Lived near all the murder sites. the fbi said the monster probably was sexually dysfunctional. spezi found out that at the height of the killing spree, the suspect had a marriage annulled for inability to conceive children, which spezi believes was code for impotence. and remember the first monster killing in 1974 with those tentative stab wounds? the new suspect would have been just 15 at the time. perhaps still uncertain what his murderous ritual would be. while inspector giuttari chased satanists, spezi spent years looking closer and closer at the carabinieri suspect. by the time he met preston in 2000, he had a convincing case. the more we looked at it, the more we eliminated other possible suspects, the more it seemed likely that he was the person, that he was the monster of florence. they began to refer to him by a pseudonym, carlo, and agreed he would be the focus of their book. they decided they had to talk to him.
The gun, the very same .22 beretta that the monster of florence was using to terrorize the tuscan countryside. now in their frantic hunt for the monster, police reopened what had seemed at the time like an open-and-shut case. the killer was the husband of the woman who was having an affair with somebody. and he had basically said that he was jealous of his wife having this affair. he had waited for them, and when they were making love, he jumped out of the bushes and killed them. 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
But this time it was worse. in this case, the monster had done more than just remove the woman s vagina. he had also cut off and taken away her left breast. murders 11 and 12. there was outrage across italy, and now police were the focus of it. because again and again, the police have been arresting people, and again and again the monster had been killing people when those suspects were in custody. in september of 1985, the monster committed a crime that hannibal lecter would find hard to top. the young lovers this time were tourists from france, camping in the hills south of florence. as they made love in their tent, the monster shot the woman in the face, killing her instantly. the man was shot several times, but somehow managed to burst from the tent. here s someone who s running for his life and yet the killer
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 them. and then a twist that truly shocked him. the judge nodded to the stenographer, she pressed the button on her computer and here s my voice. here i am talking to mario spezi. giuttari and his men had been tapping spezi s phone, and even broken into his car, planting bugs there, too. they recorded him and preston discussing the case. and on tape, spezi said something that struck the judge as highly suspicio
Four young lovers dead. one of the women sexually mutilated. mario spezi, then a young newspaper reporter, wrote story after story about the case. he had heard of other famous serial killers dubbed monsters, and he began to use that term as well. we called him the monster of florence. police desperately hunted the monster. in the process, they exposed some aspects of italian life you don t read about in the tourist brochures. american author doug preston. most people live with their parents until they re married. so making love in parked cars is a national pastime. the beautiful hills surrounding florence on friday and saturday night were full of cars parked where kids were making out, making love. all the lovemaking was an open secret among florentines, but what police found next was not. investigating the terrible murders along lovers lanes like this one in the beautiful tuscan countryside, police uncovered a