Rome police are looking for a serial killer who could be responsible for the deaths of several dozen gay men, majority of them middle-aged or older men who were found in their own apartments bludgeoned or suffocated, or both, in a naked or near-naked state. His victims are reportedly usually associated with the arts.

His latest victim, a professional clapper, Salvatore Romano, 57, was suffocated and bludgeoned with a brandy bottle, according to news reports. Romano was the last of the capoclaques, men who are paid by opera singers to applaud their performances at Rome's main opera house. The tradition goes back centuries where there were hundreds, but none left today.

There have been dozens of similar cases in Italy since 1990; 34 were in Rome and 15 are still unsolved. Two of the most recent cases occurred in the Pigneto area where Romano lived.

The list of victims reads like an extract from a Who's Who of Italian culture. It includes:

- Enrico Sini Luzi, a Gentleman of His Holiness, one of the highest honours that can be bestowed on a layman by a pope and often given to members of noble families. The 66-year-old who was said to be a familiar face at the local gay bars was found in January 1998 battered to death in his apartment near the Vatican surrounded by his Vatican medals and with a gay pornographic cassette in his VCR. Police said he may also have been strangled and there were marks on his body consistent with sadomasochistic foreplay.

- Louis Inturrisi, a 56-year-old American University professor who was also a cultural correspondent for the New York Times. In August 1997, his almost naked badly decomposed body was found in his elegant apartment decorated with expensive furnishings and artworks by the police who was summoned by his landlord who could not tolerate the smell. Gay activists and gay journalists in Italy believe that Inturissi was killed by a young hustler whom he had hired for sex.

- Count Alvise di Robilant, a Florentine aristocrat, art collector and director of Sotheby's Italia. He was hit over the head several times with a blunt object. The autopsy report found that 1997 death the 72-year-old had the fresh sperm of another man in his mouth at the time of his death.

Many in the gay community say the crimes are the work of a serial killer and have blamed the homophobic climate in Rome, implicitly upheld by the Vatican for the murders. The national group ArciGay has estimated that there may be 200 murders of gay men in Italy each year.