Italy: end of the run in Sardinia for "Johnny the Gypsy"

This is the title we could have written seven times.

The Italian thug Giuseppe Mastini, 60, who escaped in early September, was arrested again in Sardinia on Tuesday.

"The fugitive detainee was found in a country house near Sassari" in north-western Sardinia, where he was with a blacksmith, police said.

+++ è stato rintracciato e arrestato in Sardegna dai poliziotti dello #Sco, della #SquadraMobile di Sassari e dalla #PoliziaPenitenziaria Giuseppe Mastini noto come #johnnylozingaro evaso dal carcere di Sassari qualche gempiorsno fat # 15settre di Sassari qualche gempiorsno fa.XW7WeXHi # 15settreHi

- Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) September 15, 2020

Sentenced to life imprisonment and imprisoned in a high security prison in Sardinia since July 2017, for murder, he had not returned to his cell after a release on September 5, slashing his chances of accessing a semi-liberty regime in a few month.

A search notice had been issued across the country to find the prisoner, who had dyed his hair platinum blonde.

In reaction to this umpteenth escape, an Italian police union demanded a change in exit rules, demanding the abolition of exit permits for criminals who had already attempted to escape.

A female accomplice?

We get lost in it, so much he has taken to the chase, three times as a minor, four times after his majority.

"We always escape for love," Giuseppe Mastini told police, quoted by the site of the daily Il Corriere della Sera.

No woman was with him during the arrest.

The police suspect a woman, to whom Mastini made two communications in Sintikès, the Gypsy language.

Originally from the province of Bergamo (north), Giuseppe Mastini had settled with his family of fairground “Sinti” in Rome in the 1970s, before perpetrating his first murder at the age of 11, according to the ANSA agency. .

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His very first escape dates back to 1987. He had not returned to prison after being granted temporary release.

During his two-year run, he then perpetrated numerous crimes: theft, taking a young girl hostage, murder of a police officer, injuries inflicted on another.

He was also cited in the investigation into the murder of filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975 and in that of a consul.

“Johnny the Gipsy” will be escorted back to Bancali prison in Sassari.

His reintegration program seems definitely compromised.