The Monster of Florence by Magdalen Nabb

Merlini was not dead. He died in hospital at 8 A.M. the following day without regaining consciousness.
   Nine cartridge cases were found at the scene, one inside the car, the rest in three groups, the first group of three in the clearing and mixed with fragments of glass from the left front car window, the second two, at the edge of the road just out of the clearing, and the third near the opposite side of the road. It was through this grouping of the cartridge cases that the dynamics of the killing were established.
1983
Little more than a year later, on the night of 9th September 1983, in a grassy clearing near Galluzzo to the south of Florence, two German boys, Herman Mainz and Ulrich Richter, were shot to death in their Volkswagen camper. Although the murder was committed with the same Beretta 22, no further damage was done to the bodies, possibly because the killer realized on entering the camper that he had made a mistake. Ulrich Richter had very long wavy blond hair and he may well have mistaken him for a girl.
   It should be mentioned here that at the time of the Mainz/Richter murder the Beretta had already been identified as that used in the Muscas/Lo Russo murder of 1968.
1984
Late in the evening of Sunday 29th July 1984, in Vicchio di Mugello to the north of Florence, a young couple, Carlo Salvini and Patrizia Renzetti, were murdered in their parked car. The murder showed all the characteristics of the previous ones: the new moon, the car parked in a country lane, a course of water nearby. The dead boy was found on the back seat of the car wearing only a vest and underpants. Not far from the car, behind a bush, lay the completely naked body of the girl, supine with legs apart. The pudendaand left breast had been cut away. The autopsy established that both victims had been shot through the car window and then attacked with the knife. The body of the girl, who had already taken off her jeans, was dragged by the ankles to a distance of about 10 yards. The killer had then removed her T-shirt and brassiere and ripped and cut away her pants. For the first time he cut away the left breast as well as the pudenda. The instrument was a single-edged knife with the same characteristics as that used in the previous mutilations.
   Ballistics reports established that the firearm used was the Beretta 22 Long Rifle series 70 of the previous killings.
1985
The last in this series of killings was the above-mentioned murder of the French couple, Nathalie Monde and Maurice Clément, camping in the San Casciano area in 1985. The autopsy carried out by Professor Forli on the woman’s body, which was closed inside the tent, showed that the victim had been hit by four bullets, three of which penetrated the skull, and one the thorax. The man had been hit by four bullets, one in the mouth, two in the upper left arm and one in the right elbow. All the shots were fired at close quarters, estimated at not more than 15–20 inches, some from outside the tent, some from inside, but all from the front opening. It is probable that the man was lying supine with the woman on top of him. The woman died from the gunshot wounds whilst still inside the tent but the man, who was only superficially wounded, attempted to escape. He succeeded in getting out of the tent and ran for approximately 30 yards in the direction of the woods before the killer overtook him and stabbed him to death. He was then lifted and thrown down the bank into the shrub where the body was discovered.
   According to the pathologist, the woman’s naked body was then dragged partially out of the tent by the feet and the pudenda removed with ample and decisive strokes. The left breast was then cut away with a technique similar to that used on Patrizia Renzetti. Finally, the body of the woman was put back into the tent. Thewhole operation is estimated to have been completed within 9 minutes.
   On the day following the crime, an envelope was delivered to the Public