Ernesto Picchioni (1900–September 9, 1967), nicknamed The Monster of Nerola was an Italian serial killer and criminal, responsible for 4 to 16 homicides committed in the town of
Nerola
Nerola is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Rome, Latium, Italy.
Name
The name Nerola is probably derived from the Sabine word ''nero'' or ''nerio'', which meant "strong" and "brave". The inscription on the fountain in the piaz ...
.
Biography
Born in 1900 in Ascrea in the province of
Rieti
Rieti (; lat, Reate, Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina re ...
, he moved to Nerola in the
Rome province (40 km away from
Rome) in 1944 in a dilapidated house with his wife Angela Lucarelli and their four children. To the
Carabinieri who asked how he got by, he replied that he "sells snails". In 1946 he served four months in prison for assaulting the owner of the land which he lived illegally in with a stone to the head.
[Ernesto Picchioni il “mostro di Nerola”](_blank)
/ref> On the ground near his house were found corpses of dogs, the remains of dismantled bicycles and some corpses, and two other bodies around the village (that of a thirteen-year-old and an old man), but they were not traced to Picchioni due to lack of evidence.
After the arrest he was taken to a maximum-security cell at the Civitavecchia prison; he was later sentenced to two life sentences and 26 years in prison on March 12, 1949. His only defence was an unlikely political motive for his crimes. After attempting to attack Pope John XXIII during a visit to the prison, he was taken to the maximum-security prison in Porto Azzurro on Elba Island
Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National ...
where he died of a cardiac arrest in 1967 at the age of 67. He never received any visits from relatives in prison, in fact he claimed that he would kill them if he was them. The daughters Carolina and Gabriella were adopted after the arrest of their father in 1952 by the entrepreneur Robert Wilbraham Fitz Aucher, benefactor and king of the steel, receiving a legacy of 2 million dollars.
In popular culture
In the film '' Toto vs. the Four'', the Neapolitan actor mentions the name that the media gave to the murderer, turning to Aldo Fabrizi when he asks for the address of a burglar to help him open a broken lock; in response, Toto replies: "So when he has to pull the neck of the hen, is he the monster of Salaria?"
The story of Our Lady of the White Shadows by Ennio Flaiano in inspired by Picchioni.[Ennio Flaiano]
Le ombre bianche
/ref>
See also
* List of serial killers by country
* List of serial killers by number of victims
Notes
Bibliography
* Armati C., Selvetella Y., ''Roma Criminale'', Newton & Compton
Newton Compton Editori, sometimes spelled Newton & Compton, is an Italian publisher.
The publisher was founded in Rome by Vittorio Avanzini in 1969. The house has published mostly paperbacks and low cost editions, including literature classics, es ...
, Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
, 2005.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Picchioni, Ernesto
1900 births
1967 deaths
Italian people convicted of murder
Italian serial killers
Male serial killers
People from Rieti
Serial killers who died in prison custody