Ġovanni Paris was sent to Malta’s 'lunatic asylum' in 1905, after killing the woman he was stalking. Four years later, Paris told the British governor that he should be released because doctors had repeatedly declared him as being in a stable mental state.
The medical authorities were suddenly faced with a dilemma. How could they keep someone – a killer – locked in a mental asylum when doctors said he was not insane?
Luigia Camenzuli was pregnant when Paris shot her in the back three times because she did not love him.
The 21-year-old woman lived in Strada Reale in Valletta, today’s Republic Street, in 1905. Camenzuli had married Domenico, a local who served in the British Royal Navy, 15 months before.
Her story - and that of Paris - recently featured in research by Mario Cacciottolo.
Camenzuli was in the prime of her life, but was plagued by the unwanted affections of Paris, aged about 40. The unemployed man who lived in the Mandraġġ slum in Valletta was infatuated and began to stalk her. She had been friendly to him at first, but then he would not leave her alone, not even after she got married.
Tensions boiled over. Police reports record a fight in the street between Paris and Domenico in late 1904, and according to Edward Attard’s book Murder in Malta, Paris was once imprisoned for 30 days after slapping Camenzuli in the face.
Then, on March 15, 1905, Paris sent a letter to Camenzuli, telling her she had broken his heart.
“I have now reached the end of my forbearance,” he wrote. “I must therefore declare to you, asking for your forgiveness at the same time, that a month from today, you must be killed.”
Four months later, on July 20, 1905, Camenzuli was heading to a grocery shop in south Valletta. She was with a friend, carrying that friend’s child in her arms.
Suddenly, on the corner nearby, she spotted Paris with two men.
Camenzuli ignored him and headed to the shop. Paris suddenly came forward, pulled out a revolver and shot her in the back. She screamed and ran into the shop, still carrying her friend’s child.
Someone inside the shop took the child from her arms before Paris burst in and shot Camenzuli twice more in the back. He then leaned against a wall and shot himself in the head.
When the police arrived, they found Camenzuli dead, but Paris somewhat remained alive.
Despite being in a critical condition, he survived and was eventually put on trial in 1907 for Camenzuli’s murder. Before the trial, a medical board examination had declared him “not insane”.
The trial concluded and after 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury of nine men declared by 8-1 that Paris was not guilty of Camenzuli’s murder.
Their reasoning – and we do not know if any of the jury were medical men – was that Paris was “affected by impulsive obsessions… and was therefore not mentally sane… at the time of the crime”.
Paris himself expressed surprise, saying he didn’t anticipate an insanity verdict and that he expected to receive “seven or eight years imprisonment” for his crime.
He even said he intended to kill himself because his life belonged “only to him”.
But instead of jail, he was sent to Malta’s 'Lunatic Asylum' – today’s Mount Carmel Psychiatric Hospital.
I did this not for overt hate but rather for too much love- Ġovanni Paris
Four years later, on May 10, 1911, Paris sent a letter to the British governor via his lawyer.
He begins by saying he was carrying a revolver at the time of the murder because he had intended to sell it. He also gets the date wrong, saying it was
on July 21 when it was actually the day before.
He says that when he saw Camenzuli, “my exasperation was so strong that I shot her three times killing her on the spot”.
“I did this not for overt hate but rather for too much love,” he claimed.
But the main purpose of his letter is to state how he had been declared not insane by doctors, both before and after his trial.
He describes his incarceration in the asylum as “a principle against the law and against the most basic/elementary rules of common sense”.
Therefore, he said, he could not be kept in a 'lunatic asylum' among the insane and must be released. He also promised to leave Malta forever if he was set free.
Paris’s bid for freedom sparked a flurry of activity among the British authorities.
A report by the Comptroller of Charitable Institutions – who oversaw welfare in Malta – written just days later, states: “Now that [Paris] succeeded in escaping from a life sentence, or, perhaps, from the gallows, he very cooly protests against his counsel’s plea [of insanity] in defence and urges a counter-plea of non-insanity.”
As a result of his legal bid, the British medical authorities and the 'Lunatic Asylum' Medical Board were forced to debate whether they should free Paris.
The comptroller eventually decided that Paris’s verdict of “not guilty because of insanity” in a Maltese court was essentially the same as the “guilty but insane” verdict found in English courts.
Therefore, the comptroller concluded, this was enough justification for keeping Paris in a mental asylum, despite doctors saying he was not insane.
The advice finally given to the British governor by the asylum board in 1917 was that doctors did not – underlined in their report – believe Paris was insane, but he should not be released because the asylum board could not be totally sure that he would not be a danger to himself or others in future, were he to be set free.
The asylum board did point out that nobody’s behaviour can ever be fully predicted – “the board is unable to foretell the acts of any person of sound mind” – but they used their legal justification to keep Paris in the asylum for the rest of his life.
A photograph has not emerged of him, but there is a note in the National Archives, written in old Maltese and signed “Ganninu Paris”.
The letter, sent to the “professor of the mental hospital” complains of weak, bitter coffee made with milk mixed with water, and of the poor-quality bread given to asylum patients.
Ġovanni Paris died in the asylum of natural causes on December 6, 1933, having spent nearly 30 years within its walls.
Luigia Camenzuli was buried along with her unborn child in Addolorata Cemetery in Paola.
The author wishes to thank Giovanni Bonello, Edward Attard, Adriana Bishop, and staff at the National Archives. Mario Cacciottolo is a former journalist and tourist guide who runs Dark Malta Tours.