Edward Attard, a former police officer, author and broadcaster comments on a handful of the 500 or so homicide cases which have taken place on these islands since the year 1800.
Marie Benoît discovers from his book Delitti f’Malta that murderers can be found in all strata of society and of all ages
Mr Attard has concluded after extensive research that “so far Malta has been lucky, compared to other countries, because we still enjoy a low homicide rate although there has been a rise during the past 35 years. Malta’s average homicide rate for the past 35 years was six homicides a year, placing the island in the “very low category”. Murders for sexual gratification are rare in our criminal history, although we had some prostitutes as victims of murder. Over the past century, the worst year was 1981, when 11 homicides were committed. However, there have been a total of 11 years without a single homicide in the last century. Moreover, no homicides were committed during 2003 and 2006.”
Are there any particular murders that have shocked him in particular? “The murders that shocked me most are the Ta’ l-abbatini, Ta’ l-Ghallis and Toninu Aquilina’s murder. The victim of the Ta’ l-abbatini’s murder was a ten-year old altar boy from Zabbar who on Palm Sunday of 1908 left his parents’ home, never to return. Police enquiries revealed that the boy was seen in the company of another youth, Francesco Farrugia. After 20 months Farrugia voluntarily went to confess before a magistrate that he had beaten the boy to death in an underground passage of Fort Ricasoli. After a trial by jury Farrugia was confined to the mental hospital.”
Mr Attard mentions another sensational murder, that of Toninu Aquilina, an employee of the Malta Millers Association. There are many who remember this particular murder of an innocent man and known as the Ghallis Tower murder. Mr Attard goes on: “ On 24 February Aquilina was reported missing. On that day he was supposed to deposit the sum of £15,315 at the then National Bank of Malta in Kingsway, Valletta. On 9 March 1955 his lifeless body was found in an empty well of the Ghallis Tower at Bahar-ic-Caghaq. Aquilina was shot in the neck and the local Criminal Investigation Department had neither the specialised investigators nor a forensic laboratory. So, for the first time, Scotland Yard was called in to take over the investigations and an inspector and a sergeant arrived in Malta and were temporarily appointed superintendent and inspector respectively of the Malta Police Force. Later, the brilliant Lewis C. Nicholls, the Director of the Metropolitan Police Laboratory of Scotland Yard, also helped to solve this case. Eventually George Terreni was sentenced to life imprisonment for this crime.”
There is information about women murderers too in Delitti…could he comment. “The last death sentence given to a woman murderer was that of Luigia Camilleri who on 21 February 1961 was found guilty of murdering her eight-year-old son, Twanny. The crime was committed in Valletta on 23 August 1960 and Luigia’s husband was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment as an accomplice in the crime.”
There are several unsolved murders mentioned in the book. In fact, the last chapter is dedicated to them. The ones which immediately spring to mind are that of Francis Sant Cassia, the Castell Zammitello case; that of Dr Michael Grech of Gozo and that of Albert Brian Rosso. Could he comment on unresolved cases in general? “The number of unsolved murders is not so high and in April 2006 the police charged a man with the murder of Baron Frank Sant Cassia who was shot outside his residence in 1988. Another murder solved after many years was that of Nazzareno Ebejer who was found in a room in Mellieha in 1989. The murder of Francesco Grixti in 1904 was solved after 22 years.”
There is also a chapter about women who killed their husband. It is only a few pages long, it is true. Why did these women kill their husbands, generally speaking? Is there a common trait d’union? “Since 1800 we had only five cases where wives murdered their husbands. Three were the result of a domestic dispute and the other two were crimes of passion. The French used to make allowance in their legal code for the crime passionel, but in Malta we followed the English harsh rule and no sympathy was offered to the offenders.”
Mr Attard goes on to comment that the number of wife killers in Malta is much bigger than that of husband killers, in fact there were thirty eight uxorcides. Crimes of this kind have been caused by jealousy or as a consequence of envy, hatred and adultery. The first recorded case since 1800 was that of Ro¿i Ciangura, who in January 1837 was thrown into a well in a field at Imtahleb, limits of Rabat. Ro¿i was found alive in the well but died some days later. In her testimony she stated how she was thrown into the well by her husband Felic who also stoned her. Felic Ciangura fled from Malta and returned nine years later when he was accused of this crime and received a life imprisonment.”
The only man hanged for killing his wife, says Mr Attard, was Joseph Micallef. “On 9 October 1899, he shot his wife Ro¿a at Maghtab. Ro¿a used to work in the fields with her parents and her husband. Two days prior to the murder, she was seen waving to her uncle Allessandro and this fact seemed to be the reason for the quarrel Joseph had with his wife on the night of the murder. When the sound of a fired shotgun was heard Ro¿a’s brother heard Joseph crying for help because his wife had been hit by accident. According to Joseph, the shotgun was resting against the wall when he accidentally hit it with his foot and discharged when it slid to the ground. Ro¿a was hit in her breast and the court expert certified that the shotgun was discharged from a high position. On 28 May 1900 Joseph Micallef was tried by jury and sentenced to death.”
Mr Attard says that a change worth pointing out in the history of homicide in Malta is that “during the past years shotguns have been used in more than 40 per cent of the cases and this is a very high figure. Most of the homicides in which such firearms are used occur in the heat of argument or rage.”
The first edition of Delitti f’Malta was published in November 2001 and was met with an overwhelming popular response. An update of the book was published by BDL in 2004. www.bdlbooks.com