Milena Quaglini was an Italian woman from the Oltrepo Pavese, in Lombardy, linked to three deaths between 1995 and 1999. Two of them reached a court. The 1995 death of Giusto Dalla Pozza at Este, in the Veneto, ended in a sentence of 20 months for excess of legitimate self-defence. The killing of her husband, Mario Fogli, in August 1998 ended in a sentence of 14 years, later reduced to 6 years and 8 months because the court found her mental capacity partly impaired. The third death, that of Angelo Porrello at Bascapè in October 1999, was one she confessed to but was never tried for: she died by suicide in Vigevano prison in October 2001.
The three deaths happened in separate places and at separate times, and the courts did not treat them alike. Psychiatric experts who examined her reached different conclusions, and the open questions about her lucidity and the part played by alcohol were never settled by a trial on the last case.
Quaglini was born on March 25, 1957, in Mezzanino, a village in the Oltrepo Pavese, the part of the province of Pavia south of the River Po. Her father drank and was violent toward his wife and his two daughters. She earned a diploma in Pavia and left home at 19. She went on to work as a cashier, a carer and a cleaner in Como and Lodi, among other places. She had two daughters.
In 1995 Quaglini was working in the Veneto, in the town of Este in the province of Padua, looking after Giusto Dalla Pozza, who was 83. His surname is also spelled Della Pozza. He died on October 25, 1995, and the death was first recorded as an accident.
Quaglini later confessed. The court that dealt with the case found "eccesso colposo di legittima difesa", excess of legitimate self-defence, and sentenced her to 20 months, that is 1 year and 8 months, on February 2, 2001.
On Sunday, August 2, 1998, a woman telephoned the carabinieri station at Bascapè, in the province of Pavia, and said: "Venite, ho ucciso mio marito" ("Come, I have killed my husband"). It was Quaglini. Her husband, Mario Fogli, had died the evening before, after a quarrel.
Quaglini confessed to the carabinieri. She told them she had lost her head and had not meant to kill him.
On April 26, 1999, the tribunal of Voghera sentenced her to 14 years for the killing of her husband. Her lawyer obtained house arrest while the case went to appeal. On October 13, 2000, the court recognized "vizio parziale di mente", a partial mental defect, in the case and reduced the sentence from 14 years to 6 years and 8 months, to be served under house arrest. The finding is also described as "seminfermita di mente", partial mental infirmity. Experts who examined her disagreed on her state of mind, but all of them recorded that she showed no repentance and saw what she had done as a consequence of the abuse she had suffered since childhood.
While she was serving her sentence at home, Angelo Porrello died at Bascapè in early October 1999. The date is given as October 5 or October 6, 1999. She first denied any part in it. Once the investigation linked her to him she confessed. The date of the confession is not on record.
She was returned to prison for breaching the terms of her house arrest and was held at the women's prison in Vigevano. The case against her for Porrello's death did not reach a verdict.
Quaglini died by suicide in Vigevano prison on October 16, 2001, shortly before proceedings over Porrello's death were due. Because she died before a trial, the Porrello case remains a confession and not a conviction.
The number of deaths. Investigators established three deaths, and it is not known whether she killed anyone else. No further case is on record.
Her state of mind. The experts differed. They questioned her lucidity, her capacity to understand and to act on that understanding, and the effect of alcohol dependence.
Dates and names. The date of Porrello's death (October 5 or 6, 1999), the spelling of the victims' surnames, the husband's town (Bascapè or Broni) and Dalla Pozza's age (80 or 83) are not settled.
March 25, 1957: Milena Quaglini is born in Mezzanino, Pavia province.
Age 19: leaves her family home.
October 25, 1995: Giusto Dalla Pozza dies at Este; the death is first recorded as an accident.
August 1 or 2, 1998: her husband Mario Fogli dies; on August 2 she telephones the carabinieri.
April 26, 1999: the tribunal of Voghera sentences her to 14 years.
Early October 1999: Angelo Porrello dies at Bascapè; she later confesses.
October 13, 2000: the sentence for her husband's killing is reduced to 6 years and 8 months on a finding of "vizio parziale di mente".
February 2, 2001: sentence of 1 year and 8 months for excess of legitimate self-defence in the Este case.
October 16, 2001: dies by suicide in Vigevano prison.