Via Bagnera Milan

In the pulsing heart of Milan, the center, close to Via Torino, there's Bagnera street, once called "Strict Bagnera". The atmosphere that characterizes it made me cringe more than once. Not only is it the smallest path where cars are allowed in town but it has a sinister reputation. It was here that Antonio Boggia, the infamous "monster of Milan", active in the second half of the nineteenth century, buried the bodies of his four victims in a cellar. By deception he lead his victims into the basement of his house, killing them using an axe. After three victims a certain John Comi, wounded, managed to escape and report him. No one discovered the other crimes.

Boggia was interned yet let free again after three months. In 1859 he killed the elderly Maria Ester Perrocchio who was his fourth and last victim. After a long process, April 9, 1862 "the monster was executed by hanging." His was the last public execution of a civilian that took place in Milan.

I could not identify which of the houses were originally the jail of so many souls, and even a gentleman that I met taking a picture for this article, and who lives on the second floor of one of the buildings, was not able to indicate it, but I will continue my search.