German who worked as hired Mafia killer sentenced to life

Dec 17, 2010, 17:31 GMT

Hagen, Germany - A German who confessed that he worked as a hired killer for an unspecified Italian organized-crime 'family' on Friday received a life sentence for shooting dead a restaurant owner and killing an elderly woman.

The 48-year-old described how he chatted with the restaurant owner over glasses of wine four years ago, pretended to reserve a table, then wiped his fingerprints off the glass, pulled a gun from his briefcase and shot the Italian-born man point-blank.

He told the court in Hagen, western Germany, that the earlier murder had happened while he was burgling a rich German woman's home on mafia orders.

He shot the woman, 79, when she discovered him in her apartment.

Witnesses refused in court to identify the 'godfather' who ordered the Cologne restaurant owner to be killed on the night before his daughter's wedding.

The accused said he had led a double life as a minor television personality and male model who moonlighted after 1999 on crime 'jobs.' He said after each of the two murders he had given his 'boss' a bullet wrapped in a red handkerchief.

He complained he had been offered 10,000 euros (13,200 dollars) for the killing but had only been paid 800 euros.

Because of two previous convictions for bank robberies in 1999, judges added riders making it impossible for him to be paroled before serving 25 years.

Read more about Germany Justice

Read more about Italy