Mario Magnotta (14 October 1942 – 4 January 2009) was an Italian

janitor A janitor (American English, Scottish English), also known as a custodian, porter, cleanser, cleaner or caretaker, is a person who cleans and maintains buildings. In some cases, they will also carry out maintenance and security duties. A simi ...

of a commercial school in

L'Aquila L'Aquila ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy. It is the capital city of both the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 70,967 inhabitants. Laid out within medieval walls on a hill in the wide vall ...

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. He became very well known in Italy"L'Aquila, una via per Mario Magnotta mito blasfemo dello scherzo telefonico"
From ''

la Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arno ...

'', 26 April 2012 after being the victim of several

prank call A prank call (also known as a crank call) is a telephone call intended by the caller as a practical joke played on the person answering. It is often a type of nuisance call. It can be illegal under certain circumstances. Recordings of prank ph ...

s, made in 1986 and 1987 by some former students of the institute, which were later circulated on audio cassettes and, eventually, on the Internet.

Biography

Born in

Pieve di Teco Pieve di Teco ( lij, Céve) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Imperia in the Italian region Liguria, located about southwest of Genoa and about northwest of Imperia. Pieve di Teco borders the following municipalities: Armo, A ...

, in the

province of Imperia The Province of Imperia ( it, Provincia di Imperia, french: Province d'Imperia, Ligurian: ''Provinsa d’Imperia'') is a mountainous and hilly province, in the Liguria region of Italy, situated between France to the north and the west, and the L ...

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

, Magnotta was the son of Giovanni Magnotta and Romilda Siconolfi, who moved the family to L'Aquila in 1945 because of work.

Prank calls

Magnotta was already famous before the Internet, by word of mouth and through the duplication and the sharing of audio cassettes. Over time Magnotta's fame spread all over Italy. Years after the 1986 to 1987 calls, the recordings were digitized and posted to the internet, which elevated his fame even more. The success on the website was principally due to the rage and the use of blasphemies by Magnotta, and to his "''Aquilano'' dialect", the most important variant of Sabino dialect, considered the standard form of it and which sounds very amusing to internauts.(5 April 2001)
The prank calls to Magnotta
from ''Libero.it'' The phone jokes had three topics: * Two fake calls from Telefono Azzurro (an Italian association for the protection of children) regarding his daughter and his (made-up) homosexual relationship with one of his co-workers. * Some calls from ''Mr. Bruno'', who pretended to be the new partner of his former wife, asking him for money to maintain her. * The most famous prank was about a

washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...

Mario Magnotta had actually bought in 1981. A fake seller, ''Mr. Bontempi'', asked him, 6 years after the sale, to pay an installment of

ITL ITL can refer to:
* International Territorial Level, geographic classification in the United Kingdom.
* Imaging Technology Laboratory, part of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory
* '' In the Labyrinth'', a role-playing system built on Th ...

480,000. This and other calls from other subjects (one impersonating a manager of the ''Sangiorgio Elettrodomestici'' of

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

, an Italian electric appliances manufacturer) made him think he was being framed in a

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...

on the company by ''Mr. Bontempi''. In the last of his calls, Magnotta, in a burst of rage, tells Bontempi the most well-known (and unintentionally funny) quote: «Mi iscrivo ai terroristi ''porco Dio!''» ("I'll sign up to the terrorists" – followed by "Porco Dio", a typical Italian profanity meaning, literally, "Pig God").

The fame

Even before the creation of the web site (www.magnotta.it), he was invited twice to talk-shows on Italian television RAI, and suddenly invited to some local events dedicated to him. During a concert of

Antonello Venditti Antonio "Antonello" Venditti (born 8 March 1949) is an Italian singer-songwriter and pianist who became famous in the 1970s for the social themes of his songs. Biography Antonello Venditti was born in Rome, the son of Vincenzino Italo Venditti f ...

in L'Aquila, Magnotta was invited on the scene by the singer, who was curious to know him. The Italian singer

Simone Cristicchi Simone Cristicchi (born 5 February 1977 in Rome) is an Italian singer and composer. Biography Cristicchi won the 57th edition of the Sanremo music festival in 2007 and also the Mia Martini Mia Martini (; born Domenica Rita Adriana Bertè ...

, winner of the 2007 edition of

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...

, dedicated to him a verse of his song "L'Italia di Piero" ("The Italy of Piero"): «Piero non rinuncerebbe mai alla lotta, e si iscrive ai terroristi come fa il Magnotta» («Piero would never give up combat, and he "signs up to the terrorists" like Magnotta did»).

Death

Mario Magnotta died in January 2009 in

of a

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathing ...

.Article about the death of Mario Magnotta
on ''

'' In 2012 the municipal council of L'Aquila decided to dedicate a city street to him; but it is not done yet.

References

External links