Were their body parts used in satanic rituals? Netflix tackles the horrific ‘Monster of Florence’ murders

<p>It was a brutal killing spree that gripped Italy – yet so little is still known. Why were lovers murdered in their cars? Why were their sexual organs often targeted? Author <strong>Tobias Jones</strong> sifts the evidence</p><p></p><p>Some criminal cases are so vast that even the number of victims is uncertain: in the case of the unsolved “Monster of Florence” crimes that have gripped Italy for half a century, it is known that seven couples were murdered. But some say it’s eight, and at least another 16 murders have been connected to the case. The number of suspects almost matches that of the victims. First there was the <em>pista sarda</em>, the Sardinian line of enquiry into the swinging, pimping Vinci brothers who probably had a hand in the “first” murder in 1968. In the 1990s, a rapist, Pietro Pacciani, was convicted and then cleared. In 2000, Pacciani’s co-accused, Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, were sentenced to life and 28 years respectively for the murders committed between 1981 and 1985.</p><p>Gianluca Monastra, author of Il Mostro di Firenze, writes that it’s a case in which “there’s a seductive and ever more abstract ballet of hypotheses … it’s a story in which everything can seem true, as can its contrary.” Filled with intrigue and sex (most of the victims were young couples making out in the countryside), it has spawned its fair share of obsessives, who have come to be known as monsterologists. The frequency with which evidence suddenly appeared or disappeared has persuaded some monsterologists to suspect that elements within law enforcement were involved.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/oct/13/body-parts-satanic-rituals-netflix-monster-of-florence-murders">Continue reading...</a>