Naman Shrestha
In Netflix’s ‘The Monster of Florence,’ the primary focus is on the eponymous serial killer who traumatized Italy for nearly two decades between the late 1960s and 1980s by claiming more than a dozen victims in pairs. The four-part Italian true crime series also focuses on some of the victims, including Pasquale Gentilcore and Stefania Pettini, who were reportedly killed in 1974 by the Monster of Florence. The show takes us through the dramatized version of the investigation that ensued the double homicides as the detectives zeroed in on multiple suspects who could be responsible for the murders.
Pasquale Gentilcore and Stefania Pettini Were On Their Way to a Club When They Were Killed
Pasquale Gentilcore was born on July 24, 1955, in Arezzo, Italy, and had a bright future ahead of him. He was in a romantic relationship with Stefania Pettini, a Vicchio di Montespertoli native born on June 3, 1956. Apart from focusing on their academics, Pasquale worked as a barman and Stefania was an accountant. In their late teenage years, they had envisioned a future together, but their plans were shattered on the night of September 15, 1974. That fateful evening, they met with each other and were driving to a discotheque called Teen Club to party with their friends in Pasquale’s Fiat 127.
On their way to the party, 19-year-old Pasquale and 18-year-old Stefania parked on an isolated country lane near Borgo San Lorenzo, where they indulged in an intimate moment. Unfortunately, they never made it to the discotheque that night as they were killed in the car. When the police got to the crime scene, they discovered the two lovers shot and stabbed to death inside the car, which was found parked near the club they were supposed to go to. Further inspection of the remains revealed that Stefania was sexually mutilated with a grapevine stalk and had nearly a hundred stab wounds. Immediately, a homicide investigation was officially launched to get to the bottom of the case.
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Pasquale Gentilcore and Stefania Pettini Were Reportedly Victims of an Italian Serial Killer
During the initial phase of investigation, the authorities didn’t link the double homicide of Pasquale Gentilcore and Stefania Pettini to the previous similar killings of couples that took place in Italy around the same time. After the tragic killings, the detectives interviewed several of the victims’ loved ones, including a few close friends of Stefania. While one of her friends claimed that she had complained about a strange man terrifying her just a few hours before the murder, another one alleged that a weird man had stalked them and bothered them during a driving lesson a few days prior.
Eventually, when the investigators reached a dead end, they connected the murders to other double murders committed by the Monster of Florence, a serial killer who killed in pairs during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, as all those killings were executed using the same gun and followed the same patterns. In the pursuit of justice, the detectives suspected multiple persons of interest of being the Monster, including Francesco Vinci, Salvatore Vinci, and Giovanni Mele. Although a farmer named Pietro Pacciani was convicted of some of the double homicides, he was later acquitted of the charges upon appeal. The last suspects in the cases were Pietro’s alleged accomplices, Giancarlo Lotti and Mario Vanni, who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2000.
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