The Monster of Florence
Page 1
Copyright © 2008 by Splendide Mendax, Inc. and Mario Spezi
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group USA
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroupUSA.com.
First eBook Edition: June 2008
Parts of this book first appeared in Dolci Colline di Sangue (Sonzogno, 2006) as well as in the Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker.
ISBN: 978-0-446-53741-4
Contents
Timeline
Cast of Secondary Characters, in Approximate Order of Appearance
Introduction
PART I: The Story of Mario Spezi
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
PART II: The Story of Douglas Preston
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
BY DOUGLAS PRESTON
Blasphemy
Dolci Colline di Sangue (with Mario Spezi)
Tyrannosaur Canyon
The Codex
Ribbons of Time
The Royal Road
Talking to the Ground
Jennie
Cities of Gold
Dinosaurs in the Attic
BY DOUGLAS PRESTON AND LINCOLN CHILD
The Wheel of Darkness*
The Book of the Dead*
Dance of Death*
Brimstone*
Still Life with Crows*
The Cabinet of Curiosities*
The Ice Limit*
Thunderhead*
Riptide*
Reliquary
Mount Dragon
Relic
BY MARIO SPEZI
Inviato in Galera
Dolci Colline di Sangue (with Douglas Preston)
Le Sette di Satana
Il Passo dell’Orco
Toscana Nera
Il Violinista Verde
Il Mostro di Firenze
*Available from Grand Central Publishing
To my partners in our Italian adventure: my wife, Christine, and my children Aletheia and Isaac. And to my daughter Selene, who wisely kept her feet planted firmly in America.
—Douglas Preston
A mia moglie Myriam e a mia figlia Eleonora, che hanno scusato la mia ossessione.
—Mario Spezi
TIMELINE
1951 Pietro Pacciani murders his fiancée’s seducer
1961 January 14. Salvatore Vinci’s wife, Barbarina, found dead
1968 August 21. Barbara Locci and Antonio Lo Bianco murdered
1974 September 14. Borgo San Lorenzo killings
1981 June 6. Via dell’Arrigo killings
October 22. Bartoline Fields killings
1982 June 19. Montespertoli killings
August 17. Francesco Vinci arrested for being the Monster
1983 September 10. Giogoli killings
September 19. Antonio Vinci arrested for illegal possession of firearms
1984 January 24. Piero Mucciarini and Giovanni Mele arrested for being the Monster
July 29. Vicchio killings
August 19. Prince Roberto Corsini murdered
September 22. Mucciarini and Mele released from prison
November 10. Francesco Vinci released from prison
1985 September 7. Scopeti killings
October 8. Francesco Narducci drowns in Lake Trasimeno
1986 June 11. Salvatore Vinci arrested for the murder of his wife, Barbarina, in 1961
1988 April 12. Trial of Salvatore Vinci begins
April 19. Salvatore Vinci acquitted, disappears
1989 August 2. Date of FBI psychological profile of the Monster of Florence
1992 April 27–May 8. Search of Pacciani’s house and grounds
1993 January 16. Pacciani arrested as the Monster of Florence
1994 April 14. Pacciani’s trial begins
November 1. Pacciani convicted
1995 October. Chief Inspector Michele Giuttari takes over the Monster investigation
1996 February 12. Pacciani acquitted on appeal
February 13. Vanni arrested for being Pacciani’s accomplice
1997 May 20. Trial begins for Lotti and Vanni, accused as the Monster’s accomplices
1998 March 24. Lotti and Vanni convicted
2000 August 1. Douglas Preston arrives in Florence
2002 April 6. Narducci’s body exhumed
2004 May 14. Chi L’ha Visto? program aired on Italian television
June 25. Preston leaves Florence
November 18. Spezi’s home searched by police
2005 January 24. Second police search of Spezi’s home
2006 February 22. Interrogation of Preston
April 7. Spezi arrested
April 19. Publication date of Dolci Colline di Sangue
April 29. Spezi released from prison
September/October. Preston returns to Italy with Dateline NBC
2007 June 20. Dateline NBC program on the Monster of Florence
September 27. Trial of Francesco Calamandrei as the Monster of Florence begins
2008 January 16. First hearing in trial of Giuttari and Mignini for abuse of office
Cast of Secondary Characters, in Approximate Order of Appearance
Chief Inspector Maurizio Cimmino, head of the Florentine police’s mobile squad.
Chief Inspector Sandro Federico, police homicide detective.
Adolfo Izzo, prosecutor.
Carmela De Nuccio and Giovanni Foggi, killed on Via dell’Arrigo, June 6, 1981.
Dr. Mauro Maurri, chief medical examiner.
Fosco, his assistant.
Stefania Pettini and Pasquale Gentilcore, killed near Borgo San Lorenzo, September 13, 1974.
Enzo Spalletti, Peeping Tom arrested as the Monster, released when the Monster struck again while he was in jail.
Fabbri, another Peeping Tom questioned in the case.
Stefano Baldi and Susanna Cambi, ki
lled in the Bartoline Fields, October 22, 1981.
Prof. Garimeta Gentile, gynecologist rumored to be the Monster.
“Dr.” Carlo Santangelo, phony medical examiner who haunted cemeteries at night.
Brother Galileo Babbini, Franciscan monk and psychoanalyst who helped Spezi deal with the horror of the case.
Antonella Migliorini and Paolo Mainardi, killed in Montespertoli near Poppiano Castle on June 19, 1982.
Silvia Della Monica, prosecutor in the case, who received in the mail a piece of the Monster’s last victim.
Stefano Mele, immigrant from Sardinia, who confessed to murdering his wife and her lover on August 21, 1968, and was sentenced to fourteen years in prison.
Barbara Locci, wife of Stefano Mele, murdered near Signa with her lover on August 21, 1968.
Antonio Lo Bianco, Sicilian bricklayer, murdered with Barbara Locci.
Natalino Mele, son of Stefano Mele and Barbara Locci, who was sleeping in the backseat of the car and who witnessed his mother’s murder at age six.
Barbarina Vinci, wife of Salvatore Vinci back in Sardinia, probably murdered by him on January 14, 1961.
Giovanni Vinci, one of the Vinci brothers, who raped his sister back in Sardinia, and was a lover of Barbara Locci.
Salvatore Vinci, the ringleader of the 1968 double homicide, lover of Barbara Locci, who probably owned the Monster’s gun and bullets, which may have been stolen from him in 1974, four months before the Monster’s murders began. Arrested for being the Monster.
Francesco Vinci, youngest of the Vinci clan, lover of Barbara Locci, uncle of Antonio Vinci. Arrested for being the Monster.
Antonio Vinci, son of Salvatore Vinci, nephew of Francesco Vinci, arrested for illegal possession of firearms after the Monster’s killings in Giogoli.
Cinzia Torrini, filmmaker who produced a film on the Monster of Florence case.
Horst Meyer and Uwe Rüsch, both twenty-four years old, killed in Giogoli, September 10, 1983.
Piero Luigi Vigna, lead prosecutor in the Monster case in the 1980s, responsible for the arrest of Pacciani. Vigna went on to head Italy’s powerful antimafia unit.
Mario Rotella, examining magistrate in the Monster case in the 1980s, who was convinced the Monster was a member of a clan of Sardinians—the so-called “Sardinian Trail” leg of the investigation.
Giovanni Mele and Piero Mucciarini, the brother and brother-in-law of Stefano Mele, arrested for being the two Monsters of Florence.
Paolo Canessa, prosecutor in the Monster case in the 1980s, who is today the public minister (equivalent to a U.S. attorney) of Florence.
Pia Rontini and Claudio Stefanacci, killed at La Boschetta, near Vicchio, July 29, 1984.
Prince Roberto Corsini, murdered on his estate by a poacher, August 19, 1984, the subject of rumors that he was the Monster.
Nadine Mauriot, thirty-six years old, and Jean-Michel Kraveichvili, twenty-five years old, killed by the Monster in the Scopeti clearing, Saturday, September 7, 1985.
Sabrina Carmignani, who came across the Scopeti clearing on Sunday, September 8, 1985, the day of her nineteenth birthday, and encountered the aftermath of the murder of the French tourists.
Ruggero Perugini, the chief inspector who took over the Squadra Anti-Mostro and prosecuted Pietro Pacciani. He was the model for Rinaldo Pazzi, the fictional chief inspector in Thomas Harris’s book (and movie) Hannibal.
Pietro Pacciani, Tuscan farmer who was convicted of being the Monster, acquitted on appeal, and then ordered to restand trial. He was the alleged leader of the so-called compagni di merende, the “picnicking friends.”
Aldo Fezzi, the last cantastorie, or story singer, in Tuscany, who composed a song about Pietro Pacciani.
Arturo Minoliti, carabinieri marshal, who believed that the bullet found in Pacciani’s garden, used to convict Pacciani as the Monster, might have been planted by investigators.
Mario Vanni, nicknamed il Torsolo (Apple Core), the former postman of San Casciano, convicted of being Pacciani’s accomplice in the Monster killings. During Pacciani’s trial, Vanni uttered the phrase that became immortalized in Italian, “We were picnicking friends.”
Michele Giuttari, who took over the Monster investigation after Chief Inspector Perugini was promoted to Washington. He formed the Gruppo Investigativo Delitti Seriali, the Serial Killings Investigative Group, also known as GIDES. He engineered Spezi’s arrest and Preston’s interrogation.
Alpha, the first “secret witness,” whose name was actually Pucci, a mentally retarded man who falsely confessed to having witnessed Pacciani commit one of the Monster’s killings.
Beta, the second secret witness, Giancarlo Lotti, who was nicknamed Katanga (Jungle Bunny). Lotti falsely confessed having helped Pacciani with several of the Monster’s killings.
Gamma, the third secret witness, named Ghiribelli, an aging prostitute and alcoholic who allegedly would turn a trick for a twenty-five-cent glass of wine.
Delta, the fourth secret witness, named Galli, a pimp by profession.
Lorenzo Nesi, the “serial witness” who suddenly and repeatedly remembered events going back decades, the star witness in the first trial against Pacciani.
Francesco Ferri, president of the Court of Appeals, who presided over Pacciani’s appeals trial and declared him innocent. He later wrote a book about the case.
Prof. Francesco Introna, the forensic entomologist who examined photographs of the French tourists and stated that it was scientifically impossible for them to have been murdered Sunday night, as investigators insist.
Gabriella Carlizzi, who ran a conspiracy website that identified the Order of the Red Rose as the satanic sect behind the Monster killings (as well as the entity responsible for 9/11) and who accused Mario Spezi of being the Monster of Florence.
Francesco Narducci, the Perugian doctor whose body was found floating in Lake Trasimeno in October 1985, subject to rumors he had been the Monster of Florence. His apparent suicide was later ruled a murder and Spezi was accused of having participated in it.
Ugo Narducci, Francesco’s father, a wealthy Perugian and an important member of the Freemasons—cause for official suspicion.
Francesca Narducci, the dead doctor’s wife, heir to the Luisa Spagnoli fashion house fortune.
Francesco Calamandrei, ex-pharmacist of San Casciano, accused of being the mastermind behind five of the Monster’s double homicides. His trial began on September 27, 2007.
Fernando Zaccaria, ex–police detective who introduced Spezi to Luigi Ruocco and who accompanied Spezi and Preston to the Villa Bibbiani.
Luigi Ruocco, small-time crook and ex-con who told Spezi he knew Antonio Vinci and who gave Spezi directions to Vinci’s alleged safe house on the grounds of the Villa Bibbiani.
Ignazio, alleged friend of Ruocco who had supposedly been to Antonio’s safe house and seen six iron boxes and possibly a .22 Beretta.
Inspector Castelli, detective with GIDES who served Preston with papers and was present at his interrogation.
Captain Mora, police captain present at the interrogation of Preston.
Giuliano Mignini, the public minister of Perugia, a public prosecutor in Italy analogous to a U.S attorney or a district attorney.
Marina De Robertis, the examining magistrate in the Spezi case, who invoked the antiterrorist law against Spezi, preventing him from meeting with his lawyers following his arrest.
Alessandro Traversi, one of Mario Spezi’s lawyers.
Nino Filastò, one of Mario Spezi’s lawyers.
Winnie Rontini, mother of Pia Rontini, one of the Monster’s victims.
Renzo Rontini, father of Pia Rontini.
Introduction
In 1969, the year men landed on the moon, I spent an unforgettable summer in Italy. I was thirteen. Our family rented a villa on the Tuscan coast, perched on a limestone promontory above the Mediterranean. My two brothers and I spent the summer hanging around an archaeological dig and swimming at a little beach in the shad
ow of a fifteenth-century castle called Puccini’s Tower, where the composer wrote Turandot. We cooked octopus on the beach, snorkeled among the reefs, and collected ancient Roman tesserae from the eroding shoreline. In a nearby chicken coop I found the rim of a Roman amphora, two thousand years old, stamped with an “SES” and a picture of a trident, which the archaeologists told me had been manufactured by the Sestius family, one of the richest mercantile families of the early Roman republic. In a stinking bar, to the flickering glow of an old black-and-white television set, we watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon while the place erupted in pandemonium, the longshoremen and fishermen hugging and kissing each other, tears streaming down their rough faces, crying, “Viva l’America! Viva l’America!”
From that summer on, I knew that I wanted to live in Italy.
I grew up to become a journalist and writer of murder mysteries. In 1999, I returned to Italy on assignment for The New Yorker magazine, writing an article about the mysterious artist Masaccio, who launched the Renaissance with his commanding frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence and then died at twenty-six, allegedly poisoned. One cold February night, in my hotel room in Florence overlooking the Arno River, I called my wife, Christine, and asked her what she thought of the idea of moving to Florence. She said yes. The next morning I called a real estate agency and began looking at apartments, and in two days I had rented the top floor of a fifteenth-century palazzo and put down a deposit. As a writer, I could live anywhere—why not Florence?
As I wandered around Florence that cold week in February, I started to plot the murder mystery I would write when we moved there. It would be set in Florence and involve a lost painting of Masaccio.
We moved to Italy. We arrived on August 1, 2000, Christine and I, with our two children, Isaac and Aletheia, aged five and six. We first lived in the apartment I had rented overlooking Piazza Santo Spirito and then we moved into the country, to a tiny town called Giogoli in the hills just south of Florence. There we rented a stone farmhouse tucked into the side of a hill at the end of a dirt lane, surrounded by olive groves.
I began researching my novel. Since it was to be a murder mystery, I had to learn all I could about Italian police procedure and murder investigation. An Italian friend gave me the name of a legendary Tuscan crime reporter named Mario Spezi, who for more than twenty years had worked the cronaca nera desk (“black story,” or crime beat) at La Nazione, the daily paper of Tuscany and central Italy. “He knows more about the police than the police themselves,” I was told.