The Mad Batter: Difference between revisions

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'''Gian Lazzaro''' (born Giovanni Raffaele Lazzaro; September 12, 1990), sometimes known by the mob nickname '''"the Mouse"''' (Italian: ''Il Topo'') or more popularly as '''the''' '''Mad Batter''', is an American serial killer who pleaded guilty to a series of seven homicides committed in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City New York City] between 2008 and 2016. Each murder, and at least one additional attack from which his victim recovered, was perpetrated with a wooden [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_bat baseball bat].

=== Amanda Morrissey ===

[[Amanda Morrissey]] was Lazzaro's very first victim. Her murder was not planned, but it set the tone for Lazzaro's later premeditated killings, establishing the Mad Batter's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_operandi modus operandi] and giving him a taste for the power a killer wields over his victims.

=== Alivia Odette ===

[[Alivia Odette]] was Lazzaro's second victim, and like all those who followed, her murder was premeditated. By this time, Lazzaro was almost four years out of high school, and had been unofficially employed by the Di Buca crime family that entire time as a drug trafficker. Although Lazzaro had little interaction with Odette following graduation, she remained friendly with Di Buca, and the two were known to be romantically involved at the beginning of 2013. Seeing this as an opportunity, Lazzaro sneaked into Di Buca's office at one of the crime family's warehouses and used Di Buca's own mobile phone to engage in a text message conversation with Odette. Under the impression she was speaking with Di Buca, Odette agreed to meet him at their favorite café later that day. Lazzaro immediately deleted the conversation history from Di Buca's phone.

=== Ann-Marie Toscani & Edward Vittorio ===

[[Ann-Marie Toscani]] and [[Edward Vittorio]] were the victims of Lazzaro's third attack against members of the clique that bullied him in high school, and Lazzaro's first double homicide. More than a year had passed since the previous murder, mostly because Lazzaro had been incarcerated following his March 2013 arrest by Grayson Gaynes. Following Lazzaro's release on April 17, 2014, he fell back into working for the Di Buca crime family, where he was welcomed back as if nothing had happened. This only served to enrage Lazzaro further, considering the family's lack of assistance in his criminal defense, and he began actively looking for another opportunity to sate his needs while hurting Matteo Di Buca at the same time. When Lazzaro discovered that Di Buca was now romantically involved with Ann-Marie Toscani, another member of the old clique, the killer knew he'd identified his next victim.

=== Rose Moynihan ===

[[Rose Moynihan]] was Lazzaro's fifth victim, and the only non-brunette woman he murdered (she was a redhead). By Lazzaro's own confession, Moynihan's death was nothing more than a "bonus"; his true target was Grayson Gaynes, Moynihan's husband, who had arrested and humiliated Lazzaro years earlier. By that time, Gaynes was actively investigating Matteo Di Buca for the murders Lazzaro had committed. Lazzaro intended to kill both Moynihan and Gaynes, and for Di Buca to take the fall. Considering the well-publicized animosity between Gaynes and Di Buca, and the fact that Gaynes had only just arrested and released Di Buca days prior, Di Buca would have made for a very plausible killer. With Gaynes dead and Di Buca in prison the rest of his life, Lazzaro believed his "debt" would finally be settled, both his "tormentors" repaid in kind for the humiliation they had visited upon him.

=== Alyssa Lori ===

[[Alyssa Lori]] was Lazzaro's sixth murder victim, and the first of his victims (aside from Moynihan) against whom he held no preexisting grudge. Lazzaro could not conscience the fact that ten months had passed since Moynihan's death and both Di Buca and Gaynes remained alive and free. Killing Lori was primarily about restarting the feud between the mobster and the police officer, though Lazzaro's psychosis also created an itch he "desperately needed to scratch."

=== Jennifer Thompson ===

[[Jennifer Thompson]] was the seventh and final victim in Lazzaro's series of murders. She was killed less than a week after Lori, and is one of the few victims (with Lori) whose death Lazzaro has ever expressed remorse over. In a February 2019 interview marking the third anniversary of that crime, Lazzaro called Thompson's murder "a necessary evil."