Succo was born in Mestre. On 9 April 1981 he fatally stabbed his mother Maria 32 times, and his father, a police officer, who had refused to lend him their car. He hid their bodies in the bathtub covered in water and lime to delay the discovery of the murders and fled with his father's service pistol. He then fled from Mestre, but an investigation into the murders of the Succo couple immediately connected them to the son, who was arrested two days later at the exit of a pizzeria in San Pietro al Natisone, not far from the border with Yugoslavia, after he had briefly returned to the crime scene. After Succo was caught, he was judged mentally ill and sentenced to ten years in a psychiatric prison in Reggio Emilia. While serving his sentence, he was a model prisoner who studied geology at the University of Parma. After serving five years of his sentence, on May 15, 1986 while on freedom privileges, Succo escaped from the psychiatric hospital. He evaded police and escaped to France by rail, using fake documents and changing his surname to "Kurt". In the next few years, he committed numerous crimes, including burglary, rape and murder. In France, he killed two women, a physician, and two police officers. He kidnapped, hijacked, and terrorized people in three European countries. He was considered Public Enemy number one by France, Italy, and Switzerland. After being recognized by a student in Aix-les-Bains on April 6, Succo returned to Italy. On 28 February 1988 he was caught in Mestre, his hometown. On March 1, 1988, in the course of an escape attempt, he fell from the roof of the Treviso prison. He committed suicide in his cell in Vicenza, in the "San Pius X" prison on May 23, 1988, suffocating himself with a plastic bag.
Victims
Maria and Nazario Succo, his parents, whom he killed in Mestre on April 12, 1981.
Michel Morandin, inspector of the gendarme, killed in Toulon, Var on February 2, 1987. His colleague Claude Aiazzi was also injured.
In 1988, Bernard-Marie Koltès wrote a play loosely based on Succo's life and crimes. French journalist Pascale Froment wrote a non-fiction account of Succo's crimes that appeared as Je te tue. Histoire vraie de Roberto Succo assassin sans raison in 1991, and it served as the basis for the 2001 filmRoberto Succo directed by Cédric Kahn. French police officers criticized the film for allegedly glorifying Succo. Froment's book was reissued in 2001 under the title Roberto Succo.
