Satanist band members jailed for ritual killingsAssociated Press
Tuesday February 22, 2005
Two members of an Italian heavy metal band called the Beasts of Satan were today sentenced to jail for their role in three ritual murders.
Andrea Volpe and Pietro Guerrieri had confessed to roles in the 1998 killings of Chiara Marino, 19, and 16-year-old Fabio Tollis in woods outside Milan. Volpe - considered to have been the mastermind of the ritual killings - was sentenced to 30 years, 10 more than prosecutors had asked for. Guerrieri was given 16 years.
Mario Maccione, who also confessed to the killings, was cleared because he had played a secondary role. Five other members of their suspected Satanic cult have been ordered to stand trial in June.
"Today, justice rewarded me," Michele Tollis, the father of Fabio, told Italian television, "even if it leaves me quite bitter that our son Fabio will not return."
Prosecutors in the northern city of Busto Arsizio said the suspects belonged to an occult sect that carried out the January 1998 killings in a drug-fuelled Satanic ritual in woods near Somma Lombardo, north-west of Milan.
Marino was stabbed to death and Tollis, her boyfriend, was also killed. They were buried next to each other. Authorities said there had been a previous attempt to kill the two by burning them alive in a car on New Year's Eve.
In the third murder, which happened in January 2004, Mariangela Pezzotta, Volpe's girlfriend, was shot and then buried alive. The Pezzotta case led authorities to the buried remains of Tollis and Marino. The cult members also stand accused of pushing a boy to commit suicide.
Prosecutors asked for relatively light prison terms because the suspects had cooperated with the investigation and expressed remorse. Prosecutors and court officials were not immediately available for comment after the ruling.
Marino's mother expressed outrage that prosecutors had not sought life terms. "They are murderers," Lina Marino told reporters. "It's not fair."
The verdict comes amid growing concern in Italy that young people are turning to Satanism and the occult. Last week, a Vatican-linked university opened a two-month course on diabolical possession and exorcism.
American heavy metal bands are wusses.
Author
