Naman Shrestha
The Italian true crime series, Netflix’s ‘The Monster of Florence,’ is a dramatized version of the actual murders that haunted the entire nation of Italy for nearly two decades between the late 1960s and 1980s. In the show, while the Monster of Florence commits horrific double murders in and around Florence, a team of investigators, including Silvia Della Monica, works day and night to get to the bottom of the cases and apprehend the serial killer. Interestingly, the character of Silvia is based on an eponymous investigator, who was determined to solve the killings.
Silvia Della Monica Was the Recipient of a Horrific Mail From the Monster of Florence
Born on October 6, 1948, in Naples, Italy, Silvia Della Monica earned a law degree from the University of Naples Federico II. After serving as a magistrate in Carpi for more than a year, she became the district magistrate of Pontassieve. In 1979, she moved up the ranks and became the Deputy Public Prosecutor of Florence. Starting from 1981, Silvia worked on the horrific double murder cases of the Monster of Florence as a magistrate of the Anti-Monster Squad of the prosecutor’s office. As shown in the series, the real-life counterpart of Silvia also lied to the public, claiming that the male victim had given a critical piece of information before passing away, in hopes that the serial killer might slip up. For more than a decade, Silvia pursued the leads linked to the Monster of Florence. In September 1985, the prosecutor received a chilling envelope in the mail, inside which was a piece of the breast of a female victim.
Terrified by the mail, she soon withdrew from the case and abandoned her law enforcement career. Between 1997 and 1999, she became a member of the Superior Council of the Judiciary at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Perugia. After that stint, Silvia reportedly returned to Florence in the capacity of the Head of the Coordinating Office of the Department of Investigation for crimes against public administration and economic crime. In April 2008, Silvia was elected to the Senate of the Republic for the Democratic Party in the Tuscany constituency. In the following years, she became a member of the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission, the Second Permanent Justice Commission, and the Committee on Rules of Procedure.
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Silvia Della Monica Still Resides in Florence
Silvia Della Monica became the Vice President of the Commission for International Adoptions (CAI) on February 13, 2014. A couple of months later, she also took on the role of President of the CAI, following Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s delegation, until the summer of 2016. Simultaneously, she was also busy with investigating the criminal investigation involving Marco Griffini. At some point, she was also appointed as the Vice President of the Guarantee Council.
Silvia continues to live in Florence, Italy, where she is a member of the Supreme Court of Cassation. In a recent interview with La Nazione, the magistrate opened up about her reasons for abandoning the investigation. She stated (translated), “The most distressing thing about this affair was that it was very difficult to move forward without the weapon being found. Every time someone was arrested on suspicion, another murder inevitably occurred, which was open to various interpretations: aid to the suspect or a challenge to the investigators. The sacrifice of further lives was unacceptable; however, we investigators also felt the pain of not being able to provide answers to the victims’ families.”
When asked about her judicial achievements over the years, she explained (translated), “I don’t have one. As I told my colleagues when I left: I don’t want to be involved in this case anymore. Even though I had to deal with it as a prosecutor in Perugia, even if I limited myself to that one case. I would never dare give any indication of my colleagues’ investigations. I know they applied themselves with great determination. The results are what they are, there for all to see.”
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