Donato Bilancia

Donato Bilancia (10 July 1951 – 17 December 2020) 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. Despite confessing to the killings, Bilancia never explicitly regretted his crimes, claiming that he did not consciously commit them because he was "possessed" by a disease. Bilancia died in prison from COVID-19 on 17 December 2020.

Biography Background and early crimes Mercedes-Benz W201-190, the same model used by Bilancia, was an important element in the reconstruction of the facts that led to his identification. Bilancia was born in Potenza, Basilicata, in 1951. When he was about five years old, his family moved to northern Italy, first to Piedmont and then to Genoa in the Liguria region. He was a chronic bedwetter until age 10 or 12, and his mother shamed him by placing his wet mattress on the balcony where it could be seen by the neighbours. When undressing him for bed, his aunt would shame him by pulling down his underwear in front of his cousins to show his underdeveloped penis. At age 14, he decided to start calling himself Walter. He dropped out of high school and worked at jobs such as mechanic, bartender, baker, and delivery boy. While still underage, Bilancia was arrested and released for stealing a motor scooter and for stealing a truck loaded with Christmas sweets. In 1974, he was stopped and jailed for having an illegal gun. At some point, he was committed to the psychiatric division of the Genoa General Hospital, but escaped. After he was apprehended, he spent 18 months in prison for robbery. He served several prison terms in Italy and France for robbery and armed robbery.

Murders A map showing the subdivisions within the Liguria region. Most of Bilancia's murders took place in then existing province of Genoa (Genova), replaced by Metropolitan City of Genoa since 2015. Bilancia was a compulsive gambler who lived alone. His first murder was the October 1997 strangulation of a friend who betrayed him by luring him into a rigged card game, in which he lost £185,000 (about $226,864.57). The authorities originally thought this death was a heart attack. or about $1,000) and fled the crime scene. In his statements to the investigators, Bilancia said he had killed Mileto after filling up the car. As he realized that he did not have enough money to pay for the refueling, Bilancia decided to rob him and ultimately killed him because another car had arrived and he got nervous when he saw Mileto exchange words with the driver.

Arrest and sentence Based on the description of the black Mercedes one of his sex worker victims was seen entering the night she was killed, police considered Bilancia "suspect number one" and followed him for ten days. They collected his DNA from cigarette butts and a coffee cup, matching it to DNA found at crime scenes. On 6 May 1998, he was arrested at his home in Genoa and his revolver seized. After eight days in police custody, he confessed, speaking for two days and drawing 17 diagrams. The judge ordered that he never be released. directed by Michele Soavi, broadcast for the first time in 2003 on Canale 5, with actors Giulio Scarpati (who plays the officer during the investigations) and Carlo Cecchi (as the serial killer). In 2004, Bilancia was interviewed live on Rai 1 during the broadcast on Domenica in conducted and hosted by Paolo Bonolis; Bonolis received bitter criticism for the interview. In the early 2010s, the then Five Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo admitted that he was neighbour of Bilancia as a child in Genoa. In 2015, Rai 3 dedicated an episode to Bilancia in the television show Stelle Nere ("Black Stars").

In prison, Bilancia was often recognized as a "model prisoner". In 2016, after 5 years of studies, he obtained a diploma in accounting disciplines with a score of 83/100, and he then began studying tourism disciplines at university. In 2017, Bilancia requested commutation of his life imprisonment penalty into 30 years of imprisonment, requesting summary judgment, which was abolished at the time of his trials but called into question by a sentence of the European Court of Human Rights. The Supreme Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeal in Italy, rejected his request.

In late 2019, Bilancia requested a second temporary permit. In September 2019, the request was denied by the criminal surveillance court of Padua as he was considered "still dangerous". According to his psychologist, he was "unable to adequately manage moments of frustration and anger out of prison". Furthermore, Bilancia had never undergone a psychological rehabilitation program and never explicitly repented his crimes, believing that he was "possessed" by a disease in the years in which he committed them.

Death Bilancia died on 17 December 2020, at the age of 69, after contracting COVID-19 in the Due Palazzi prison in Padua during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.