The more suspects that emerged, the murkier the case got.

*The Monster of Florence *true story: Inside the hunt for Italy’s infamous serial killer (and whether he was caught)

The more suspects that emerged, the murkier the case got.

By Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on *The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer*, and many other publications.

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on October 22, 2025 4:05 p.m. ET

'The Monster of Florence' on Netflix. Credit:

EMANUELA SCARPA/NETFLIX

Serial killers are dominating the streamers this fall, with Ed Gein, Dennis Rader, and John Wayne Gacy serving as the subjects of their own films and series. The subject of Netflix's *The Monster of Florence, *however, shares less with them than they do another famous (and elusive) murderer: the Zodiac.

"Eight double murders. Seventeen years of terror. Always the same weapon. A .22 caliber Beretta," reads a synopsis for the four-episode crime thriller, which debuts on Wednesday, Oct. 22. "One of the longest and most complex Italian investigations into the first and most brutal serial killer in the country's history: The Monster of Florence."

Directed by Stefano Sollima (*Sicario: Day of the Soldado*), who created the series with Leonardo Fasoli, *The Monster of Florence* draws on true events, procedural documents, and witness testimonies to tell a story "where there have been many possible monsters."

Below, we dig into the true story of the *Monster of Florence*.

Who is the Monster of Florence?

'The Monster of Florence' on Netflix.

The Monster of Florence is a name coined by Mario Spezi, a former crime reporter for Italy's *La Nazione, *for a serial killer that terrorized the countryside outside Florence, Italy, between 1968 and 1985.

There are several details that bind the murders. One is that the killer targeted couples engaged in lovemaking, all on moonless nights between 10 p.m. and midnight, per a 1986 report from TIME.

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Another connecting detail is the murder weapon: a .22 caliber Beretta automatic pistol firing copper-jacketed Winchester bullets. According to *The Atlantic*, the gun had "a defective firing pin that left an unmistakable mark on the rim of each shell."

These two details, among other similarities, have led many to compare the killings to those of the Zodiac Killer, who murdered five known victims in and around San Francisco between 1968 and 1969.

But the Monster of Florence was also notorious for, on multiple occasions, carving out sexual organs from their female victims. As noted in *The Atlantic*, the mutilations were "so expert that the medical examiner speculated [they] might be a surgeon — or a butcher."**

How many people did the Monster of Florence kill?

'The Monster of Florence' on Netflix.

EMANUELA SCARPA/NETFLIX

The Monster of Florence is credited with the murders of eight couples, making for 16 victims total.

The first couple, 29-year-old Antonio Lo Bianco and 32-year-old Barbara Locci, was shot and killed while parked in a small town west of Florence in August 1968.** **The second couple, 19-year-old Pasquale Gentilcore and 18-year-old Stefania Pettini, was killed in 1974 while parked in the hills north of Florence in September 1974.

It wasn't until June 1981 that the Monster struck again, this time shooting and killing 30-year-old Giovanni Foggi and 21-year-old Carmela De Nuccio. This was the first instance in which the female victim's sexual organs were mutilated.

Between October 1981 and September 1985, the Monster killed five more couples:

- 26-year-old Stefano Baldi and 24-year-old Susanna Cambi in October 1981

- 22-year-old Paolo Mainardi and 20-year-old Antonella Migliorini in June 1982

- 24-year-old Wilhelm Friedrich Horst Meyer and 24-year-old Jens Uwe Rüsch in September 1983

- 21-year-old Claudio Stefanacci and 18-year-old Pia Gilda Rontini in July 1984

- 25-year-old Jean Michel Kraveichvili and 36-year-old Nadine Mauriot

In the days following the killings of Kraveichvili and Mauriot, a female prosecutor working on the case received an envelope with a letter and the nipple of Mauriot, whose left breast had been cut off and carried away during the murder. The letter was spelled out with letters cut out of magazines, per *The* *Atlantic*.

Was the Monster of Florence ever caught?

'The Monster of Florence' on Netflix.

EMANUELA SCARPA/NETFLIX

That's a tricky question to answer. Four men** **have been convicted in cases related to the Monster of Florence, but doubts continue to swirl about their guilt among those familiar with the case. As put by Douglas Preston in *The* *Atlantic*, "More than 100,000 men have been investigated and more than a dozen arrested, and scores of lives have been ruined by rumor and false accusations."

In 1968, Stefano Mele, a Sardinian laborer and Locci's husband, was arrested for the murders of her and Lo Bianco. Per the *Il Post*, he changed his story several times before eventually confessing, saying he killed them out of jealousy.

He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison, but his guilt came into question in 1982 when investigators connected the Locci and Lo Bianco murders to the 1974, 1981, and 1982 slayings. Since he was imprisoned at the time of those murders, there was no way he could've used the same gun to kill them.

When investigators spoke with Mele, he accused Francesco Vinci, one of his wife's other lovers, whom he had previously accused before eventually confessing, according to *Il Post*.

Spezi, the journalist who coined the "Monster of Florence," also spoke with Mele during this time. According to *The Atlantic*, Mele told him that if the police didn't "figure out where that pistol is... there will be more murders... *they* will continue to kill."

As such, some have theorized that, as *The* *Atlantic* puts it, Locci and Lo Bianco's murders were "a clan killing, in which others from Mele’s Sardinian circle had participated." Investigators then began to investigate whether someone from that group was using that gun to commit the Monster of Florence murders.

Vinci and his brothers, Salvatore and Antonio, were among those arrested in the following years. But the ongoing murders and a lack of evidence eventually saw all three of them walk free.

'The Monster of Florence' on Netflix.

EMANUELA SCARPA/NETFLIX

By 1991, new investigators took over the case and zeroed in on Pietro Pacciani, an alcoholic father with a violent past. Pacciani, too, had been in prison between 1974 and 1981, when the killings went on hiatus. Though Pacciani claimed to be innocent, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison before being acquitted in 1996.

The Supreme Court of Cassation ordered a new trial, but Pacciani died in February 1998 before it could begin.

The case took yet another turn when police brought forward new witnesses who claimed that they had been Pacciani's accomplices. As reported in *The* *Atlantic*, these men claimed that Pacciani had been hired by a wealthy doctor in Florence to "collect female body parts for Black Masses, to be used as offerings to the devil." Pacciani denied the allegations before his death. Two of these accomplices, Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, were convicted of four of the eight double homicides, per* Il Post*.

Many journalists, authors, and investigators have voiced doubts about these convictions, believing that the real Monster of Florence was never caught.**

Is the Monster of Florence case still being investigated?

'The Monster of Florence' on Netflix.

EMANUELA SCARPA/NETFLIX

Yes. In 2024, newly discovered DNA was being analyzed in relation to the case, according to CBS News.

The *New York Times*, meanwhile, notes that prosecutors in Florence are still looking into the Vinci brothers' ties to the murders.**

Where can I watch The Monster of Florence?

*The Monster of Florence* is now streaming on Netflix.

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