Danilo Restivo

Danilo Restivo (born 3 April 1972) is an Italian serial killer.

In 1986, Restivo tied up two children before cutting one with a knife.

Restivo was not convicted of any offence for this incident, with Restivo's parents settling matters with the parents of the other children involved.

However, In Autumn 1992, Restivo was convicted of harassing five girls, who were living opposite his Potenza family home.

He harassed them by making threats to them and making regular phone calls to their house, playing the soundtrack of Profondo Rosso (English title: Deep Red), a giallo film about a serial killer who plays a melody before every murder.

It was reported that Restivo used this technique to harass those who rejected him.

Investigators' suspicions that Restivo had murdered Barnett were raised because of his alleged involvement in the 1993 disappearance of Elisa Claps in Potenza, Italy, but he was not charged due to insufficient evidence.

On 11 September 1993, the evening before she disappeared, Restivo rang Claps at approximately 17:00, with Claps answering and appearing to her brother as being ‘very annoyed’.

Restivo is serving a life sentence with a 40-year tariff for murdering his neighbour Heather Barnett in Bournemouth, England in November 2002.

Subsequent to the 2010 discovery of Claps's body, Restivo was tried for the murder of Barnett, with evidence of similarities in ritualistic placing of hair on the bodies of Claps and Barnett being heard by the English court.

He was found guilty of murdering Barnett, and later found guilty in his absence for murdering Claps by an Italian court.

Elisa Claps, the 16-year-old daughter of a tobacconist and a clerk, was a student in the third year of the high school in Potenza, with ambitions to become a physician and work with Médecins Sans Frontières.

Claps was described as a 'happy-go-lucky' teenager and the 'pride and joy' of her mother and family.

She was the youngest of three children and was described as very close to her family.

Claps was a devout Catholic.

Friends reported Claps felt sorry for Restivo, who appeared lonely and depressed.

Claps' brother, Gildo, who also knew Restivo, was aware that Restivo's advances towards her had 'frustrated' his sister.

Claps wrote several pages in her journal, complaining about his odd behaviour, and was aware of rumours regarding Restivo having a fetish for cutting hair.

A month before Claps disappeared, Claps was on holiday in Montegiordano, a village on the Ionian coast.

Whilst walking along, Claps squeezed her brother Gildo’s arm, noticing that Restivo was in the same village.

She recounted to her brother about having to meet Restivo on holiday, as well has having seen him back home.

Asking her if there were issues, Claps told her brother that Restivo had been insistent with her previously.

Restivo approached the siblings, turning to Claps and asking if she wanted to go for a walk.

Claps response was to squeeze her brother’s arm, appearing to indicate she didn’t want to go with Restivo.

Gildo told Restivo this, telling him to ‘please go away’, with Restivo attempting to insist, but went away, perhaps by Gildo’s firmness.

Gildo attempted to gain more information about Restivo, not liking how insistent he had been with his sister, including how he looked at her.

Claps told him that it didn’t matter, with Restivo being a person who was always alone and that Gildo should let things go.

Restivo was born in the town of Erice, in the province of Trapani, in Sicily, Italy.

He then moved with his family to Cagliari, Sardinia, before aged 10, Restivo and his family moved to Potenza, Basilicata, situated approximately 62 miles (100 km) east of Naples and 225 miles (362 km) south of Rome, containing high-rise apartments and factories.

The move to the mainland was due to his father, Maurizio's, occupation as the Director of the National Library.

He was well connected in the community and was considered an influential figure in Potenza.

Though they were not particularly rich, the Restivo family were part of the ‘Potenza Bene’ (powerful in Potenza).

Restivo’s dream was to be admitted to the faculty of dentistry, something that he said he had promised to his grandmother on her deathbed.

Restivo was considered a ‘loner’ and ‘strange’ and was socially awkward.

Restivo stated that it was normal for him to spend time on his own, where it gave him time to think.People were aware that he had a fetish for cutting people's hair.

Restivo stated that the sight of blood upset him, where he had previously fainted because of it.

However, later email exchanges evidenced an almost-sexual excitement that Restivo got from seeing blood.

Restivo was known to police, who believed him be responsible for nine incidents in which women had had their hair clandestinely cut.

Authorities in the United Kingdom would later describe him as ‘a bit dippy, rather pathetic, slightly childish and very hypochondriac’.

He would attempt to arrange dates with girls by claiming to have a present for them.