Mario Magnotta


Mario Magnotta was an Italian janitor of a commercial school in L'Aquila. He became very well known in Italy after being the victim of several prank calls, made in 1986 and 1987 by some former students of the institute, which were later circulated on audio cassettes and, eventually, on the Internet.

Biography

Born in Pieve di Teco, in the province of Imperia, Magnotta was the son of Giovanni Magnotta and Romilda Siconolfi, who moved the family to L'Aquila in 1945 because of work.

Prank calls

Magnotta was already famous before the internet, by word of mouth and through the duplication and the sharing of audio cassettes. Over time Magnotta's fame spread all over Italy. Years after the 1986 to 1987 calls, the recordings were digitized and posted to the internet, which elevated his fame even more. Some years after the pranks, the pranksters digitized the recordings and shared them on the Internet. The success on the website was principally due to the rage and the use of blasphemies by Mr. Magnotta, and to his "Aquilano dialect", the most important variant of Sabino dialect, considered the standard form of it and which sounds very amusing to internauts. The phone jokes had three topics:
Even before the creation of the web site, he was invited twice to talk-shows on Italian television RAI, and suddenly invited to some local events dedicated to him. During a concert of Antonello Venditti in L'Aquila, Magnotta was invited on the scene by the singer, who was curious to know him. The Italian singer Simone Cristicchi, winner of the 2007 edition of Festival di Sanremo, dedicated to him a verse of his song "L'Italia di Piero" : «Piero non rinuncerebbe mai alla lotta, e si iscrive ai terroristi come fa il Magnotta»

Death

Mario Magnotta died in January 2009 in L'Aquila of a pulmonary embolism. In 2012 the municipal council of L'Aquila decided to dedicate a city street to him.