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Bartolomeo GAGLIANO
A.K.A.: "Valentine's
Day Serial Killer"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics:
Mentally ill
Number of victims: 3
Date of murders: January
16, 1981 / February 8/14, 1989
Method of murder:
Smashing
her head with a rock / Shooting
Location: Savona/Genoa, Italy
Status:
Sentenced to eight years in a
criminal asylum for the mentally ill in 1981. Escaped from a
psychiatric hospital in 1989. Remanded to another psychiatric
institute in 1989
Italy has launched a manhunt for a convicted
serial killer who was allowed to leave a Genoa prison on a
two-day, good-behavior pass to see his elderly mother but failed
to return.
Genoa police official Fausto Lamparelli said
Thurday that Bartolomeo Gagliano is armed and "dangerous."
Authorities said while Gagliano was allowed out
Tuesday to visit his mother in Savona he forced a baker at
gunpoint to start driving him away. He then forced the driver out
of the car and drove off. There are fears he might have driven
across the nearby border into France.
Gagliano was convicted of fatally stoning one
prostitute and wounding another in 1981, and after escaping from a
criminal asylum, killing two others in 1989. He has escaped six
times in all.
Italy: Valentine's Day Serial
Killer Bartolomeo Gagliano Escapes on Day Release from Prison
By Umberto Bacchi - Ibtimes.co.uk
December 18, 2013
Italian police have launched a manhunt for a
dangerous serial killer who escaped from custody in the
northwestern town of Genoa.
Bartolomeo Gagliano, 55, who was serving time
in jail for three murders and numerous other offences, went on the
run after he was allowed out on day release.
Police said Gagliano, who is mentally ill, was
due to get back to his cell at Genoa Marassi prison after
undergoing treatment at a local mental hospital and paying a
Christmas visit to his mother.
However, upon leaving his mother's house in the
nearby town of Savona, the native Sicilian hijacked at gunpoint
the car of a baker who was delivering bread early in the morning.
He forced the man to drive him back to Genoa.
There he eventually released the baker and left aboard a white
Fiat Panda.
Security forces across the Mediterranean
country have been put on high alert and police have set up vehicle
checkpoints in the Genoa area. Authorities said Gagliano is
"extremely dangerous".
Gagliano's murderous spree began in Savona in
1981, when he killed a 29-year-old prostitute, smashing her head
with a rock.
Later arrested, he was sentenced to eight years
in a criminal asylum for the mentally ill.
In 1989 Gagliano and a fellow inmate, Francesco
Sedda, broke out and embarked on a killing spree.
Less than a month after the evasion the pair
killed a Uruguayan transsexual, Nahir Fernandez Rodriguez, with a
shot through the mouth.
Three days later on Valentine 's Day 1989
Gagliano and Sedda shot dead Francesco Panizzi, a drug addict
transvestite. The two felons were nicknamed 'Valentine's killers'
in the wake of the game.
Less than 24 hours later they gunned down a
prostitute named Laura Baldi, who despite injuries at the neck and
the face survived.
The two were later arrested and reportedly
tried to justify their actions saying they targeted individuals
who spread the HIV virus.
Gagliano and Sedda were remanded to another
psychiatric institute. Sedda died in 1994, while Gagliano kept on
exploiting generous day releases to evade, commit robberies,
thefts and assaults.
He was serving the last year of a jail sentence
for a series of robberies at Genoa's Marassi prison.
"We didn't see it coming," said prison warden
Salvatore Mazzeo. "Lately his behaviour had much improved.
Serial killer flees jail after leaving
to visit his mum
TheLocal.it
December 19, 2013
Police are hunting for serial killer Bartolomeo
Gagliano after he escaped from a jail in the northern Italian city
of Genoa on Wednesday. Prison staff claim they had no clue he was
a killer when they granted him temporary leave to visit his
mother.
Gagliano, convicted of three murders as well as
a slew of other crimes, was allowed temporary leave to visit his
mother in Savona as a reward for good behaviour over the past
three years, but he instead hijacked a bakery delivery van at
gunpoint and told the driver to head to Genoa, La Stampa reported.
Once in Genoa, he let the delivery man go and
made his escape in a green Fiat Panda.
Staff at Genoa's Marassi penitentiary said they
had no idea that Gagliano, 55, was a convicted serial killer when
they granted him leave.
“We did not know he had this criminal history,
for us he was a robber,” prison warden Salvatore Mazzeo told La
Stampa.
Justice Minister Annamaria Cancellieri said the
incident is “very serious” and requires a “rigorous assessment”.
“It’s useless to deny that this will be a blow
to our attempts to make prisons more civil and able to fulfill
their rehabilitative function.”
Gagliano, who also escaped from a psychiatric
hospital in 1989, killed two prostitutes and a man between 1981
and 1989. He was also convicted of attempted murder as well as
robbery and the possession of drugs and weapons.
