Italian man dresses as dead mother in Mrs Doubtfire ruse to claim her pension

An unemployed Italian man has been accused of dressing up as his dead mother, complete with lipstick and a pearl necklace, to fraudulently claim her pension in a bizarre case that has been dubbed the Mrs Doubtfire scandal.

The 56-year-old man, an unemployed nurse from the northern city of Mantua, managed to pocket thousands of euros before his ruse was exposed, according to a report in Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The late Graziella Dall’Oglio (left) was impersonated by her son (right).Credit: Facebook

Making the case all the more macabre is the fact that he allegedly concealed his mother’s body at home and kept it for so long that it eventually became mummified.

Graziella Dall’Oglio died about three years ago at the age of 82, according to the paper.

Not only did her son not officially report her death, he wrapped her body in a bedsheet, stuffed it into a sleeping bag and hid it in his house.

Actor Robin Williams in the titular role of Mrs Doubtfire (1993).Credit: Kobal

He then set out to masquerade as her when it came to renewing her identity card in a government office in the suburb of Borgo Virgilio on the outskirts of Mantua, the report said.

A dead giveaway

He reportedly cut his hair in a similar style to his mother, applied foundation and lipstick and completed the ensemble with a pearl necklace and old-fashioned clip earrings.

He underwent a “Mrs Doubtfire-style transformation”, the paper said, alluding to the 1993 hit film starring Robin Williams.

Arriving at the government agency earlier this month, he presented himself as his mother. But his deception eventually raised the suspicions of an employee, who thought there was something a little off – not least his low voice and thick neck. The member of staff alerted the police and the local mayor.

‘Up close, his neck was too thick and his wrinkles were strange; the skin on his hands did not seem to be that of an 85-year-old woman. His voice was feminine but every so often it dipped and sounded masculine.’

The authorities compared official photos of the real Graziella Dall’Oglio with those of her impostor son and realised they had been duped.

The son had an annual income of €53,000 ($94,000) thanks to his mother’s pension as well as a property portfolio of three houses, the newspaper reporter.

Grim discovery

Following his unmasking, police went to his home and made a gruesome discovery – the mummified body of his mother, hidden in a laundry room.

“He came into the council offices wearing a long skirt, he was wearing lipstick and nail varnish, a necklace and old-style earrings,” Francesco Aporti, the mayor of Borgo Virgilio, told the newspaper.

“But up close, his neck was too thick, and his wrinkles were strange; the skin on his hands did not seem to be that of an 85-year-old woman. His voice was feminine but every so often it dipped and sounded masculine. But I might not have noticed these strange features had they not been pointed out.”

Once he had been discovered, the police told him they needed to inspect his home. “He agreed to that. They searched the house and found a mummified body,” the mayor said. “She probably died of natural causes, but that will be established by a postmortem.

“It is a very strange story and very, very sad.”

In a statement, the Italian police said the mother’s body was wrapped in bedsheets and a sleeping bag. “The body was in a clear state of mummification,” they said.

The corpse was taken to the mortuary of a local hospital for an autopsy to be conducted.

The man is being investigated for illegally concealing a body and benefiting from fraud.

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