Giovanni Battista Bugatti (1779–1869) was the official

executioner An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who effects a sentence of capital punishment on a condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorizing or ordering him to ...

for the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

from 1796 to 1864. He was the longest-serving executioner in the States and was nicknamed Mastro Titta, a Roman corruption of ''maestro di giustizia'', or ''master of justice''.Allen, John L., Jr.
He executed justice – papal execution Giovanni Battista Bugatti's life and work
(''National Catholic Reporter'', 14 September 2001). At the age of 85 he was retired by

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

with a monthly pension of 30

scudi The ''scudo'' (pl. ''scudi'') was the name for a number of coins used in various states in the Italian peninsula from 1551 until the 19th century. The name, like that of the French écu and the Spanish and Portuguese escudo, was derived from t ...

Biography

Bugatti's career in charge of executions began when he was 17 years old, on 22 March 1796, and lasted until 1864. One of his executions, on 8 March 1845, was described by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

in '' Pictures from Italy'' (1846).

References

External links

He executed justice
Retrieved 11 April 2005

Retrieved 14 July 2005. *. Retrieved 14 July 2005.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bugatti, Giovanni Battista Executioners People from the Papal States 1779 births 1869 deaths 18th-century Italian people 19th-century Italian people