Land three lives by Donato Bilancia is the evening that Rai 2 dedicates to serial killer who killed the most in our criminal history. The docu-film, on air at 21.25, reconstructs life and criminal stages of the “Monster of Liguria” through original audiostories of direct witnesses and letters, hitherto never disclosed, by the same serial killer, written during the last phase of his captivity.
In a period in which the true crime like it very much, Rai rightly takes care of the “The bloodiest serial killer in Italy and Europe” (this is how Libra is defined by experts), hoping for a success with the public. The three lives fits into the loop of Rai Documentaries Criminal Italy, when the news makes history, a production Rai Documentariesmade with Cptv Rai Milanwritten and directed by Pino Corrias with Renato Pezzini and with the collaboration of Massimo Calandri.
Donato Bilancia: 17 murders in just six months
Donato Libra has the sad distinction of having killed 17 people: nine men, eight women. And she did it in just six months: from 15 October 1997 to 20 April 1998. No one has ever killed so much, in such a short time. To say, Jeffrey Dahmerthe Wisconsin serial killer to whom Netflix has just dedicated the series Dahmer – Monster: the story of Jeffrey Dahmerkilled 17 people. But she did it over thirteen years, from ’78 to ’91. TO Donato Libra it took six months.
The three lives of Donato Bilancia: first player-thief
The first of the three lives is that of player in Genoa which is scary. The second of the murderer, reconstructed with original audio of the confession made during the three days and three nights of interrogations. The third as a prisoner for 22 yearsfrom 1998 until December 17, 2020, when Donato dies of Covid.
Donato Libra. (Rai Documentaries Press Office)
In the “first life” the docu-film tells who he is Donated: son of a petty bourgeois family from Potenza who emigrated to Genoa in the 1950s. “It was an unfortunate family, quarrels, beatings, hell “, He says. It grows with the complex of inadequate physique and small penis. “In the summer my father undressed me in front of my three cousins and I cried, twisted, dying of shame ».
He does badly in school (he repeats the eighth grade three times, then quits). He loves bad company, the harbor area with prostitutes and gambling dens. He is a bartender, a mechanic, a baker, but what he does really well is doing the thief. At first he goes in and out of prison, he attends “masters of the underworld” who teach him “the trade”. He steals from apartments, from jewelers. “I was the best professional thief around, ”he confesses.
It acts alone. He gets rich, dresses elegant, drives Mercedes. He attends the Sanremo Casino. It’s a gambler inveterate, capable of winning 200 million lire in one evening and losing everything the following evening. He has no girlfriends, if he has women, he pays them.
Two episodes irremediably mark his life, causing him inconsolable rancor. Lto the tragedy of his brother who in 1987 committed suicide by throwing himself under the train with his four-year-old son, his favorite nephew. And the betrayal of what he believed to be his only true friend, Maurizio Parenti, with whom he frequents gambling dens. One evening in 1997 he hears him bragging to the owner of the gambling den for bringing him “That Libra chicken” who plucked together, stealing almost 500 million lire from him in a month of rigged play. For Libra it is a blow to the heart. His revenge against the world takes shape that night.
The second life: the killer who kills for no reason
The night of October 15, 1997, Donato Libra wait under the house Giorgio Centanaroowner of the gambling den, drags him into the apartment, he kills him by covering his nose and mouth with his hands and tape. Nine days later he deals with the ex friend Maurizio and his wife Carla Scotto: locks them in their home, binds them, talks to them for a long time, explains the motive, he enjoys their terror, then shoots him in the head and twice in her chest. And he also takes care to steal 13 million lire from them.
From this moment it is a crescendo of murderous fury. He robbed and killed two jewelers in Genoa, two money changers in Ventimiglia, and a gas station attendant in Genoa.
Switch to killing out of pure hatred and contempt for women. He kills four prostitutes in Genoa, Varazze, Arenzano and Cogoleto. Then it comes to the utmost cruelty “Of random murder”, the one without a motive: so he kills two women crossed on the trains of Liguria, at night. Panic the whole of Italy, the then Prosecutor of Genoa came to advise to travel by train only if necessary and in any case never alone. For months the investigators investigate in no particular order without being able to find a common thread between the various murders. It is only thanks to the intuition of Enrico Zucca, magistrate of Genoa, who are finally able to connect clues and focus on the trail that then leads to Donato Libra.
The third life: the inmate who eventually repents without anyone knowing
The clamor of other random killings on trains in the Easter week of ’98 requires a turning point in the investigation. The Carabinieri finally manage to identify the suspect’s DNA and the circle is closed. Donato Libra, said Walter, was arrested at 11 am on May 6, 1998. He does not resist. He remains silent for a week. Then he sits down in front of the investigators who accuse him of eight murders. He asks for water and cigarettes and says: “If you want me to tell you my story, we have to start from the beginning. And the beginning is not a murder, it is not eight murders, but seventeen ».
Donato Bilancia when he was arrested in 1998. (Rai Documentari Press Office)
I confess, he is sentenced to 13 life sentences without ever going to court (“I’m ashamed to let the relatives of the victims look me in the face”, explains Libra). He spent twenty years in the Due Palazzi prison in Padua, first as an isolated inmate, then the protagonist of a slow recovery. Yup diploma in Accountingenter the prison theater group. Then surprisingly, in recent years, he asks for forgiveness, but never publicly. So much so that the witnesses of that “redemption” now tell for the first time the “conversion” of Libra.
At least a dozen psychiatrists have tried to explain the murderous fury of this serial killer. In the end they came to the most chilling of conclusions: “The more his killings were arbitrary, peremptory, without hesitation, the more his sense of omnipotence grew. And, with omnipotence, pleasure ». That is Libra he has never been crazyand has never been incapable of understanding and willing. He was just merciless. It was evil.
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