“On Tuesday, August 23 (1960) at 7.45 p.m. an eight-year-old boy, Anthony Aquilina was found dead at his residence in St Dominic Street, Valetta, in circumstances indicating that he died as a result of wilful violence committed with an irregular weapon by some person unknown.
“The Duty Magistrate was informed and is holding an inquest. Police are investigating to trace the person responsible and anyone who can help the police in their inquiries are being actively pursued.
“Any person having information to give is asked to communicate with the Duty Inspector CID, at Police Headquarters, Floriana.”
Thus, in a statement issued by the police through the Department of Information, the country got to know of the violent death of a young Valletta boy. It became the subject of every conversation and, as details began to emerge, it led to widespread rage and horror at the atrocity committed.
Twanny was murdered between 5.30 and 6.30 p.m. and found partially beheaded at about 7.45 p.m. by Police Constable Carmelo Attard.
PC Attard was on duty in Strait Street when he was informed by a panic-stricken Joseph Schembri that Leli’s son had died in a fall at about 7.40 p.m. The officer rushed to St Dominic Street, drawing curious residents to the scene.
A bloodstained bread knife found in a kitchen drawer shortly after the discovery of the boy quickly shot down Mr Schembri’s report that Twanny had died in a fall.
The primary suspects were the victim’s mother Ġiġa and his stepfather Leli, a leading marine engineer at HMS St Angelo.
Twanny had a sister, Carmen, both of whom were illegitimate. Apart from them, Ġiġa had another daughter, Marthese, from Leli.
Brought before Superintendent Edward Attard, head of the Criminal Investigation Department, both Ġiġa and Leli denied any responsibility.
Asked to give a statement, Leli said he was out at the time on an errand to buy some stationery and Ġiġa recounted she was at a place known as Il-Fossa, not far from her house, with her daughters, eating and playing tombola.
This is what Leli told the police as how he came to know that Twanny had been murdered: “I heard shouting and saw people running towards Strada Forni. I ran after them and saw my wife shouting: ‘The boy was full of blood’. I therefore ran to the building, where I saw my daughter crying at the door. I continued to the apartment, saw the kitchen door ajar, went in through that door and found the boy on the floor behind the door, in a pool of blood. I touched him on his back to see whether he was still alive and, as I moved his head, it came off and I realised that his neck was cut.”
Ġiġa, on the other hand said: “When Twanny did not turn up, I sent Carmen to tell him to eat a couple of prickly pears. But the girl came back and told me that, although the lights were on in the apartment, he did not reply. I told her he may have fallen asleep and sent her and another girl, Mary, to check whether he was sleeping. But they turned back and Mary told me that someone had told Carmen there was blood in the building. I therefore decided to go with them and see what happened. I climbed the stairs to see if there really was blood. When I arrived upstairs I saw light through a crack in the kitchen door. I pushed the door slightly open and saw Twanny full of blood. As soon as I saw this, I ran downstairs and started shouting: ‘Look what happened to me’ and as I went out of Triq San Duminku and turned towards Strada Forni and arrived next to the hairdresser. I saw Leli running. When he arrived next to me he asked me what happened and I told him: ‘My son is finished, he’s soaked in blood’.”
They more or less repeated their statements the following day, when they were once again interrogated and it was not until November 1, when Scotland Yard had been roped in and forensic evidence began piling up against them, that they gave their third statements before being formally arrested.
They were arraigned the following day and, despite a ban being issued on the publication of the proceedings, the public was in uproar over the murder, with the prison van carrying the accused having to be escorted by the police to court and back.
The gory details began to emerge publicly when the ban on the publication of evidence was lifted at the start of the trial on February 25, 1961.
When the court-appointed medical doctors testified, the people were shocked to learn that Twanny had first been fatally beaten with a deadbolt. However, it was not the three deep lacerations in his skull that led to his death but the partial beheading. In fact, the medical experts confirmed he was still alive, albeit possibly unconscious, when his neck was slit. This, they explained, was confirmed by the fact that the heart had emptied its chambers, clearly indicating that there was a pulse when his head was being cut off.
Trace evidence experts came up with more shocking news when they said handprints in blood and puddles of blood where found along the slum’s stairway leading to Ġiġa’s apartment, together with pieces of brain.
Although no one had actually seen the murder in progress, witnesses soon began to piece things together.
Eight-year-old Carmen Cauchi, a neighbour, said she had heard someone crying and shouting in the slum’s common area before she sneaked out of her apartment to see what was going on. She said she saw Twanny fall down a couple of steps before her mother rushed out with her young sister Mary and they left the building, stepping over Twanny’s body on their way out.
Her mother, Dolor, a controversial witness who was remanded in custody for changing the testimony given during the compilation of evidence, denied she was present and said the children must have left alone.
Fourteen-year-old Alfred Fitzpatrick recounted that he was returning from Il-Fossa to his apartment to eat when he spotted Ġiġa lifting a motionless Twanny from the stairs and carrying him to her apartment. He said he was climbing the stairs to his apartment when he heard a faint moan and two or more people running. He also heard the sound of a metal object hitting the ground.
Freddy, as the witness was known, said he returned soon after and waited outside Ġiġa’s apartment, expecting to hear Twanny moaning again and Ġiġa trying to fetch a doctor. When he did not see anything, he returned to Il-Fossa.
At about sunset, Freddy said he returned and, on his way up, noticed that Ġiġa’s kitchen door was ajar. Overcome by curiosity, he stepped inside, where he found Twanny lying on the floor. He knelt down next to him, touched him and called out to him but when the boy did not reply, Freddy washed his hands and left the apartment.
Outside, he found a policeman knocking on the door of an apartment belonging to a Tumas Azzopardi. The officer asked Freddy if anyone was home. He told him no one was in if no one answered and then continued to his apartment.
The witness who actually filled some of the gaps left in the evidence given throughout the trial was Twanny’s eight-year-old sister Carmen.
Sitting beneath the Bench, she said Twanny was washing the floor when he took his father’s tools to repair his shoes. When he had done so, his mother realised what had happened and, scolding him, snatched the tools away.
Overcome by anger, Ġiġa beat Twanny with a leather strap. The boy tried to run out of the apartment but Ġiġa caught up as Twanny called out to his sister: “Carmen, Carmen.” Shortly after, Carmen saw Ġiġa walking back inside, carrying Twanny, who she laid on the bed.
She said she was then asked to fetch Leli from a friend’s garage and, when he arrived and asked what had happened, Ġiġa told him she had found Twanny dead.
Carmen said Leli moved Twanny off the bed and lay him down on the floor as Ġiġa drew a bread knife from a drawer and knelt down next to the boy.
Despite having been sent to Il-Fossa to wait for her mother, Carmen said she saw her parents changing their clothes and putting those they had just taken off in the washing machine, together with a bedspread.
Leli and Ġiġa also testified during the trial. He was calm and composed but she often broke down and was unable to answer the prosecutor’s questions.
Eventually, Leli and Ġiġa were both found guilty of murder. He was jailed for 20 years with hard labour and she was sentenced to death. Ġiġa’s lawyer appealed and petitions were made to the Governor to spare her life. In fact, the death sentence was lifted two weeks later and was instead jailed for life. Ten years later walked out of prison a free woman.
A four-page anniversary supplement about the murder is published in today's The Times.