Aída Jacob Curi (Belo Horizonte, December 15, 1939 – Rio de Janeiro – July 14, 1958) was a Brazilian girl murdered in the Copacabana neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro.
Biography
Aída Jacob Curi was the third of five children of a couple of immigrants from Syria, Gattás Assad Curi and Jamila Jacob Curi, who belonged to the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. At the age of five, Aída lost her father, which made her mother move to Rio de Janeiro and work. At the time, all of his brothers — Nelson, Roberto, Maurício and Waldir — were under ten years old, with the exception of the eldest son. Dona Jamila went with her children to Escola Moreira do Riachuelo, and remained there for eight years. At the age of six, Aída was sent to study at a school run by Spanish nuns, part of the Filhas de São José congregation, Educandário Gonçalves de Araújo, a boarding school for orphaned girls, in São Cristóvão. She studied there for the next twelve years. After this period, the young woman left Educandário to start her life abroad. At the time of her death, Aída was taking typing, English and Portuguese courses, and working in her brother's store.
Aída Curi was a fervently practicing Roman Catholic and her motto was to die rather than sin.
Aída's murder
On July 14, 1958, Aída was walking with a classmate on Rua Miguel Lemos after leaving the typing class at Escola Remington, when the two were approached by some boys: Ronaldo Castro, nineteen years old, Cássio Murilo, seventeen, and the doorman Antônio Sousa, 27. At a certain point, Aída left her friend and tried to recover objects that had been taken from her by the young people — her glasses and her purse, which contained the money for the vehicle. Their strategy was to use her belongings to lure her to the building, the Rio Nobre Building on Avenida Atlântica. It was premeditated sexual violence — known at the time as "curra." Aida was pulled into the elevator and, screaming, reached the top of the building. A newspaper at the time reported that it was in an apartment on the twelfth floor, still in the finishing phase, that the attackers fought to immobilize Aída. Ronaldo and Cássio were helped by the building's doorman, Antônio.
According to witnesses, Aída was forcibly taken by Ronaldo Castro and Cássio Murilo to the top of the Rio Nobre Building, on Avenida Atlântica, where the two boys were helped by doorman Antônio Sousa to sexually abuse the young woman. For thirty minutes, the young woman was beaten with great violence, in addition to the attackers trying to rape her. The victim reportedly fell unconscious due to physical exhaustion. To cover up the crime, the attackers threw the young woman from the terrace on the twelfth floor of the building, trying to simulate suicide. Aída died as a result of the fall. There were three trials. In the end, Ronaldo Castro was cleared of the murder charge, being convicted only of indecent assault and attempted rape. His sentence was eight years and nine months. The doorman, Antônio Sousa, also cleared of the murder charge but convicted of the others, disappeared. Nothing more was heard of him. Cássio Murilo, a minor at the time of the crime, was convicted of Aída's murder and sent to the Minor Assistance System (SAM), from where he left straight to perform military service.
The defendants
Ronaldo Guilherme de Souza Castro: born in Espírito Santo, lived and studied in Rio de Janeiro, was nineteen years old at the time of the crime. He belonged to a traditional family. He had a bad reputation in the neighborhood and at school. He was always a bad student, he got very low grades, he failed at school. He had been expelled from schools, accused of several assaults and having participated in the theft of a car belonging to the Department of Agriculture. He had also been arrested for indiscipline when he served in the Army and similar things. Ronaldo's cousin, Mariza Eneider Castro, said that the young assassin was debauched, had made her suffer several times and that, above all, he was burglar. Disregarding the family robberies, he is the author of the theft of jewelry and money from a guesthouse in Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. The crime was discovered, but his father's money silenced the police and compensated the victims. The girl said that once, in Vitória, Espírito Santo, her cousin tried to hand her over for 20 thousand cruises to a guy known as “Mãozinha”. Ten thousand cruises would be for him, Ronaldo Castro, the other ten for her. He also stated that his cousin's father covered up his delinquent son's nonsense through bribes. Mariza also said that she felt guilty for not having revealed the facts sooner and that she only kept it confidential at the request of Ronaldo's parents.