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Beasts jailed for satanic murder
In a case that has shocked a nation concerned about rising fascination with the occult, an Italian court on Tuesday sentenced the leader of a heavy metal rock group called the “Beasts of Satan” to 30 years in jail for three gruesome ritual murders.
In a case that has shocked a nation concerned about rising fascination with the occult, an Italian court on Tuesday sentenced the leader of a heavy metal rock group called the “Beasts of Satan” to 30 years in jail for three gruesome ritual murders.
Andrea Volpe, 27, a self-confessed devil worshipper and drug addict, was convicted of the ritual stabbing and beating of fellow band members Fabio Tollis, 16, and Chiara Marino, 19, in 1998, and the shooting of Volpe’s 27-year-old former fiancee, Mariangela Pezzotta.
Volpe and Piero Guerrieri, another band member who was sentenced to 16 1/2 years in prison, were also accused of driving a fourth person to death by suicide in a grisly high-speed auto wreck.
A third defendant, Mario Maccione, was acquitted.
All three had chosen to be judged under an accelerated court procedure that offered lower sentences in exchange for curtailed evidence. Volpe could otherwise have received life in jail. Nevertheless, the court at Busto Arsizio near Milan imposed a heavier sentence on Volpe than the 20 years demanded by the prosecution.
Prosecutor Antonio Pizzi said the sentence was “just.”
Lina Marino, the mother of one of the victims, said, “we have obtained justice for Chiara. Volpe must now spend 30 years in prison.” The snake-owning Volpe dresses in black clothes studded with patches bearing images of the devil with a ram’s head and the number 666.
According to a parliamentary group studying the problem, hundreds of satanic cult groups pullulate in Italy, with more and more young people involved.
