Pietro Pacciani
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- Il Mostro redirects here. For the 1994 Roberto Benigni film, see The Monster (1994 film).
Pietro Pacciani (January 7, 1925 – February 22, 1998), was a peasant of Mercatale, San Casciano in Val di Pesa, suspected of being the infamous serial killer "The Monster of Florence" (mostro di Firenze). The case was one of the inspirations for a character in the novel Hannibal by Thomas Harris.
[edit] The case
Pacciani was arrested January 17, 1993 on suspicion of having murdered eight young couples between 1968 and 1985. The trial began in Florence on November 1, 1994 and ended with Pacciani facing 14 life sentences: one for each murder, except the 1968 case. However, on February 13, 1996, Pacciani was acquitted after an appeal. On December 12, the Court of Cassation cancelled the acquittal and arranged a new trial.
Three other men — Mario Vanni, Giovanni Faggi and Giancarlo Lotti — were also suspected of being involved with Pacciani during the killing spree in Florence. They were arrested after information came to the light during Pacciani's first trial that the murders were not committed by a single person, but organized by a band of criminals. These people were ironically nicknamed “compagni di merende” (picnic mates) by the Italian press, because of Vanni's claim that they just went for picnics in the Tuscan countryside. Vanni was sentenced to life in prison, while Lotti received 26 years.
Pacciani did not live to stand a retrial; he was found dead in his room in 1998, probably victim of an heart attack, although it was said that somebody could have killed him with a drug overdose. On March 24, 1998, the Appeals Court sentenced Vanni and Lotti and acquitted Faggi.
[edit] List of Il Mostro victims
- August 21, 1968: Antonio Lo Bianco (29) and Barbara Locci (32), lovers, shot to death with a .22 Beretta in a country lane not far from Lastra a Signa, a small town in the vicinity of Florence, while Locci's son, Natalino (6) lay asleep in the back seat of the car. Locci was famous in the town because of her large number of lovers. Locci's husband was eventually charged with the murder and spent 16 years in jail, but couples continued to be murdered by the mysterious .22 Beretta.
- September 15, 1974: Pasquale Gentilcore (19) and Stefania Pettini (18), teenage sweethearts. Shot to death and stabbed in a country lane near Borgo San Lorenzo, while having sex in Gentilcore's Fiat 127. Pettini's corpse had been raped with a vine stalk. Some hours before the murder, Pettini said to a close friend something about a weird man that terrified her.
- June 6, 1981: Giovanni Foggi (30) and Carmela Di Nuccio (21), engaged. Shot to death and stabbed on a Saturday night, near Scandicci, where both lived. Di Nuccio's body was pulled out of the car, and the killer cut off her pubic area with a tipped knife. Next morning, a young voyeur went on speaking about the murder, before the corpses had been discovered. He spent 3 months in jail (charged with murder) before the killer exonerated him by killing again.
- October 23, 1981: Stefano Baldi (26) and Susanna Cambi (24), engaged and due to get married in a few months' time. Shot to death and stabbed in a park in the vicinity of Calenzano. Cambi's pubic area was cut off, in a similar manner as Di Nuccio's. An anonymous person phoned Cambi's mother the morning after the murder, to "talk her about her daughter".
- June 19, 1982: Paolo Mainardi (22) and Antonella Migliorini (20), engaged and due to marry very soon, nicknamed "Vinavill" (=glue) as they were inseparable. Shot to death in Mainardi's car, parked on a provincial road in Montespertoli. This time the killer couldn't rape the girl because Mainardi (although he had serious injuries) was still alive and desperately tried to drive away. Police and ambulances were called immediately but Mainardi died some hours later at the hospital.
- September 9, 1983: Wilhelm Horst Meyer (24) and Jens Uwe Rusch (24), German tourists. Shot to death in their Volkswagen Samba Bus, in Galluzzo. Rusch's long blond hair and his small build could have deceived the killer. Police supposed they were homosexual lovers, but this claim has never been asserted.
- July 29, 1984: Claudio Stefanacci (21) and Pia Rontini (18), engaged, shot to death and stabbed in Stefanacci's Fiat Panda parked in a woodland area in the nearby of Vicchio di Mugello. The killer cut off the girl's pubic area and left breast. There was a strange man (smart, serious, creepy) who was following them in a cafeteria some hours before the murder.
- September 7-8, 1985: Jean Michel Kraveichvili (25) and Nadine Mauriot (36) lovers, both from Audincourt, France, spending a tour in Italy. Shot to death and stabbed while sleeping in their small tent, in a woodland area near San Casciano. Mauriot's corpse was mutilated. The killer sent a piece of her left breast to the judge who was dealing with the case, Silvia della Monica.
