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Law, Crime & Justice
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Beyond Bigamy: The Calculated Deception of Giovanni Vigliotto, Husband to 105 Women
Giovanni Vigliotto holds the Guinness World Record for most bigamous marriages, conning 105 women across the globe between 1949 and 1981. His scheme was simple: marry, convince his new wife to sell her assets, and vanish with the money. His decades-long spree ended when one victim turned detective.
A Record-Breaking Romance Scam
In the vast annals of criminal history, some stories stand out not for their violence, but for their sheer audacity and scale. The tale of Giovanni Vigliotto is one such case. Between 1949 and 1981, he charmed, married, and defrauded at least 105 women across 27 US states and 14 countries, earning him the Guinness World Record for the most bigamous marriages. Yet, to label him merely a bigamist is to misunderstand the methodical nature of his lifelong con. He wasn't collecting wives; he was liquidating their lives for profit.
The Flea Market Lothario's Method
Vigliotto's genius, if one could call it that, was in his repeatable and alarmingly effective formula. He preyed on women at flea markets and swap meets, places where trust was currency and people were often in a state of transition. He presented himself as a worldly, charming man with a vague but profitable business, often an antique dealer. He was a master of reading people, identifying loneliness or vulnerability and quickly filling that void. After a whirlwind romance, he would propose marriage.
The trap was sprung shortly after the wedding. Vigliotto would convince his new bride that they were moving to a new life together, perhaps to his supposed home in a distant state or country. He would instruct her to sell all her possessions, pack up her remaining valuables, and give him the cash for 'safekeeping' or to 'combine their assets'. On the day the moving truck was set to arrive, Vigliotto, along with the woman's money and most valuable possessions, would be gone. He left behind a freshly emptied house and a marriage certificate bearing a false name.
A Man with No Real Name
Part of what allowed Vigliotto to operate for over three decades was his phantom-like identity. He used dozens of aliases, but who he truly was remains a mystery. At his trial, he claimed his birth name was Nikolai Peruskov, born in Sicily. In other accounts, he claimed to be Fred Jipp, born in New York. Investigators could never definitively prove either story, leaving behind a man who was, in essence, the sum of his lies. This lack of a concrete identity in a pre-digital world was his greatest asset, making him nearly impossible to track.
The Woman Who Turned Detective
Every con man's streak eventually ends, and for Vigliotto, the end came at the hands of his 105th and final wife, Sharon Clark. The manager of a flea market in Mesa, Arizona, Clark fell for the same routine in 1981. But when her new husband vanished, she refused to be a passive victim. Instead of just reporting the crime, she began her own investigation. Using her extensive network of flea market contacts and the CB radio—the social media of its day—she put out the word. She traveled to Florida, a state Vigliotto had mentioned, and began hunting him down. Her persistence paid off. On December 28, 1981, she located him at a flea market in Florida and alerted the police. The 32-year crime spree was over.
The Trial and the Final 'Marriage'
Vigliotto's trial in Phoenix was a sensation. Dozens of his former wives testified against him. He remained defiant, even claiming he was the real victim. In his mind, his wives were complicit in their own deception, a sentiment captured in one of his most chilling statements to the press:
If you have a little larceny in your heart, you're a pushover.
The prosecutor, however, had the final word. During sentencing, he delivered a line that would become legendary in the courthouse:
Mr. Vigliotto, the state is going to be your 106th wife, and you are never going to divorce us.
He was convicted of fraud and bigamy and sentenced to 34 years in prison. He died of a brain hemorrhage at the Arizona State Prison in 1991 at the age of 61, taking his true name and the full scope of his deceptions with him to the grave. His story serves as a bizarre monument to a pre-internet era, a time when a charming swindler could erase his past and reinvent himself in the next town over, one wife at a time.