Sex, blood, esotericism and many unsolved mysteries. The case of the eight double murders linked to the Monster of Florence is, without a doubt, the most intriguing, intriguing and investigative and judicial crime story in post-war Italy. Today, more than fifty years after the first double murder, a new development could reopen a story that has never really ended. On one of the bullets used in the murder of the Frenchmen Jean-Michel Kraveichvili and Nadine Mauriot in Scopeti, in 1985, genetic material was recovered that would recur on two other pieces of evidence from the crimes of 1983 and 1984. The DNA of the murderer – or of more people – could still be on the bodies of the victims who tried to defend themselves, perhaps under their fingernails. “Every effort to identify the Monster of Florence is positive, as long as it is the result of concrete, new and valid elements and not suggestions dished out to keep a case alive in favor of imminent media events – recalled Gianluigi Nuzzi, a popular Mediaset face, who on several occasions, on Quarto Grado, has dealt with the Monster of Florence case -. The judiciary will evaluate, even if I have little hope that after so many years we can arrive at a certain and lasting truth”.
A story that began in 1968 and ended in 1985. Eight engaged couples, killed while they were in a car together to make love. In isolated areas, in the countryside or in wooded areas of the province of Florence. But if the location changed from time to time, the weapon used always remained the same. A .22 caliber Beretta pistol with the same type of bullets, Winchester ammunition marked with the letter “H” on the base of the cartridge case. Excisions were performed in the pubic area and the left breast. The crimes were committed on dirt country roads or hidden wooded areas. Specifically, in Signa, Borgo San Lorenzo, Scandicci, Calenzano, Baccaiano, Giogoli, Vicchio, Scopeti. The first investigative theory was based on what was commonly called “the Sardinian lead”. Stefano Mele first, Francesco and Salvatore Vinci later. Theories, theses, coincidences. But little, very little evidence. And so, the attention of the investigators was directed to a farmer from Mercatale Val di Pesa, Pietro Pacciani. A man who, due to his violent past, was «The Perfect Monster». Pacciani had already killed (and had been convicted of this crime) when, at twenty-six, he found his girlfriend secluded with another man, Severino Bonini. With the body still warm, the farmer had forced Miranda Bugli to have sex with him. Once he had served his sentence, he had married and had two daughters. In the mid-eighties Pacciani was convicted because he had raped his daughters several times. The farmer was subsequently arrested on January 17, 1993, accused of being the murderer of the eight couples. On November 1, 1994, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court of Assizes of Florence for being responsible for fourteen of the sixteen murders for which he was accused (he was found not guilty of the first double murder, that of 1968). Fifteen months later, on appeal, he was found fully innocent, that is, “for not having committed the crime,” and therefore released from prison. On February 22, 1998, he died in circumstances that, to this day, have not been clarified.
During the appeal process, the awkward testimony of a friend of Pacciani, Mario Vanni, gave the journalists of the time a definition that later went down in history: that of drinking buddies. While Pacciani was judged innocent, a new trial opened against Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, a self-confessed criminal. The postman was sentenced to life in prison for four of the eight double murders and the sentence was made definitive in 2000 by the Court of Cassation. Lotti, unemployed, an alcoholic, with serious intellectual problems, lived thanks to the help of Caritas. The testimony of Fernando Pucci (later judged innocent) who swore that he had seen the Scopeti crime in 1985 and that he had been taken there by Lotti, forced the latter to tell the truth. The case of the Monster of Florence has an established legal truth, but also numerous question marks. The gun has never been found. The anatomical parts removed from some of the victims have never been traced. The female fetishes were delivered (according to Lotti’s testimony) to a self-styled “doctor”. Who he was has never been clarified.
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2024-08-11 13:04:30
