Donato Bilancia

Donato Bilancia
Other names	Prostitutes Killer, Liguria Monster
Criminal penalty	Life
Details
Victims	17
Span of crimes	1997–1998
Country	Italy
Date apprehended	May 6, 1998

Donato Bilancia: (b. July 10, 1951 in Potenza, Italy) is an Italian serial killer.

He has killed at least 17 people in Liguria, Italy from October 1997 to May 1998. On April 12, 2000 he was sentenced to 14 life imprisonments and 14 years of prison added to the life sentences.

Biography

Bilancia was born in Potenza the July 10, 1951, in 1956 his family moved to Genova. He grew with a difficult relationship with his family and early became a thief and a burglar; in 1975 he was arrested for thievery and later, in 1976, he got arrested again for robbery (and escaped from the jail).

In 1982 his brother, carrying his infant child, threw himself under a train in the Genova station; this episode hurt Donato very bad and made his mental disorders get more defined.

In 1990 he was involved in a car accident and remained in a coma status for several days.

Beside the profession of thief he began to gamble; as he declared later to the Carabinieri he won (and lost) great sums of money in a single night, but he was always an "Honest" player, he always paid his debts and maintained his word. In the clandestine game houses ambient he was known as Walter.

First Murders

The October 16 1997 Bilancia killed Giorgio Centanaro in his house strangling him with some adhesive tape. However the death was archived as derived from natural causes, cause the investigators didn't found any clue that points to murder. Bilancia confessed the crime after his arrest, he said that he killed Centanaro because he dishonoured him and cheated on the gambling table.

The October 24 1997 he killed Maurizio Parenti and his wife Carla Scotto in their house for the same reason (he thought that Parenti and Centanaro was gambling partners); he fled the house with 13 millions Italian lire (about 6500 euros, 9500 us dollars) and some valuable items.

The October 27 1997 he killed Bruno Solari and his wife Maria Luigia Pitto (after he broke in their house to rob them).

The November 13 1997 he killed Luciano Marro, a money changer living in Ventimiglia, and fled with 45 millions Italian lire (about 22500 euros, 33000 us dollars).

The January 25 1998 he killed Giangiorgio Canu, a night security guard, in Genova; the only reason was to take some revenge on the police force.

The Prostitutes Killer

The March 9 1998 he shot to death Stela Truya, an Albanian prostitute, in Varazze.

The March 18 1998 he killed Ljudmyla Zubskova, a Ukrainian prostitute, in Pietra Ligure with a bullet in the head.

The March 20 1998 he robbed and killed another money changer, again in Ventimiglia, Enzo Gorni. The victim's brother-in-law saw Bilancia while he was fleeing away in a black Mercedes.

The March 24 1998, in Novi Ligure, he tried to kill a transexual named "Lorena" Castro but she figured his intentions and fled, taking advantage of two night security guards that were patrolling the area; Bilancia shot to both the guards, reached Lorena, shot her in the chest and left her for dead. After that he returned to he guards, Massimiliano Garillo and Candido Randò, and finished them with a bullet in the head.

The March 29 1998, in Cogoleto, he killed another prostitute, the Nigerian Tessy Adobo. This murder was a turning point for the investigations: the delict was connected to the murder of Stela Truya and, later, to the death of the other prostitutes thank to the ballistic studies of the RIS of Parma that discovered the uniqueness of the weapon used.

The murders on train and the Liguria Monster

When the investigations pointed on a more and more detailed profile, mainly thanks to the witness of Lorena that was able to give a lot of details on the black Mercedes driven by the killer and to provide an accurate identikit of the "monster", Bilancia suddently changed his behaviour and his victims.

The April 12 1998, on the La Spezia-Venezia InterCity, Bilancia used his burglar skills to picklock the carriage bathroom a shot Elisabetta Zoppetti to death.

The April 14 1998 he killed another prostitute, Kristina Valla.

The April 18 1998, on the train Genova-Ventimiglia, killed Maria Angela Rubino.

The Liguria monster's case became a top subject on television and newspapers, cause the killer moved from the relatively bounded environment of street prostitution to a totally random choice of his victims on the trains. Police and Carabinieri used all their forces to investigate on the crimes; some suspects were shadowed (actually no one was involved) and this looked for the two cars that were used by the killer, a black Mercedes and a white Opel Kadett.

The April 21 1998, in Arma di Taggia, Bilancia robbed and killed his last victim, the gasoline pump attendant Giuseppe Mileto.

The Conclusion

The turning point for the investigations came when the Carabinieri got a report for a black Mercedes given for trial that was not returned; they went to check the car recipient and found a nearly perfect correspondence between Bilancia and the identikit provided by Lorena. At this point they compared the tyre trails found on some crime scenes with that of the Mercedes and later compared the Bilancia's DNA (collected from some cigarette butts and from a cup of coffee) with those of the killer, collected on the field.

Donato Bilancia was arrested the May 6 1998 and, after few days, he gave a spontaneous confession of all the murders, included the murder of Giorgio Centenaro that was previously archived as a natural death.

The April 12 2000 the Genova's court pronounced the sentence of 14 life imprisonments for the murders and 14 years for the attempted murder of Lorena Castro.