Doherty from Tallaght, Dublin. She had last been seen alive six months before on 23 December 1991 when she left her home to do some Christmas shopping.
Patricia Doherty’s and Antoinette Smith’s remains were found not far from Johnny Fox’s pub, where Annie McCarrick disappeared fifteen months later. And Patricia Furlong’s body was dumped only a few miles away. Brian McCarthy suspects at least two other missing women, Jo Jo Dullard and Deirdre Jacob may also be buried in the mountains.
His prime suspect is a married man with children who can be placed in or around the scenes where Annie McCarrick, Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo Dullard went missing. According to McCarthy, the man had a history of sexual violence against women, but his killing spree has temporarily been halted by a spell in jail on another charge.
There are indications that the killer claimed another victim, though she was outside the age range of this other prey. This was Eva Brennan, age 40, from south Dublin, who disappeared after leaving her parents’ home in Terenure to return to her flat in Rathgar in July 1993. Perhaps her killer is in jail, but he may soon be at large again.
Italy’s Gay Killings
The murder of a man paid by opera singers to clap during their performances rekindled fears that a gay serial killer may be at large in Italy.
Although 57-year-old Salvatore Romano was not known to be gay, detectives believe that his suffocation and bludgeoning with a brandy bottle bore all the hallmarks of a killer who targeted figures connected with high culture. Romano was the last of the
Mr Romano was found on Sunday 8 September 2002 in his home, where it is thought that he had dined with his killer or killers. One report said police found three plates and three glasses.
Police were looking for a young man seen running down the stairs with a cigarette in his mouth and for Mr Romano’s red scooter, which was used for the escape. A fingerprint on a glass was one of the few clues.
A neighbour said that, at about the same time, she heard someone screaming: “Help me, I’m dying.”
Mr Romano was gagged and his feet and hands were tied to his neck—a classic Mafia method of inducing suffocation and now typical of the homosexual murders.
There have been dozens of similar cases in Italy since 1990. There are more than 19 unsolved gay murders in and around the Italian capital. Two occurred in the Pigneto area of the city where Mr Romano lived.
On 5 January 1998, former senior assistant to the pope 67-year-old Enrico Sini Luzi was found in his home near the Vatican wearing only his underwear and socks, with his head beaten in. On his wrists there was adhesive left by sticky tape; a red cashmere scarf was tightened around his neck. His home showed no sign of forcible entry.
Luzi’s former position as a “gentleman of His Holiness” is a voluntary one, usually held by members of well- to-do families, which involves assisting visitors in papal ceremonies.
Franco Grillini of the Italian homosexual lobby group ArciGay/ArciLesbica told Agence France Presse: “The victim is a gentleman of the pope’s entourage, which confirms that the people at risk are those who hide and live among people where homosexuality is not acknowledged, like the curia.”
Until then the Italian police had discounted the idea that a gay serial killer was at work. But the modus operandi in the murder of Luzi bore a striking resemblance to that used in the case of the murder of
A television director was also killed and an American Episcopalian chaplain was found in Milan by the local Anglican vicar. The victim was tied up and had been bludgeoned to death in his bathroom. Gay pornography was scattered around the apartment. Most of the murdered men were bludgeoned or suffocated, or both, and there is a theory that the killings are connected to homosexual prostitutes.
ArciGay/ArciLesbica believes that over 100 gay men are murdered in Italy every year, in what Grillini characterizes as “a terrifying massacre of homosexuals”. The group believes that police have made little attempt to stop the killings. Police say they have been hindered by a lack of assistance from the Italian gay and lesbian community, which is still largely closeted. At the time of the Inturrisi killing, one detective said: “We have found it easier to link up with elements from within the Mafia than we have with the gay community.”
Italy’s Monster of Florence
The case of the “Monster of Florence”—a serial killer who murdered courting couples over three decades— remains unsolved. The man charged with the murders, Pietro Pacciani, had his conviction overturned on appeal and was himself murdered before he could face a second trial. The police now believe that Pacciani was the head of a gang of killers, some of whom are still at large.
The killings began one hot night in the summer of 1968. Thirty-two-year-old Barbara Locci, from the town of Lastra in Signa, just to the west of Florence, and her lover Antonio Lo Bianco were found shot dead in his Alfa Romeo. Barbara was married with a child, but she was notoriously promiscuous housewife. She taken several lovers and was known locally as “Queen Bee”.
On the night of 21 August 1968 she had gone to the cinema with Lo Bianco and her young son Natalino. On the way home, the boy had fallen asleep in the back of the car so the couple seized the chance to stop at a secluded cemetery to make love. Antonio had just started removing Barbara’s clothing when the killer crept up on them and fired eight shots, killing them both. He then grabbed the boy—who must have been woken by the gunfire—and carried him to a nearby farm before fleeing into the darkness. The farmer was awakened by a knock on his front door. When he opened it, he found the young boy standing there with tears streaming down his face.
“My mother and my ‘uncle’ are dead,” the boy said.
The farmer called the police.
At the crime scene, the Carabinieri found a white Alfa Romeo Giulietta with licence plates from the neighbouring province of Arezzo. The car was registered to Antonio Lo Bianco. They also found eight .22-calibre shell cases beside the car.
From the state of the bodies, it was clear what was going on when the couple were shot. Detectives immediately suspected Barbara Locci’s cuckolded husband, Stefano Mele. They sent a patrol car which arrived as Mele’s front door between six and seven in the morning. At that moment, Mele came rushing out with a suitcase, as if making a quick getaway. When told of his wife’s murder, he showed little reaction and was taken to police headquarters.
At the stationhouse, Mele told detectives that he had not felt well the previous day, and had stayed at home. Two people had visited, Antonio Lo Bianco and Carmelo Cutrona, another of his wife’s lovers. Mele also mentioned a third lover of his wife, Francesco Vinci, who had been jailed briefly following an accusation of adultery by his own wife. Then it came out that Barbara had been the lover of Francesco Vinci’s two brothers Giovanni and Salvatore as well. Mele said that his wife’s killer could easily have been one of her numerous lovers. The police now had more suspects than they could easily handle.
But the following day, 23 August 1968, Mele confessed to the murder. But he also incriminated Salvatore Vinci who, he said, had given him the gun. Mele said that, when his wife and son had not returned home by 11.20 p.m., he went looking for them. When he reached the town square of Lastra a Signa, he met Salvatore Vinci, who told him that Barbara had gone to the cinema with Lo Bianco and Natalino. Vinci chided Mele for allowing his wife to cuckold him so publicly. He told him that he had to put a stop to the situation. Vinci had a gun with him, Mele said, and the two of them drove to the Giardino Michelacci movie theatre in Signa on the other side of the Arno.
They found Lo Bianco’s Alfa Romeo parked outside and waited for the couple to come out of the cinema.
