Maurizio Giugliano

Maurizio Giugliano (7 June 1962 – 1994), known as The Wolf of Ager Romanus (Italian: Il Lupo dell'Agro Romano), 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.

Early life Maurizio Giugliano was born in the hamlet of Acciarella, Latina, on 7 June 1962, the second of four children of cow herders. He suffered from malnutrition since birth, which may have caused his inability to speak until age four. In 1970, he was accidentally hit by a motorcycle driven by carabinieri, and from then on he became more unstable and aggressive. Over the years, Giugliano had repeated outbursts against his father, siblings, and classmates, even going so far as to kill animals on the family farm. He was detained in several psychiatric hospitals for this, but always managed to escape. The victims were the following:

Thea "Tiziana" Stroppa (51) - prostitute; found dead on 6 July 1983, between Flaminia Vecchia and Due Ponti. She had been strangled with her blouse, hit in the face with a stone and finished off with a gunshot. Her half-naked body had been hastily covered with rubble. Luciana "Silvana" Lupi (45) - prostitute; found dead on 9 July in Passo Corese. She was murdered between 4 and 5 July, having been strangled with her belt. Her killer disfigured her body post-mortem by repeatedly hitting it with stones. Lucia "Margherita" Rosa (33) - prostitute and drug addict from Catania who was known to local police; found dead on 13 July in Tor de' Cenci; she had been dead for approximately five days. As with previous victims, she had been strangled with her own clothing. Giulia Meschi (31) - former municipal employee; found murdered on 5 August in Sabaudia, near a cornfield. One witness told investigators that he had seen the killer and later provided a description of him. Fernanda Renzetti Durante (53) - painter and the wife of a Bank of Italy official; her half-naked body was found on a country road near Pratica di Mare on 31 October. Her car, a red Fiat 500, was found the next day near Campoleone Station, with her clothes left inside. A knife found next to the body was determined to be the murder weapon. Catherine "Katty" Skerl (17) - daughter of stateless film director Peter Skerl; found dead on 22 January 1984, in a vineyard in Grottaferrata. She had been strangled with a wire and the strap of a duffel bag. Unlike other victims, the girl was still clothed. A witness claimed to have seen her get onto a stranger's Vespa the day prior.

Investigation After the sixth murder, the commissioner of the Prenestino neighbourhood, Rocco Marazzita, sent a report to the head of the homicide squad, Nicola Cavaliere, in which he pointed out Giugliano's previous convictions. The evidence against him was weak: a caravan similar to his was seen near each murder site; the cars used for the murders were purchased under false names (as Giugliano did), and Giugliano travelled around on a Vespa. Some commentators also pointed out that in the 1980s, before and after Giugliano's arrest, similar murders occurred in and around Rome, which remain unsolved to this day.

Trial, imprisonment, and death Giugliano was eventually remanded for three of the six murders: those of Stroppa, Rosa and Meschi. During the trial for the Stroppa murder, it was ruled that he was of unsound mind and thus acquitted by reason of insanity. For the Rosa trial, Giugliano himself confessed to the murder but later retracted his confession. As witnesses were unable to conclusively confirm that he was the man seen walking away with her, he was acquitted of her murder as well.

When put on trial for the Meschi murder in 1986, he was successfully convicted and sentenced to 17 years and 8 months imprisonment, largely thanks to the witness testimony of the man who had seen him walking away from the crime scene. The psychiatric interviews performed during the three trials produced very different outcomes, causing confusion over Giugliano's mental state. He was never charged with the murders of Lupi, Durante and Skerl, which, coupled with his acquittal in the Rosa case, remain unsolved. Giugliano supposedly confided to him that he was responsible for the murders of Rosa and Maria Negri, who was killed inside her home in Cavallino on 3 August 1983.