Salvatore "Silvio" Mangion (born 1965) is the only known Maltese

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

. He was convicted of killing three elderly pensioners during robberies between 1984 and 1996, receiving

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

for his crimes. He is currently incarcerated at

Corradino prison The Corradino prison, officially known as the Corradino Correctional Facility () is a prison located in Paola, Malta. It is Malta’s largest and main correctional facility; hosting different sections for males, females, and children. The prison t ...

Murders

A native of Żejtun, Mangion, also known by his alias "Kalang", was an unemployed

schizophrenic Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

who had depressive episodes. He was also addicted to alcohol and prescription medication. At the time of the murders, however, it was determined that he was fully aware of his actions and did them of his own volition, the motive always being robbery.

Rozina Zammit

On February 8, 1984, the body of the 54-year-old was found on the doorsteps of her home in Safi. Zammit had sustained 37 stab wounds to her neck, chest, and abdomen. The motive appeared to be robbery, as a small sum of £M 200 was found to be stolen from her home. Mangion confessed to stalking the woman to her home on the day of the murder and knocking on her front door. When Zammit opened, Mangion attacked her and she began shouting. He stabbed her and went to get the money, but, realizing that she had died from her injuries, fled the scene.

Maria Stella Magrin

On October 30, 1986, 68-year-old Magrin, who lived only a few doors down from former President

Ugo Mifsud Bonnici Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, (born 8 November 1932) is a Maltese politician and was the fifth president of Malta from 1994 to 1999. Early life, education and family Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was born in Cospicua as the son of Professor Carmelo Mifsud Bonnic ...

Cospicua Cospicua (Italian language, Italian) or Bormla (Maltese language, Maltese, ), occasionally also known by the Latin language, Latin name Cottonera, is a double-fortified harbour city in the Port Region, Malta, Port Region of Malta. It served as th ...

, heard a knock on her door and opened without asking who it was. Three men, Mangion and uncle-nephew duo Leli and Oswaldo Spiteri, entered the house and demanded that she give them all her money. Magrin guided them through the house with a torchlight, as there was no electricity, and handed them a sum of money (worth around 15,000

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at 2012 values). Magrin was then stabbed 13 times by Mangion, to prevent identification, as none of the criminals had worn masks before all of them left. She later died from her injuries.

Francesco "Frenc" Cassar

On August 16, 1998, Mangion decided to rob his neighbours: 71-year-old Giuseppa and 75-year-old Francesco "Frenc" Savario Cassar. After he swallowed some pills and drank some alcohol to pluck up courage, he rang the Cassars' doorbell, surprising Giuseppa with a knife when she opened the door. He stabbed her in the stomach and right arm, but she managed to fight back, calling upon her brother for help. Mangion saw Francesco and lunged at him, fatally stabbing him in the chest. Seeing Cassar lying bleeding on the ground and his T-shirt covered in blood frightened him, so he fled, disposing of his knife and T-shirt in a reservoir at President Anton Buttigieg Street.

Trial, imprisonment and confessions

Sometime after the Cassar murder, Mangion was arrested and soon indicted. During a November 26, 2002 hearing, jurors determined that he was sane at the time of the murder, and on January 5, 2004, at the beginning of his jury trial, he pleaded guilty. Mangion was given a 21-year sentence for killing Frenc and attempting to kill Giuseppa. The other murders remained a mystery until a year after Mangion's conviction when he implicated himself as the one responsible to several inmates at

, one of them being Steven Spiteri. Steven later reported those claims to the police, and Mangion was questioned on their validity, to which he confessed. He also implicated the Spiteris, but, by then, Leli had already died in 2000 and Oswaldo had committed suicide, hanging himself while in custody. Mangion was asked to walk the investigators through the crime scene, explaining the layout accurately. At some point during the trial proceedings, one inspector inquired about two peculiar tattoos Mangion had on each ear: one had the letter 'S', while the other had a 'K'. In response, the murderer joked that it stood for 'serial killer'. On June 23, 2010, Silvio Mangion was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Rozina Zammit, and was given another life sentence for the murder of Maria Magrin at a later date.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mangion, Silvio 1965 births 20th-century criminals Living people Maltese people convicted of murder Maltese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Maltese serial killers People convicted of attempted murder People convicted of burglary People convicted of murder by Malta People with schizophrenia People from Żejtun Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Malta