responsible for the murders. they spin these outrageous theories, satanic sex, body parts used in bizarre rituals, and then they start looking for the evidence to support the theories. giuttari claimed it was spezi and preston who were spinning a fairy tale. translator: if he writes a novel and then says it s the truth, it s not right. it s presumptuous. he isn t telling the truth. the war of the writers was about to escalate. remember, acting on a tip, spezi and preston had gone to an old villa searching for evidence against carlo. they found nothing, but soon afterward, preston s cell phone rang. a judge overseeing the monster case wanted to talk to him immediately. preston went to his office. what did they want to know? they asked, why did you go to the villa? what did you do there? how long did you spend there? and you know, my italian is not perfect. i started stumbling and stammering which i do in italian and it suddenly occurred to me, my god, i sound like i m lying to
the killer s name was stefano mele. and all during the 70s and early 80s, when the monster killings took place, he was either in prison or a halfway house. there was no way this guy could be the monster. yet somehow the same gun was used in the 68 killing and these monster killings. that s right. exactly. how could the gun have passed from stefano mele to the monster of florence? italian reporter mario spezi got a clue when he managed to interview mele at the halfway house where he was being held. this is very important. he said, they will kill again. they, not he. who is they? that s when spezi realized that this man had not acted alone. he had had at least two accomplices. so many secrets buried in the tuscan hills, and another was about to be unearthed. police slowly realized that the 1968 murder was far more than the act of a jealous husband. it was actually a group of sardinians who had settled in
and the murderer to stop him shoots the boy. the young man managed to back the car across the road, but his rear wheels got stuck in a ditch. the car wouldn t move. the monster shot the two headlights out, and then he fired a shot which struck the boy in the middle of the forehead. and then when he went across the street and got into the car, he shot the boy a second time. and he shot the girl. and he shot the girl when he got in the car. but with the car stuck beside a busy road, the monster apparently didn t feel he had enough time to perform his ritual mutilation of the woman. he fled, once again leaving no clues to his identity. murders seven and eight. as the killings continued, the terror and paranoia ratcheted up. florentines changed their daily routines. they never traveled alone, and they eyed each other suspiciously because the monster could be any one of them. at one point, a witness thought he had seen the killer. police released a sketch. the result was chaos.
msnbc now. i m craig melvin. shoppers have a few more hours to get last-minute gifts and many stores are offering huge markdowns. retailers could bring in $417 billion this holiday season. despite leading the polls in virginia newt gingrich may win the state. the former house speaker and rick perry will not appear on the primary ballot because they failed to submit ret choired numbers of signatures. write-ins in the commonwealth are not permitted. more news on msnbc. in november 1994, pietro pacciani, fingered by an anonymous tip, went on trial. accused of being italy s most notorious serial killer. it had been almost nine years since the murders had mysteriously stopped. now all of italy was focused on one question. was pacciani the monster of florence?
but then in october of 1981, with the suspect in jail, the monster struck. once again, the victims were young lovers in their 20s, shot to death on a lovers lane in the countryside, murders five and six. the same beretta .22 was the murder weapon. the young woman suffered the same postmortem mutilation, performed with a notched knife. this murder set up a pattern that would repeat itself. police arrested a suspect and the killer, almost as if taunting them, killed again. and the police were humiliated and had to release him. the monster struck again eight months later in june of 1982 about ten miles south of florence. a young couple had parked just off a busy road. this time, the young man apparently spotted the killer. he saw the murderer coming? yes, because he tried to start with the car.