1 Shakespeare: In our second episode Grady and Jessica visit Rome in 1497, where Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandía, is found in the Tiber River, throat slit.
2 Shakespeare: In our history, despite an investigation launched by his father, Pope Alexander VI, the murderer was never unmasked.
3 Mercutio: Great! We use the time machine to travel there, film Angela and you finding out who did it, and edit that into an episode.
4 Mercutio: One crucial question.
4 Shakespeare: Yes?
4 Mercutio: Did they have pizza in Rome in 1497?

The murder of Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandía, is one of the enduring mysteries of history. Born in 1476 (with some small uncertainty), he was the son of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia—who would be elected Pope Alexander VI in 1492—and the cardinal's mistress, Vannozza dei Cattanei. Having mistresses and illegitimate kids was pretty much standard for Popes back then, so this wasn't a big drawback.

On the night of 14 June, 1497, Giovanni left a dinner feast that his mother had arranged for him at her villa in the heart of Rome. Giovanni told his brother that he was going to visit his mistress (like father, like son), and departed with his valet and—and this is where things get a bit weird already—a mysterious masked man whose identity has never been established. This masked man had been observed visiting Giovanni several times over the previous month or so. Giovanni and his men rode as far as the Roman Ghetto adjacent to the Tiber River. He ordered the valet to wait and rode off with the masked man.

This was the last time Giovanni Borgia was seen alive, at least by anyone other than his murderers. His horse came back alone, and the valet was found dying in the street. The Pope was fearful for his son's safety and ordered locals to be interrogated to find any witnesses. One man said he'd seen five men dump a body into the river. The Pope had the Tiber trawled, and Giovanni's body was recovered on 16 June. He was fully dressed, and still had 30 ducats in his coin purse, but his body had 9 knife wounds, and his throat was cut.

There was no shortage of suspects. The Orsini family hated the Borgias because of rivalries with the Pope. Virginio Orsino, one of the heads of the family, had died in a prison in Naples, placed there for opposing the Pope. Alexander VI was planning to give Virginio's lands to Giovanni, so the Orsini's had motive to target him specifically in a revenge killing.

Giovanni's own older brother Cesare Borgia hated him for their shared rivalry over their mistress Sancha.

Giovanni's younger brother Gioffre Borgia also hated him because the aforementioned Sancha was actually his wife.

Suspicion also fell on Antonio Maria della Mirandola (link in Italian), the father of a young girl who lived near the Tiber. Giovanni had been heard before his murder boasting that he had "dishonoured" the girl. (wink wink)

Pope Alexander launched an investigation into the murder of his son, but abruptly closed it down inconclusively after a week. Rumours swirled that he shut it down because evidence was beginning to point towards one of his own sons, and he wanted to avoid further scandal by implicating them. Either way, there was and has never been any satisfactory explanation for the murder.