12 Facts About the Beasts of Satan

Bonded by their love of death metal and occult rituals, the Beasts of Satan went on a six-year killing spree involving sacrificial murder, drug-fuelled sex, and Satanism.

The murders took place between 1998 and 2004 in Milan, Italy, and resulted in the confirmed deaths of three people.

Up to 18 murders and disappearances have since been linked to them.

Here are 12 facts about the Beasts of Satan that go to show exactly how evil they were.

They were an underground death metal band

Though they were a band at many points during their history, not all the members wanted to be part of the Beasts of Satan.

They were brought together by their shared interest in death metal, drugs, sex, and death-related imagery.

The band never released any music on CD or vinyl and there are no recordings of any of their shows. The type of music they played within the genre is very much open to speculation.

Played at the Midnight Pub

In the centre of Milan was a rock and heavy metal club called the Midnight Pub.

It was, at the time, the place to be for all things metal and had a good reputation as one of the best metal clubs in the city.

The Midnight Pub was also the location where members of the Beasts of Satan decided upon their victims.

Andrea Volpe was the leader

Though the band tended to kill as a collective, the main instigator of the crimes was band leader and singer Andrea Volpe.

In 2005, Volpe was sentenced to 30 years in prison by an Italian court, 10 more than was originally requested by the prosecution.

This was due to Volpe luring at least two victims from the Midnight Pub with the sole intention to carry out premeditated murder.

Sacrificed a teenage couple

On January 17^th 1998, 16-year-old Fabio Tollis, a bassist with another band, and his girlfriend, 19-year-old Chiara Marino, went to the Midnight Pub to watch the Beasts of Satan.

At the end of the night, Volpe and seven others lured the couple to an isolated woodland location.

After an hour of drinking and taking drugs, Volpe stated that Marino was to be sacrificed because she looked like the Virgin Mary.

Andrea Volpe, Nicola Sapone and Mario Maccione, stabbed Marino to death then beat Fabio to death for trying to protect his girlfriend.

At the end of the brutal murders, Volpe dipped a cigarette in their blood, smoked it, and declared the victims zombies, before burying them in a deep grave.

Fabio’s father investigated his son’s disappearance

Fabio’s father, Michele Tollis, realised something was untoward and refused to believe the original investigation’s conclusion.

He discovered his son’s connection to black and death metal bands, and his love of Satanism. In fact, Michele would become instrumental in bringing the band and cult to justice.

He spent the next six years privately building his own case against the Beasts of Satan, one that would ultimately lead to their convictions.

He put together mountains of paperwork and files about the band, the member’s lives, their friends, and their involvement in other disappearances and murders.

Blood thirsty note

Volpe is usually seen as the leader of the cult, and though it may have been true most of the time, Nicola Sapone was the one heavily involved in all things death.

A note was found after his arrest, that gave an insight into the type of lyrics the band may had written and sung about. It read:

‘Blood and death, blood raining down, blood bathing all my body, blood thirsty for blood. Madness is always one of the risks, it’s necessary to maintain concentration on hatred.’

The murder that led to their downfall

In January 2004, Volpe and his girlfriend, Elisabetta Ballarin, an upper-class teenage runaway, summoned Volpe’s ex-girlfriend, 27-year-old shop assistant Mariangela Pezzotta.

They told her to meet them at a small chalet in Golasecca, a small town in Italy known for its ancient burial customs

Volpe had already decided to kill Pezzotta, as she knew too much about the first murders and other murders that were later connected to the Beasts.

As the couple raised their champagne glasses and toasted to their health, Volpe shot Pezzotta in the throat with a shotgun.

Volpe asked Sapone for help burying the body

He got on the phone to Sapone to ask for help in burying the body but suddenly realised that Pezzotta was still alive – barely.

When Sapone arrived, he mocked Volpe by saying that he couldn’t even kill a girl. Volpe and Sapone then mutilated Pezzotta and crushed her skull with a spade.

Pezzotta was still alive when she was partially buried in the greenhouse of Elisabetta’s family home, to incriminate her family, who she hated.

Volpe confessed to the murder

Just a few hours later, Volpe and Elisabetta took a large amount of cocaine and decided to get rid of Pezzotta’s car.

They planned to sink it in a nearby river but because they were so high on drugs, they crashed into a wall and were arrested when police arrived.

Surprisingly, Volpe confessed to the murder and the double murder in 1998.

After Pezzotta’s murder, Michele Tollis took his six-year long findings to the police, who used them to link all three murders to Andrea Volpe and the Beasts of Satan

For the first time, the police uncovered the Satanic sect connection that had evaded them before.

Seven people were convicted

The members of the Beasts of Satan took their stage act literally when they began killing friends and other band members.

By the end of the trial, seven people were convicted of the murders, including Andrea Volpe and his girlfriend, Elisabetta.

The other convicted cult members were Nicola Sapone, Paolo Leoni, Marco Zampollo, Eros Monterosso, and Pietro Guerrieri.

An eighth suspect, Mario Maccione, was acquitted as he played a secondary role in the crimes.

More murders linked to Satanism

Between 1998 and 2004, in and around Milan, many people associated with the underground death metal scene had either disappeared, taken their own lives, or been killed in a violent manner.

Many of whom were connected directly or indirectly with the Beasts of Satan.

In December 1999, a friend of the group and cemetery caretaker Angelo Lombardo was burned alive while attending to some of the gravestones.

A year later in December 2000, death metal band member Doriano Molla was found hanging by his neck in the woods, in what was thought to be a murder.

Other alleged victims were also found hanging, had disappeared, or been burned alive.

The authorities considered that the Beasts of Satan may have been part of a wider network of Satanists within the country but no evidence was found.

It’s not the artform, it’s the people

Enjoying death metal is no worse than watching horror films or playing horror video games.

In one psychological study, many fans of death metal reported feelings of transcendence and positive emotions.

It was the naysayers and non-fans of death metal who expressed anger and hatred at the music.

Those involved in death metal tend to be creative, smart, and mostly kind human beings. The music and performances are an act and outlet like any other stage act, song or movie.

One can listen to dark lyrics and horror-based works because there is a lack of real-world consequences – it’s not real.

However, dark creative arts in any format may influence those who already have a predilection towards violence and chaos.

Those like the Beasts of Satan, took their love of the art literally and decided to kill because they enjoyed the act of murder and were appeasing what they believed was a greater evil.