January 7, 1925 - Pietro Pacciani

The Monster of Florence (Italian: il Mostro di Firenze) is the name coined by the Italian press for a serial killer active within the former province of Florence (now the Metropolitan City of Florence) between 1968 and 1985. The Monster murdered sixteen victims, usually young couples secluded in search of privacy, in wooded areas during new moons.

Multiple weapons were used in the murders, including a .22 caliber handgun and a knife, and in half of the cases a large portion of the skin surrounding sexual organs was excised from the bodies of the female victims. The Monster represented the first known case of serial murders against couples in Italy; often being called the country's first modern serial killer case; and received a vast media coverage both at the time of the crimes and during the various trials against the alleged perpetrators, to the point of influencing the habits and daily life of the entire Florentine population, who began to avoid secluding themselves in isolated places. The fact that the victims were young couples also stimulated debate in the media on granting adolescents the opportunity to find privacy at home more freely, thus avoiding the lure of isolated and dangerous places.

Law enforcement conducted several investigations into the murders over many years.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster of Florence under CC BY-SA 4.0.