'Crucifixion killer' suspect denies being serial murderer

Plumber's letter to victim's mother to be broadcast

(ANSA) - Florence, May 23 - The 55-year-old plumber accused of "crucifying" and murdering a Romanian prostitute wrote to the victim's mother saying he "lost control" but is not a "serial killer," an Italian television program said it will report Friday night. "I am not what they want to describe me as, that is a serial killer, but a person who on that damned night lost control of the situation and I would never have thought the girl would die, nor wanted her to," wrote Riccardo Viti in a letter from jail, according to the TV show Quarto Grado, which will air Friday night. Viti is in prison for the death of 26-year-old Andrea Cristina Zamfir, found dead in Florence on May 5. "I am speaking directly to you because you are the mother of Andrea Cristina," Viti wrote to Zamfir's mother in a letter posted May 19. "With this letter, I would like you to know how dismayed I am at the loss I have caused". "I've never killed anyone because I respect the lives of all people, and this makes my pain even heavier". "It was my duty to explain the person who killed your daughter to you, and the only way was to tell you the truth''. "What I never would have thought could happen is what happened". Viti, who is charged with murder, sexual assault and kidnapping, is suspected of carrying out as many as nine other rapes of sex workers, police have said. One prostitute said she would have been killed by Viti during a sexual assault last March if he hadn't been interrupted by a barking dog and footsteps, reported the woman's lawyer, Nicodemo Gentile, who is representing her as a victim in the case. Viti's DNA was found on three other raped prostitutes in addition to the Romanian who died from his assault near Florence, sources have said.

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'Crucifixion killer' suspect denies being serial murderer