Denis Catania is wanted for murder and is on the run – that's why he's disappeared from timesofmalta.com

Published: August 22, 2011 at 1:52am

A mug-shot of Denis Catania released by the Atlantic County police. Catania is wanted for murder and is on the run with his girlfriend, also wanted for murder.

Denis Catania is one of the most obnoxious denizens of the timesofmalta.com comments-board. Perhaps I should say was, because over the last year or so, his racist remarks, anti-African insults and crazy one-man protests in Washington have been conspicuously absent from the internet.

Though I can’t say those comments were missed, his absence – particularly over the last few days of riots at the detention camps – has been quite odd.

Only yesterday, somebody said to me “I wonder what happened to Denis Catania.” Then tonight, I got a tip-off from across the Atlantic, from somebody who, for the reason you are about to discover below, had been Googling ‘Denis Catania’ and came across the several posts about him on this website.

“Denis Catania and his girlfriend are wanted for the murder of a 23-year-old student in September last year. The authorities have just made a breakthrough in the case and arrested one man.

They’ve announced that Denis Catania and his girlfriend Diana Comacho are wanted by the police in the same case, but they’re on the run.”

I thought that well, he seemed like one hell of a weirdo – the sort who might have a body in his freezer or something – but it could well be another Denis Catania aged 49 from New Jersey who spells his name with one ‘n’ as well.

But I did a bit of Googling and sure enough, there was our ‘Maltese Denis’s’ ugly mug on the Atlantic County police ‘wanted’ notice.

Denis Catania has a Maltese passport and plenty of family here in Malta, which is why he takes such a keen interest in our fate at the hands of dangerous illegal immigrants who, unlike him, are not wanted for murder.

The authorities in Atlantic County appear not to know this.

Police Commissioner John Rizzo had better get onto it at once – I’m not going to ring him in case that prat Muscat demands my resignation – because unlike Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s spiked drinks, this is real police business.

I’ve posted some links in the comments section below, which will tell you all there is to know so far (except that he has a Maltese passport and family here).




62 Comments Comment

  1. Matt says:

    I am thrilled to see Libyans celebrating. Nothing good can ever come out of evil.

    We may soon see a court trial of Gaddafi. I wonder if Joe Grima, Mintoff or KMB will be called as the defence witnesses.

  2. La Redoute says:

    Scratch a racist and you find a freaky weirdo underneath.

    Interesting, isn’t it?

    Anyone who backed his nasty campaigns or joined one of his god-awful anti-immigrant Facebook groups must be feeling really proud of themselves.

  3. Kenneth Cassar says:

    I wonder if he will start a Facebook group called “Save students from Denis Catania”.

    http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2008/12/31/denis-catania-the-immigrant-saves-malta-all-the-way-from-the-us-of-a/

  4. Edward Caruana Galizia says:

    How can a person who is an immigrant in another country be against immigration?

  5. Paul Caruana says:

    What’s become of lgalea?

    [Daphne – He received a three-month jail sentence (suspended) for scattering the most incredibly obscence flyers about me at the university before the last general election. A passing student took his car number, got a good look at him and went immediately to the Msida police station to file a report. The police seized his computer and found on it similar ‘flyer attacks’ that he had prepared to use against other people who do not share his racist views.

    He passed out during interrogation because he was 60 years old at the time, a fairly senior civil servant (he is a lawyer) one year from retirement, and stood to lose his pension on conviction (I don’t know exactly how these civil service rules and regulations work). In his defence during prosecution, his lawyer Anglu Farrugia argued not that he didn’t do it (hard to claim that) but that he is suffering from bad depression and that the depression made him do it. lgalea (his name is Lawrence) continued to post racist and similar comments sporadically on timesofmalta.com after his arrest and arraignment, but when he was convicted, he finally stopped altogether, at least as far as I can make out.

    This is what I find disturbing about the internet: that it brings normal, decent people into discourse with malicious wierdos and criminals.]

    • La Redoute says:

      Malicious wierdos and criminals defended by a deputy leader of the Labour Party and would-be justice minister.

      At least he didn’t turn up to court on an elephant.

    • Hey, I noticed that lgalea vanished at the same time that Lawrence Galea was mentioned in the DCG case.

      However he’s NOT gone from the ToM. He’s reincarnated into Tony Camilleri.

      • Edward Caruana Galizia says:

        When I read about people like Lgalea I wonder how many of these mentally disturbed people are actually in the country. How can those who, for the most part, are educated and successful individuals but also racist claim that the support they get from the likes of Lgalea is a positive thing?

        I remember reading on the discussion boards of vivamalta how Etoile Noir was shocked to hear that her Facebook buddy went and killed innocent teenagers in Norway. What do these people expect!?

        It is proof positive that having racist sentiments, saying that the asylum seekers should drown and thinking that one should protect the “purity” of the country is dangerous and sick. Not that Hitler wasn’t proof enough.

      • ciccio2011 says:

        Robert, is that Tony Camilleri really lgalea?

  6. Judas Tree says:

    The Facebook Friends of this man, who is wanted for burning a 23-year-old alive in his car, include:

    Alex Perici Calacione
    Astrid Vella
    Claudette Abela Baldacchino
    Frank Portelli
    Ian Waugh (l-aqwa li kontra l-gvern)
    Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando
    John Attard Montalto
    Joseph Muscat
    Josie Muscat
    Lou Bondi
    Luciano Busuttil
    Marlene Mizzi
    Michael Fenech Adami
    Maurice Mizzi (his FB ID is a photo of him waterskiing)
    Roberta Metsola
    Sharon Ellul Bonici
    Simon Busuttil

    Some people really need to learn to edit their Friends list instead of accumulating thousands indiscriminately.

    • Grezz says:

      “Some people” are generally the over-40s, if a cursory glance at the above list is anything to go by.

      What is it with many of the over-40s and the internet? It makes them morph into the equivalent of the hormone-fuelled teen let on the loose in Paceville.

    • Tony Hart says:

      By listing these names of friends of Denis’s, you are just as wrong as he is. I’ve known Denis and his family from the day they came to N.Y. back in the 70’s and was also a Facebook friend of his, but like many of his childhood friends, knew nothing about what he was involved with until someone recently brought it to our attention. If my name was on that list, I would be at a Lawyers office getting ready to Sue the crap out of you because you are insinuating that all that are on that friends list MUST be bad people or criminal types just because they’re his Facebook friends. I’m a former NYC Peace Officer and I actually know a couple of the people who you listed and they are decent, law abiding people. Don’t just assume that anyone who is on his friends list have to be low lifes and/or undesirables. Maybe, just maybe, they also don’t or didn’t know about the recent activities of Denis and only know him as the nice guy he was when we were growing up and THAT’S why they were still friends with him.

  7. Guzeppi Grech says:

    Is this the Denis Catania of previous Forum Zghazagh Laburisti fame? You know, in the days of AST way back in early/mid 80’s. If the same, wasn’t he involved in some BOV scandal or other?

    [Daphne – That’s Denis Sammut. http://news.am/eng/news/40695.html ]

  8. ciccio2011 says:

    Daphne, thanks for exposing these cases. I am sure that your work is appreciated by a large silent majority in Malta.

  9. Both lgalea and Tony Camilleri:

    Call Gonzi GONEZI

    Love the proverb “jekk il-gemel jara hotobtu jaqa u jmut zopptu”

    CNI hardliners (and send links to CNI website)

    Want all ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS to leave Malta, not A SINGLE ONE

    Love to post numerous (25 or more) links to other newspapers in one post.

    Have a fetish for altering words and phrases such as: ShennGenn (g bit-tikka), PiNnuri

    Suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

    The suspect is also posting in MaltaToday as Haha. Since the level of anonymity there is higher, he also enjoys cracking homophobic jokes.

  10. Jozef says:

    Fascinating how these people’s life follows a preset sequence of events:

    The philosopher king of the imperium is currently liaising with Roberto Fiore of Forza Nuova, a man who fled to Britain when charged with belonging to a terrorist group responsible for the murder of 85 civilians.
    Fiore returned to Italy as soon as the prison sentence handed down was timed out due ‘prescrizzione’

    The first thing they do is to befriend and cultivate members of the police force and the army, especially officers in passport control.

    Denis Catania, with his token faccetta nera, may pop up somewhere in South America.

    He could ask Mark Montebello to write his biography.

  11. Jozef says:

    Fascinating how these people’s lives follow a preset sequence of events:

    The philosopher king of the imperium is currently liaising with Roberto Fiore of Forza Nuova, a man who fled to Britain when charged with belonging to a terrorist group responsible for the murder of 85 civilians.

    Fiore returned to Italy as soon as the prison sentence handed down was timed out due ‘prescrizzione’

    The first thing they do is to befriend and cultivate members of the police force and the army, especially officers in passport control.

    Denis Catania, with his token faccetta nera, may pop up somewhere in South America.

    He could ask Mark Montebello to write his biography.

  12. Manhattan says:

    A little bird tells me that this is not his first disappearing act. Some time back he also vanished and later it transpired he was a guest of the Las Vegas correctional facility.

  13. Jozef says:

    Daphne,

    errate corrige:

    ‘prescrizione’

    thanks.

  14. Bob says:

    Last human post on his facebook page:

    Raymond Gatt
    how you doing cuz…..send me i need to talk to you cuz pls
    05 July at 16:50 ·LikeUnlike

    what did he need to talk to him about?

    [Daphne – ‘Send me’…ibaghtli…literal translation.]

  15. Marku says:

    I thought I saw some comments by him last week on the Times’ coverage of the Safi riot.

    [Daphne – If you can find them, do so. It’s information that will help the police to trace him.]

  16. ray says:

    Journalism at its best.

  17. Zachary Stewart says:

    Oh, those damn Maltese immigrants…they’re making my country so unsafe! :)

  18. Paul V Xuereb says:

    How could Maltese like him be anti-immigrants when they are immigrants themselves? There are more Maltese people outside Malta than in the actual country.

  19. Marku says:

    Robert Callus: I am sure your suspicion that Tony Camilleri is actually Lawrence Galea is correct. Here is a comment that Camilleri posted on Monday’s Times under the report “No inquiry into use of rubber bullets in Safi riot – government”

    Mr Tony Camilleri

    Yesterday, 17:41

    Ms Al Gatt those rioters caused more than 350 million Sterling damages in England.
    Have the illegal immigrats not caused enough damage in Malta and been such a big burden on us?
    The Armed Forces were right and I am sure that they have the support of the vast majority of Maltese persons.
    I and my families fully support them and encourage them to do it again every time the illegal immigrats riot or do not obey their orders.

    Note his deliberate misspelling of “immigrants” as “immigrats” which “lgalea’, and only “lgalea”, used in his comments to the Times.

    • ciccio2011 says:

      The Times has a duty to investigate. They have got his signing in details. If he provided false information, they may be slandering people under a false name. If he provided The Times with a false name, it may be a criminal act.

      • And he does slander people. Once in a comment on party financing he posted the results of the last few elections with only one “mistake” – he switched the number of AD votes with those of AN.

        Mistake? Surely not when he did it the second time.

  20. Kenneth Cassar says:

    I wonder if the authorities in the US will take his advice when they capture him.

    Here is what Denis Catania wrote about an immigrant jailed for his part in a riot:

    “Put him on work detail, to pay for his stay in prison. I also believe one conviction and or arrest is unacceptable. Malta needs to do what NYC is doing build a prison on a barge out at sea”.

    Well, if that’s his idea of punishment for rioting, I wonder what would be his view on fitting punishment for murder.

  21. Moses Mula says:

    Thanks, Daphne, for this information abour Denis Catania and l galea.

    It goes to show that some of these bigots who post sick racist comments on timesofmalta.com can turn to be far more dangerous than just being straightforward ignorant individuals who ´just´ want to share with others their hatred towards immigrants.

    Sadly, when I called The Times a couple of times to ask them why in the world they would post such comments by these two ´gentlemen´ and the like, they told me that these were some of the milder comments that they posted and that I would not believe it if I saw others which they chose not to upload.

    In addition they told me that these commenters were very smart in that they were very subtle in how they made their point in their comments.

    I did not see this a proper justification for printing these comments so I took the decision to stop commenting on timesofmalta.com.

    • La Redoute says:

      Are you saying that Arlette Baldacchino is dangerous? She was reportedly a Facebook friend of Anders Behring Brevik.

    • The problem is the “milder” comments are the worst. Basically they are the lies and the speculation on immigrants and organizations.

      Ex1: JRS are embezzling EU funds (JRS can sue)

      Ex2 (subtle version): Who is financing JRS, they have plenty of space? Why do they defend the illegal immigrants? So on and so forth. (JRS can’t sue, Louise was just curious)

      A similar thing with Lowell: they publish the politically correct language but censor part of his comments such as (subject was euthanasia): “we can do without the botched, the retards and the handicapped”. The net result is that this person looks almost reasonable and people say that he has a point. For the unexpurgated version of what Lowell says, go to his internet forum.

      Why do they trim the nastiness out of it, rather than exposing it?

      • La Redoute says:

        Editing out the nastiness is redundant. People would vote for his sort anyway. The mistake is to take them seriously, rather than present them as being one currant short of a fruitcake.

  22. Jozef says:

    Good question Robert,

    The answer is in your initial statement. Given that very few bother to check facts let alone consider the validity of an opinion, it only takes some minor polishing to conceal the agenda.

    Political correctness is itself an extreme, an entropic soup where ideas are considered equal. Extreme organisations use it to their advantage, employing lawyers to edit the guttural nuances, calibrating the legality of hate.

    It’s what makes them discern between racist and racialist, rendering the latter within reach.

    The trick is to challenge those ideas, which explains the specific attacks on the Jesuits. They’re his Achilles’ heel, showing by example what can really be done.

    • Couldn’t agree more. Please take a look at this:

      http://robertcallus.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/the-writing%E2%80%99s-on-a-wall-in-oslo/

      Some people have been too busy calling Lowell racist (including Muscat after his cheap populist statements). As if someone had any doubts. I would just call his bluff.

      1) How specifically will you “clean” Malta of blacks without hijacking democracy and becoming a brutal dictator. Do you think you will EVER get a majority in Parliament that agrees on deporting people indiscriminately?

      2) Where are you going to send them? Is it true you want to blackmail African countries with food – take our blacks back and we’ll give you food – and honestly believe it works?

      3) Can you name the 50 traitors you intend to kill once you are in power? Just in case a potential voter happens to be a relative or a friend.

      • Kenneth Cassar says:

        Very good questions. Unfortunately, in Malta we have no journalists. We only have reporters (and mostly lousy ones at that).

      • Kenneth Cassar says:

        @ Robert Callus:

        I have read your blog post. I have one observation to make.

        Joseph Muscat wasn’t misinterpreted by Norman Lowell. Norman Lowell simply spelled out the logical outcome of Muscat’s speech.

        Not assisting immigrants at sea effectively means letting them drown.

        Joseph Muscat should learn that pandering to elements in the extreme right might get him short-term gains, but in the long run, it is counter-productive. And this even if we were to disregard human rights and common decency, which of course we shouldn’t – they should be our primary concern.

  23. Jozef says:

    Agreed,

    It’s also crucial to expose their thinking as fallacious.

    They’re stuck on Nietzche’s superman, unable to discern the inherent deficiencies, adopting it as a belief system.

    The whole system they espouse takes shape from his conceptual disdain for a divinity distinct from man, proclaiming humans’ ability to become gods.

    They propose it in the literal sense, via rock music, the internet and inside football stadiums.
    They’re against communism and capitalism, but don’t mind mixing Soviet and Maoist emblems with celtic (read aryan) ornament.

    They proclaim European supremacy in the arts, topping it up with a scattering of ufo’s, stargates and tunnels stretching from the Hypogeum in Tarxien to Stonehenge.

    They romanticise nature to enforce their influence by implying nostalgia. This seals the nature of the bond between the leader and his youth.

    Nature portrayed as a female diety, beautiful when intact, strikes the deepest chord.

    In other words, they target any insecure seventeen year old who needs to get laid.

    As soon as teenagers can read through this, Lowell and his black stars lose all credibility.

    Which is why Jeffrey, Joseph e compagnia bella need a reality check.

  24. Kenneth Cassar says:

    We won’t be hearing from Denis Catania any time soon.

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/130826128.html

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