The Monster of Florence: The Unsolved Mystery and Recent Developments

The Monster of Florence has been one of Italy's most famous criminal cases, a mystery that lasted almost 60 years and remains unsolved, leading to dozens of people being investigated and accused of being the serial killer. The story of the killer has recently returned to the spotlight due to the news of the exhumation of the body of Francesco Vinci, one of the first to be accused and then brutally killed a few years later. But what was his connection to the Monster's murders? Here is what we know: The first murder He was one of the main suspects in the so-called 'Sardinian trail' of the Monster investigations. Francesco Vinci was born in the province of Cagliari, in Villacidro, and his involvement in the case dates back to what is considered the killer's first victim: Barbara Locci. It was 1968 when the body of the young woman, a 32-year-old housewife, was found along with that of Sicilian Antonio Lo Bianco. Immediately after the crime, the woman's husband, Stefano Mele, accused 23-year-old Francesco Vinci of the murder, claiming that he was one of his wife's lovers, one of the most violent and jealous. What does Vinci have to do with the Monster? After an initial phase in which investigators were convinced of the husband's guilt, they began to focus on the lover, eventually accusing and arresting him. However, the murder of Locci was later linked to many other victims in other parts of the country, due to the type of targets of the killer - all secluded couples - and the weapon used in the crimes - always a .22 caliber Beretta. When it was realized that some of the serial killer's murders had occurred while Francesco Vinci was in jail (those that occurred between 1983 and 1984), the man was released. The mysterious death For years, his name was no longer associated with the case, but in 1993 Francesco Vinci was found burned to death along with a second man, Angelo Varghiu. The two had been bound and placed in a car (a Volvo) which was then set on fire in Chianni, in the province of Pisa. The investigation closed 6 years later, and again no culprit was found. Recently, however, Vinci's wife, Vitalia Melis, reportedly requested and obtained the possibility of exhuming her husband's body. The reason: given the condition in which the body was found in '93, the wife has 'strong doubts' that the person buried is not really Francesco Vinci, but someone else, and that her husband is actually still alive. Once the exhumation is carried out, a test will be conducted to compare the DNA of the body with that of the relatives. The exhumation An important development for the investigations into the Monster of Florence, as, despite Francesco Vinci's innocence being confirmed in '84 concerning the murders, it was also known at the time that the man was close to some criminal groups in the region, and for a long time, it was thought that the killer was actually one of the people within Vinci's circle of acquaintances and friends, which also included Locci's husband, Stefano Mele. If the body is not really Francesco Vinci, it would mean that the man staged his death and lived anonymously for over 30 years, perhaps for fear of being implicated in the investigations again?