Roberto Spinetti

Last updated
Roberto Spinetti
Born1965 (age 58–59)
Lucerne, Switzerland
Other names"The 7.65 Caliber Killer"
Conviction(s) Murder x2
Manslaughter
Attempted murder
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment (Molino)
30 years imprisonment (Fabbri)
26 years and 4 months (Rosin and Todorova)
Details
Victims3
Span of crimes
October 12 –November 10, 2003
CountryItaly
State(s) Aosta Valley, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy
Date apprehended
November 28, 2003

Roberto Spinetti (born 1965), known as The 7.65 Caliber Killer (Italian : Il killer della calibro 7,65), [1] is a Swiss serial killer who murdered three prostitutes and wounded one more in northern Italy from October to November 2003 during robberies, which he carried out to pay off his gambling debts. Found guilty on all counts in three separate trials, he was sentenced to a life term and 56 years imprisonment.

Contents

Early life

Roberto Spinetti was born in 1965 in Lucerne, Switzerland, to Italian parents from Abruzzo. [2] Little is known about his childhood, but at one point he moved to Zürich, where he married, had two children and operated a successful real estate business. Spinetti was known as an avid gambler, spending a lot of time in casinos in Monte Carlo, Venice and Saint-Vincent. In 1999, he permanently moved to Italy, supposedly to evade prosecution for large-scale real estate fraud and other financial offences in his native Switzerland. [3]

Murders

During the fall of 2003, Spinetti embarked on a crime spree that would leave three prostitutes dead and another with permanent injuries. The first of these was 31-year-old Catena Molino, who was picked up in Châtillon and found shot to death in a forest between Montjovet and Champdepraz on October 12. Spinetti then stole her purse and cell phone. [4]

On October 25, he picked up 41-year-old Graziela Fabbri in Ravenna, who was also robbed and found to death near the Mirabilandia water park. [4] Authorities investigating both murders noticed a peculiar oddity: aside from the fact that the victims had been robbed, some of the shell casings from the murder weapon were apparently missing as well. [4]

Another suspicious death occurred on November 10, when 52-year-old Maria Grazia Rosin was found dead in her camper van on a highway near Montirone. Unlike previous victims, she had apparently died from a heart attack, but due to the fact she had been robbed of all her possessions, investigators considered that she was likely attacked by the same perpetrator. [4]

A day after this, Spinetti picked up 29-year-old Bulgarian prostitute Vanya Todorova in Marghera, then drove a few kilometers towards a highway leading to Cavallino, where he shot her in the neck and left her for dead. Spinetti then stole money, her jewellery and her mobile phone, before leaving the crime scene. [3] Todorova would survive the ordeal after being interned at a hospital in Jesolo, but suffered from temporary memory loss and was paralyzed from the waist down. [5]

Arrest, trial, and sentence

Soon after stealing Todorova's phone, Spinetti placed a phone call to a brothel in Siderno, unaware that the phone was being traced by the authorities. After questioning some witnesses, investigators identified Spinetti as the prime suspect in the attempted murder of Todorova, as he was seen picking her up in his red Volkswagen Passat. [2]

On November 28, Spinetti was spotted driving his car along the A3 highway, engaging in a high-speed chase with members of the Reparto volanti . [2] Spinetti refused to pull over and accelerated even more, but traffic policemen who had set up a roadblock shot at his Volkswagen, blowing out the tires and causing the car to crash into a toll booth near Eboli. After he was dragged out of the car and transported to a local jail, officers examined the inside of the vehicle, where they found a 7.65 caliber pistol wrapped up in a brown silk scarf, which they believed belonged to one of the victims. [2] For their actions during the chase, several officers from the region's traffic police were congratulated by Salerno's chief police commissioner. [6]

In the subsequent interrogations, Spinetti readily admitted to the murders, claiming that he was desperate for money to pay off his gambling debts. [3] While this was accepted as his primary motive, one psychologist suggested that the crimes may have had a sexual element to them, as two of the women's panties had been stolen. [3]

During his murder trial, Spinetti recanted his previous confessions and now claimed that he had gotten involved with a supposed Ukrainian loan shark named "Jimmy", who he claimed had given him the gun and ordered him to collect payments from the victims. [7] In addition to this, his public defenders attempted to argue that their client was not the killer, citing the fact that the only surviving victim - Todorova - had trouble identifying him due to the fact that he had shaven and no longer had a beard. [7] On the other hand, prosecutors also had trouble with deciding whether to charge him with murder in the Rosin case, as her cause of death was ruled to be the result of a heart attack caused by the robbery. [8]

In the end, it was decided that Spinetti would be tried for the respective crimes in separate trials, corresponding to whatever region they were committed in. [9] He was found guilty on all counts in each, receiving a life term for the murder of Molino; 30 years for the murder of Fabbri; and a combined 26 years and 4 months on a manslaughter and attempted murder charge in the Rosin-Todorova case. The reduced sentence in the latter trials came from the fact that Spinetti was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, but was still fully aware of what he was doing. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Hillside Strangler, later the Hillside Stranglers, is the media epithet for one, later discovered to be two, American serial killers who terrorized Los Angeles, California, between October 1977 and February 1978, with the nicknames originating from the fact that many of the victims' bodies were discovered in the hills surrounding the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Ridgway</span> American serial killer (born 1949)

Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders committed between the early 1980s and late 1990s. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49, making him the second-most prolific serial killer in United States history according to confirmed murders.

Yoo Young-chul is a South Korean serial killer, sex offender, and self-confessed cannibal. After he admitted to the murders of multiple people, mostly prostitutes and wealthy old couples, the Seoul Central District Court convicted him of 20 murders, although one case was dismissed when it was identified as being committed by another serial killer, Jeong Nam-gyu. Yoo burned three and mutilated at least 11 of his victims and admitted that he ate the livers of some of them. He committed his crimes between September 2003 to July 2004 and was apprehended on 15 July 2004. Yoo explained his motives in front of a TV camera saying "Women shouldn't be sluts, and the rich should know what they've done."

Roi Zorzi, presently known as Roi Hagen (波元路伊), is an Italian-born Japanese neo-fascist.

Wolfgang Abel and Marco Furlan are a German-Italian serial killer duo who were arrested for a series of murders in Italy, the Netherlands and Germany between 1977 and 1984. They claimed innocence, saying they were scapegoats for a police force that could not find the real criminals.

Donato Bilancia 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Wright (serial killer)</span> British serial killer

Steven Gerald James Wright is an English serial killer, also known as the Suffolk Strangler. He is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of five women who worked in Ipswich, Suffolk. The killings took place during the final months of 2006 and Wright was found guilty in February 2008 and given a whole life order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Atkins</span> American serial killer

Benjamin Thomas Atkins , also known as The Woodward Corridor Killer, was an American serial killer and rapist who murdered, tortured, and raped 11 women in Highland Park and Detroit, Michigan, during a period of eight months between December 1991 and August 1992. He was apprehended after being arrested for rape charges and soon after he confessed to the murders. He was ultimately found guilty and given several life sentences in April 1994. He died from AIDS in 1997.

Renato Martin is an Italian politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilgo Beach serial killings</span> American serial killer case

The Gilgo Beach serial killings were a series of murders spanning from the early 1990s until 2011. Many of the victims' remains were found over a period of months in 2010 and 2011 during a police search of the area along Ocean Parkway, near the remote beach town of Gilgo in Suffolk County, New York. The search was prompted by the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, who, like many of the known victims, was an escort who advertised on Craigslist. The perpetrator in the case is known as the Long Island Serial Killer, the Manorville Butcher, or the Craigslist Ripper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Moraglia</span> Italian prelate of the Catholic Church (born 1953)

Francesco Moraglia is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been Patriarch of Venice since March 2012; he is the first native of Genoa to hold that position. He was bishop of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato from 2008 to 2012.

Vincenzo Pipino, also known as Encio, is an Italian thief from Venice whose exploits earned him the nickname "the gentleman thief". He is the first person to successfully steal from the Doge's Palace, and has been responsible for some of the most sensational art thefts in the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurizio Minghella</span> Convicted Italian serial killer

Maurizio Minghella is an Italian serial killer, sentenced to life in prison for the murders of ten sex workers in Turin between 1997 and 2001 when he was on parole for killing five women in his hometown in 1978. He had also been convicted of robbery, kidnapping and escape from prison.

Gianfranco Stevanin, known as The Monster of Terrazzo, is an Italian criminal and serial killer, convicted of murdering six women between 1993 and 1994. His case had great prominence in the national media and raised a debate on the question of the incapability of criminals to understand the consequences of their acts.

Abdelkader Salhi, known as The 10 Killer, is a Moroccan-German serial killer who murdered at least two prostitutes in Spain between August and September 2011, after having been released from a murder conviction in Germany. He was convicted of the latter murders and sentenced to 45 years imprisonment, but was acquitted in the murder of another woman.

The Madman of the route is the nickname given to an alleged serial killer active in Mar de Plata, Argentina from 1996 to 1999. The allegations claim that a single killer is responsible for the murders and disappearances of at least 14 prostitutes, some of which were later found raped and mutilated near highways, sometimes with words written on their bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurizio Giugliano</span> Italian serial killer (1962–1994)

Maurizio Giugliano, known as The Wolf of Ager Romanus, was an Italian serial killer who killed between two and seven women in Rome and the surrounding area from 1983 to 1984. He later murdered a fellow inmate at a mental hospital in 1993. For these crimes, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and remained imprisoned until his death in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Arrigoni (serial killer)</span> Italian serial killer

Andrea Arrigoni was an Italian serial killer and former private investigator who killed at least two prostitutes and two carabinieri in two separate incidents from 2004 to 2005. He was killed in a firefight with police, and was posthumously linked to his first known murder.

Ramon Berloso, known as The Crossbow Killer, was an Italian serial killer who killed two prostitutes in Udine between March and May 2010, a few years after being released from prison for a prior manslaughter conviction. He confessed to both killings after his arrest but killed himself before his trial could begin.

The Cape Town Prostitute Killer, also known as TheCape Town Strangler, is an unidentified South African serial killer who fatally strangled 16 prostitutes and three domestic workers in Cape Town between 1992 and 1996. His modus operandi consisted of picking up his victims on rainy nights, fatally strangling them in his car, and dumping their bodies in preselected locations. Although none of the victims were raped, the perpetrator tried to stage them to make it look as if they were.

References

  1. ↑ "Preso il serial killer della calibro 7,65" [7,65 caliber serial killer caught]. La Tribuna di Treviso (in Italian). November 30, 2003. Archived from the original on February 6, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "La fuga del serial killer sospettato di tre omicidi" [The escape of the serial killer suspected of three murders]. la Repubblica (in Italian). November 29, 2003. Archived from the original on February 6, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Marisa Furnagalli (December 1, 2003). ""Preso il killer delle prostitute"" ["Prostitute killer caught"]. asaps.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on February 6, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Carlo Mion (December 8, 2003). "Spinetti indagato per omicidio" [Spinetti under investigation for murder]. La Nuova Venezia (in Italian). Archived from the original on February 6, 2023.
  5. ↑ Giovanni Cagnassi (December 6, 2003). "Un appello dall'ospedale di Jesolo "Aiutate Vania, paralizzata e sola"" [An appeal from Jesolo hospital: "Help Vanya, paralyzed and alone"]. La Nuova Venezia (in Italian). Archived from the original on February 6, 2023.
  6. ↑ "I complimenti del questore agli agenti della Stradale che presero il serial killer" [Commissioner compliments agents of the Stradale who caught the serial killer]. asaps.it (in Italian). December 6, 2003. Archived from the original on February 6, 2023.
  7. 1 2 Carlo Mion (March 19, 2004). "Serial killer, il giallo dell'amico" [Serial killer, the mysterious friend]. La Nuova Venezia (in Italian). Archived from the original on March 25, 2014.
  8. ↑ Carlo Mion (February 25, 2004). "Montiron, l'ipotesi è omicidio" [Montirone, the hypothesis is murder]. La Nuova Venezia (in Italian). Archived from the original on February 6, 2023.
  9. 1 2 Roberta De Rossi (May 20, 2005). "Serial killer, condanna a 26 anni" [Serial killer, sentenced to 26 years]. La Nuova Venezia (in Italian). Archived from the original on February 5, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.