Salvatore Mangion, a man from Zejtun in the south of Malta who was also known as Silvio, was convicted of three murders committed over fourteen years. His victims were two older women, Rożina Zammit, killed in Safi in 1984, and Maria Stella Magrin, killed in Cospicua in 1986, and a neighbor, Francesco Cassar, killed in Zejtun in 1998, when Cassar's sister was also attacked and survived. In each case the courts heard that the motive was robbery, and the sums taken were small.
The order of the court cases ran backward. The 1998 killing was the first to be solved and prosecuted. The 1984 and 1986 cases had gone cold, and they were reopened only in 2005, after Mangion, by then in prison, spoke about them to another inmate. A jury convicted him of the Safi murder in 2010. The Cospicua case came last, after a long dispute over whether his mental illness left him fit to be tried at all. In 2012 a second jury found him guilty and he received a second life sentence.
Judge Joseph Galea Debono, who passed the first life sentence, described him from the bench as a serial killer and a threat to society. Prosecutors at his final trial called the killings cold-blooded thefts of small sums from people who could not defend themselves.
Little is known of Mangion's early life. He came from Zejtun, a town in the southeast of the island. MaltaToday reported that he was 45 when he was sentenced for the Safi murder in 2010, and both The Malta Independent and MaltaToday gave his age as 47 in 2012. The defense at his last trial stressed that he had been 21 when Maria Stella Magrin was killed.
He went by Silvio, and his nickname was reported in different spellings: "Kalang" in The Malta Independent and "Kalanc" or "Kalanċ" in MaltaToday. One MaltaToday report called him Saviour Mangion, the English form of the same name.
His mental health became a central issue in the courts. During the 2010 trial he was found to have paranoid schizophrenia, according to MaltaToday. In 2012, three psychiatrists appointed by the court told the Criminal Court that he suffered from chronic schizophrenia and psychotic paranoia, and that alcohol dependence had caused lasting damage. They also said that years of medication had affected him. MaltaToday described him in 2012 as a certified schizophrenic patient at Mount Carmel Hospital, Malta's psychiatric hospital, and reported that a nurse at times gave him medicine while the trial was in progress.
Rożina Zammit was 54 and lived in Safi, a small village in the south of Malta. MaltaToday reported that she was killed at about 2 p.m. on February 8, 1984, and that she died of stab wounds. The court heard that Lm200 had been taken from her, a sum the paper put at about 466 euro.
The killing went unsolved for more than twenty years. Her name appears in the reports with two spellings, Rożina in two MaltaToday reports and Rosina in other coverage.
Maria Stella Magrin was 68 and lived in Cospicua, also called Bormla, one of the old harbor towns across the Grand Harbour from Valletta. She was killed in 1986. The exact date has not been reported. She died of stab wounds during a robbery, and the indictment charged that about 14,000 euro had been stolen from her. In his statement to police, as reported by The Malta Independent, Mangion put the sum at about 15,000 euro.
At the 2012 trial, a former President of Malta, Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, who lived nearby, testified that he had advised neighbors to call the police. Former police officers and forensic staff also gave evidence. Fingerprint experts appointed by the inquiring magistrate in 1986 told the court that usable prints had been very hard to find.
According to the prosecution, three men took part in the robbery: Mangion and two other men from Zejtun, an uncle and his nephew, all of whom knew the victim. In his statement to police, Mangion said they killed her because she could have identified them. Prosecutors told the court the killing was deliberate, carried out to rob her and to silence her.
The case lay dormant until 2005.
Francesco Cassar, known as Frenċ, was Mangion's neighbor in Zejtun. MaltaToday gave his age as 75 in 2010 and as 74 in 2012. He was killed during a robbery on August 18, 1998, the date given in MaltaToday's report of the 2012 sentence. His sister was attacked in the same incident and survived, and Mangion was convicted of attempting to murder her.
This was the case that sent Mangion to prison. The Malta Independent reported in 2012 that he had been convicted of the Cassar murder in 2002. MaltaToday reported in 2010 and in 2012 that he was serving a 21-year sentence for it. One MaltaToday article from 2010 also gave a figure of 14 years in the same report, alongside the 21-year term.
Several reports from 2012 named the 1998 victim as Francis Caruana, while MaltaToday's 2010 report and its report of the 2012 sentence gave his name as Francesco or Frenċ Cassar. The year of the killing and the attempted murder of the victim's sister are the same in every account.
Mangion served his sentence at Corradino Correctional Facility, Malta's prison. MaltaToday reported in 2010 that the two older murders had been a mystery until he began to talk about them to other inmates there. The Malta Independent reported that he confessed to one fellow inmate, who went to the police.
He was arrested in 2005, MaltaToday reported, after boasting about the Cospicua killing. Inspector Chris Pullicino of the Criminal Investigations Department later told the court that Mangion at first denied any involvement and then gave details over four days of questioning. The inspector said those details were later confirmed by forensic evidence. Mangion's description of the layout of the Magrin house matched the crime scene, and he led police to the house.
A retired Assistant Commissioner of Police testified in 2012 that in 2005 Mangion had behaved like a normal person and that his statements matched what was in the police files. The same officer, named as Manuel Cassar in MaltaToday and Michael Cassar in The Malta Independent, told the jury that Mangion showed no remorse or particular emotion while he was being questioned.
The nephew who was said to have gone to the Magrin house with him was also arrested in 2005. According to MaltaToday, he admitted his own and his uncle's involvement, and he later took his own life in police custody. The Malta Independent reported that Mangion named the nephew as the man who stabbed Maria Stella Magrin and took a share of the money, and that the nephew denied this. Mangion also said he had given his clothes and the knife to the nephew to get rid of. The uncle was already dead by then. The Malta Independent gave the year of his death as 2000 and MaltaToday as 2004.
When he was charged, police asked Mangion about tattoos on his ears, an "S" on one and a "K" on the other. The Malta Independent reported that he said the letters stood for his name and his nickname, Silvio Kalang, and then, smirking, asked the officer whether they were "for serial killer."
Mangion stood trial before a jury in the Criminal Court for the murder of Rożina Zammit. The presiding judge was Joseph Galea Debono, and MaltaToday reported that it was his last jury trial. The jury found Mangion guilty by eight votes to one, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Malta Independent reported that he was also convicted of burglary in that case.
In passing sentence, the judge called Mangion a serial killer and said he was a threat to society. Those words followed him through the press coverage of his later trial, where reporters repeatedly recalled that the judge had called him "Malta's serial killer."
The Cospicua case raised a question the Safi trial had not settled: whether Mangion could be tried at all. In Malta, as The Malta Independent explained in 2012, a person found insane cannot defend himself, and no trial can then be held. Mangion did not dispute that he had killed Maria Stella Magrin. He pleaded insanity.
The court appointed three psychiatric experts, Ethel Felice, George Debono and Peter Muscat. In 2010 they found that he was insane both at the time of the crime and at the time of their examination, and that he could not follow the proceedings. The prosecution disputed that finding and asked for him to be examined again. On June 7, 2012 the same experts reported that he was now fit to stand trial and able to follow the case. He needed less medication, they said, he could concentrate and remember, and his schizophrenia and depression were under control.
Under cross-examination the psychiatrists conceded that they did not know what Mangion was charged with, because the court decree they received did not say. The Malta Independent reported that this was his third attempt to be declared insane, that the earlier attempts had failed, and that he had already stood trial twice for other murders.
Inspector Pullicino told the court that in 2010, during proceedings, Mangion had asked him whether the court would accept a claim of insanity. The inspector said the question prompted the investigation to be reopened. State prosecutor Nadine Sant represented the prosecution, and Simon Micallef Stafrace, a legal aid lawyer, represented Mangion. As of July 2012 the jury trial was still pending.
The jury trial for the murder of Maria Stella Magrin was heard before Judge Lawrence Quintano and lasted four days. The indictment charged Mangion with murder, illegal possession of a weapon, stealing about 14,000 euro and holding the victim against her will. The jury heard from police officers, forensic experts and the former President.
Forensic witnesses described a violent death.
Micallef Stafrace told the jury that the police investigation had been "half baked." He said he was not alleging manipulation or fabrication, but he listed what he called fatal deficiencies. Some forensic comparisons had never been made. None of the accused's fingerprints had been found on any evidence. The prosecution's case leaned on the account of a dead co-accused, who, the lawyer suggested, might have shifted the blame onto Mangion. He argued that it was the nephew, not Mangion, who had guided investigators, and that police photographs said to show Mangion doing so had never been produced. He also told jurors that his client did not seem to know what was going on around him and was "lost in his mind."
At 10:35 p.m. on a Thursday, after about five hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict finding Mangion guilty on three of the four counts. Reporters described him as emotionless throughout, staring at the judge as the verdict was read.
In submissions on punishment, Sant asked for life imprisonment. She said a unanimous verdict was rare in Maltese judicial history and reflected society's demand for the maximum penalty. The killings, she said, had no particular motive beyond stealing small sums from defenceless people. Micallef Stafrace asked for clemency, urging the court to consider Mangion's state of mind and his age at the time of the crime.
Judge Quintano sentenced Mangion to life imprisonment for the murder of Maria Stella Magrin, his second life term. He called Mangion a "ruthless, cold-blooded" murderer who had no morals or values, who showed no remorse, and who had killed a defenceless woman who had given him money. The judge said the physical evidence at the scene and the absence of fingerprints showed premeditation. Mangion stood motionless in the dock as the sentence was read.
No appeal against any of the three convictions has been reported.
At the 2012 sentencing, the prosecutor suggested that Mangion might be responsible for a fourth killing. MaltaToday reported that she gave no details, and no further charge against him was reported. The suggestion remains an assertion by the prosecution, not a finding of any court.
The reports of the three cases differ on several details. The 1998 victim appears as Francesco or Frenċ Cassar, aged 74 or 75, in some reports and as Francis Caruana in others. The 1998 sentence was reported as 21 years, with one 2010 report also giving 14 years. The uncle's death was given as 2000 in The Malta Independent and 2004 in MaltaToday. The retired senior officer who testified in 2012 appears as Manuel Cassar and as Michael Cassar. The sum stolen from Maria Stella Magrin was 14,000 euro in the indictment and about 15,000 euro in Mangion's statement.
February 8, 1984: Rożina Zammit, 54, is stabbed to death in Safi; Lm200 is taken.
1986: Maria Stella Magrin, 68, is stabbed to death during a robbery at her home in Cospicua.
August 18, 1998: Francesco (Frenċ) Cassar, Mangion's neighbor, is killed in Zejtun; his sister is attacked and survives.
2002: Mangion is convicted of the Cassar murder and the attempted murder of Cassar's sister, The Malta Independent later reported; he receives 21 years.
2005: After he talks about the older killings to a fellow inmate at Corradino, he is arrested and questioned; over four days he gives details of the Cospicua killing. A second suspect, the nephew of a man already dead, is arrested, admits involvement and later takes his own life in police custody.
2010: A jury convicts Mangion of the murder of Rożina Zammit by eight votes to one; Judge Joseph Galea Debono sentences him to life imprisonment and calls him a serial killer.
2010: Court-appointed psychiatrists find him insane at the time of the Cospicua killing and unable to follow proceedings; the prosecution seeks a fresh examination.
June 7, 2012: The same psychiatrists find him fit to stand trial for the Magrin murder.
July 2012: Evidence on his fitness is heard; the jury trial is still pending.
2012: After a four-day trial, a jury unanimously finds him guilty on three of four counts over the death of Maria Stella Magrin; Judge Lawrence Quintano imposes a second life sentence.