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Antonio Calanni / AP
The coffin containing the remains of Melissa Bassi, killed by a bomb in Brindisi, Italy, on May 19, is carried at her funeral two days after the blast..
ROME - Italian police took a 68-year-old man into custody on Wednesday in connection with last month's bombing near a school that killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded 10 others, local media reported Thursday.
Investigators initially suggested a mafia group was responsible for the May 19 bomb that was detonated in Brindisi, a port city in southern Italy.
After several hours of questioning in the southern city of Lecce, the man allegedly confessed to building and planting the bomb, Italian media reported.
The man, whose motive was described as a "personal" vendetta and not terrorism, is married and has two children, according to local reports.
Television news channel Sky Italia named the suspect as Giovanni Vantaggiato, an agricultural fuel depot owner from nearby Cupertino, adding that police and prosecutors were still working to verify details in his apparent admission.
The investigation into the bombing made "an important and definitive breakthrough" Wednesday, the head of the police force, Antonio Manganelli, told Reuters after news of a possible confession was reported.
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Vataggiato’s apparent motive was described in Italian newspaper La Repubblica [linked site in Italian] as anger over personal debt.
Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
What is wrong with people? Just go jump off a bridge if you are unhappy with life. Since the Italian Mafia was wrongly blamed I think he should be turned over to them for punishment. Justice would be certainly served for killing this young girl and injuring others in the blast......
Bischero
makes no sense. Must be more to the story, perhaps? Angry over personal debt, so he sets off a bomb near a school? Weirdness.
It's BS.
Remember the first explanation? The Mafia did it. BS. Everyone, especially Italians, knows that the Sicilian Mafia doesn't attack children. Period.
Remember the first person who was arrested? Supposedly had explosives / electronics training from the military. What happened to him? The media never told us.
Now, some old brick did it, huh?
In short, the "powers that be" are fishing for a story that the public will swallow.
The truth: The Mafia placed the bomb, but not the Sicilian Mafia.
The Italians want to "verify" this man's confession but were completely convinced Amanda Knox murdered her roommate based on shoddy evidence while someone else confessed to it...LOL
IF the man arrested commited this act, I wait with great anticipation as to his "logical reason" for doing so. It will make a great case study in faulty reasoning I am sure.
Those darn kids wouldn't stay off his lawn.
Denver.....Have some damn compassion for the young girl that was murdered. I bet you would not be cracking jokes if it was your daughter!
Bunkie11,
Compassion and a sense of humor are not mutually exclusive.
"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."
Don Corleone to Johnny Fontane about Woltz
Bombs don't kill. PEOPLE with bombs kill.
Over personal debt? Come on. Just how would killing children in a school make his life better. NUT JOB!
Where does it say personal debt? I only read personal vendetta.
Wicked.
I got Italian tires on my truck and when dago flat dago WOP, WOP, WOP, WOP
Not funny.
Also older than dirt. Get some pride and make new jokes.
I made a joke. How do you know indians are lazy? They cried about a little hike.
Oh cmon guys if it weren't for the good people on Jersey Shore nobody would make fun of Italians anymore.
Those Guidos are just embarrassing. I would perfer to go back and be considered a mobster than any like "The Situation" or that cum sponge "Snookie".
Gee... now he will never get paid.
The media is covering something up. Check the BBC version and I bet it mentions mooslimes. Can't have that uttered in the States cause it undermines bummers intent for mooslime takeover of american culture.
Agricultural fuel depot owner with a vendetta concerning personal debt---I would not doubt that he hid in the bushes and stroked himself as he watched the explosion and the aftermath. Cuff his hands in the front and shove a stick of dynamite up his ass (Eye of the Tiger). But, light it.
I agree with others - this just doesn't smell right - OK, so I have bills to pay, I'm going to go out and bomb a school? Even crazy doesn't make that kind of association. Yes, given the Italian situation, he is almost surely retired and on a pension, which may have been cut. So, go out and bomb a public building as a protest, but a school?
My bet is that IF he did it, he was paid big lira/euros by someone, and that is how his personal debt was going to be handled.
JUST plain WHACKED OUT!
Poor innocent girl.................R.I.P and sympathies to family and friends.
Sad story... an innocent life cut way too short.
Strap a bomb to his chest and let the family of his victim detonate it!!!!!!!!
I'm not buying this. There's more to this and I hope that it comes out. My condolances to the victim's family; this is a real tragedy.
the mafia threatened his family and is forcing him to admit to guilt probably
typical idiot tactics
If that was true they would have found him dead. Shot in the head. With a suicide note confessing the bombing. A trial would be a messy loose end. Maybe a polock mobster would do what you said but a pro never would.
Just checked the BBC site. According to them the man had a personal grudge against the principal of the school, no mafia, no muslim extremists. Just someone who is sick in the head.
sign him up for Obama-care - then game over using our mafia (Democrats).
Jeez, I'm in dept. I think I'll just build a bomb and try to blow up as many kids as possible.
Ha, then I'll be outta dept. Yeah! That's it!
>>>>>>>>>>>>WTF!?<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The word is debt, but I get your point and agree with it.
On the lead in of this article it reads..."Eldery man ....." I believe that should be ElderLy....check it out...it's on Page 1 of the scroll.
the guy is 68 yrs old...it sounds like a mental health issue...delusion about someone he had to get even with...maybe this guy went to that school when he was a kid??
Finally, a lunatic in the news that isn't an American. I guess we aren't the only ones losing it.
Hang him high!
Since when is 68 yrs old elderly?
That is exactly what I thought, then saw the picture of the man in an ad about a boosting testosterone, which turned out not to be the "68 year old elderly man." In my view, an elderly man would be someone in the age range of about 75-80.