Do you know the story of the world’s biggest bigamist who married over 100 women without getting divorce?
He married more than a hundred women between 1949 and 1981 without ever getting divorced, earning himself the title for the most bigamous marriages.
The Guinness World Records shared a video on Twitter detailing the story of Giovanni Vigliotto. It is said that Giovanni Vigliotto wasn’t even his real name but was simply the one he was using when he married his last wife.
To this day, nobody is sure of the real name of 'Giovanni Vigliotto' – the man who conned women and got married over 100 times. pic.twitter.com/MVFujTws5o
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) April 5, 2023
Vigliotto married 104 or 105 women between 1949 and 1981. None of his wives knew about each other and they barely knew him as well. He reportedly married women across 27 different US states and 14 other countries, using a fake identity each time. The scammer met many of his prospective wives at flea markets, and he usually proposed to them on their very first date.
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The wedding would then be promptly arranged, and after each one, Vigliotto would vanish along with his new wife’s money and possessions, the GWR website states.
He told the women that he lived far away and would ask them to pack up all their belongings to join him. Once they packed, Vigliotto drove away with their possessions in a moving truck, never to be seen again, it further said.
He sold the stolen items at flea markets, where he simultaneously scouted potential new victims.
Despite many reports to the authorities, he managed to keep getting away with it. However, his penultimate victim, Sharon Clark, a flea market manager from Indiana, tracked him down to Florida, where authorities arrested him on December 28, 1981.
His trial began in January 1983. He was sentenced to a total of 34 years in prison; 28 for fraud and six for bigamy and also fined $336,000. He spent the remaining eight years of his life in Arizona State Prison, passing away in 1991, aged 61, due to a brain haemorrhage.
“Up until his death, he maintained that his only crime was being a hopeless romantic with a weakness for women,” the GWR website said.
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