🚨 Harry Potter’s American publishing queen was living her best Italian summer… until one cocaine-positive captain turned paradise into a bloodbath in 4 seconds flat.

She had everything: dream job, loving husband, two beautiful kids, Amalfi Coast sunset. Then came the scream, the impact, the propeller… and the unthinkable.

Two years later, the man at the helm just walked away with a sentence that’s got her family – and millions of Potter fans – absolutely LIVID.

Was justice served… or did Italy just let a killer skipper off with a vacation of his own? The gut-wrenching details, the wedding yacht horror show, the drugs, the phone, the plea deal that’s got everyone screaming “WHAT?!” – it’s all inside. You’ll be furious by the time you finish reading. Click before you lose it. 👇

An Italian speedboat captain who tested positive for cocaine and was scrolling on his phone when he slammed into a 150-foot sailing yacht has been sentenced to just four years and nine months for killing Bloomsbury USA president Adrienne Vaughan and severely injuring her husband in front of their two young children.

Elio Persico, 32, cut a plea deal Friday in Salerno court, avoiding a full trial for the August 3, 2023, catastrophe that turned a postcard-perfect family vacation on the Amalfi Coast into a scene of unimaginable carnage. Vaughan, 45, the New York-based powerhouse who oversaw the American arm of the Harry Potter publishing empire, was sunbathing on the bow of their rented 29-foot speedboat when the collision catapulted her into the water, directly into the path of the still-spinning propeller. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her husband, Mike White, suffered a shattered shoulder and mangled legs that required multiple surgeries. Their daughter Leanna, then 12, and son Mason, then 8, watched the entire horror unfold from the boat.

Prosecutors say Persico was steering with one hand, high on cocaine, and glued to his cellphone with the other when he T-boned the “Tortuga,” a chartered sailing yacht carrying 70 tourists celebrating a wedding. Video from the yacht captured the sickening moment: the tiny speedboat appearing out of nowhere, the violent crash, Vaughan’s body tumbling through the air, and the screams that followed.

Blood tests taken hours later showed cocaine and its metabolites in Persico’s system. Phone records confirmed he was actively using the device seconds before impact. Under Italian maritime law, the charges – manslaughter and causing shipwreck with serious injuries – could have carried up to 15 years. Instead, the plea bargain slashed the sentence to under five, with Persico expected to serve far less under Italy’s lenient early-release and house-arrest provisions for non-violent offenders.

5

Bloomsbury Publishing USA President Adrienne Vaughan was killed in a boat crash off Italy’s Amalfi Coast on Aug. 3, 2025.

Mike White released a blistering statement through his attorney: “This sentence is an insult to Adrienne’s memory and a slap in the face to our children, who have to grow up without their mother because a reckless, drugged captain couldn’t put down his phone. Four years? He’ll be out before my son finishes high school. Where is the justice?”

The Vaughan family has vowed to appeal the plea deal and is reportedly exploring civil action against both Persico and the boat-rental company that handed him the keys with zero background checks.

Adrienne Vaughan was no ordinary executive. The Manhattan-born, NYU Stern-educated dynamo had been president of Bloomsbury USA since 2021, steering the U.S. division of the publishing giant that turned J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard into a $25 billion global franchise. Under her leadership, Bloomsbury USA raked in record profits, expanded into blockbuster fantasy series like Sarah J. Maas’s “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” and aggressively courted diverse new voices. Colleagues described her as brilliant, fierce, and the rare exec who could close a seven-figure deal in the morning and still make it to her kids’ soccer games by afternoon.

5

The wreckage of the 30-foot speedboat after it collided with a sailing ship.

The tragedy unfolded on what was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. The family had flown into Naples, rented the open speedboat in Positano, and were cruising toward a private beach club when disaster struck just off the coastal town of Nerano. Witnesses on the wedding yacht described chaos: American tourists screaming as they saw Vaughan’s body in the water, the captain of the Tortuga frantically throwing life rings, and Persico allegedly trying to speed away before being blocked by other boats.

Italian authorities immediately seized the speedboat and Persico’s phone. Investigators found he had no professional captain’s license for carrying passengers – only a basic recreational boating permit – and the rental company, Blue Wave, later admitted it never asked for proof of qualifications. Persico claimed he was “blinded by the sun” and “didn’t see” the 150-foot sailing vessel until it was too late. Prosecutors called that excuse “laughable.”

The case has reignited fury over lax enforcement on Italy’s tourist-packed coastlines, where thousands of unlicensed or barely trained captains rent high-powered boats to wealthy visitors every summer. In 2023 alone, the Italian Coast Guard recorded 212 boating collisions resulting in death or serious injury – a 28% jump from five years earlier.

5

Vaughan was in Italy with her husband and two young children before the crash.

Legal experts say plea bargains like Persico’s are routine in Italy for mid-level manslaughter cases, especially when defendants show “remorse” and agree to compensation offers. Sources close to the case say Persico’s team has floated a civil settlement in the low six figures – an amount the Vaughan family has already rejected as “blood money.”

5
Vaughan was rescued from the water and taken to shore, where first responders fought to save her life by performing CPR, but she was pronounced dead before she was taken to a hospital.

5
Vaughan’s husband, Mike White, was injured in the crash and had surgery on his collarbone. Their children were not physically harmed.

Bloomsbury released a short statement Friday: “Adrienne was the heart and soul of our U.S. company. Today’s outcome does nothing to ease the void she left in our industry and in the lives of everyone who knew her.”

As Persico left the courthouse surrounded by police escorts, a small group of American tourists who had followed the case online shouted “Assassino!” from across the street. Inside, Mike White sat stone-faced, clutching a photo of his wife laughing on that same boat just minutes before the crash.

The family has returned to their home on the Upper East Side, where Adrienne’s office at Bloomsbury’s Soho headquarters remains untouched – Harry Potter manuscripts still stacked on her desk, exactly as she left them.

Whether Italy’s highest courts will revisit the sentence remains uncertain. One thing is not: for the little boy who watched his mother die and the little girl who still wakes up screaming, no amount of prison time will ever be enough.