The family lived in Lugnano, five miles from Pisa, where the father got a new job in a ceramics factory.

Gino went to live with other boys of similar age, who together practised petty theft, including fruit, chickens and objects of little value.

Meneghetti was called to military service but, in a desperate attempt to avoid his fate, he feigned mental instability.

He spent the years between 1905 and 1910 in a series of Italian asylums, considered by medical authorities a "moral lunatic" and having an "unsound mind".

Having been arrested several times Meneghetti decided to seek his fortunes elsewhere, emigrating to Brazil, where he had relatives.

He travelled around the country, visiting Curitiba, Porto Alegre, and Florianópolis, before going to Montevideo (Uruguay) and Buenos Aires (Argentina).