Bartolomeo GAGLIANO
AKA "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
Date of arrest: February 20, 1989
Date of birth: 1958
Victims profile: Paolina Fedi, 22 / Nahir Fernandez Rodriguez, 32 / Francesco Panizzi, 34
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
Serial Killer Fails to Return to Genoa Prison
Associated Press
December 19, 2013
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.
