Piccolomo, the life sentence for the murder of Carla Molinari is final

The Court of Cassation has confirmed the life sentence for Giuseppe Piccolomo, 62, who, in 2009, entered the house of pensioner Carla Molinari, in Cocquio Trevisago, to commit robbery, then stabbed her to death, and attacked her body, removing her hands, because she had scratched his face to defend herself.

The life sentence puts a definitive end to the case. The charge, which was supported in the initial trial, by the Public Prosecutor, Luca Petrucci, after the investigation carried out by the flying squad in Varese and by the Central Operations Service of the State Police, in Rome, was never put in doubt in the three judicial levels. The lawyer, Simona Bettiati, however, objected to several aspects concerning the gathering of evidence and the composition of the file. It was still an investigation that aroused strong feelings, firstly because of the cruelty of the murder, and secondly because Piccolomo has never confessed and has always claimed to be innocent.

What incriminated him was a number of mistakes made that night in November, although it was the testimony of an ordinary citizen that was most important. After hearing on television that the murderer had left used cigarette butts in the house in which the crime took place, she told the Carabinieri that she had seen a man in the shopping centre in Cocquio Trevisago emptying an ashtray of cigarette butts and walking away. Some time later, a knife was found in Piccolomo’s house, in Ispra, with traces of DNA that belonged to the victim.

The murder of Carla Molinari is the only crime Piccolomo was charged with,

but this is not the only crime of which he is suspected. On the request of the Investigating Magistrate, the Public Prosecutor, Luca Petrucci, opened a file for murder in relation to the death of his first wife, Marisa Maldera, who was burnt alive in 2003, in a strange road accident. Furthermore, the Public Prosecutor in Milan views Piccolomo as a possible suspect for the death of Lidia Macchi, in 1987, and has investigated him, because his face is similar to the identikit of a molester who often walked in the car park of Cittiglio Hospital, not far from where the poor woman was murdered. However, this connection appears difficult to prove.