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.

Intriguing

Il Mostro di Firenze (the Monster of Florence) had claimed his tenth or possibly twelfth victims on September 9^th 1983. The murders of German tourists Horst Wilhelm Meyer and Jens Uwe Rüsch were intriguing, as they broke the pattern. All the other victims including the four that would complete il Mostro’s murderous spree had been of a man and a woman, either making love, or seeming to have gone to the secluded places where they were killed for that purpose.

While some commentators rule out the murders of Antonio lo Bianco and Barbara Locci because they were not stabbed at all and other reasons, such as the lack of stabbing and genital mutilation of the female victim for example, compared to the other murders attributed to il Mostro, this lacked more. There was no evidence that Meyer and Rüsch were gay.

Misogynistic Sociopath

Meyer had long blonde hair and according to some could have been mistaken for a woman. That led some commentators to surmise that il Mostro mistook him for a woman and didn’t mutilate him when he realised his mistake. There is no evidence that he did mistake Meyer for a woman and not mutilate him when he realised his error, but that fits the pattern in some ways.

Il Mostro is clearly a misogynist – a sociopathic one. He removes the feminine identity of his victims. He has no interest in desexualising mutilation of men. This time it was just the thrill of killing, or perhaps there really was more than one monster at work.

The use of the Beretta and ammunition link these murders to other il Mostro crimes. But if that applies to the murders of Meyer and Rüsch, then it also applies in the first murders – those of lo Bianco and Locci.

Differences

The .22 calibre Beretta had been used in all 16 murders – four occurred after September 10^th 1983 – and the ammunition used had come from the same box. Whether the 1968 murder of lo Bianco and Locci were part of the series is a moot point. There were differences – possibly crucial ones. Locci’s body had not been sexually staged like the others and there was no genital mutilation. They had not been stabbed like the others either, but as was mentioned above that applied to Meyer and Rüsch as well.

The killer was also uncharacteristically merciful in the 1968 murders. Natalino Mele was just six years old. He was not only spared, but was dropped off at a nearby home, presumably by the killer. Natalino’s accounts were contradictory, but so what? He was a young child at the time and bound to have been traumatised by witnessing the murder of his mother.

The differences have led some to conclude that the murders of lo Bianco and Locci were not committed by il Mostro, but if not their murderer possesses important information about il Mostro as the gun was definitely used in all the killings, so how did il Mostro get it and from whom? Either il Mostro committed all the murders up to that point, or he obtained the gun used in the first killings later and used it on all his victims, but why?

The obvious answer is to clear Stefano Mele, but again why? And why choose such a bizarre method to do it? And having effectively fulfilled that purpose why continue after the 1974 killings, or at least after the gun had been linked to all the murders in 1982? Il Mostro plainly enjoys killing and hates women, especially their sexuality. Mele certainly had a motive for killing his wife and her lover, but not the rest of the victims, or even opportunity for some. Either Mele cannot be il Mostro, or there were other monsters sharing the killing.

Sadistic Mysogynist

Between 1968-85 sixteen people had been shot dead. Many had been stabbed as well and the violence against the female victims escalated. All sixteen murders were committed with the same gun and the bullets even came from the very same box of ammunition as well. The killer was a Sadistic misogynist – a particularly vicious one. The level of violence went far beyond what was needed to kill, especially on the women and it became progressively worse.

Towards the end of his reign of evil the female victims were stabbed repeatedly and had their genitals cut out as well. Two had their left breasts cut off as well. He was clearly striking at the female identity of these victims. He also sent a portion of his final victimʼs left breast to a prosecutor who had almost tricked him into revealing himself previously.The trail eventually went cold – frozen it could be said – but why?

An Innocent

There was no shortage of theories, hunches and Chinese whispers as to who il Mostro di Firenze (the Monster of Florence) was. As would be expected in such a case the main suspects were far from angels. There were two or even three main lines of enquiry.

The first victims Antonio lo Bianco and Barbara Locci were murdered in 1968. It took several killings and almost fifteen years to realise that all the murders had been committed with the same gun. By that time Locciʼs husband Stefano Mele had been sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment and had served six. Was he the monster? He couldnʼt possibly have committed all of the murders and this was well known to investigators.

Mele certainly had a powerful motive for the 1968 murders. Locci had a stream of lovers and flaunted it in Meleʼs face, but Mele clearly could not have been il Mostro. The crime spree continued while he was in prison, which meant that either Mele was completely innocent, or there was another killer who got possession of the same gun and just happened to be a particularly vicious serial killer.

Embarrassing

Meleʼs account to investigators was contradictory. It wasnʼt difficult to see why investigators in 1968 had focused on him. His 6-year-old son Natalino had not only been spared, but carried to a nearby home and dropped off there. For a monster who would later kill and mutilate victims in a chilling fashion, this behaviour defied logic. It suggested that the murders of lo Bianco and Locci may well not have been committed by il Mostro, but by someone known to them and who cared about the child. Stefano Mele certainly ticked those boxes.

After all, why would a Sadistic misogynist serial killer care about killing one more, even if it was a child? And why would such a vicious killer take the trouble to ensure that the child not only survived, but was looked after? It made no sense, especially as it increased the prospect of detection. However, if the killer was related to Natalino or cared about him it made perfect sense. No wonder investigators quickly homed in on Stefano Mele.

Stefano was an obvious suspect in the murders of lo Bianco and Locci. The conduct of the killer after the murders also fitted Mele – Natalino was his son after all. He must have known that he would be a prime suspect. The contradictions in his accounts to police and his confession all but secured his fate, but the lack of scientific evidence was surprising to say the least.

And of course the weapon used to kill lo Bianco and Locci was used by il Mostro for the other murders. Either the first murders were not part of the series of il Mostro crimes at all, or there was not just one monster, or il Mostro committed all the crimes. Despite some convictions there remains a widespread belief in Tuscany that the Monster was never brought to justice.