Giovanni Vigliotto; Claimed to Have Married 105 Women

PHOENIX — Giovanni Vigliotto, who claimed he married 105 women without bothering to divorce nearly all of them, has died of a brain hemorrhage at 61, Arizona prison officials said Saturday.

Department of Corrections spokesman Michael Arra said Vigliotto died Friday at Maricopa Medical Center.

Vigliotto was a diabetic and suffered a debilitating stroke in 1988, Arra said. He had been hospitalized for a week at the medical center.

Vigliotto was sentenced in 1983 to 34 years in prison for fraud and bigamy. He was also fined $336,000.

Arizona police had located him in Panama City, Fla., after a warrant was issued charging that he had married Patricia Ann Gardiner of Mesa, Ariz., in 1981, while still married to Sharon Clark of Fremont, Ind. Gardiner testified that Vigliotto left three weeks after the ceremony with $43,000 of her money.

Clark also testified at Vigliotto’s trial, saying he fled with about $49,000 belonging to her.

Vigliotto said after his trial that he was joking when he testified that he had married 105 times, but authorities confirmed at least 82 marriages in nine states, Canada, Britain, Italy and Hong Kong. He proposed to most of his future wives on the first date.

He also claimed that he was born Nikolai Peruskov in 1929 to Russian parents living in Sicily. Prosecutors said Vigliotto was born Frederick Bertram Jiff in Brooklyn, N.Y., and over the years used 120 aliases.

Vigliotto had large eyes, pleasant features and dark, curly hair. Prosecution witnesses, including Joan Bacarella of Manalapan, N.J., spoke of the hypnotic quality of his gaze and manner.

Bacarella said she had planned to marry Vigliotto as soon as her divorce was official, but he defrauded her of $40,000 and left before the ceremony.