Don Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa is even more famous for killing his wife and her lover in flagrante than he is for his surpassingly weird madrigals. But he didn’t simply dispatch the pair himself: he brought along three men armed with guns and double-headed axes and he energetically mutilated the dead bodies. Dr. Ruth McAllister considers what might have driven Gesualdo to such extremes (and then tortured himself over them for the rest of his life) when a couple of bullets or sword thrusts would have done the job.