Autopsy (1975) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Simona experiences psychological breaks due to the extreme stress of working in the coroner's office during the suicide crisis. The constant exposure to graphic deaths, combined with enduring harassment from her assistant Ivo, causes her to hallucinate that the corpses are returning to life. This is a symptom of her fraying mental state rather than anything supernatural.

• simona
• stress
• hallucinations
• coroner
• psychological breakdown

Betty was injected with a drug and then shot through the mouth, staged to appear as a suicide. When Simona examines Betty's body more closely during the eye-tracking experiment on Gianni, she discovers a puncture mark on Betty's arm that proves she was injected before being shot. This reveals the murder was calculated to look like one of the suicide victims plaguing Rome.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, Ivo reconstructs Betty's body and Simona recognizes her by the red wig she wore when they first met.

• betty lennox
• murder
• injection
• puncture mark
• suicide staging

Edgar confessed to killing his own father to secure an inheritance. He had used Betty to manipulate Gianni into retrieving a hidden will from Gianni's brother Lello. When Betty wanted to mail the will back after speaking to Paul, Edgar drugged her to extract information, then shot her to maintain control over the situation and prevent her from revealing what she knew.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, Edgar reveals his father's death to his aunt over a weak telephone line, showing his nervous behavior about the inheritance.

• edgar
• father murder
• inheritance
• confession
• betty

Gianni becomes severely paralyzed after falling from his apartment window. While the summary doesn't explicitly name his attacker, the context suggests Lello Sanna (Gianni's brother and antiquities dealer) was responsible. Gianni had confronted Lello after believing he stole a document from Betty's envelope, and the fall leaves Gianni unable to speak, communicating only through eyelid movements.

Foreshadowing: Paul directly accuses Lello of theft and confronts him, nearly being shot in the process.

• gianni
• paralysis
• fall
• window
• lello sanna

The document was an old will belonging to Edgar's deceased father. Betty had been using it to blackmail Gianni, and Edgar needed it to secure his inheritance. Paul believes it was a historic document salvaged from Rome's floods decades earlier. Lello, as an antiquities dealer, was involved in illegal schemes to traffic such documents, making him a key suspect in the theft.

Foreshadowing: Paul receives Betty's belongings from the church, including an old Bible that he believes contains this historic document.

• bible
• will
• document
• inheritance
• lello sanna
• betty

Father Paul Lennox immediately suspects murder because he knows his sister Betty would not have taken her own life. His conviction drives him to implore Simona to investigate, despite her initial resistance. Paul's faith and personal knowledge of his sister make him certain someone killed her, though his own past as a race car driver who caused a fatal crash complicates the investigation and raises questions about his credibility.

• father paul
• betty lennox
• priest
• murder belief
• brother

The eye-tracking experiment was designed to interpret Gianni's eyelid movements to answer questions about who pushed him, but a wrong drug mixture sends him into a deeper coma. However, this procedure gives Simona the opportunity to examine Betty's body more closely, leading to the discovery of the puncture mark that proves Betty was injected and murdered rather than dying by suicide.

• eye tracking
• gianni
• coma
• experiment
• betty murder evidence

After confessing his crimes, Edgar drugs both Simona and Paul and attempts to stage a joint suicide using carbon monoxide poisoning in their apartment. However, Paul manages to trigger an escape plan by turning on the bathroom faucet to flood the room and summon help. The dog alerts neighbors, allowing emergency responders to save them before the carbon monoxide trap can kill them.

• edgar
• carbon monoxide
• attempted murder
• drugs
• suicide staging

Edgar corners Simona and Paul at his favorite photography scaffolding and tries to kill them by throwing them off the structure. Paul manages to save himself during the struggle, but Edgar loses his grip on the edge and plummets to his death in front of a crowd that rushes to the scene. This violent end comes after Edgar's entire scheme has been uncovered and his attempt to silence the witnesses has failed.

• edgar
• scaffolding
• death
• fall
• final confrontation

The building's superintendent, who is shown as a voyeur who abuses his dog, is found hanging in his bathroom using his dog's leash as a noose. This suicide appears to be connected to the wave of suicides plaguing Rome, possibly influenced by the abnormal solar activity. Paul attempts to resuscitate him but fails. The incident adds to the atmosphere of moral decay in the city and the building itself.

• caretaker
• superintendent
• suicide
• building
• dog leash

Both Betty Lennox and Gianni's partner Daniella are associated with red wigs. Simona initially recognizes Betty's body at the morgue by the red wig she wore when they first met. Daniella, as a controversial artist, also embraces red wigs as part of her bold artistic persona. This visual motif creates a visual link between the women and adds to the eerie atmosphere of the mystery.

Foreshadowing: Simona meets Daniella, who wears red wigs like Betty did, creating visual confusion in the investigation.

• red wig
• betty
• daniella
• visual connection
• costume

The movie opens with the explanation that abnormal solar activity is believed to have driven the violent escalation of suicides in Rome. This atmospheric phenomenon provides the backdrop for the story and creates an atmosphere of psychological unease. However, as the investigation progresses, it becomes clear that many of these deaths are actually murders staged to appear as suicides, with Edgar and others manipulating the situation for their own gain.

• solar activity
• suicides
• rome
• atmosphere
• heatwave

Simona's assistant Ivo attempts to sexually assault her in a brutal molestation, forcing his hand up her uniform. Simona defends herself with a fork, nearly killing him before Edgar intervenes and interrupts the assault. This violent incident underscores the mounting danger surrounding Simona and the toxic environment in the coroner's office, where she is already dealing with extreme stress and harassment.

• ivo
• assault
• simona
• morgue
• sexual harassment