ROME – Thirty-nine years since the last double-murder by the “Monster of Florence'', the deputy of the Five Star Movement, Stefania Ascari, is urging Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi, to revisit the case, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano.

  The Monster of Florence was active for almost two decades from 1968 until 1985, committing a series of double murders in the suburbs of Florence. The murderer targeted couples in parked cars and campsites under moonless nights, where the victims were found with stab and gunshot wounds.

  Four men were previously convicted, and then released due to a lack of evidence. The main suspect was Pietro Pacciani, a farmer from Vicchio, who reportedly had a reputation for domestic violence which was investigated during the murder trial. He was originally convicted in 1994 but then released in 1996 due to a lack of evidence. The Supreme Court ordered a second trial, however, Pacciani died in 1998 before the proceedings began. Instead, two of Pacciani’s alleged accomplices, Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, went to trial. Both men were controversially convicted, but many believe that the case is still unsolved. 

The last lead of evidence was a 22 caliber cartridge, the same the killer used, found in 2018 in the garden of Pacciani. There was a dismissal of the investigation requested in 2022. The case then went cold. 

  A parliamentary question has been posed to convince the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, to use new technologies in genealogy to try to find the killer. The Five Star Movement (M5S) deputy, Stefania Ascari, and a member of the parliamentary commission of femicide requested to reopen the case. Ascari recalled how in 1985, during the investigations into the last crime committed by the Monster of Florence, unknown DNA was found on the trousers of the French couple Jean-Michel Kraveichvili and Nadine Mauriot. 

  Ascari stated that, “Recently, advanced genealogy techniques have made it possible to solve numerous cold cases in the United States, including the identification of the Golden State Killer. These, through the comparison of raw genetic data, allow us to trace back to fifth cousins, thus facilitating the identification of relatives and, consequently, of the culprit.” 

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