Monster of Florence Victims

Between 1968 and 1985, an unidentified serial killer known as 'Il Mostro di Firenze' (The Monster of Florence) murdered at least sixteen people in eight separate attacks in the hills and countryside surrounding Florence, Italy. The victims were all couples parked in secluded lovers' lanes. The pattern was consistent: the killer would approach the vehicle, shoot both victims with a .22 caliber Beretta pistol using a distinctive batch of Winchester ammunition, and in later attacks, excise body parts from the female victims.

The first known attack occurred on August 21, 1968, when Antonio Lo Bianco and Barbara Locci were shot in a car near Signa. Subsequent attacks occurred in 1974, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, and two in 1985. The final victims, French tourists Jean-Michel Kraveichvili and Nadine Mauriot, were killed on September 7, 1985. After this last attack, a piece of flesh was mailed to the prosecutor investigating the case.

The investigation was one of the most complex in Italian legal history, marked by false leads, questionable investigative methods, and controversy. Pietro Pacciani, a local farmer with a violent criminal history, was convicted in 1994 but acquitted on appeal in 1996; he died before a retrial. His alleged accomplices, Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, were convicted in 1998 based on Lotti's confession, but many observers considered them scapegoats. The ballistic evidence linking all eight attacks to the same weapon was never disputed, but the identity of the primary shooter was never established.

In 2002, American author Douglas Preston and Italian journalist Mario Spezi investigated the case for a book, leading to their own involvement with Italian authorities—Spezi was jailed briefly and Preston was interrogated and ordered to leave Italy. Their 2008 book renewed international interest. The case remains officially open, with the true identity of the Monster of Florence still unknown.