Woman strangled in Vittoriosa

The first trial in Malta that saw a father and son accused of wilful homicide was held on January 21, 1830.

It was also the first trial by jury in Malta after the establishment of the Court of Special Commission and Trial by Jury on October 15, 1829. Such trials were only held when the death penalty was requested by the prosecution.

Wenzu Bonanno, his wife Madalena and their 12-year-old son Manwel, together with Ċikku Farrugia and Wiġi Darmanin, were accused of the wilful murder of Francesca Bellia.

Manwel and his mother were accused as accomplices.

Bellia was a woman of considerable charm but, while her parents were alive, she was not interested in marriage.

After their death, the 45-year-old woman, who lived in Vittoriosa, declared that she was interested in finding a man her age to get married.

Madalena found this news particularly interesting and decided to act as a matchmaker in a bid to deceive Bellia.

So she called on her and asked her about the rumours making the rounds that she was considering an offer of marriage.

Bellia did not deny these rumours, however, she expressed her wish to treat this matter discreetly to avoid further gossip. Madalena told her that she need not bother about this and asked her whether she was willing to meet a man.

Bellia accepted the offer on condition that she could see the man before meeting him.

Madalena, therefore, proposed that, on a specific day and time, this man would pass by her door a couple of times. The day agreed upon was December 28, 1827.

It was also agreed that if the man pleased her, Bellia would invite him inside her house.

The latter, however, spoke to one of her neighbours about this proposal and requested her company for the eventual meeting.

From early in the afternoon of December 28, Bellia stood behind her window and obsessively looked out onto the street to get a glimpse of the man who might become her future husband but to no avail.

She had also prepared some sweets and a special liquor for that evening.

It appears that Madalena was watching the house and when she saw that Bellia was in the company of another woman, she cancelled her plan.

The following day, however, Madalena’s husband Wenzu, accompanied by Ċikku Farrugia, called on Bellia, who was alone in the house, and Wenzu told her that Farrugia was the man who wished to marry her.

Farrugia was 50 years old but still good-looking. The woman seemed delighted to meet him.

The three talked for a while and, some time later, someone called on Bellia to give her some fish.

As she went into the kitchen with the fish, Farrugia seized her by the neck and strangled her.

As Bellia lay lifeless on the floor, Farrugia and Wenzu Bonanno opened the front door and signalled to Madalena and Wiġi Darmanin to join them in the search for money and other valuables.

After the burglary, they went to Bonanno’s shop to share the money and stolen articles. The boy, Manwel, participated in this crime by standing guard and delivering messages.

Bellia’s corpse was discovered the day after the murder. A woman in the neighbourhood called the police as she had knocked on the victim’s door several times and she had not answered.

This woman also told the police that the day before the murder, Bellia was expecting a man who wished to propose to her but the neighbour was not aware that Madalena had fixed that meeting.

Man stabbed to death in Cospicua

The case remained unsolved but, on January 1, 1829, another murder was committed. The victim was Vincenzo Cucciardi, who lived in Vicolo della Torre in Cospicua.

This time, the lieutenant governor issued a notification offering the pardon and a reward of 100 scudi to any accomplice who had not actually committed the murder and who would give information leading to the arrest of the murderer.

The body of Cucciardi was found in front of his house early in the morning. The post-mortem revealed that he had been stabbed with a knife.

Police inquiries disclosed that several valuables and money had been stolen from his house.

Right from the start, the police were aware that Cucciardi’s nephew, Toni Ellul, who lived with his uncle, was involved in the crime, but Ellul was never traced as he managed to leave the island.

After the notification promising immunity by free pardon, Ċikku Attard came forward with details about Cucciardi’s murder.

In his statement to the police, he said that, on the night of December 31, 1828, together with Wiġi Darmanin and Ċikku Farrugia, he had entered Cucciardi’s house where they had to meet Ellul.

Attard admitted that he was involved in the theft and said that it was Darmanin who had stabbed Cucciardi.

He also gave the police a shirt stained with blood saying it belonged to Ellul.

According to Attard, the shirt was given to him by Darmanin, who had ordered him to throw it into the sea.

Besides this information, Attard gave the police the names of those involved in the murder of Francesca Bellia.

Ċikku Farrugia, Wenzu Bonanno and Wiġi Darmanin were all found guilty and sentenced to death. They were executed in Floriana on February 3, 1830.

Madalena Bonanno was found guilty as an accomplice and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment.

Her son Manwel, Malta’s youngest accused in a murder trial, was acquitted.

Gruesome murder in Kerċem

Another murder trial involving a father and son was that of Ġużeppi Tabone and his father, Antonio, held in March 1923.

At about 6.45am on December 12, 1922, the constable on duty at the Kerċem police station was informed that 70-year-old Franġisku Galea had been found dead in his farmhouse.

Antonio and Ġużeppi, who lived in the same farmhouse with the deceased, said that Galea had fallen off his bed.

The police found the old man in a pool of blood on the floor. His face and forehead were horrifyingly disfigured. They, thus, believed that the old man had been bludgeoned to death rather than having fallen.

Further police investigations disclosed that Ġużeppi still bore traces of blood under his fingernails. This evidence led to a search of the farmhouse and the police found some clothes soaked with blood.

Meanwhile, the doctors who carried out the post-mortem examination attributed the death to cerebral haemorrhage, which caused an obstruction of the oxygen supply by occlusion of the air passages with blood.

Confronted with these findings, Antonio made a statement to the police and said that, during the early morning of December 22, he had been called by his son to place Galea’s dead body in the same position as that in which it had been found by the police.

Both defendants chose to testify and Ġużeppi said that when he returned home after mass, he heard Galea saying: “Marjanna, I am dying.”

He further testified that when he saw the victim on the floor, he called him several times and ran out to ask for assistance.

Antonio said that his son called at his farmhouse and told him that Galea was lying lifeless on the floor. Antonio said he did not touch the body.

Ġużeppi Tabone was hanged three days after his wife gave birth

The prosecution, led by Victor Frendo Azzopardi, senior crown counsel, maintained that the blood stains found on Ġużeppi’s clothes provided evidence that the victim had been struck with a hard object.

The defence put forward by Alberto Magri, however, maintained that the prosecution had provided only circumstantial evidence and no direct proof that Ġużeppi had committed the crime.

With a unanimous vote, the jury found Antonio not guilty but Ġużeppi was found guilty of wilful homicide.

Before the court pronounced the sentence, the defence counsel made written submissions to the court asking for the plea of insanity. The court dismissed the plea and the chief justice passed the death sentence.

Ġużeppi was hanged at the Corradino Prison on March 26, 1923, just three days after his wife gave birth to a child.

Homicide in Żabbar

In another trial on June 30, 1965, a 57-year-old man and his son, aged 20, were accused of the voluntary homicide of a man in St James Square, Żabbar, on March 5 that year.

Their trial was presided over by the president of the court, Sir Anthony Mamo, together with judges J.H. Xuereb and Joseph Flores.

The dispute that led to this homicide involved a request to deliver a package abroad.

During the trial, the victim’s mother testified that she heard the younger accused saying that, that night, he was taking the life of her son. The victim was stabbed to death during a fight.

With a unanimous vote, the father was acquitted and his son was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment. The jurors found him guilty but excusable because he had acted out of passion or mental agitation due to which he could not properly consider his actions.

Young addict left to die in field

Years later, 18-year-old Rachel Bowdler's murder trial began in June 2006.

The case made legal history as it was the first conviction in Malta for a wilful homicide by omission.

Bowdler’s lifeless body was found by a farmer in a field in an area known as Ras il-Ġebel, limits of Mġarr, on May 13, 2001.

Police investigations revealed that Bowdler had suffered an overdose of heroin while in the presence of a young drug addict in an apartment in Qawra.

After taking the shot, she lost consciousness and her body was eventually dumped in Mġarr.

The case made legal history as it was the first conviction in Malta for a wilful homicide by omission

A 23-year-old youth and his parents were accused of wilful homicide for allowing Bowdler to die when they dumped her in the field.

However, the father was found guilty of involuntary homicide and received an 18-month sentence. His estranged wife was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and their son was jailed for 25 years.

The sentence was confirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeal.