Giovanni Battista Bugatti

Giovanni Battista Bugatti (1779–1869) was the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1864.

He was the longest-serving executioner in the States and was nicknamed Mastro Titta, a Roman corruption of maestro di giustizia, or master of justice.

[1] At the age of 85 he was retired by Pope Pius IX with a monthly pension of 30 scudi.

Bugatti's career in charge of executions began when he was 17 years old, on 22 March 1796, and lasted until 1864.

[citation needed] One of his executions, on 8 March 1845, was described by Charles Dickens in Pictures from Italy (1846).

Giovanni Battista Bugatti holding the head of an executed woman