Turin part of black magic triangle?

Interesting article on the dark side of Turin, home of the famous Shroud.

Deborah Hastings of Associated Press writes:

Turin, according to the convoluted logic of occult experts, is on the 45th parallel and thereby constitutes one of three cities forming a “triangle” of black magic — London and San Francisco being the others — all united by lines of negative energy.

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To this day, soothsaying and Satanism live in Turin. Tours are offered of demonic statues, door knockers, and churches such as the Misericordia, where prisoners were given last rites before execution and visitors can view a list of those put to death, their black hoods, and a small glass used for their last drink.

On Saturday, the Statuo plaza was crowded with tourists bearing Winter Games balloons. At an outside bookseller’s stall, a man from Turin, bundled against the wet cold, proudly showed the title of a book he had written 10 years ago about devil worshippers in his home city.

“Turin is the No. 1 city for Satanic cults,” he says. “I wish I’d never got involved. If I had only known, I wouldn’t have done it.”

What he did, he said, was pose as someone interested in Satanism, and through word of mouth and friends introducing him to other friends, he eventually found a group of well-to-do black magic practicers and hung out with them.

His first name is Massimo, but he declines to provide his last name, saying he doesn’t want the witches he wrote about to know his real name. His nom de plume is Yves Clement.

Originally, he was going to write a television screenplay, but the deal fell through. He wrote a novel instead, “The Heart of Andrea.” It’s full of references to “atrocious crimes” bragged about by devotees of Satan, he said. Including human sacrifices.

Meeting such folks frightened him, he said. And though he doesn’t believe in the devil, he says the people he met believe in him. And do bad things because of that belief.

Among Italians, his comments are not atypical.

“Si,” replied Luca Infantimo, sitting on a park bench near the shrine to dead tunnel workers. “I believe there are Satanic sects and I believe there is a Satan. I cannot explain it. I had a very religious education.”

Infantimo is from Genoa, and he is visiting the city to see his girlfriend, Cristiana Sovailescu, a Romanian exchange student who is studying languages at the University of Turin.

She is an Orthodox Christian. She said she believes, too, based on things she saw in her native Bucharest.

“I’ve seen people possessed, people in church who were shouting and trying to take down the cross,” she says.