looked away. blushing. Finally, as the story they were reading came to its own climax, the tension between the readers was too much to bear. As Francesca put it, when of that smile we read, the wished smile rapturously kissed by

one so deep in love, then he, who ne'er from me shall separate. At once my lips all trembling kissed. The book and writer both were love's purveyors. In its leaves that day, we read, no more. It's certainly possible that this is actually how the affair began, although it definitely seems a little too perfectly literary to be entirely true. We don't even really know quite when it began, although it seems to have been not long after Francesca's marriage to Gianchoto. We also don't know the circumstances that preceded the affair.

Much has been said about Gianchoto's unsavory appearance. But did Francesca feel that way about him? Was their marriage pleasant but passionless, or was he a brute? And what of Paolo and his wife? Both couples had children. Of course, we could question the paternity of Francesca's children, but certainly Paolo at least fulfilled his marital duties to his wife. We may never know these things, but however it happened once the affair began,

it seems that Paolo and Francesca, much like their spirits in Dante's story, could hardly be separated from one another. The affair carried on, seemingly unbeknownst to everyone, or at least unbeknownst to John Choto, for years. Some scholars estimate over a decade, although it's impossible to know for sure. We can imagine John Choto carrying on in his duties, perhaps leaving for long, stretches to fight on his father's behalf, leaving his wife at home and free to rendezvous with his more handsome brother. For his part, Paolo balanced his own duties, including keeping up appearances with his own wife, with his and Francesca's passionate affair. However they managed it, it worked for them for a while. But Francesca's and Paolo's days together were numbered. Eventually, John Shoto

would discover the dual betrayal that had been going on for years right under his nose. We don't really know how John Choto found out. Most retellings agree that he stumbled upon his brothers and his wife's affair sometime between 1283 and 1286. Some even say he caught them in the act. Dante doesn't offer us any details. Here again, the juiciest version of the story, and the one we can't confirm is offered by Boccaccio. As he told it, John Chocho suspected nothing

until one day while he was away on business for his father, one of his servants came to him with a confession. The servant, apparently moved by pity for his cuckolded employer and emboldened by distance from the rest of the household, told John Choto that he knew his wife and brother were having an affair. Determined to get at the truth of the matter, John Shoto insisted upon seeing for himself, and the servant promised he would help catch them in the act. The pair returned to Rimini in secret.

Perhaps John Shoto hoped he would find nothing. Perhaps he spent the ride home imagining how silly he would feel when he arrived to find his faithful wife waiting for him, but any hopes he may have harbored about his wife's Fidelity were dashed when he got home and, sneaking into his own Palazzo, observed Paolo, entering Francesca's bedchamber. The affair was all but confirmed. John Choto was enraged. His loyal servant led him to the door of the bedchamber, only to find it suspiciously locked from

the inside. John Choto's fever hit a fever pitch. He pounded on the door, calling out to his wife, maybe calling to his brother too. On the other side of the door, chaos and panic erupted. Francesca and Paolo knew they had been found out, but they were scrambling to find some way to cover up their affair. Suddenly, Paolo had an idea. There was a narrow passage with a ladder leading from the bedchamber down to another room below. If he squeezed down it, he might be able to get away before anyone noticed. He told Francesca to let her husband, in. He would escape through the passage, and John Choto would be none the wiser. Unfortunately, as Francesco went to open the door and Paola went to hide, his clothes got caught on an iron bar, sticking out of one of the wooden beams at the top of the passage. He got stuck in plain sight,

just as John Choto burst into the room. Blinded by rage at the sight of his brother, John Choto immediately went for the kill. Francesca moved to stop her husband, unable to bear the thought of losing her love, but it was too late. Right as she stood between them, John Choto thrust his sword forward, stabbing her in the chest instead of Paolo.

Francesca sank to the floor, dying. For a moment, John Choto stood frozen, disturbed at what he had done. Then he saw Paolo, still caught on the iron, Bar, crying out in grief for Francesca, for his wife. He saw how deeply his own brother had loved Francesca, and it quelled any thoughts he might have had of regret or of mercy. John Choto pulled the sword from his dying wife's body and struck out again, this time landing a blow squarely on his

brother's head. His vengeance complete, he fled, sneaking out of the city quietly, as he had arrived. The lovers' bodies were discovered the next day, and Boccaccio tells us, buried in a shared tomb, united eternally in both their love and their betrayal. Is that how it happened? Baccio's version of the story certainly has a theatrical air to it, though we can find many verified stories of affairs gone wrong throughout history that have all of this drama and then some, Dante gives us the basic contours of the story and points to John Choto's guilt. In the inferno, John Choto was said to be condemned to the ninth circle of hell, the lowest circle reserved for traitors. Given his access to the family, we can reasonably

expect the basic facts of Dante's version to be true. John Choto discovered them, John Choto killed them. But for the rest, we're left to fill in the blanks. However it happened, the bloody murder of Paolo and Francesca did little to soothe the growing rivalries among the members of the Malatesta family. Malatesta de Verucchio had many children, who themselves had many children, and when he died in 1312, they were all left with the fractured inheritance of the land, and titles that their patriarch had once held as his own. And as the children of Paolo Gianchoto and their brothers grew up and realized that only one of them would eventually rule Rimini, it wouldn't be long before the kinsmen turned on each other again. That's the end of

the story of the first and most famous of the many murders plaguing the Malatesta family, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear about the long legacy of Paolo and Francesca's story. Hey there, folks, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes here. And we know there is a lot of news coming at you these days from the war with Iran to the ongoing Epstein fallout, government shutdowns, high-profile trials, and what the hell is that Blake lively thing about anyway? We are on it every day, all day. Follow us, Amy and T. for news updates throughout the day.

Listen to Amy and TJ on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is Amy Roboc alongside T.J. Holmes from the Amy and T.J. podcast. And there is so much news, information, commentary coming at you all day and from all over the place. What's fact? What's fake? And sometimes what the F. So let's cut the crap, okay? Follow the Amy and T.J podcast, a one-stop news and pop culture shop. to get you caught up and on with your day. And listen to Amy and T.J. on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. For Dante, the story of Paolo and Francesca was a cautionary tale.

He lived in a world where adultery was a crime punishable by death, and where desire was seen by many as the first step to damnation. As he imagined his journey through hell, he found Francesca and Paolo's story. a powerful warning to his readers about the dangers of giving in to one's passions, even as he sympathized with their love. As with any story that endures over time, however, Paolo and Francesca's story has continued to resonate, but not necessarily for the reasons that Dante intended.

Particularly in the 19th century, Francesca and her lover became a focus for the imaginations of romantic, writers and artists. As historian John Paul Heil puts it, where in Dante's era, it was important to control one's passions, the romantics believed that, quote, subsuming reason to the passions was the goal of a life well-lived. They began to reimagine Dante's encounter with Paolo and Francesca in hell, no longer as symbols of the danger of succumbing to one's passions, but rather than the tragedy of star-crossed lovers. Some interpretations even changed the endings of their story. In one opera, Ambrose Thomas's 1882, Francois de Rimini, the lovers are pitied by God,

and their spirits allowed to ascend to heaven, triumphing over the punishment meaded out to them in hell, and in our world by Dante. In the 20th century, Francesca Francesca, in particular, became a symbol for yet something else, female agency. As a character who not only made her own choices in life, disastrous as the outcome may have been, but also took control of her own story in death, she presents a striking and complex lens, through which authors and artists have wrestled with memory, pain, betrayal, and yes, love. Noble Blood is a production of I-Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz,

with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Amy Height, and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Rima Il Kali, and executive producers Aaron Manky, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. This is Amy Roboc alongside T.J. Holmes from the Amy and T.J. podcast. And there is so much news, information, commentary coming at you all day and from all over the place. What's fact, what's fake, and sometimes what the F. So let's cut the crap, okay? Follow the Amy and T.J. podcast, a one-stop news and pop culture shop to get you.

caught up and on with your day. And listen to Amy and TJ on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.