Spezi Mario - The monster of Florence: a true story

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

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 dellOrco

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

Chief Inspector Maurizio Cimmino, head of the Florentine polices mobile squad.

Chief Inspector Sandro Federico, police homicide detective.

Adolfo Izzo, prosecutor.

Carmela De Nuccio and Giovanni Foggi, killed on Via dellArrigo, 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, killed 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 Monsters 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 mothers murder at age six.