Similarities

Il Mostro di Firenze (the Monster of Florence) had murdered several people between 1968-85 – up to sixteen. The murders of Antonio lo Bianco and Barbara Locci – the first – were different. Later female victims were stabbed and some mutilated too. The scenes were staged too and Locciʼs son Natalino Mele had been in the car and witnessed the murder of his mother – he was just six years old. Natalino was also dropped off at a home near the scene of the murders.

This was unusual behaviour for a monstrous killer and it was never repeated in any of the other murders, which started six years after lo Bianco and Locci were murdered. There were differences which resulted in some believing that the 1968 murders were not committed by il Mostro, but that applied to the 1983 murders of Horst Wilhelm Meyer and Jens Uwe Rüsch as well. There were other differences between the murders of the German tourists and some of the other murders committed by il Mostro.

All sixteen murders involved the .22 calibre Beretta and most involved stabbing too – often gratuitous – and in some cases mutilation too. There were similarities in all of the murders other than just the gun and ammunition. The killer tended to strike on a Saturday and when the moon was hidden and all of the victims had attended discos the night before they were killed. It suggests that il Mostro prepared and planned his murders carefully, but despite a photo-fit of il Mostro he continued to evade justice.

Bizarre Developments

The investigation careered down a cul-de-sac at break-neck speed. Religious historian Massimo Introvigne contacted police to tell them that Florence had a long history of the occult and that the mutilation was reminiscent of their ritual. Investigators had already come to believe that the taking of genitalia was a trophy for some religious cult. However, there was absolutely no evidence to support this hypothesis.

Soon after the decision to associate the mutilation with the occult or a religious cult without a shred of evidence to support it, the person who had received the phone call, probably from il Mostro, received another call while he was on holiday. This was intriguing for police. How did the killer know that the Red Cross worker was on holiday?

Escalating Depravity

On July 29^th 1984 il Mostro murdered Claudio Stefanacci and Pia Gilda Rotini in Stefanacciʼs car in the commune of Vicchi di Mugello near Florence. Both had been shot and stabbed and il Mostro severed Rotiniʼs genitalia and left breast. Her body had been positioned like the other female victims, bar Locci. She had been stabbed a hundred times. No fingerprints were discovered. Police were baffled. But il Mostroʼs reign of terror was not over yet.

On September 8^th 1985 il Mostro struck again at the commune of San Casciano near Florence. Frenchman Jean-Michel Kraveichvilli and his girlfriend Nadine Mauriot were the last known victims of il Mostro. Kraveichvilli tried to escape after being shot, but he was caught and stabbed to death. Il Mostro repeated his mutilation of Rotini on Mauriot and later sent a macabre taunt to Assistant prosecutor Silvia Della Monica, the prosecutor who had tricked him into making the phone calls. The package contained a portion of Mauriotʼs severed breast.

While il Mostro ended his reign of terror, perhaps fearing that the newly discovered use of DNA profiling would catch up with him, the rumour mill continued speculating. Who was il Mostro? How had he gotten away with it for so long? But the vital question, how can the murders be solved remains conspicuous by its absence? Why? It is the most important question of all.

Despicable

I have spent the last few days in Florence. It’s a gorgeous city – the birth-place of the Renaissance. It gave the world much to be proud of. Michelangelo Buonaroti’s famous statue of David still has pride of place in the city’s Accademia Gallery. It is undoubtedly a city with much to offer still, but it has a dark and nasty side too, although the latest horror to tarnish it didn’t even occur in Florence.

The murder of 26 year-old Romanian prostitute Andrea Cristina Zamfir was appalling. Her naked body was found taped at the wrists beneath a motorway flyover at the Via del Climetro near the village of Ugnano, which is close to the capital of Tuscany, Florence. She was left with her hands taped to an iron bar under the flyover. She tried to break free, but could not, dying a slow and horrible death from the internal injuries that her rapist had inflicted on her.

A year ago another prostitute was attacked in the same way and left in the same state at the same place. She survived and described both her attacker and the car he drove. The crimes are plainly linked. The first victim suffered horrific internal injuries that required hospitalisation for three weeks. She was raped too. Her description of her attacker fits that of the suspect in Zamfir’s murder.

Off the Mark

However, attempts to link these terrible crimes to the as yet unsolved serial killings committed by il Mostro di Firenze (the Monster of Florence) even in terms of public fear and panic are way off the mark. Zamfir’s killer is not a serial killer and thankfully he may not get the chance to become one, if the suspect who was arrested quickly proves to be Zamfir’s murderer. There have been many similar attacks on prostitutes including the signature crucifixion attempt, but Zamfir was the first to die.

This was not a planned killing as il Mostro’s undoubtedly were. The possibility that the victim would die must have occurred to the attacker – he obviously did not care if the victims died, but it was a bizarre way to try to kill. The victim could have been found and described her attacker too. There is no similarity to il Mostro. Zamfir’s killer is certainly vicious and depraved, but that is where comparisons should end.

A 55 year-old suspect who used the services of prostitutes was quickly arrested. There have been others too. The description of the attacker fits the suspect. The previous attacks were not reported – the victims saw no point. Now they do. This also shows that there was no panic – nobody feared that the infamous il Mostro was killing again and there was no time for panic to develop anyway. A suspect was quickly arrested. Although similar crimes had been committed previously, they had not been reported, apart from the attack on the 46 year-old woman.

Media

Nevertheless, various media were quick to raise the question of a serial killer. Prosecutor Paolo Canessa, who had worked on the il Mostro case previously is quoted in the Mirror saying: “We can say with certainty that that the perpetrator is a homicidal maniac and that he is a serial homicidal maniac”.

Really? While the attacker cared not a whit if his victims lived or died, there is no evidence that he has killed previously – although that could be sheer luck as in the case of the Italian prostitute who survived his attack. The attacker is a vicious criminal, – there is no doubt about that – but there is no evidence at all that the suspect is a serial killer. It is possible he would have developed into one and that he was a serial rapist. The perpetrator plainly is a vicious piece of work, but where is the proof that he was a serial killer? And if there isn’t proof, then isn’t such reporting sensational, misleading and inaccurate?

Il Mostro di Firenze

There is, however, no question that il Mostro di Firenze was a particularly evil serial killer. He killed 16 people, starting in 1968 and ending in 1985. He has never been brought to justice. At various times four innocent people were convicted of being il Mostro, including the husband of the first victim Stefano Mele. There may even have been more than one Monster of Florence. The crimes remain unsolved.

Certainly il Mostro terrified Florence, but bizarrely he defied conventional logic. Serial killers don’t stop killing, we are told, but il Mostro did. It’s been almost 30 years since he claimed his last victims, always with the same gun, but some involving stabbings too and genital and further mutilation of the female victims designed to remove their femininity. Nobody knows why he stopped killing, but thankfully he did. He could still be brought to justice if the will exists here to investigate again , starting with a clean slate and using modern investigative methods and forensic sciences.

He has at least stopped in Florence and there are no reports of a similar pattern of killings starting elsewhere when Florence’s Monster stopped. Perhaps he is dead, jailed for other offences, institutionalised in an asylum, physically incapacitated, or just stopped for some unknown reason. We simply don’t know and can’t until and unless il Mostro is finally tied to his crimes. The most important question is not who is il Mostro? It is how can we tie him to his crimes? The answer to the second question will inevitably answer the first!

The crimes committed by Zamfir’s killer are horrible – despicable even – but they bear no similarity to those of il Mostro. There is no reason to compare them – even the fear that was supposed to be gripping Florence. Il Mostro led to Florence being overtaken by fear and suspicion. That has not happened as a result of Zamfir’s murder. Florence remains a truly beautiful city and its inhabitants still go about their daily business. There’s no sign of panic.