Donato Bilancia

Donato Bilancia (10 July 1951 – 17 December 2020) was an Italian serial killer who murdered seventeen people – nine women and eight men – on the Italian Riviera in the period from October 1997 to April 1998.[1]

Donato Bilancia
Born(1951-07-10)10 July 1951
Potenza, Italy
Died17 December 2020(2020-12-17) (aged 69)
Padua, Italy
Other namesThe Liguria Monster
Killer on the trains
Walter
Conviction(s)12 April 2000
Criminal penalty13 terms of life imprisonment
Details
Victims17
Span of crimes
October 1997 – April 1998 (6 months and 5 days)
CountryItaly
Date apprehended
6 May 1998

Bilancia's inconsistent modus operandi made him difficult to identify and capture. There were no obvious links between the majority of his murders. He chose most of his victims at random, across a vast area of Northern Italy, and became a synonym for fear among the people living along the Italian Riviera. He was given the nicknames Mostro della Liguria ("The Liguria Monster") and L'assassino dei treni ("Killer on the trains").

Initially attributed with only nine homicides by the Italian police, Bilancia later confessed to having killed eight other people. With a sentence to 13 terms of life imprisonment, and no possibility of release, Bilancia has been defined by some newspapers as "the worst serial killer in the history of Italy".[2][3][4][5] Despite he admitted to have factually killed the victims, Bilancia never explicitly regretted his crimes, claiming that he did not consciously commit them because he was "possessed" by a disease. Bilancia died on 17 December 2020, in prison, because of COVID-19.[6][7][5]

Biography

Background and early crimes
Mercedes-Benz W201-190; same model used by Bilancia. It was an important element in the reconstruction of the facts that led to his identification.

Bilancia was born in Potenza, Basilicata, in 1951. When he was about five years old, his family moved to northern Italy, first to Piedmont and then to Genoa in the Liguria region.[8] He was a chronic bedwetter until age 10 or 12, and his mother shamed him by placing his wet mattress on the balcony where it could be seen by the neighbours. When undressing him for bed, his aunt would shame him by pulling down his underwear in front of his cousins to show his underdeveloped penis. At age 14, he decided to start calling himself Walter. He dropped out of high school and worked at jobs such as mechanic, bartender, baker and delivery boy.

While still underage, he was arrested and released for stealing a motor scooter and for stealing a truck loaded with Christmas sweets. In 1974 he was stopped and jailed for having an illegal gun. At some point he was committed to the psychiatric division of the Genoa General Hospital, but escaped. After he was apprehended, he spent 18 months in prison for robbery. He served several prison terms in Italy and France for robbery and armed robbery.[8] In spite of his history of psychiatric problems, up to age 47 he had no record of violence.[9]

The murders
A map showing the subdivisions within the Liguria region. Most of Bilancia's murders took place in then existing Province of Genoa (Genova) – replaced by Metropolitan City of Genoa, since 2015.

Bilancia was a compulsive gambler who lived alone. His first murder was the October 1997 strangulation of a friend who betrayed him by luring him into a rigged card game, in which he lost £185,000 (about $226,864.57).[1] The authorities originally thought this death was a heart attack.[8] Bilancia's next two murders were the revenge shooting of the game's operator, and of his wife. He emptied their safe afterward.[8] Bilancia later said these first killings gave him a taste for murder.[1] In all his killings he used or carried a .38 calibre revolver loaded with wad cutter ammunition. He made no attempt to conceal his victims' bodies.[8] That same month, he followed a jeweller home to rob him, then shot him and his wife dead when the wife began screaming. He emptied their safe of jewellery. He next robbed and murdered a money changer. Two months later, he killed a night watchman making his rounds, simply because he did not like night watchmen. He killed an Albanian sex worker and a Russian worker. A second money changer was killed next, shot multiple times, and his safe emptied.[8]

.38 Special wadcutter bullets very similar to those used by Bilancia.

In March 1998, while receiving oral sex at gunpoint from a sex worker, he shot and killed two night watchmen who interrupted, then shot the sex worker, who survived to help develop a police sketch and later testify against him.[8] He also killed a Nigerian sex worker and a Ukrainian sex worker, and robbed and assaulted an Italian sex worker without killing her.[8] On 12 April 1998 he boarded the train from Genoa to Venice because he "wanted to kill a woman". Spotting a young woman travelling alone, he followed her to the toilet, unlocked the door with a skeleton key, shot her in the head and stole her train ticket.[1] Six days later, he boarded the train to Sanremo and followed another young woman to the toilet. He used his key to enter, then used her jacket as a silencer and shot her behind the ear. Excited by her black underwear, he masturbated and used her clothes to clean up.[8] The murders of two "respectable" women sparked a public outcry and the creation of a police task force.[4]

In his last killing before his arrest, on 20 April, Bilancia murdered a service station attendant after refueling his car, then took the workday's receipts, about 2 million lira (about $1000) and fled the crime scene.

Arrest and sentence

Based on the description of the black Mercedes one of his sex worker victims was seen entering the night she was killed, police considered Bilancia "suspect number one" and followed him for ten days. They collected his DNA from cigarette butts and a coffee cup, matching it to DNA found at crime scenes. On 6 May 1998 he was arrested at his home in Genoa and his revolver seized.[10][11][12] After eight days in police custody he confessed, speaking for two days and drawing 17 diagrams.[4]

On 12 April 2000, after an 11-month trial, Bilancia was sentenced to 13 terms of life imprisonment plus an additional 20 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of the sex worker who survived.[13] The judge ordered that he never be released.[4]

Aftermath

Bilancia's criminal life and the events that saw him as a cruel serial killer had a major impact in the media of Italy. His story inspired a television miniseries, called Ultima pallottola ("The last bullet"),[14] directed by Michele Soavi, broadcast for the first time in 2003 on Canale 5, with actors Giulio Scarpati, who plays the officer during the investigations, and Carlo Cecchi, as the serial killer.

In 2004 Donato Bilancia was interviewed live on Rai 1 during the broadcast on Domenica in, in that year conducted and hosted by Paolo Bonolis. The host received bitter criticism for the interview.[15][16] In the early 2010s, then leader of the Five Star Movement political party, Beppe Grillo, admitted that he was neighbor of Donato Bilancia, as a child in Genoa.[17] In 2015, Rai 3 dedicated an episode to Bilancia, in the television show Stelle Nere ("Black Stars").[18]

In prison, Bilancia was often recognized as a "model prisoner". In 2016, after 5 years of studies, he obtained a diploma in accounting disciplines with a score of 83/100,[19] and he then began studiying tourism disciplines at university. In 2017, Bilancia made request for commutation of his life imprisonment penalty into 30 years of imprisonment, requesting summary judgment which was abolished at the time of his trials, but called into question by a sentence of the European Court of Human Rights. However the Supreme Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeal in Italy, rejected his request.[17] The same year Bilancia obtained his first temporary permit to leave the prison under armed police escort, in order to visit his parents' grave at Nizza Monferrato's cemetery in Piedmont.[2][3][20][21]

In late 2019 Bilancia made request for a second temporary permit, but in September the request was denied by the criminal surveillance court of Padua, as he was considered "still dangerous". According to his psychologist he was "unable to adequately manage moments of frustration and anger out of prison".[22] Also, Bilancia had never undergone a psychological rehabilitation program and never explicitly repented his crimes, believing that he was "possessed" by a disease in the years in which he committed them.[22]

Death

Bilancia died on 17 December 2020, at the age of 69, after contracting COVID-19 in "Due Palazzi" prison, Padua.[6][7][5]

See also

References
  1. "Gambler's betrayal led to rampage of murder". The Birmingham Post. 22 May 1998. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  2. "Donato Bilancia è uscito dal carcere. Primo permesso per il serial killer dopo 20 anni" [Donato Bilancia released from prison. First permit for serial killer after 20 years]. Blitz Quotidiano (in Italian). 16 November 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  3. "Bilancia esce di prigione: primo permesso dopo 20 anni per il serial killer genovese" [Bilancia gets out of prison: first permit after 20 years for serial killer from Genoa]. Il Secolo XIX (in Italian). 15 November 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  4. "No motive found as Italy's worst serial killer gets life". The Guardian. 14 April 2000. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  5. "Morto Donato Bilancia, serial killer di treni: aveva Covid" [Donato Bilancia dead, serial killer on trains: he had Covid]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 17 December 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  6. "Morto Donato Bilancia, il serial killer delle prostitute" [Donato Bilancia dead, serial killer of prostitutes]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 17 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  7. "Italian serial killer Bilancia dies of COVID – reports". Inquirer. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  8. Roberta Bruzzone (2003). "From crime scene analysis to offender's personality profiling-generating process: the "Bilancia case"" (PDF). Telematic Journal of Clinical Criminology. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  9. "Train-murders suspect may have killed eight". The Birmingham Post. 8 May 1998. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  10. "Serial killer, nel Dna la prova dei delitti" [Serial killer, proof of the crimes in the DNA]. la Repubblica (in Italian). 7 May 1998. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  11. "We've found the Ripper". Daily Record. 8 May 1998. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  12. "What's wrong with a National DNA Register?". Spiked. 23 June 2004. Archived from the original on 22 June 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  13. "Il doppio enigma del killer degli anonimi" [The double enigma of the anonymous' killer]. Corriere della Sera. 24 February 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  14. "Ultima pallottola" [The last bullet]. Mediaset (in Italian). Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  15. "Domenica in, va in onda l'intervista al killer" [Domenica in, the interview with the killer airs]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 25 April 2004. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  16. "Bonolis, una domenica con il serial killer" [Bonolis, a Sunday with the serial killer]. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 26 April 2004. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  17. "La seconda vita del ragionier Donato Bilancia, professione serial killer" [The second life of accountant Donato Bilancia, professional serial killer]. GQItalia.it (in Italian). 29 May 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  18. "Donato Bilancia: il killer dei treni" [Donato Bilancia: killer on the trains]. Stelle Nere. Season 2015 (in Italian). 2015. RAI. Retrieved 18 December 2020. April 1998. In less than a week, the bodies of two women barbarously killed in the baths of two trains passing through Liguria are found. Immediately the alarm goes off and with it the psychosis. It is better that women do not travel alone by train in that region. They would risk finding themselves in front of someone terribly dangerous. That "someone" is Donato Bilancia, thief, gambler but, above all, ruthless serial killer.
  19. "Donato Bilancia, il serial killer condannato all'ergastolo si diploma in carcere" [Donato Bilancia, serial killer sentenced to life imprisonment gets diploma in prison]. Blitz Quotidiano (in Italian). 12 July 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  20. "Il serial killer Bilancia sotto scorta al cimitero di Nizza Monferrato sulla tomba della madre" [Serial killer Bilancia under guard at the cemetery of Nizza Monferrato on his mother's grave]. La Stampa (in Italian). 15 November 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  21. "La prima volta del serial killer, Bilancia fuori dal carcere (scortato) va a visitare la tomba dei genitori" [Serial killer's first time, Bilancia out of prison (escorted) visits his parents' grave]. Genova Quotidiana (in Italian). 15 November 2017. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  22. "Donato Bilancia "è ancora pericoloso": niente permesso premio. Il serial killer sta scontando 13 ergastoli" [Donato Bilancia "is still dangerous": no second permit granted. The serial killer is serving 13 life sentence]. il Fatto Quotidiano. 4 September 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
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