Transcript: Meredith Kercher suspect's online Skype chat

Fourth suspect Rudy Hermann Guede allegedly spoke to a friend who, unknown to him, was inside a Perugia police station


Friend

Ciao Rudy, how are you?


Rudy Hermann Guede

Not too well.


Friend

Where are you?


RHG

I'm in Dusseldorf and I have no money.


Friend

Where are you staying?


RHG

I'm living in a barge on the Rhine and sleeping on trains, without paying for a ticket. It's tough, I can't do this any more.


Friend

Would you like me to send some money?


RHG

Well, that would be useful.


Friend

OK, look, I'll send you 50 Euros through Western Union, then you can pick it up.


RHG

Thanks, but it’s already late in the evening.


Friend

They're talking about you here [in Perugia].


RHG

I know what happened in Perugia, but they're making a mistake. I am not “The Baron”, I'm called Byron after Scott Byron, the famous basketball player.


Friend

But they are saying other things.


RHG

Listen, you know I knew those girls, I knew them both, Meredith and Amanda, but nothing more, you know that. I've been to their house twice, the last time a few days before all this business, but I didn't do anything. I have nothing to do with this business. I wasn't there that evening. If they have found my fingerprints it means I must have left them there before.


Friend

But your photo is everywhere.


RHG

I've seen it, the police were wrong to put my photo around like that. I'm not how they describe me. I have nothing to do with that night.


Friend

But if you have nothing to do with it why don't you come back? I'll help you to find a good lawyer who can clear things up.


RHG

I'm afraid. But I don't want to stay in Germany, I'm black and if the police catch me I don't know what they might do to me. I prefer Italian jails.

http://www.lastampa.it/multimedia/multimedia.asp?p=78&pm=1&IDmsezione=9&IDalbum=13208&tipo=#mpos

Did ever anyone translate the full Skype-conversation of Rudy with his friend? because here it is -- much longer than the one published here.

Thanks a lot, Nicki, I wish someone had the time and patience to translate all the stuff -- the original conversation they say is three hours long -- this is still only an excerpt.

"A boy without a family."

Says Mrs. Marcella, mother of a classmate that had him (RG) stayed over in their home. "Rudy was divided between the teachers and parents of friends."
A hard life for Rudy Guede has been greatly helped by Mrs. Marcella and teachers.

“He has always lived in difficulty. In an uphill struggle. Every stages of his life. But those who know him like me and so many of us in Ponte San Giovanni and Pieve di Campo, can not believe that Rudy could be blame for the horrendous murder he is charged.”

Mrs. Marcella can speak with good reason: not only that she knows Rudy since the elementary second grade, as he went to the same school as her eldest son, but because for a long period of time, between January and June of 2004, she even had him staying in her house. Her son, Nicholas, has obtained today his university degree.

She doesn’t avoid, when contacted, to spare some of her time, on such important day for her entire family to speak of this young man, currently under the weight of a heavy sentence. “I met Rudy when he was 7 years old and attending the second grade. I knew he was living a heavy family situation. His father worked up to 17-18 hrs in the afternoon. So as not to leave him alone, we, the teachers alternating took him in every day in our homes. He ate with us, did his homework and played with our children until the moment he could return to be with his father. Initially, we had enrolled him -I talk in plural because as well as me there were others also involved who took an interest in his case, the teachers Ivana and Marisa in addition were the parents of some of the children- at the Pontevecchio football club. Afterwards he went, always in the same club, to basketball. He was very good, one of the best. Always correct, never aggressive. I remember it was funny to see them in the street, my son blond and him dark brown, together...” Rudy was divided between several families: those of the teachers, the parents of his friends from school or basketball. Everyone liked him and he reciprocated. “I remember when he had his first communion in the church of San Bartolomeo, officiated by Don Annibale Valigi, now sadly gone. Problems surfaced for the dress attire, but were settled by the friends families. The practical problems, small change, materials we solved them for him. He was also a guest in the home of teacher Mancini. That’s how it was until, at age 17, he found the foster family.”

Mrs. Marcella has a little anecdote on this moment in the life of Rudy. “When he came to see us, completely happy for having found a family, I gave him an album with some photos. Among them were those of the First Communion, together with my son. I remember that I put in that album one of the few photos, if not the only one that he carried with him and reminded him of his land, Africa. A photograph in which he appeared standing with a pair of little shorts and sandals on his feet, with trees in the background." When elementary school finished Mrs. Marcella son attended the Sao Paulo middle school while Rudy enrolled in Ponte San Giovanni, therefore there was a period when relations were less frequent. “Never the less he still came to my house on holidays. He had breakfast and then went to mass. I'll tell you that he was not always appropriately dressed in respect of the climate. He had no roots; there was no point of reference in his home. His father was probably too young for such responsibility and the partners he had, some had been attentive to the needs of Rudy, but others slightly less.” Then came high school. Rudy chose to attend the catering college of Assisi. “In this period the traumatic aspect was represented by the fact that his father had moved from Ponte San Giovanni to Pontenuovo in Torgiano. Rudy there was not happy. He had his friends in Ponte San Giovanni, his peers and their families. I am convinced that he had suffered a lot from this transfer. Went to school in Assisi and played basketball with the Liomatic. That’s why he turned to coming to my house more often. Among other, he found a part-time job in a pizzeria. The day of the week when he worked was coming to sleep with us, so not to face the late trip back at 11 pm to Pontenuovo. However, even on other days we willingly have him over. With us, he would eat and then accompanied him to the ‘Pellini’ for training. One day I saw him cry. He explained that his father was about to leave for the Ivory Coast, where he would stay for three weeks.”

In reality, there was a whole host of problems (Rudy's father explained that he found himself in the Ivory Coast in the middle of a civil war) from January to June, the boy remained practically alone. “The situation worsened as the three weeks lengthened to four-five months. It distressed me the fact of having in the shoulders the responsibility of a minor boy. Both I and the teachers Marisa and Ivana tried calling his father to ask to send us at least a fax, confirming that he had left his son. No answer. It’s true, however, that when Rudy's father returned to Italy he seemed upset, weakened. What he had suffered, or went through, this I don’t know. But it was clear that he was not well. It was during this time that Mrs. Marcella received a phone call from Rudy’s aunt and asked to bring her nephew to Lecco (Lombardy). "At first we didn’t want to send, him, but after a phone call from the embassy, my husband took Rudy to Lombardy. I remember my husband was not feeling well then and he was accompanied on this trip, by my brother in law.” Then came the fostering parents. “I remember that Rudy was dressed better, more appropriate.

Used to found him sometimes around Corso Vannucci. Even then, he had some problems at school. He was enrolled in the third year of the catering school, at the end of which was to obtain a diploma, but then he enrolled in ‘Ragioneria’ (commercial school), and probably didn’t have the right sufficient basics to take this school course.”

At Ponte San Giovanni and Pieve di Campo, Rudy continued to visit his ever friends. "He was very attached to the community where he grew up, even the parish. I remember that summer was to attend the summer campus organized by Don Annibale. I remember Rudy in a deep crisis with his father ..." Recounts Mrs. Marcella, another unpublished anecdote. “One day he caught the flu and he, who had never been ill before, was very worried for those tonsils in his throat that had been diagnosed by a doctor. He could not even swallow the antibiotics. He was so worried, scared, he asked me to call all his friends. He said: “I'm going to die, I want to see them for the last time.” So, we made him happy, just for a laugh, to defuse the situation. All the boys around him, with the influenza and frightened: it was a funny little scene...”

How was Rudy’s nature, character, Mrs. Marcella has no doubts. “One polite young man, brought up. Confusing, messy, perhaps more than our children, of course, but was understandable given his age and considering that he had no family, so to speak, normal. I, however, had given him the key to the house, like my eldest son. Not without feeling worried, sometimes anxious. But he was always correct. Neither from my home nor from the other houses nothing ever went missing. Moreover, he never appeared aggressive. Extremely correct in the field when he played basketball and even in discussions among boys. If the discussion heated up, he pulled back.” Shy and introverted, too. "I remember when he attended the mid third grade, one day he arrived in my house all excited because he was going to visit his mother in Africa. We took the world-map to look at the route the plane would take. I remember there weren’t time zone problems. So much happiness on the eve of departure, then curl up like a clam, quietly when he returned. What he lived through during those twenty days I do not know. He never opened up with us.”

From prison, he still writes to Mrs. Marcella. "He sent me many letters for which I replied little, to tell the truth, either because I had some family problems, or because I did not know how to comfort him objectively, what to say. On the other hand, we understand that he writes, above all, to let off steam. When his friend Giacomo (Benedetti) goes to visit him, we always send him something. Not just me, all the families friends ..." There is between Ponte San Giovanni and Pieve di Campo a sort of network of solidarity around this young man, because Rudy is in need of everything. "I think he has always desired a family. Desired to die. But has always walked a different path. Who knows him, as we and our children do, continues to believe that by his behavior, character, life lived Rudy cannot have stained himself with such a crime. We have never seen him be aggressive; we have never heard him utter a bad word. For this he seems to us another person, that Rudy told in the newspapers and on television."
Rudy now relies, by necessity, his future, is at the trial court of Assizes Appeal.

By:Elio Clerio Bertoldi