page_title: Monster of Florence
section_title: Victims
hierarchical_section_title: Monster of Florence / Victims
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Horst Wilhelm Meyer e Jens-Uwe Rüsch - le vittime del sesto delitto del cosiddetto Mostro di Firenze, uccisi il 9 settembre 1983 a Giogoli
context_page_description: The Monster of Florence is the name commonly used by the media in Italy for a serial killer who killed 16 people between 1968 and 1985 in the Province of Florence. Law enforcement conducted several investigations into the cases over the course of several years. The courts reached the conclusion that the murders were not committed by a single person but by a group of at least four perpetrators who were convicted and later became known as the "Snacks companions". The victims were young amorous couples parked or camped in countryside areas in the vicinity of Florence during new moons. The murderers used multiple weapons, including a .22 caliber Beretta gun and knife, and in half of the cases excised sex organs from the bodies of the female victims, which appeared to be the motive for the crimes.
context_section_description: August 21, 1968: Antonio Lo Bianco (29), mason worker, and Barbara Locci, (32) homemaker, lovers. Shot to death with a .22 Beretta in Signa, a small town to the west of Florence, while Locci's son Natalino Mele (6) lay asleep in the back seat of the car. The child woke up and, finding his mother dead, fled in fright. At 2 a.m. he arrived at a house at about two kilometers from the crime scene and knocked on the door, telling the landlord: "Open the door and let me in, I'm sleepy and my Daddy is sick in bed. Then you have to drive me home, because my Mommy and my uncle are dead in their car." Questioned by the police on how could such a young child like him walk along a dark and unpaved country road for nearly two kilometers, Natalino initially answered he had run away alone, then changed his story and stated that either his father or an uncle - a term he had used to describe his mother's lovers – had driven him to the house where he asked for help. Years later, Natalino said again that he was alone, but was too shocked to remember exactly what happened on that night. Locci, a native of Sardinia, was famous in the town because of her multiple love affairs, and had received the nickname Ape Regina (queen bee). Her older husband, an ingenuous man named Stefano Mele, was eventually charged with the murder and spent six years in jail. However, while he was imprisoned, more couples were murdered with the same gun. Several lovers of Locci's were suspected to be perpetrators of the crime and even Stefano stated on several occasions that one of them had killed her.
  September 15, 1974: Pasquale Gentilcore, barman (19), and Stefania Pettini, accountant (18), teenage sweethearts. Shot to death and stabbed in a country lane near Borgo San Lorenzo while having sex in Gentilcore's Fiat 127. They were not far from a notorious disco called Teen Club, where they were supposed to spend the evening with some friends. Pettini's corpse had been violated with a grapevine stalk and disfigured with 97 stab-wounds. Some hours before the murder, Pettini said something to a close friend about a weird man who terrified her. Another friend of Pettini's recalled that a strange man had followed and bothered the two of them during a driving lesson a few days before. Several couples of lovers who used to "park" in the same area where Gentilcore and Pettini were murdered stated that particular area was frequented by voyeurs, a pair of them acting very oddly.
  June 6, 1981: Giovanni Foggi, warehouseman (30), and Carmela De Nuccio, shop assistant (21), engaged. Shot to death and stabbed near Scandicci, where they both lived. De Nuccio's body was pulled out of the car and the killer cut out her pubic area with a notched knife. The next morning, a young voyeur, paramedic Enzo Spalletti (30), went around speaking about the murder before the corpses had been discovered. He spent three months in jail, charged with murder, before the perpetrator exonerated him by killing again.
  October 23, 1981: Stefano Baldi, workman (26), and Susanna Cambi, telephonist (24), engaged and due to be married. Shot to death and stabbed in a park in the vicinity of Calenzano. Cambi's pubic area was cut out like De Nuccio's. An anonymous person phoned Cambi's mother the morning after the murder, to "talk to her about her daughter." A few days before the homicide, Susanna told her mother that there was somebody tormenting her and even chasing her by car.
  June 19, 1982: Paolo Mainardi, mechanic (22), and Antonella Migliorini, dressmaker (20), engaged and due to be married; nicknamed Vinavil (a brand of superglue) as they were inseparable. Shot to death just after having sex in Mainardi's car on a Provincial road in Montespertoli. This time the killer did not have the time to mutilate the female victim as the road was relatively busy and several passing-by drivers testified that they saw the car parked at the side of the road with its interior light turned on. Mainardi, though seriously injured, was still alive when found. Police and ambulances were called immediately, but Mainardi died s
caption: Wilhelm Friedrich Horst Meyer and Jens Uwe Rüsch
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