Journalist Donatella Papi, 53 and Angelo Izzo, 52, who is serving two life sentences for the murder of three women, were married on Friday in the Velletri Prison in Rome. The bride wore powder pink silk and carried flowers to match.
“I’ve married the man I’ve always loved. I am not afraid”
said Ms Papi as she left the prison, telling journalists that she and Izzo had first met 35 years ago, when they lived in the same neighbourhood. They had corresponded during Izzo’s imprisonment and developed what he calls “a deep affinity” for each other.
Ms Papi said that her new husband is a man of great spiritual qualities who should not be denied the right to marry because of the crimes he has committed. She added that all prisoners serving long sentences must be accorded their human rights if Italy wants a safer society.
Izzo was found guilty of the “Circeo Massacre” of 1975, in which he and two companions tortured and repeatedly raped Donatella Colasanti and Rosaria Lopez, then aged 17 and 19. They killed Lopez and attempted to kill Colasanti, who, after pretending to be dead, was rescued. Whilst on parole in 2005, the year of Donatella Colasanti’s death, Izzo killed again. The victims were a mother and her 14-year-old daughter.
“He’ll kill her”, Letizia Lopez, Rosaria’s sister, told Corriere della Sera when interviewed about the wedding: “She’s chosen to die in Izzo’s arms – if she doesn’t have to kill him in self-defence.” She also said that she thought Papi was “ill”.
Ms Papi says that she and Izzo will now be able to see each other at established times.
Do you think this marriage should have gone ahead? Do you think Donatella Papi is ill?
