Murder on lovers lane

In the spring of 2006, Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi's book on the Monster of Florence case was published in Italy. The authors described their lone suspect, whom they called by a pseudonym, "Carlo," and they ridiculed the work of police inspector Michele Giuttari, whose own book claimed a satanic cult was responsible for the murders.

Preston: They spin these outrageous theories.  Satanic sects … body parts used in bizarre rituals.  And then they start looking for the evidence to support the theory.

Giuttari claimed it was Spezi and Preston who were spinning a fairy tale.

Giuttari: If he writes a novel and then says it's the truth it's not right, it's presumptuous. He isn't telling the truth.

The war of the writers was about to escalate. 

Acting on a tip, Spezi and Preston had gone to an old villa searching for evidence against Carlo. They found nothing. But soon afterward, Preston's cell phone rang. A judge overseeing the monster case wanted to talk to him immediately.  Preston went to his office.

Stone Phillips: What did they want to know?
Doug Preston: They asked, "Well, why did you go to the villa?  What did you do there?  How long did you spend there?  And, you know, my Italian is not perfect, I started stumbling and stammering, which I do in Italian. And I -- it suddenly occurred to me, my God, I sound like I'm lying to them.

Then there was a twist that truly shocked him. 

Preston: The judge nodded to the stenographer, she pressed a button on her computer, and here's my voice. And here I am talking to Mario Spezi.

Giuttari and his men had been tapping Spezi's phone. They'd even broken into his car, planting bugs there, too.  They had recorded him and Preston discussing the case. And on tape Spezi said something that struck the judge as highly suspicious --

Stone Phillips: “We did it all.”
Mario Spezi: Yeah-- we did it.  We did it.  Yes. 

Spezi says what he meant was that he had turned all his information about Carlo over to police.  But the judge interrogating Preston had a different interpretation.

Preston: He said, "You went to the villa to plant evidence to incriminate an innocent man of being the Monster of Florence to deflect suspicion from Mario Spezi himself, who as you know is being investigated for murder.
Stone Phillips: This is like out of a crime novel.
Doug Preston: Yeah, it is. And he said “You're an accessory to murder if you don't tell us what you know.” At this point, I thought they were going to put me in handcuffs and take me into a cell or something. 

The judge told him he had another option: to get out of the country.

Preston: I left Italy the next day.

But Mario Spezi had nowhere to go.

Stone Phillips: They arrested you?
Mario Spezi: Yeah, and I was six days -- six days in a cell without seeing anyone.    
Stone Phillips: In solitary confinement?
Mario Spezi: Yeah.

And the man who put him there was his literary rival inspector Michele Giuttari.  Giuttari now says he does not suspect Spezi of murder, but he does think he obstructed justice.

Stone Phillips: Why would Preston and Spezi plant evidence?
Giuttari: Probably because this would have been proof of the Sardinian connection and therefore all the work that the police and the prosecutor's office had done was mistaken. It's also possible that he had his book in mind.

Inspector Giuttari told us he had proof that Spezi and Preston were dead wrong about "Carlo," the man they suspected of being the monster.

Giuttari: Evidently, Mr. Preston did not do the least bit of fact checking … In 1983, when the two young Germans were killed, this person was in prison for another crime unrelated to the monster crimes.

Since Giuttari was so sure that Carlo was not the monster, we asked if he'd set up a meeting for us.  That night, at Giuttari's office, it happened.

After conferring with Giuttari for nearly an hour, Carlo agreed to speak to us, but not on camera. 

Standing face-to-face, at times uncomfortably close, Carlo answered our questions with a smile that barely concealed his contempt.  

We asked if he was good with a knife.  He said no, although he does own a scuba knife. He's a diver. 

We asked if he was a good shot, and he said he'd never fired a gun -- not even a toy. 

We asked about his prison record.  He said he was sure he'd been in prison during one of the monster killings, but he just couldn't remember which one.

We later checked his record and found that in fact Carlo had never been in jail during any of the monster killings.  He and Giuttari were either mistaken or lying about that. 

Carlo did have a criminal record. The man who claimed he'd never fired even a toy gun had been arrested for illegal possession of firearms.

We asked Carlo flat out, "Are you the Monster of Florence?" He locked eyes, gripped my hand, and said one word.

"Innocente" -- innocent.

When we asked if there was anything more he wanted to tell us, he said what really made him angry was Spezi and Preston's suggestion that he was sexually impotent.  His words, and I quote, were "If Spezi's wife were younger and prettier, I'd show them who isn't impotent -- I'd show you right here, right now, on this table."

So here we are, more than 20 years after the end of a killing spree that left 14 young people dead.

The murder weapon has never been found.

There's no definitive proof of a Sardinian connection, let alone proof of a satanic cult.

The guy who tipped Spezi about the villa and the iron boxes?  He was a con man, out to make a few bucks.

The endless investigation has now turned into a monster itself, eating more of its own. The judge who interrogated Doug Preston is under investigation for abuse of his office, as is inspector Giuttari, who told us Carlo was in jail when he really wasn't.

Giuttari is also serving a suspended sentence for making false statements in an unrelated case.

What about Mario Spezi?  A high court in Rome finally cleared him of criminal wrongdoing.  He says the book about "Carlo" is the last thing he'll ever write on the monster case.

Stone Phillips: Do you believe he's the murderer?
Mario Spezi: I can't prove.  But I believe.

Does it even matter anymore? 

Pia Rontini was just 18 in 1984, when the monster killed her and her boyfriend.  Pia's mother told us she stopped wondering who the monster is long ago because knowing won't bring Pia back. 

Doug Preston, however, says he has to know.

Doug Preston: Why do people become obsessed?  You just think you're so close. I think the next bit of information that I turn up is going to strike gold, it's going to illuminate the truth … the truth is lurking somewhere in the world.  All we have to do is find it.

The monster may never be caught, but according to one famous Florentine, he'll never escape, either. 

In his epic poem "The Inferno," renowned Italian poet Dante Alighieri detailed the punishments he said awaited each sinner in hell.  The murderers, he wrote, are boiled in blood. 

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