An American man with shifting identities and grandiose movie plans is convicted of murdering his girlfriend and child in Rome
CNN · Barbie Nadeau ·
An Italian court found American Rexal Ford guilty of double murder in a bizarre and disturbing case that has gripped the nation. He plans to appeal.
“My name is Rexal Ford,” the man born under the name Charles Francis Kaufmann told an Italian courtroom, in English, at the start of his double-murder trial in February. “I am not a killer. I am a film producer.”
The former Kaufmann, a 47-year-old American, did legally change his name to Rexal Ford in 2019. In Malta, in 2022, however, he was known as Daniel R. Foster, with a British passport and Maltese residency papers to match. Three years later, hiring a boat from Malta to Sicily, he had an Italian identity document identifying him as Matteo Capozzi — a name that also appeared with his photo on a now-deleted IMDb page claiming production credits on major film projects.
“You’re going to get caught up on names of convenience?” Ford asked me, when I raised the subject of his multiple passports. “You’re saying you never pretended to be someone you aren’t? Even once?”