The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (64 page)

The Florence slayer’s first appearance was recorded Police sketch of the “Monster of Florence” (Author’s on August 21, 1968, when Barbara Locci and her adul-collection)

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Stefano Baldi and 24-year-old Susanna Campi. Again, Italian police questioned more than 100,000 persons the female victim was mutilated, Cambi’s genitals and briefly charged six different suspects in the Florence excised as Stefania Pettini’s had been in 1974.

case before they identified their best suspect yet.

The murders continued with numbing regularity over Arrested on January 17, 1993, 71-year-old Pietro Pac-the next four years. On June 19, 1982, 22-year-old ciani was a semiliterate farmhand and amateur taxider-Paolo Mainardi and 20-year-old Antonella Migliorini mist, who had been convicted in 1951 of murdering a were shot with the familiar pistol, Migliorini posthu-traveling salesman caught “in an affectionate embrace”

mously savaged with a knife. Fifteen months later, on with Pacciani’s girlfriend. (Following the murder, Pac-September 9, 1983, the Monster of Florence made his ciani made the woman lie beside the corpse and raped first “mistake”: instead of killing a man and woman, he her there.) Paroled after 13 years in prison, Pacciani shot two male tourists from Germany, Horst Meyer and was later arrested for beating his wife and served four Uwe Rusch Sens. (Public speculation that the victims more years in prison (1987–91) for molesting his two might be gay was not substantiated and appears to have daughters. Convicted of seven double murders in no bearing on the crime.) The lethal balance was November 1994, Pacciani still maintained that he was restored on June 29, 1984, when Claudio Stefanacci and

“as innocent as Christ on the cross.” An appellate court Pia Rontini were slain. Rontini had been stabbed more overturned his conviction on February 13, 1996.

than 100 times, her genitals and left breast excised. On Ironically, Pacciani’s release from prison came within September 8, 1985, the stalker killed two French hours of police arresting his good friend, 70-year-old tourists, 25-year-old Jean-Michel Kraveichvili and 36-Mario Vanni, on charges of murdering victims Mauriot year-old Nadine Mauriot, claiming Mauriot’s left breast and Kraveichvili in 1985. Authorities soon revised their and genitals as ghastly souvenirs. On the morning the original theory, deciding that the crimes were commit-bodies were found, a copper-jacketed Winchester bullet ted by a gang of killers led by Pacciani, its members was also discovered, lying on the sidewalk in front of a including Vanni, 77-year-old Giovanni Faggi, and 54-hospital close to the crime scene. The next day, police year-old Giancarlo Lotti. Ten months after Pacciani’s received an envelope addressed with letters clipped from release from custody, on December 12, 1996, Italy’s a newspaper; inside, they found part of Mauriot’s geni-Supreme Court reversed the appellate court’s decision talia, a mocking gift from their elusive quarry.

and ordered a new murder trial for Pacciani. His three Recreation of the Monster’s crimes revealed a strik-alleged accomplices went to trial in Florence on May ing similarity in every case. Each of the double murders 21, 1997, charged with five double murders, while their occurred on moonless nights, between the hours of 10

supposed ringleader was confined to his home at Mer-P.M. and midnight. In each incident, authorities believe, catale, watched by police as a “socially dangerous char-the man was murdered first, the woman subsequently acter.” Pacciani died at home on February 22, 1998, shot and mutilated as the killer exorcised his private one day before closing arguments began in the trial of frenzy. Fingerprint examinations of the murder scenes his three alleged confederates. The final verdicts, on indicate that the gunman typically wore rubber surgical March 26, were a mixed bag: Faggi was acquitted on all gloves, and that clue, coupled with the bullet found counts; Lotti was sentenced to 30 years for his involve-near the hospital and possible use of a scalpel to muti-ment in the deaths of eight victims; and Vanni drew a late the female victims, led authorities to question hos-life sentence for participating in five of the Monster’s pital staffers. No suspects were identified, and homicide double slayings. The remaining cases are officially detectives freely admitted they had no leads in the baf-unsolved.

fling case. As described by Francisco Fleury, the district The Monster’s saga took another strange turn on attorney in charge of the investigation, “The man could August 14, 2000, when police in Florence arrested two be your respectable next-door neighbor, a man above 26-year-olds, Chiara Maggi and Massimo Marrazzo, suspicion.”

on charges of kidnapping, extortion and attempted Three movies have been made, so far, about the murder. The pair had snatched their victim, a 34-year-Monster and his crimes, ranging from a pornographic old merchant identified only as “Sandro,” and held him feature to a documentary. One film was in production for four days in a garage “transformed into a torture in September 1985, and members of the crew rushed to center,” where they brutally abused him in a fruitless the latest murder site, shooting new scenes to update effort to extract confessions of participation in the their story. Police, meanwhile, were fearful that Monster slayings. From jail, Maggi proclaimed suspi-increased publicity might prompt the killer to become cions that the victim—her former boyfriend—was a more active or encourage “copycats” to emulate his psychopath who had joined in the murder spree at age crimes. In fact, however, the slayer appeared to have 13 (in 1978). Detective Michele Giuttari dismissed that retired, with no confirmed kills since 1985.

assertion as groundless, maintaining that Pietro Pac-182

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ciani committed the murders in concert with an unnamed “man of refined intelligence.”

On April 5, 2001, the conservative Times of London reported police assertions that the Monster’s crimes were planned and carried out by a cult of “high society Satanists” pursuing “weird rituals that beggar belief.”

The group’s leader, “in light of new evidence,” was thought to be a “distinguished doctor” driven by a

“sick and twisted mind.” Giancarlo Lotti, at trial in 1997, had proclaimed, “I don’t know what this doctor is called, but I do know that it was he who ordered the

‘jobs.’ ” Investigating magistrate Paolo Canessa also referred to “a mystery woman” who had drugged and beaten Pacciani’s wife before ransacking the suspect’s hovel. Financial records, lately uncovered, revealed cash deposits exceeding $550,000 into various bank

accounts maintained by Pacciani through the years, while he worked as a common farm laborer. Canessa now regarded Pacciani himself as a murder victim, declaring, “It wasn’t a violent death like those he inflicted on his victims, but it was a slow and certain death as a result of taking the wrong medication for his diabetic and heart complaints.”

Indeed, police now believe that murders of accomplices who “knew too much” began in 1981, when a friend of Pacciani’s named Renato Malatesta was hanged in a stable. Twelve years later, Malatesta’s daughter Milva and her three-year-old son were found dead in a burned-out car. A few days after that grim discovery, police found another torched car containing the body of Francesco Suspect Pietro Pacciani was convicted, then freed on Vinci, Milva Malatesta’s lover and another friend of Pac-appeal. He died before his second trial. (Author’s collection) ciani, who was once himself a Monster suspect. In 1994, persons unknown murdered and burned a local prostitute, Anna Mettei, who had been the lover of Francesco Vinci’s son. “It can’t be a coincidence,” a detective told the Monster case. Press reports noted that Mattei had reporters. “We think these people not only knew the written a book on the case ( Rabbit on Tuesday, 1992) killers, but also knew who was acting in the shadows which anticipated evidence uncovered by police in early behind them.” Authorities now suspect that Pacciani tried 2001. Bruno, meanwhile, had regaled talk-show view-to blackmail the “evil mastermind” behind the murders, ers with details of a secret service report prepared in thus launching a purge of potential witnesses. Detectives early 1985 that suggested an occult link in the crimes.

had “a fair idea” of the leader’s identity, they said, but That report alleged that female genitalia and left breasts large rewards—thus far unclaimed—were offered for fur-were prized for black magic rituals, and it went on to ther information.

pinpoint a remote villa where the rituals may have On August 7, 2001, Detective Giuttari gave Florence occurred. Still, despite the promise of arrests in April prosecutors a dossier allegedly confirming that “a 2001, no new charges were filed.

group of about a dozen Satanists, led by a distinguished Rumors of the phantom slayer’s return circulated surgeon, had commissioned the murders.” Giuttari told through Florence in June 2002, after caretakers at Cap-reporters that he had compiled a list of suspects and pelle del Commiato (a cemetery in the hills outside

“arrests would follow.” A month later, police raided the town) reported five corpses mutilated by night-prowling homes and offices of Francesco Bruno, Italy’s leading vandals over a span of eight days. The first incident, forensic psychologist, and Aurelio Mattei, another psy-involving an elderly woman’s remains, was initially chologist, employed by the Italian secret service. While blamed on wild scavengers, but examination of the next denying that either man was a murder suspect, the two posthumous victims, one day later, revealed “care-police seized books, notes, and computer disks about ful removal of skin” in mutilations deemed “similar to
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those left on the victims of the Monster of Florence.”

24, was parked with his 19-year-old girlfriend, Mary Most troubling were reports that the final corpse, of yet Larey, on a lonely road near Texarkana when a tall, another woman, had been mutilated while armed

masked man approached their car with gun in hand. He guards stood watch outside her tomb.

ordered Hollis from the car and clubbed him to the Rumors of a cult’s involvement in the murders resur-ground, next turning on Larey and raping her with the faced in January 2004, with reports that four unnamed gun barrel, tormenting her to the point that she begged persons had been formally “cautioned” as suspects.

him to kill her. Instead, he slugged her with the gun and Those under scrutiny included a lawyer, a retired phar-turned back toward Hollis, allowing the young woman macist, and a former university professor specializing in to escape on foot. Both victims managed to survive dermatology and sexually transmitted diseases. On Jan-their ordeal, but the gunman would not be so lax a sec-uary 19, a police raid at dawn scoured one 60-year-old ond time.

suspect’s home for clues, but emerged without making On March 23, 1946, 29-year-old Richard Griffin arrests. Police also exhumed the body of Dr. Francesco and 17-year-old Polly Ann Moore were killed on a Narducci, who drowned in Lake Trasimeno in 1985, lonely Texarkana lover’s lane. Both victims were shot in and while the press claimed that Narducci had “dab-the back of the head, Griffin found kneeling underneath bled” in occult rituals, no results of the belated autopsy the dashboard, and his girlfriend was sprawled in the were published.

back seat, but a blood-soaked patch of earth some 20

Six months later, speaking as the chief of a 10-man feet away suggested they had died outside the car. Both

“anti-Monster task force,” Michele Giuttari told bodies were fully clothed, and recent reports deny any reporters, “These crimes are unique throughout the evidence of sexual assault, but contemporary rumors world for their cruelty and ferocity. They are black, featured mention of rape, torture, and mutilation brutal crimes. There are certainly ritualistic aspects, inflicted on Polly Moore.

which seem to have a relevance: the fact that the same Precisely three weeks later, on April 13, 17-year-old weapon was always used; the fact that the female bod-Paul Martin and 15-year-old Betty Jo Booker were ies were never touched by a hand, but only by a blade—

ambushed in Spring Lake Park, following a late dance even the clothes were cut away with a knife; the fact at the local VFW hall. Martin’s lifeless body, shot four that the tombs of the victims have frequently been times, was found beside a rural highway on the morn-defaced and commemorative crosses vandalized. All ing of April 14. Booker’s corpse was discovered six these things make an investigator curious.” Giuttari hours later and a mile away, shot in the face and heart.

predicted “a breakthrough” in the case, but none had Again, the tales of fiendish torture spread through occurred when this work went to press. Ironically, Texarkana, though a crop of modern journalists who police in Lombardy arrested eight alleged Satanists in have researched the case reject them as untrue.