Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised this episode includes discussions of murder and body mutilation that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13.

On June 19th, 1982, Paolo Mainardi and his fiancee, Antonella Migliorino, parked along a quiet, dead end road in the Italian hillsides there under the stars, they made love in the back of their car.

Afterwards, when the two 20 somethings groped around for their clothes, they noticed a dark figure dart around the side of the car. The shadowy figure sent a shiver Apollo spine. Sensing danger, he jumped into the driver's seat and slammed the car into reverse.

At that moment, the shadowy figure aimed a gun right at Paolo and fired as the bullet lodged in his shoulder. Paolo lost control and the car rolled backward into a ditch when he hit the gas to pull out of it.

The car launched itself firmly in the mud. Now they were sitting ducks and just outside the car, the mysterious figure raised his gun once more.

As the young lovers held each other tight, the monster of Florence took aim and squeezed the trigger. Hi, I'm Greg Polson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from podcast. Every episode we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're taking a look at the monster of Florence, Italy's most notorious unidentified serial killer. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone.

You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parkhurst for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts today will detail the monsters murders and discusses disturbing signature M.O..

We'll also follow Florentijn police as they search desperately for the vicious killer.

Next time, we'll take a closer look at the man many suspect of being the infamous monster and explore the clues that helped one journalist reach that conclusion. We've got all that and more coming up.

Stay with us. The case of the mysterious monster of Florence is one of the longest and most expensive criminal investigations in Italian history told in its entirety. It's a sweeping tale of sadistic murder, judicial incompetence and journalistic integrity.

Dozens of men were arrested for being the monster and all were proven innocent. Thousands more were questioned and countless reputations were destroyed in the process.

To tell this story is a difficult task because much of it hinges on police corruption and red herrings. But we're going to do our best to bring you a concise version of events. The whole picture is sprawling and messy, but we'll make sure our version tells you everything you need to know.

And the first thing that's important to keep in mind is that this case remains unsolved.

Officially, that is, there is someone who is widely believed to be the monster, someone who is still alive today. Understanding why this person might have become a serial killer and how suspicion fell on him requires an examination of every murder the monster carried out.

So let's start at the very beginning with the monsters first known murders carried out in the fall of 1974 before making the drive out into the hills.

Eighteen year old Stefania Pettine and 19 year old Pasquale Gentle Corey spent the evening of September 14th dancing at a discotheque in Orrego. San Lorenzo, a small mountain town about 20 miles north of Florence.

Sweaty and full of adrenaline, Stephania and Pasquale stumbled out of the packed club, barely able to keep their hands off of each other. The couple were newly engaged, but in typical Italian fashion, they were each living with their parents until the wedding.

This arrangement forced them to get creative whenever they wanted to fool around. That night, they drove from the club out into the hills and found a secluded spot on the edge of a vineyard after making love.

They were startled when a figure appeared outside the car window before Stephania or Pasquale realized what was happening, the shadowy figure held up a gun and fired the bullet, hit Pasquale's arm, ricocheted off bone and entered his chest, where it stopped his heart. Immediately, Stephania scrambled out of the car in terror and started to run away.

The mysterious assailant shot her in the legs before she could get very far. Then he hovered above her and stabbed her nearly 100 times.

Most of the wounds were concentrated around her breasts and pubic area, but that wasn't enough to satisfy the killer's sadistic desires. He dragged stiffeners body behind the car and spread her legs. Then he grabbed a grapevine from the nearby vineyard and inserted it into her vagina.

Vanessa is going to take over and the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show.

Thanks, Greg.

Even though most murders don't involve any sort of foreign object insertion, a 2007 study by South African criminology students focused on several homicides that did their findings included some useful statistics about this sadistic practice, some of which apply directly to the Monster of Florence case.

As with the murder of Stefania, the studied homicides all took place outside, and the most common objects inserted into the victims were sticks or branches.

All of the offenders who implemented foreign object penetration were single heterosexual males.

Most were between the ages of 20 and 30 and had low levels of education and existing criminal records. There was never any semen found inside the victim's or around the crime scenes, which suggests that the murderers might have experienced some form of sexual dysfunction in the past.

Research suggested that foreign object insertion was indicative of the presence of a mental episode or disorder. But this newer study suggested just the opposite. None of the subjects examined appeared to live with any mental illness.

Based on these modern findings, Florentin, investigators should have been on the lookout for a young, single, unemployed male with a criminal record, perhaps one who experienced erectile dysfunction and possessed a seemingly sound mind.

But this research happened long after the gruesome murder. So investigators were forced to use whatever evidence they had at their disposal, which at that stage wasn't a lot. And so the case went cold as the killer hibernated.

He lay wait for almost seven years. There's speculation he left the area during that time. But in 1981, he resurfaced, ready to claim his next victims on the night of. June 6th, he headed into the hills of Villa del Origo, a mountain town around 20 miles south of Florence.

According to police reports, it's believed that the killer explored the terrain on foot, searching for a couple of getting intimate in their vehicle. Eventually, he came across 21 year old Kamala de Nuccio and 30 year old Giovanni Farje newly engaged. The couple had sought a private place to make love.

Kamila and Giovanni were fumbling for each other across armrests and seat belts when a sudden knock on the driver's seat window startled them. Before Jovani could roll down the window to see who it was, the mysterious assailant shot him in the head, killing him instantly. Next, he shot Carmella. Then he walked around to the passenger side, heaved Kamala's naked body out of the car and dragged her toward a nearby embankment covered in wildflowers. There, the monster laid Carmilla on her back, placed her golden necklace inside her mouth and cut out her vagina.

He left her there, but took his gorry trophy with him.

When the authorities arrived the next day, they found a dead man in the car, a mutilated woman on the ground and an empty purse next to her in the grass. It was a scene eerily like the one from 1974. Thirty five year old Mario Spezza, a reporter from La Nazionale, made the connection between the two crimes in a sensational piece for the newspaper. He was the first to suggest that Florence had its own serial killer.

It was a startling revelation that caused mass hysteria. While the concept of serial killers was something that Americans were getting used to in 1981, Italy had never had one, nor did they ever expect to. But thanks to Mario's article, the truth was hard to ignore. A monster was haunting the Italian hillsides, and no one had a clue who it was.

The city of Florence spiraled into an abyss of suspicion, uncertainty and gossip. Neighbor, accused, neighbor, friend, interrogated, friend, loved ones doubted their own blood.

However, Mario Spezza wasn't a fan of conjecture intent on solving the crime. The dogged reporter visited the medical examiner's office and asked pointed questions about the removal of Carmella's vagina.

Vme explained that the killer didn't have to be a butcher or a surgeon to complete a procedure of this kind. All he needed was confidence and determination.

Three decisive cuts were made to remove the organ using a very specific kind of knife, one that had a notch or a tooth in the middle. The M.E. suggested that it may have been a scuba knife.

It was around this time that police finally made an arrest. They picked up and charged 30 year old husband and father and suspects who worked as a paramedic. Authorities were certain that he was the killer, but had little actual evidence to back that up, not that they didn't have reasons to suspect him.

You see, Enzo had a reputation as a peeping Tom. What's more, he was spotted lurking in the area on the night of Carmilla and Giovanni's murders. So with those strikes against him, he was quickly convicted and thrown in prison. The police considered the matter closed and the Florentine population put the horrific episode behind them.

Unfortunately, they had the wrong man. And so Spillett, he didn't commit any murders. And while his arrest perhaps brought comfort to the people of Florentin, it allowed the real killer to claim his next victims.

In October of 1981, four months after the murders at Villa Delario, the killer drove out into the flower covered Bartolini fields just west of Florence. He hid in the shadows of the nearby mountains, waiting for an unlucky couple to drive into the secluded pasture and start fooling around.

Sure enough, a black VW Golf rounded the corner and parked in the middle of the field. He watched as the shadows of two bodies became one in the back seat of the car.

Then, by the light of the moon, he readied his gun.

Coming up, the monsters reign of terror continues. Hi, it's Vanessa from Pakistan.

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Now back to the story. On the evening of October 22nd, 1981, 26 year old Stefano Baldie and his 24 year old girlfriend, Susanna Cumbie, drove out to the Bartolini fields to have some private fun.

The open fields were shaded by mountains, making them the perfect place for couples to park and play.

It was also the perfect place for Florence's mysterious serial killer to watch his victims before he attacked. He was already waiting in the shadows when Stefano's black VW Golf slowed to a stop in the middle of the pasture as soon as the couple finished making love. The killer made his move.

He crept up to the driver's side window and shot Stefano and Susana in the head. Then he dragged Susannah's naked body from the car, cut out her vagina as a trophy and posed her mutilated corpse in the field of flowers.

The murder was shocking to the locals as police had arrested a man for the earlier near identical slayings. 30 year old Ansel's Pawlenty had been behind bars for months when Stefano and Susanna were killed and their deaths complicated the case against him.

Around this time, 36 year old reporter Mario Spezza began doing more, digging into all three crimes. Looking back at his old reports, he noted the make of the gun and bullets used in each murder was exactly the same, indicating that Enzo couldn't possibly be the killer.

Speaking with the medical examiner again, Mario also discovered that the knife used to cut up Zuzana was the same as that used on Carmilla. He made sure to include this information in a series of articles on the killer and at last gave him a nickname, The Monster of Florence.

After reading Mario's article in La Nachshon, the police ordered a comparison between the shells recovered from both murder scenes. Ballistics determined that the bullets came from the same exact weapon. A 22 caliber Beretta long rifle, handgun, Beretta handguns were common in Italy as they were often used for target practice.

And Winchester series, age 22 caliber rounds, were the most typical type of bullets sold. However, this particular Beretta firing pin left a unique mark on the rim of the cartridges found at both murder sites. This proved without a doubt that the bullets were fired from the same weapon.

It also proved that the killer was still on the loose. Florentines locals were apoplectic. Fear and terror spread through the area. Perhaps the only person relieved at the turn of events was Enzo Spillett, with evidence proving he wasn't the killer, he was released from prison.

Mario's contribution to the investigation didn't end there. Through his reporting, police learned up another couple who were near the Bartolini fields that same night. This pair, who chose to remain anonymous, spotted a red Alfa Romeo car at the bottleneck entrance to the countryside.

The witnesses said that they passed quite close to the Alfa Romeo, giving them a decent look at the man behind the wheel. They described him as having large eyes, deep lines in his forehead, a hooked nose and a tight, thin mouth. They said he looked anxious.

The Florence Police Department had a sketch of the man drawn up by the prosecutor's office, decided that releasing it to the public would only cause a new wave of panic.

But the panic was already uncontrolled. People were mailing in hundreds of letters every day, expressing their certainty that the killer was their uncle or their gardener or the shopkeeper from down the street.

However, without any further evidence, the criminal investigation eventually came to a halt, at least until the summer of 1982, when the monster struck again.

Antonella Migliorino spent the evening of June 19th with her fiancee, Paolo Minardi. They and a few other friends were at the Piazza del Popolo, a small park in the middle of the Tuscan town of Monteith's spiritually.

Antonella and Paolo were both in their early 20s and spent every waking minute together. So when they decided to peel away from the rest of the group and go for a drive on their own, it seemed like business as usual.

After winding through the mountains and breathing in the grape scented air, Paolo parked his car on a short lane just off a busy road that led to the famed piano castle. They were by no means in a deserted field, which might have made the young lovers feel safe enough to fool around.

However, after they finished having sex, Polisar figured dash behind the car. It seems likely Pallo feared it was the infamous monster of Florence because he immediately crawled back into the driver's seat and stomped on the gas. But as he reversed the car back onto the main road, the monster raised his gun and fired. The bullet hit Paolo in the shoulder. He lost control and the car flew across the lane, dropping into a ditch.

He hit the pedal once more, but the rear wheels were stuck as he struggled to get the car free, the monster crossed the main road and shot out each headlight. Then he shot both Paolo and Antonella in the head.

But to complete his ritual and claim his ghastly trophy, he needed to get Antonella to a more secluded location. So the monster tossed pollo out of the car and tried to get it out of the ditch himself. But it was no good. Now, the monster had a tough decision to make. He could attempt to mutilate Antonello right there and risk getting caught, or he could make a break for it, considering he was right on the main road. It was only a matter of time before someone stopped to help push the stranded car out of the ditch.

So he decided to flee the scene without touching Antonella at all.

It was the right call to make. Investigators later determined that six different motorists passed by around the time of the murders and a few late night joggers were only half a mile up the road. Any one of them could have seen the monster had he stayed behind to finish his ritual.

But because he fled, no one saw him. However, shortly after the monster left the scene of the crime, a man pulled over to help the car out of the ditch when he discovered the dead bodies. The driver immediately called the police.

Paula was miraculously still breathing when help arrived and he was rushed to the hospital. But he died without ever regaining consciousness.

It was a devastating blow for the investigation, but the authorities never got a chance to speak to Paolo. His story gave them an idea.

The next day, prosecutor Silvia de Monica called Mario's Betsie and a few other journalists into her office.

She asked them to write in their articles that Paolo had provided the police with some useful information about the killer before he died.

Sylvia hoped that this lie would frighten the monster and trick him into making a mistake or perhaps rile him up enough to contact the press. The utilization of the media to trigger or provoke serial killers isn't a new practice and for good reason. Studies have shown that serial killers are extremely interested in how they're portrayed by the media, according to retired FBI criminologist Robert Ressler. Communication with the police and the media is typical of serial killers whose egos tend to be so fragile.

They seek attention for their crimes. That publicity not only makes the killer feel seen, it also makes him feel powerful. Because of this, some murderers will take their relationship with the police and the media to the next level and open a line of direct communication. Prosecutor Silvia de la Monica knew that a serial killer's thirst for attention and desperate need for power were qualities that shouldn't be taken lightly. But she hoped that if they were utilized and manipulated correctly, they could lead to his capture.

So on June 21st, 1982, news publications reported that one of the monsters latest victims had lived long enough to provide authorities with some very insightful information. They just didn't offer any specifics about that information. While Sylvia's tactic didn't lead to the immediate arrest of the monster, it did stir up an intriguing new clue after the newspapers planted the story about Paolo. The police received a very suspicious looking piece of mail.

It was a faded yellow clipping from an old Lamarckian article. And at the top someone had scrawled take another look at this crime.

The crime in question had happened 14 years earlier, in 1968, it described another couple being shot dead after fooling around in their car. The weapon used a 22 caliber Beretta with Winchester H bullets.

Luckily, the shells collected at the crime scene were still sitting in an evidence file at police headquarters.

When officers examined them, they discovered that the shells all bore the same signature imprint on the monster's gun. Authorities immediately reopened the case. Unfortunately, after careful examination, it appeared that the authorities had gotten the right man. The first time around, Stephano Melee had confessed to killing his wife, Barbara, and her lover in a jealous rage. A paraffin glove test confirmed that Stephano had recently fired a gun and he was promptly locked away.

Now, journalist Mario Spezza understood that Stephano couldn't possibly have been responsible for the monstrous crimes in the years since he was convicted. However, because the same gun was used in all the murders, Mario hoped he could wrestle some new information out of the man. So at some point in 1982, he journey to Stefano's halfway house for an interview.

However, by now, Mario's name was synonymous with the story of the mobster, and the reporter didn't want anyone catching on to his investigation. The idea that the monster had been killing since 1968 would almost certainly cause more chaos.

So Mario brought a documentary filmmaker with him and told the priest running the halfway house that he was making a feature about their good work with convicts. The priest bought the story and eagerly invited the crew inside, setting up meetings with several of the residents.

Mario dutifully interviewed everyone. The priest sent his way, waiting patiently for Stefano Mellet to enter the room. However, when Stefano finally walked through the threshold, the man exhibited signs of mental illness. He paced about the room expressionless and gave rambling answers to each of Mario's questions.

Things only got worse when Mario brought up the 1968 murders. Stefano mumbled incoherently, spouting vague thoughts that often had nothing to do with the case just when Mario was about to give up. Stefano finally uttered something interesting, something useful. Even Stefano said they need to figure out where that pistol is. Otherwise there will be more murders. They will continue to kill. They will continue to kill.

Stefano was right. The key to discovering the true identity of the monster hinged on tracing the whereabouts of the gun. But that wasn't the only part of the statement that grabbed Mario's attention.

Stefano had said they will continue to kill tomorrow. That indicated that he may not have acted alone on the night he executed his wife. Maybe he had accomplices.

And if that was true, then perhaps one of them was the monster of Florence.

Coming up, two men are investigated in connection with the 1968 murders. Now back to the story.

In 1982, journalist Mario Spezza interviewed Stefano mainly about the night he killed his wife and her lover. While ballistics confirmed that he'd been the one to pull the trigger, Stefano seemed to suggest that he'd had accomplices. It was a startling revelation.

After the interview was published, investigators scrambled to uncover who might have been with Stephano on that fateful night. They quickly zeroed in on two brothers from Sardinia, 48 year old Salvatore and 41 year old Francesco Vincey Salvatore and Francesco's connections to Stefano Randeep Salvatore.

You rented a room in Stefano's house for years, and both brothers had affairs with Stefano's wife, Barbara.

This wasn't news to the authorities. The affairs had come up. During Stefano's original trial. The police assumed that all three men were humiliated when Barbara started sleeping with someone new, which meant that they all had motive for killing her if one of the brothers had assisted Stefano in the murder.

It was certainly possible that the same man had kept the gun. And if that was the case, then it seemed probable that that man went on to kill more people as the elusive monster of Florence. However, to prove this theory, investigators needed to link one of the Vincent brothers with the gun.

Stefano Mellet claimed that he threw the 22 caliber Beretta in a ditch after killing his wife, but no one seemed to believe him. The authorities searched around the crime scene and found nothing. But now the gun had resurfaced in someone else's hands, working under the assumption that one of the Vincent brothers kept the gun and had become the monster.

Authorities traced the movements of Francesco and Salvatore, crosschecking them with the locations of the murders of the two brothers.

They discovered that Francesco had an extensive criminal record and a notorious temper. He'd also been in the vicinity of each of the crime scenes on the dates. The homicides occurred in September of 1974. Francesco and his favorite nephew, Antonio, had a public argument with some men in Borgo San Lorenzo. This was around the same time and place where Stefania Pettine and Pasquale Gentle corres were killed in their car.

Francesco was also spotted near Monto Spottily in June of 1982. That same month, Antonella Migliorino and Paolo Minardi got stuck in a ditch trying to escape the monster and were killed.

Moments later, Franchesco claimed he was a spottily visiting Antonio, who lived a few miles from the murder scene. Antonio corroborated his uncle's story, but investigators weren't convinced the alibi felt a little too convenient.

Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence against Francesco involved the false information. Prosecutor Sylvia de la Monica asked journalists to plant in June of 1982 reports that suggested Paolo had provided details about the monster before dying.

These articles smartly offered more questions than answers. No one knew what Pullo supposedly told police, which meant he could have said anything. And that was obviously a frightening thought to the monster. Who knows what he might have done in response. Interestingly, the same day the news came out, authorities discovered Francesco's car hidden under some branches in the Tuscan hills. It appeared that Silvius tactic might have spooked Franchesco into getting rid of his vehicle with all that in mind.

Francesco was called in for questioning in July of 1982. When asked why he'd hidden his vehicle, he blurted out an excuse involving the jealous husband of a woman he was sleeping with.

The following month, Francesco Vinci was arrested under suspicion of being the monster. But while the authorities were happy to hold someone accountable for the monster's crimes, many Florentines were doubtful that the police had locked up the right man.

Separate from the police investigation, the public had developed their own ideas of who the monster might be, and Francesco didn't fit the profile to locals. The killer was a ladies man, a hustler and a violent career criminal.

The majority of Florentines believed the monster to be smart, stealthy and cunning. They didn't necessarily think he was a rocket scientist, but they also didn't think he was a blustering, macho hothead. So when the monster struck again in September of 1983 while Francesco was still in prison, few were surprised.

On the night of September 8th, 24 year old Horst Meyer and Ouvea Rush parked their Sky-Blue VW bus amongst the olive trees of Via de Jokily, a hillside road about six. Miles from Florence, the German tourists were taking a tour of Italy and most likely hadn't heard about the monster on the off chance that they were familiar with the serial killer, Horst and Yuva may have assumed that they were safe because they were both men based on the monsters previous crimes, he only targeted heterosexual couples, preferring to focus his more sadistic energies on women.

Unfortunately, it's possible that UVAs long blond hair and svelte frame confused the monster into thinking he was a woman. Authorities also surmised that the monster watched the couple as they got into bed together in the back of the camper. Then he shot at them with his Beretta through the side windows.

When the bodies were found two days later, Orest was splayed out on the mattress, eyes glazed and staring at the ceiling. UVAs body was still crouched in the corner. Neither had been touched by the monster, but he did make his mark in other ways.

He fired several more rounds into the side of the bus and tore up a magazine, leaving the glossy pages scattered around the crime scene.

It's thought he lost his temper after realizing he'd accidentally murdered two men, and that was frustrating to him. It ruined his plans.

The monster was a serial killer with a ritual, and this marked the second time in a row that he wasn't able to complete it. The open road in Mantus Bertolli had caused him to abandon Antonella before mutilating her, and the lack of women in Jokily forced him to go home empty handed.

While the monster brooded over his failed rituals. Francesco Vinci was hopeful that this new crime proved his innocence. Unfortunately, Florence police were hesitant to release him from lockup to justify Francesco's ongoing imprisonment.

Authorities claimed that the monster hadn't made a mistake in targeting two men because the monster didn't kill them. Even though the killer used the monster's gun. Police concocted a story in which Francesco gave the Baretta to someone else before his imprisonment. Then that person murdered Horst and Ouvea.

Investigators decided that this man had to be Francesco's nephew, Antonio. Antonio had been quick to defend his uncle after he was accused of being the monster and he had a little rap sheet of his own. He'd only been convicted of a few petty crimes, but that was enough for police to justify a search of his house.

They didn't find the Beretta, but they did find a few unregistered guns near his property and promptly arrested Antonio for possession of illegal firearms. With both Vincey men in prison, authorities hoped they could intimidate them into a confession.

Those hopes were quickly dashed. Antonio was extremely smart in court. He argued on his own behalf, suggesting that because of the illegal guns were found near his property, but not on it. There was no proof that they were even his. Furthermore, he suggested that police planted the weapons to get Antonio to rat on his uncle. He won his case and was released.

Francesco wasn't so lucky, although it was abundantly clear that he wasn't the monster. The police still didn't want to set him free. If they did, they felt they would be letting another criminal back onto their streets and that would lose them even more credibility with the Florentine public. So they kept Francesco locked up for some other minor crimes, refusing to let him go. But as the summer of 1984 approached, Florentines were terrified of what might happen during the monster's favorite season.

Despite the fact that Francesco was still in prison, no one truly believed they had the right man behind bars.

Sure enough, on July 29th, the Monster of Florence celebrated his 10 year murder mystery by taking his crime to a new level. That night, 20 year old Claudio Stefanski and his 19 year old girlfriend, Pia Rotimi, parked in the forested hills of Vecchio, a small town about 25 miles northeast of Florence.

As soon as they finished making love, the monster approached the car and shot both of them dead. Then he dragged his body away from the car and proceeded to cut out her vagina. But he didn't stop there.

This time, the monster also removed her left breast with his nöjd knife. It seems that the monster's M.O. was evolving.

FBI profilers Robert R. Hazelwood and Janet I, Warren, assert that the ritualistic aspects of a sexual crime may be expressed differently over a series of offenses. This kind of change can occur for a number of reasons. For starters, the killer may simply come across an unexpected source of arousal that alters his sexual fantasy. As a result, he may go on to fulfill that new desire during his next murder. There's also the possibility that the gratification a killer feels from his sadistic urges subsides over time.

So in order to achieve the same level of satisfaction, the killer is forced to escalate the violence. Hazelwood and Warren claimed that 25 percent of sexual criminals escalate their behavior due to this phenomenon. They also assert that the external circumstances surrounding each homicide may affect the aspects of the ritual committed. The ritual can appear unfinished if interrupted, as was the case in Monte Spottily. It may also be modified or embellished to serve a new need, which was what happened in Vecchio.

Whatever the reason, the monstrous appetite was growing and changing. The police still had no viable suspects. Now their continued insistence that Franchesco was the monster went from improbable to laughable. Four more people had been murdered since the authorities put Franchesco away and it was clear they had locked up the wrong man again.

Finally, in the spring of 1985, Francesco Vinci was released because Mario Spezza had publicly maintained that Francesco was innocent. Francesco invited the reporter to a dinner party to celebrate his newfound freedom at the end of the night. Francesco allowed Mario to interview him about what kind of person the real monster might be.

Francesco had obviously spent a lot of time ruminating on this topic, and he had this to say. Quote, The monster is very intelligent, someone who knows how to move at night in the hills, even with his eyes closed, one who knows how to use a knife better than most, one who once upon a time experienced a very, very great disappointment. Mario agreed with Francesco's assessment, considering the monsters uncanny ability to evade capture for so many years.

He had to be smart if the authorities weren't able to track him down. Mario knew it was only a matter of time before the cunning killer attacked yet another couple.

Sure enough, the monster struck again. On September 8th, 1985, he crept toward an unsuspecting couple who had set up camp in the middle of the Scoppetta, clearing a field about eight miles south of Florence. John. Michelle Krebs, heavily a 25 year old runner, and his girlfriend, 36 year old Nadine Morio, had been taking a trip through Italy after assembling their tent. The French couple went inside and began making love rather than waiting for the couple to finish.

The monster sliced a hole in the outer layer of their covering. Frightened, they unzipped the front flap to see who was outside. As soon as they popped their heads out, the monster shot them with his Beretta. Nadine died instantly, but Jean-Michel only suffered minor wounds. He immediately jumped up, knocked the monster over and started sprinting away. The monster ran after him, catching up with Jean-Michel about thirty feet away. He tackled the man onto the ground and stabbed him a number of times, then slit his throat.

Satisfied, the monster trudged back to Nadeen and dragged her from the tent. He performed the same two mutilations he'd done to around Tene the year prior, removing Nadine's vagina and her left breast as trophies. Then he put her corpse back inside the tent and zipped it shut. He left the bodies where they were found by police two days later.

Other than the shell casings left behind, the crime scene was meticulous. There were no footprints, no fingerprints and no hair follicles to be found.

Once again, the monster had stumped the authorities and intrepid journalist Mario Spezza.

At this stage, it seemed that everyone who'd been working on this case for the past 11 years worried that they would never find the man they'd been searching for.

All that changed on the morning of September 12th, 1985, when prosecutor Sylvia Della Monica walked into her office, she found an envelope on the center of her desk waiting for her as if under a spotlight.

It was addressed with letters cut from a magazine and had been mailed the day before with shaking gloved hands, Sylvia opened the thick envelope and removed the small bundle inside. She gingerly pulled back pieces of tissue paper, then let out a blood curdling scream.

When her colleagues scrambled over to see what was so frightening, they were met with a horrific sight. There on Silvius desk sat a jagged piece of Nadeen Marios left breast, a gift from the Monster of Florence. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers will be back soon with part two of the Monster of Florence, where we'll take a closer look at the psychological profile of the monster and follow the investigation as Florence is gripped by fear.

For more information on the monster of Florence, amongst the many sources we used, we found The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezza extremely helpful to our research.

You can find all episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parker just for free on Spotify. Will see you next time.

Have a killer week.

Serial Killers is a Spotify original from podcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler Sound, designed by Michael Motian with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden and Bruce Kaktovik. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Lee Reid with writing assistants by Jane Doe and Joel Kaplan, fact checking by Hayley Millican and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson. Hi, it's Vanessa again. Before you go, don't forget to check out the new podcast Limited series, Criminal Couples from apocalyptic cult leaders to bank robbing bandits to married mafiosos.

These couples give new meaning to till death do us part. Enjoy two part episodes every Monday starting February 1st. Follow criminal couples free and exclusively on Spotify.