The horrifying true story behind The Monster of Florence on Netflix

One of the great joys of the streaming era is the ability for shows from all over the globe coming to prominence, seemingly out of nowhere, and rising to the top of viewers' agenda.

One of the most recent series to have done just that is The Monster of Florence, an Italian true crime drama series which is currently riding high in the UK's Netflix charts.

The series charts the years' long investigation into one of Italy's most notorious serial killers – but what is the true story behind the drama?

Read on for everything you need to know.

What is The Monster of Florence about?

The synopsis for The Monster of Florence says: "Eight double murders. Seventeen years of terror. Always the same weapon. A 22 caliber Beretta. One of the longest and most complex Italian investigations into the first and most brutal serial killer in the country's history: The Monster of Florence.

"A series based on true events, direct testimonies, procedural documents and journalistic investigations. All terribly true. Because we believe that telling the truth, and only that, is the only way to bring justice to the victims.

"In a story where there have been many possible monsters, over time and investigations, our story focuses on them, the possible monsters, from their point of view. Because the monster, in the end, could be anyone."

What is the true story behind The Monster of Florence?

The Monster of Florence is based on the story of a serial killer who was dubbed Il Mostro, who murdered 16 people over the course of 17 years. Most of these were couples, who were attacked while parked in cars, often during or after having sex. A number of the female victims were also mutilated.

Police were able to determine that it was likely a single killer was behind each of the murders because the same 22-caliber Beretta pistol loaded with Winchester series H bullets was used in each incident. The pistol has never been recovered.

The first murder committed by Il Mostro is believed to be that of Barbara Locci and her lover Antonio Lo Bianco, in August 1968. The most recent was believed to have taken place in September 1985, when French couple Jean Michel Kraveichvili and Nadine Mauriot were shot and stabbed while on a camping holiday in Italy.

To this date, the killer's identity is still unknown, and while three men have been charged with murders tied to the murderer, the case was reopened by law enforcement in the 2000s and the Italian public still considers the case unsolved.

The series particularly focuses on one avenue the investigation went down, known as the Sardinian trail, which posits that the Il Mostro may have been tied to a family of Sardinian immigrants in Tuscany, called the Meles.

This came up because, initially, Locci's husband, Stefano Mele, was charged with her murder and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He initially confessed to the killing her and Lo Bianco, but later retracted his statement, and implicated several men of Sardinian origin, allegedly lovers of his wife.

Some of those who were cleared include Francesco Vinci, one of Locci’s former lovers, Mele’s brother, Giovanni Mele, and Mele's brother-in-law, Piero Mucciarini. They were all detained, but were in custody when Il Mostro struck again. All suspects implicated via the Sardinia trail were cleared by 1989.

The series does not profess to know who the killer was, or implicate any one individual.

Co-creator and director Stefano Sollima told TIME: "There was not a single perpetrator who has been sentenced for all 16 murders. We decided to tell the story from the beginning, when investigators started connecting the dots and realised this might be the act of a serial killer.

"We wanted to tell the story of the Monster without taking a position. Instead of focusing on the investigation, we kept it in the background and decided to focus on the individual suspects who, in each episode or case, were considered by the investigators to be the culprits."

Unlike some true crime dramas, The Monster of Florence uses real names of those involved in the true story throughout.

Sollima told TIME: "Whatever you see in the series is what really happened and part of the dialogues that you hear are dialogues which really took place among and between the people."

As recently as March 2022, families of Il Mostro’s victims demanded that the case be looked at again and that prosecutors in Florence follow up on potential leads.

The Monster of Florence is now streaming on Netflix – sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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