Serial killer of prostitutes
Maurizio Minghella, serving 131 years in jail, was sent to trial
Monday for a 19-year-old cold case regarding Floreta Islami, an
Albanian sex worker strangled to death with a scarf in a field
outside Rivoli near Turin on 14 February 1998.
Minghella, 58, was served a warrant in Pavia prison when the
case was reopened last year.
Born in Genoa, Minghella was a one-time amateur boxer and
construction worker who as a young man loved going to night
clubs and dance halls.
He was sentenced to life for multiple homicide in 1978 but in
1995 he was granted limited parole which allowed him to work
at a church-sponsored cooperative in Turin.
During this time he established a relationship with a woman
with whom he had a child.
However, he was also frequenting prostitutes on the
city's outskirts, robbing them and in at least four cases
murdering them.
Minghella was arrested in 2001 for murder but refused to
defend himself in court because he believed he was the victim of
a plot.
He was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 131 years in
prison.
photo: Minghella in 1979
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