The three lives of Donato Bilancia, serial killer sentenced to 13 life sentences charged with 17 murders

The press nicknamed him “monster trains“about”Cuba, the Italian Ripper“there may be Donato Libra he dedicated many extra casualties than his British “colleague”. And in a frighteningly brief time. Because of the worry and media hype brought on by his murders, Ferrovie dello Stato even determined to shut the convoys in 1998.

Donato Bilancia was “The most important killer of Italian serial killers”: in simply six months, between October 1997 and April 1998, he killed 17 individuals, together with 9 males and eight girls. The hint of blood is unparalleled within the historical past of the nation. Libra herself known as it “my consecutio temporum.” Arrested in Could 1998, after the Libra trial, he was sentenced to a document penalty 13 life sentences and 16 years in jail.

He died of coronavirus on the College Hospital of Padua, aged 69, in December 2020. After being transferred to a well being facility from Due Palazzi jail in the identical Venetian metropolis of Libra, she allegedly refused therapy: an act of protest in opposition to the refusal to grant approval by Superintendent Judges, which the person discovered “responsible” of not understanding his change efforts.

“It is one of many darkest, most immersive, terrifying, however maybe additionally probably the most enlightening tales in regards to the darkish aspect of human nature,” mentioned director Pino Corrias, creator of a documentary about probably the most bloodthirsty killer in Italian crime information.

Following the levels of his story is like descending right into a slender shadow of anger and insanity. Step-by-step down into the deep abyss of evil.

Who’s Donato Bilancia, a serial killer sentenced to 13 life sentences

Born in Potenza on July 10, 1951, the son of a civil servant and an inert housewife, he moved together with his household first to Asti, then to Capaccio within the Province of Salerno and eventually to Genoa in 1956. Donato grew up together with his dad and mom and his brother. older, however won’t ever have a peaceable relationship with members of the family. He himself later described life within the residence as “hell”. Between quarrels and father’s punishment.

She doesn’t do effectively at college and really leaves after repeating eighth grade thrice. Performs numerous jobs: mechanic, baker, bartender. However the younger man’s primary calling is crime: in 1971, a court docket in Cuneo sentenced him to a few months in jail, once more for theft. The identical factor occurred in 1974 and 1976.

In these years, Donato stole automobiles on the road, valuables in residences and jewelers. However nothing in comparison with what would have occurred in about twenty years.

In 1987, his life was endlessly marked by a traumatic occasion: in March of the identical yr, his older brother Michele took his son in his arms and dedicated suicide by throwing himself in entrance of a prepare on the Genoa-Ventimiglia line. His spouse Ornella Cooccorocchio, 29, needed to half with him and requested the judges to entrust little Davide by his lawyer. Which plunged Michele into despair.

This episode is sort of a lit match thrown on a handful of gunpowder Donato’s already disturbed psyche: therefore – in accordance with what emerged from later psychiatric stories – monumental hatred, instinctive and profound, begins to sprout in women and men.

The primary crimes associated to playing

Libra is a “lone wolf”, doesn’t need companions and works alone. He visits the Sanremo On line casino, in addition to secret playing hideouts, prostitutes and numerous characters from the native underground. He calls himself “Walter”. He’s a pathological gambler: he can win tens of millions of lire in a single night after which squander all the day. He solely has one good friend. Or quite, he’s satisfied that he’s: her identify is Maurizio Parenti. The 2 typically play collectively.

One night in 1997, a second main episode happens after the loss of life of his brother and four-year-old grandson, who will endlessly decide Donato Bilantia’s destiny: by pure coincidence, a person hears Parenti bragging to the proprietor of a playing cave for bringing him “that Libra hen.” that they’d each deceived him, nearly robbing him 500 million lire in a month of armed video games.

For Libra, these phrases are a shock: tonight the barrel of mud in his head will explode like a bomb exploded. And Donato slides increasingly more into the abyss of resentment and revenge. Towards his “good friend.” Towards girls. And in opposition to the remainder of the world round him.

His first sufferer is the proprietor of the playing cave who has conspired with Parenti for him: Giorgio Centanaro. On October 16, 1997, she enters his residence, covers his mouth with duct tape and strangles him. When it does, it additionally explains why.

On October 24, it was the flip of Parenti, who murdered together with his spouse Carla Scotto. Libra additionally steals 13 million lire and a number of other watches from the couple’s home. From then on, Libra will like us, and his thirst for blood by no means ceases, fueled by an ominous sense of omnipotence.

Three days later he kills one other couple, two goldsmiths Bruno Solari and Maria Luigia Pittoidentical as with earlier crimes. Then, on November 13, robberies and killings Luciano Marro, alternate workplace in Ventimiglia. Nevertheless, on January 25, 1998, he kills an evening watchman Giangiorgio Canusimply out of resentment to the police. March 20 is one other cash alternate: Enzo Gorni.

Donato Bilancia, the serial killer of prostitutes, hated girls

Of the ladies, after Carla Scotto, Libra kills six extra. In his fraudulent felony challenge, the final one needs to be Ornella, she was his sister-in-law. Most of them are prostitutes, and the ritual is sort of at all times the identical: a jacket on the pinnacle and a firearm shot. Excluding the Scotto and Pitto killings, all murders of girls occurred in 1998.

On March 9, he shoots and kills the Albanian in Varazze Stella Truyawith whom he was in solitary confinement. On March 18, in Pietra Ligure, he murdered a Ukrainian with a blow to the pinnacle Ludmila Zubskova.

On March 24, he tries to kill a transgender lady in a villa in Novi Ligure, Lorraine Castrowho, nevertheless, manages to flee and go to the police and provides the police the primary male identification package. On this scenario, Libra kills two different night time guards who tried to cease him, Massimiliano Gualillo to me Candido Rando.

At the moment, Libra was needed by investigators from no less than 5 totally different prosecutors: Genoa, Imperia, Savona, Sanremo and Alessandria.

On March 29 in Cogoleto he places an finish to life Tessy Adodo, Nigerian prostitute. The Adodo homicide marks a turning level for investigators who’ve lengthy been wandering round with fragmented clues of their pursuit of a serial killer. In reality, the Ris di Parma acknowledge a weapon utilized by Libra for earlier crimes as effectively: the Smith & Wesson 38 caliber. On April 14, 1998, it was the flip of the Macedonian prostitute: Kristina Valla.

The newest prepare murders

One other nickname for Libra in these six months of insanity is “Practice Killer”. It’s not so.

On April 12, 1998, on the La Spezia-Venice intercity route, he broke into the lavatory of a wagon and killed it Elisabetta Zoppetti, a Milanese nurse from the Nationwide Most cancers Institute. Since then, Libra has been known as by the media “the monster of liguria“The entire nation is following the event of the case in full panic.

On April 18, the most recent sufferer on the Genoa-Ventimiglia prepare: murders the babysitter right here Maria Angela Rubino and masturbates on his corpse. On April 20, within the service space on the Genoa-Ventimiglia motorway within the municipality of Arma di Taggia, Libra’s final crime takes place when he robs and kills a gasoline station worker Giuseppe Mileto, as a result of it refuses to acknowledge him as a full tank of gasoline.

Arrest and life in jail

Identification package supplied by Lorena, testimony of one other lady miraculously pardoned by the assassin, identification of a black Mercedes used within the crime, and the story of a person, Pino Monellowho bought him a really comparable automobile with out transferring possession. These are the decisive parts that lead investigators to acknowledge and arrest Libra.

Libra lined up for the automobile in entrance of him on the toll cubicles to keep away from tolls. Seeing himself strewn with fines, Monello accuses him of involuntarily calling carabinieri who had been searching for a Mercedes, on Castro’s orders. On the premise of espresso drunk in a bar and a cigarette butt, the carabinieri determine the DNA of the suspect closing the circle: Donato Bilancia is arrested on the morning of Could 6, 1998, in entrance of the hospital San Martino of Genoawith none resistance on his half.

Once you sit in entrance of the prosecutor, Enrico ZuccaThe serial killer begins by saying, “If you would like me to let you know my story, we’ve got to start out over. And the start is just not a homicide, it’s not eight murders, however seventeen. ” together with the primary, the gambler Centanaro, who was initially believed to have died of pure causes.

The load was examined by no less than a dozen psychiatrists over time. In line with them, cruelty and pleasure are intertwined with the motive of his crimes, dedicated with no or no cause. All linked by one pink thread: pure hate. For lack of affection, loneliness and aversion to others.

Reo pleaded responsible, in April 2000 a Genoa court docket sentenced him to 13 life sentences and 28 years in jail. Libra spends 20 years in jail in Due Palazzi, Padua. First as an remoted and lonely prisoner resulting from threats from different inmates. Then a lifetime prisoner is the hero of gradual restoration: penance, research, diploma in accounting in 2016, cooperation with the jail theater group, enrollment within the grasp’s diploma program “Planning and administration of cultural tourism”. He even begins to hope.

From 2011, Libra begins to pay a part of its civilian pension (simply over € 500 per 30 days) to a toddler with Down syndrome and different disabilities, a visitor of the Opera della Provvidenza S. Antonio in Rubano, and a Sicilian household with three disabled youngsters. At this stage, “He turns into one thing of a” respectable “man, and that lights up some gentle on this black story, mentioned journalist Renato Pizzini, who collaborated on Corrias’ documentary.

Donato Libra died of Covid on December 17, 2020.

The story of Italy’s bloodiest serial killer ends on December 17, 2020 on the College Hospital of Padua. Right here, he dies because of well being issues after being contaminated with Covid-19, after an epidemic broke out within the jail the place he was imprisoned: just for Libra, hospitalization is required.

“I’ll go to hell, however I’ll ask God for a second to apologize to the victims” had been the final phrases spoken by “Walterino” to his confessor in jail.

On the hospital, Libra is denied to medical employees as an indication of protest in opposition to judges of the Supreme Court docket of Supervision: they just lately refused his permission to go to a disabled youngster he was supporting.

“It was his manner of getting off the inexperienced desk in life, similar to gamblers do after they lastly lose every thing,” director Corrias mentioned of his final moments.