Johnny Lo Zingaro captured by the police in the province of Sassari

Giuseppe Mastini, known as “Johnny the gypsy“A 60-year-old, he escaped ten days ago from the maximum security prison of Sassari. He was detained at 8.15 am by the police in Sardinia, inside a farmhouse in the province of Sassari between Terrata sud and Zuari. He had not returned to the jail. after a premium permit. He would have told the policemen who detained him: “He always runs away for love.” At the time of his capture, however, he was alone. The agents searched dozens of houses and discovered that Mastini had hid in a building, little more than a sheepfold, adjacent to a blacksmith’s workshop, which was arrested.

+++ was located and arrested in Sardinia by the police of the #Sco, of the #SquadraMobile of Sassari and of #PoliziaPenitentiaria Giuseppe Mastini known as #johnnylozingaro escaped from Sassari prison a few days ago# 15September#exercise pic.twitter.com/XsY7WHI6e0

– State Police (@poliziadistato) September 15, 2020

Seven escapes, two murders, one kidnapping, 25 robberies and a great love: the criminal history of prisoner Giuseppe Mastini begins in Rome in the 1970s.

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Robberies, escapes and two murders: the story of Johnny the Gypsy until the mockery of the last escape

by FLAMINIA SAVELLI

Born in 1960 in Ponte San Pietro, Bergamo, he moved to Rome at the age of ten with his family and a caravan of Sinti families from Lombardy. The caravan is parked in via Riccardo Balsamo Crivelli, in Tiburtino where in a few months Mastini becomes “Johnny the Gypsy” for the criminals of the neighborhood due to his Sinti origin. He works on the family playground but his true passion is cars – he has a talent for driving and stealing them. Thus he makes a name for himself among petty criminals and begins his criminal career.

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The umpteenth escape of Johnny the Gypsy, the thief who sowed panic and death in the Rome of the 70s

by FLAMINIA SAVELLI

In 1971 he participates in a robbery with a gang from Tiburtino, discovered by the police, he pulls the trigger for the first time, shoots, then flees and is saved. On December 31, 1975, he killed, for a cheap watch and 10,000 lire, a 38-year-old worker employed by Atac, Vittorio Bigi, along with his friend Mauro Giorgio, also fifteen. The trail of his terror continues and, among the many cases in which he was involved, there is also the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini.

His first escape dates back to 1987 when, taking advantage of a granted license, he did not return to prison and became the protagonist of numerous criminal acts: robberies, robberies, but also the kidnapping of a girl Silvia Leonardi, the murder of the security guard, Michele Giraldi, and the wound of a carabinieri brigadier, Bruno Nolfi. He was captured two years later.

Playing now ….

Then the continuous escapes, also dictated and punctuated by the encounters with his long-time partner, and even this last escape that lasted about ten days has the encounter with his wife as a common thread.

It is not clear if the cabin where he was captured on a local road between Sassari and Sorso was loaned by a friend or if it was rented while his partner may have left Sardinia. Johnny Lo Zingaro – we learned from Dap sources – will return to Bancali prison in Sassari, the other man arrested this morning, however, he will go to house arrest. Mastini also allegedly told prison police that he made a mistake and said this will be his last escape.

“The escaped Giuseppe Mastini, known as Johnny Lo Zingaro, was tracked down and captured thanks to the joint work carried out by the central investigation unit of the penitentiary police and the state police. I thank you from the bottom of my heart ”, thus on twitter Alfonso Bonafede, Minister of Justice.