Nestled within the heart of the Grand Harbour lies the city of Senglea, a captivating gem with a history as rich as the soil beneath its streets. While it has lured countless visitors seeking a glimpse of Malta’s storied past, a darker side to this ancient city lurks beneath the surface.

Here we are going to delve into Senglea’s annals, unearthing the accounts of murders that occurred mainly in the past two centuries, tragic events still echoing through its narrow streets.

While Senglea’s past may seem distant, understanding its darker episodes can provide valuable insights into the cultural and societal dynamics shaping its inhabitants.

Each murder we explore serves as a portal to a different era, revealing the intricacies of life in Senglea during times of turmoil or moments of profound tranquillity.

The stories of these murders are not merely accounts of violence but glimpses into the human condition where emotions, passions, and despair intertwine in a complex dance of existence.

These accounts rekindle interest in the past. And understanding history in its entirety is a powerful way to ensure that the lessons of the past are not lost to the mists of time.

1749 – Felice Spiteri

Before proceeding to the 19th century, let us consider the quaint setting of the year 1749. It was a time when crime and its consequences were overshadowed by the intensity of the visual spectacle of punishment, particularly of the ritual of execution.

Prof William Zammit specifies “... what generally consisted of a grisly and often long-protracted public spectacle of an untimely but inevitable and painful death was a conscious exercise by the State to instil conformity among its potentially unruly subjects through the public manifestation of intense suffering and humiliation”.

On August 30, 1749, Felice Spiteri, aged 22, of unknown parents, was executed. He died on the gallows on the shore of Senglea Point, demonstrating true signs of a contrite Christian.

His corpse was then quartered, with the limbs displayed at the place of execution. That same evening, the severed remains together with the rest of his corpse were carried in procession by the Confraternity of the Beheading of St John, and buried in Floriana.

On December 2, 1748, following the discovery of the corpse of Spiteri’s pregnant wife in the harbour, doctors examining the remains concluded that the death was not accidental but by strangling. Once the case resulted in murder, investigations got under way, the husband being the prime suspect. It was subsequently discovered that the husband had promised a young girl to marry her, without the latter being aware that he was already married, gifting her the blood-soiled faldetta that belonged to his murdered wife.

Early in January 1749, being tricked into venturing out of sanctuary, he was apprehended. Having denied any involvement in the case, he was tortured by the corda, eliciting a confession of guilt within minutes. As was customary in such circumstances, his condemnation was expected within a few days.

His defence lawyer successfully managed to raise doubts about the case as to make two of the three judges hesitant to apply the death sentence. Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca expressed his disagreement with the judges’ unease, handing the case over to Judge Giulio Cumbo.

Notwithstanding Cumbo’s efforts, the case remained unsettled till early May 1749. The case resumed in late August when a second trial was held. Spiteri was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged and quartered. The sentence was carried out at Senglea Point, exactly where the murder had taken place nine months before.

1801

Murder in all its forms is indeed the worst part of human nature. As Herbert Ganado states, “our country, like all countries, has its criminal history”.

The killing of children, a rarity in any country, is a horrible crime, and although in some countries there was an increase in these crimes in connection with paedophilia, thankfully this was not the reason why some Maltese children were killed.

The first such murder occurred at the onset of the 19th century when a dead child was found, with his head crushed, in the ditch of St Michael’s bastions, Senglea. On the day of the crime, the nine-year-old boy had left home wearing a necklace with a cross hanging around his neck and a small ring.

According to the authorities’ investigation, it resulted that the boy was robbed of the said gold objects, and then thrown down from atop the bastions. Since no one had seen or heard anything about this crime, Civil Commissioner Sir Alexander Ball promised 100 scudi to whoever gave information leading the authorities to apprehend the culprits.

In addition, those complicit in this crime were promised impunity as long as they exposed the culprit. This was announced in a bandu, an official governmental announcement, issued on February 5, 1801. Despite this notice, no one forwarded any information and the case remained unsolved.

1832 – Grazia Grech

A macabre scene chilled neighbours and the police when, on the morning of April 13, 1832, they broke down the door of the rooms where Grazia Grech lived and worked, in St Philip Street, Senglea.

They recoiled in horror at the body of a young woman, with her head attached only by the vertebra and some tattered skin and muscle from the neck. There was a razor with clumps of hair sticking to it and everything around soaked in blood.

Grech earned her living in the sex trade, welcoming men, many of them outsiders. Among these were two young men, 18-year-old Giovanni Fedele, from Sliema, and Paolo Laus, 21, from Valletta. They had regularly frequented her rooms for about a year.

After dusk on April 12, Fedele and Laus entered Grech’s rooms. At about 8.30pm, some saw them buying bread, cheese and a bottle of rum from a shop nearby, taking the food to the girl’s room. They left early the following morning, locking her door behind them.

Later that day, on observing Grazia’s absence, the neighbours became worried. They went to knock on the door and called Grech but received no reply. All this raised their suspicion. Some brought ladders and looked inside through a window. What they saw horrified them. They called the police who forced an entry into her rooms.

Dr Salvatore Cecy, the duty magistrate, was informed about the gruesome findings, and appointed two doctors to hold an on-site enquiry.

The neighbours described the young men to the police, and a search for them began.

Though apprenticed to a goldsmith to learn the trade, Fedele and Laus lived a restless, vagabond life. Jointly, they shared Grech’s graces, and she repeated to them that they were her ‘favourite’ clients.

They even went as far as to give her a gold ring they had made, which unfortunately led to this revenge killing when they discovered she had gifted their ring to another ‘client’, a fishmonger, and jealousy captured their spirit – they swore vengeance.

So, on April 12, Fedele and Laus went to Grech armed with a razor, and after staying in her company for some time, while Laus held her, Fedele slit her neck. After the crime, Laus and Fedele fled to Cospicua and walked all the way to Marsaxlokk. There, they boarded a boat and asked to be taken to St George’s.

The boatman, seeing them all splattered in blood, grew suspicious and ordered them off his craft. So they decided to walk all the way to Valletta and took refuge in the house of Ġustu Sant, next door to where Laus lived, hid in the basement and changed their clothes.

Meanwhile, news of the murder reached Valletta, and Sant expelled them from his home. They went to Laus’s home where the police found and arrested them.

Their trial was held on May 10, in the criminal court of the old Castellania in Merchants Street, Valletta. The accused stood charged with having, with treachery and premeditation, caused the death of Grazia Grech. The judges passed a death sentence by hanging.

The execution of Fedele and Laus was held on May 21, on the Floriana glacis, facing Senglea, the scene of the crime. Fedele was the youngest person executed in Malta during the British period, and Grazia Grech the first prostitute to be murdered.

Besides these three lives, another two perished in this crime’s wake. On June 14, Laus’s father, oppressed by grief, hanged himself from a tree. And shortly later, the fishmonger was assaulted by persons unknown and succumbed to his injuries.

1860 – Richard Cook

Richard Cook, a British sailor stationed on HMS Magaera, often visited a shop at the Senglea Bastions owned by 28-year-old Lawrence Farrugia, from Għaxaq. This shop was the place where an argument leading to the unfortunate ending began.

During the night between May 26 and 27, 1860, a scuffle took place after which the sailor was found murdered at Senglea Point. The shop owner was accused of committing the crime, together with his friend Mario Musù, aged 27, from Senglea.

Both were found guilty, and although the jurors asked for clemency, the accused were sentenced to death. Nonetheless, the acting governor, Major General Charles Warren, changed it to one of life imprisonment with hard labour.

After this pardon, The Malta Times of July 19, 1860, commented negatively on the pardon itself and the softening of the sentence. It alleged that justice was not being delivered, especially when a foreign serviceman was killed.

1899 – Carlo Gatt

Senglea witnessed another murder on May 29, 1899. At about 10.30pm, Alfredo Formosa, 35, from Senglea, and others, including Carlo Gatt, 29, also from Senglea, were dancing and joking in a bar on Victory Street.

Suddenly, the mirth turned into wrangling between Formosa and Gatt, and some unpleasant words were exchanged. Formosa called the police, and after their arrival, matters were smoothed over, and eventually, the two were persuaded to return to their respective homes.

However, according to The Daily Malta Chronicle of May 30, 1899, “it transpires that, after an hour, Formosa fell in with Gatt in St Joseph Street, Senglea. The former had an open razor in hand and, no sooner did he observe Gatt, that he flourished it aloft and fiercely attacked him, cutting Gatt’s throat so savagely that the two carotid arteries were severed, and death from haemorrhage ensued immediately.”

Formosa was arrested, and on May 29, a post-mortem examination was held on the victim’s corpse.

Formosa was brought before Magistrate Dr Parnis on capital charges and a trial by jury was held on November 24, 1899. Lawyer Alfredo Caruana Gatto so ably defended the case that the verdict was six against three. With this judgment, the court’s sentence was life imprisonment.

1926 – Andrea Gatt

Another terrible murder took place in Senglea on June 29, 1926. At about 5.35pm, Andrea Gatt, 43, was outside Fourth September Bar, opposite Senglea parish church, when three rough and barefooted refuse collectors passed by.

Uttering obscene language, they pelted with cherry stones some children playing near the bar. Gatt remonstrated with them, and one drew a long, thin knife and stabbed him.

Gatt himself drew the knife from the wound and then collapsed. He was taken inside the bar, where he died, attended by Don Antonio Grech. District medical officer Francis Scolaro was immediately called to the bar but could do nothing to save his life.

The Daily Malta Chronicle of June 30, 1926, affirmed that “Great excitement prevailed till late at night throughout the whole of Senglea where expressions of regret and indignation at the foul murder were general.

The wife of the unfortunate victim, who was in delicate health and expecting her seventh child shortly, was at the time inside the church and, on coming out, she was made aware of the terrible tragedy just enacted”.

The magistrate on duty held an investigation on the spot and ordered the removal of the corpse to the Central Civil Hospital’s mortuary for the prescribed inquest.

The police immediately started tracking the murderer. Joseph Hall testified to the police that it was Carmelo Mizzi, 20, who had hit Gatt. They proceeded to his parents’ residence in Senglea where they found him washing, with a bundle of clothes next to him, ready to flee.

After a trial by jury held on October 5, 1926, Mizzi was found unanimously guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

1949 – Ugolino Formosa

On March 17, 1949, 52-year-old Ugolino Formosa was found seriously injured in Two Gates Street, Senglea.

On being admitted to the Central Hospital, Formosa said that, while drunk, he stepped on a broken bottle and suffered a wound in his abdomen. Formosa was operated on and, although it seemed that the operation was successful, he died the following day.

Later, the police received information that the victim’s wound was caused by a knife blow during a dispute he had with 34-year-old Gioacchino Block. Investigations began, and the police sought to interrogate Block. What originally appeared to be an accident turned out to be a homicide.

As it transpired that Block had left Malta, a circular was sent to various foreign police bodies with information about him. As a result, on June 25, 1949, the Tripoli police informed the Malta police that Block was arrested in Tripoli, and subsequently he was brought to Malta.

Although he confessed that he had a dispute with Ugolino, Block denied the use of a weapon. Nonetheless, at a trial by jury that started on November 8, 1949, Block was accused of deliberately attacking Ugolino with a razor in the stomach, intending to kill him, or endangering his life, causing an inch-long wound. The prosecution expounded that this was a voluntary homicide as Formosa died after a few hours.

What originally appeared to be an accident turned out to be homicide

During the trial, the story emerged as to why Block had waylaid Formosa.

On August 29, 1948, Formosa and Block had met in a bar. At one point, Block remarked that certain people slept outside, words undoubtedly addressed to Formosa who was homeless.

To this, Formosa reacted with harsh words, saying: “Although I sleep outside, I am neither blind nor deaf.” Since he had a false eye made of glass, Block felt offended by Formosa’s words, swearing to kill him.

They became aggressive, though the bystanders diffused the situation. The affair temporarily calmed down, till a few months later. Block finally executed what he had pledged to do.

Vincent Xerri, the defence lawyer, alleged that there was a provocation by the victim when he reviled the accused about a bodily defect.

In their verdict, the jurors unanimously found the accused not guilty according to the indictment but guilty of inflicting a serious wound on Formosa. The court sentenced Block to four years in prison with hard labour.

1971 – Carmelo Costa

On the night between May 5 and 6, 1971, Carmelo Costa, 27, from Senglea, was killed at his residence in Victory Street, Senglea. The news surfaced when a certain Jessy Stivala was approached by Maria Costa to wash some blood-stained clothes in the washing machine.

Understandably, Stivala asked what had happened. “Because last night we got rid of Carmelo,” replied Maria. Shocked, Stivala not only did not accept to take the clothes but told her husband, who informed the police.

With this information, Superintendent Anthony Mifsud Tommasi went to Costa’s house and asked for Carmelo. Maria told him that Carmelo had left the house the night before, and did not return. When confronted with what Stivala had revealed, Maria admitted that her husband was killed, indicating that it was a certain Crispino Delia who committed the crime.

In her statement, Maria recounted that after her husband fell asleep, she silently opened the front door to let Delia in, who started hitting Carmelo’s head with a hammer.

The investigation carried out showed that after the crime, Maria hired a taxi by which she went to Xagħjra where she threw some towels and the weapon used during the crime into the sea.

These towels were later found by the police, but the weapon, believed to be an iron pipe, was never retrieved.

Meanwhile, the police arrested Delia, who, while admitting that he was present during the crime and that he had dragged Carmelo’s body over the rocks before throwing it over the sheer cliffs into the sea at Għar Ħasan, denied that he hit the victim with a hammer.

Costa’s body was found by a Royal Navy frogman. Costa was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a pink chequered shirt and a brown suede jacket. He was also wearing socks but no shoes.

The body showed evidence of brutal treatment. After an autopsy, it became known that Costa’s death was caused by numerous fractures in the skull, a tear in the brain and shortness of breath.

The Times of Malta of May 8, 1971, reported that “the police announced last night that Mrs Maria Costa, 21, of Senglea, and Crispino Delia, 24, of Vittoriosa, will appear before an examining magistrate this morning charged with having on Wednesday, May 5, ‘maliciously and with intent to kill Carmelo Costa or to put his life in manifest jeopardy, caused the death of Carmelo Costa, husband of Maria Costa’”.

From the investigation, it became known that in April 1969, Maria started working in a hotel while her husband was in prison serving a two-year sentence on a theft charge. Here, Maria met Delia and thus began a friendship which also led to the woman placing her two children in a children’s home.

After Costa was released from prison, and knowing of his wife’s friendship with Delia, he went to the hotel and gave notice that his wife was no longer going to work. Despite this, Maria and Delia continued to meet secretly and then planned how to eliminate Carmelo.

The trial by jury of Maria Costa and Delia, held in November 1971, was the first after the abolition of the death penalty in Malta. The judge in this case was Joseph Flores, while the prosecution was conducted by Oliver Gulia.

During their defence, lawyers Joseph Brincat and Paul Mallia claimed that the victim was a psychopath who started his criminal life aged just 12.

Costa and Delia were found guilty of the charges brought against them. Maria was sentenced to life imprisonment and Delia was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

1977 ‒ Cyril Albert Joseph Rodda

After Cyril Albert Joseph Rodda, a 60-year-old official in the Royal Air Force, failed, for two consecutive days, to go and buy the newspaper from a stationery in Senglea, the owner started to worry. This was the first sign that something unusual had happened to Rodda, since buying the daily newspaper was his routine.

Rodda was found dead at his residence in Siren Street, Senglea, on February 21, 1977. According to The Times of Malta on February 23, 1977, he “had been living here for many years”, adding that he “was found on his bed with an undervest around his neck by an English couple who were his neighbours”. Actually, the couple, with the surname Michaelis, lived on the second floor in the same apartment block where the victim lived and had known each other for quite some time.

Several police officers, including members of the Department of Criminal Investigations, reached the scene of the crime.

Magistrate Ronald Conti held an on-site inquiry with the help of various experts. Joseph Fiorini, the government doctor, certified Rodda dead and ordered an autopsy on the corpse.

Initially, this case seemed to be a suicide. But after further investigation, the authorities concluded that this was a homicide. Led by Inspector Alfred Calleja, the police began to gather suspected persons who, in previous days, were seen with Rodda or who were close to his apartment. The investigators detained some men from Senglea for several hours and interrogated others known to the police in criminal circles. However, the Rodda case remained unsolved.

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the use of Eddie Attard’s Delitti f’Malta (2001) and William Zammit’s Kissing the Gallows (2016).