True story behind Netflix’s ‘haunting’ crime drama about Italy’s most notorious serial killer

Nearly 60 years since a serial killer started targeting couples rendezvousing on the outskirts of Florence, a new Netflix series is investigating the shocking string of crimes.

On a summer night in August 1968, mason worker Antonio Lo Bianco and homemaker Barbara Locci were shot to death with a .22 caliber handgun in Signa, a small-town west of Florence.

Her older husband, Stefano Mele, was eventually charged with murder and spent six years in prison.

But, while he was behind bars, another couple were murdered with what was suspected to be the same gun, with it soon emerging that other lovers of Locci could actually be the perpetrator.

Over the next 17 years, another 14 people were killed in similar circumstances. The Monster then became known as the first modern serial killer in Italy.

This week a new crime drama on the murders – titled The Monster of Florence – was released on Netflix. Here’s everything we know about the series, and the unsettling crimes that inspired it.

What is The Monster of Florence about?

The Monster of Florance tracks the decades-long hunt for the titular ‘Il Mostro di Firenze’, who targeted young couples who had parked their cars in secluded locations for private moments.

It tells the story of their brutal deaths, also drawing on testimonies and court records, as well as recreating the panic that gripped the region as the murders were committed. 

The synopsis for the four-part crime drama explains: ‘Eight double murders. Seventeen years of terror. Always the same weapon. A .22 caliber Beretta.

‘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.

‘This story is based on ongoing legal proceedings and investigations. In a story where there have been many possible monsters, over time and investigations, our story focuses on them, the possible monsters, from their point of view. Because the monster, in the end, could be anyone.’

Director Stefano Sollima has explained: ‘Horror, to be truly told, must be faced, not avoided. And a story, to come through with clarity, without embracing a thesis, must begin at the very beginning. To recount it with honesty, respect, and rigor must still carry meaning. Not to solve, not to explain, but simply to remember. A way to remain close to those who were left there, forever in the night.’

He also co-created the series with Leonardo Fasoli, whom he’d previously worked with on Gomorrah and ZeroZeroZero.

What have viewers said about the show?

The series was only just released on Netflix today, but early reviews have called it ‘frightening’, ‘intense’ and ‘haunting’.

Is it a true story?

The Monster of Florence is based on eight double murders committed over 17 years.

The first victims were Lo Bianco and Locci in 1968, followed by a teenage couple six years later.

Pasquale Gentilcore, a barman, and Stefania Pettini, an accountant, were shot and stabbed in a country lane while having sex in his car in 1974.

Her corpse was also subjected to shocking injuries, being violated with a grapevine stalk and disfigured with 97 stab wounds.

It was another seven years before the killer struck again, then murdering warehouseman Giovanni Foggi and his fiancée, shop assistant Carmela De Nuccio in 1981. Her body was also mutilated.

Although paramedic Enzo Spalletti was charged with their murder and jailed for three months, he was then released when the killer struck again.

Four months after Foggi and De Nuccio’s murders, workman Stefano Baldi and telephonist Susanna Cambi, who were also engaged, were shot and stabbed in a park.

The next year another young couple were brutally killed. In June 1982, mechanic Paolo Mainardi and dressmaker Antonella Migliorini were shot to death just after having sex in his car on a provincial road.

Although he was alive when found, the young man died a few hours later in hospital.

It was after these double murders that police connected the killings for the first time.

Not long after, a German couple were found shot to death in their van – students Wilhelm Friedrich Horst Meyer and Jens Uwe Rüsch had been visiting Italy from Osnabrück, West Germany.

Then, in July of 1984, law student Claudio Stefanacci and barmaid Pia Gilda Rontini were shot and stabbed in his car while parked in a woodland area. The killer also mutilated her body – removing her pubic area and left breast.

The final murder committed was that of French couple Jean Michel Kraveichvili and tradeswoman Nadine Mauriot, who were shot and stabbed while sleeping in a tent in a woodland area.

When investigating the cases, journalist Mario Spezi coined the moniker ‘Monster of Florence’.

Who was the Monster of Florence and was the killer ever caught?

Over the years several of Locci’s lovers were arrested, suspected to be the serial killer after her husband was acquitted.

The first was Francesco Vinci, who was kept in custody for over a year. Mele’s brother and brother-in-law, Giovanni Mele and Piero Mucciarini, were also arrested.

But when the 1984 murders were committed while all three suspects were in custody, they were released.

Police then turned their attention to Francesco’s brother Salvatore Vinci, who was another former lover of Locci. However, investigations into his involvement were futile.

Another suspect – Pietro Pacciani – was then found. He’d previously been convicted both for rape and domestic abuse of his two daughters, and for the 1951 murder of a man who had relations with his ex-girlfriend, for which he served thirteen years in prison.

Following a trial, he was convicted of the eight double murders in 1994. However, after it was discovered the only physical evidence against him – a bullet found in his garden – was planted by police, he was acquitted and released in 1996. Although a new trial was planned for him, he died in 1998 before it began.

Although there have been several other theories have been investigated over the years, and claims several men or even a Satanic cult were involved, the serial killer’s identity has never been uncovered.

The Monster of Florence is streaming on Netflix.

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