Monster of Florence

Stefano Mele and accomplice

Stefano Mele was arrested as first suspect when police believed the murder of Mele’s wife to be nothing more than a domestic problem. When it became obvious that during his time of incarceration other people were killed in same manner and using the same gun the police did not remove Mele from their list of suspects - instead they believed that he had an accomplice, who was killing people when Mele was in prison. It would make sense since during the first murders Mele was with Salvatore Vinci and used the gun that Vinci gave him, so the police theory would be that Vinci was killing people using the same gun to have Mele released from prison.

Facts that are supporting the theory:

  • Mele confessed to killing his wife, although parts of his testimony were inconsistent (what happened with the gun, was his son in the car),
  • even though Mele was still claiming his innocence he did not cooperate with the police, which may suggest that he was protecting his accomplice, f.e. he wasn’t even at the crime scene that night, Vinci did the killing and Mele was keeping it a secret,
  • the bodies of Locci and Lo Bianco were not mutilated, which might suggest that Mele killed them as revenge on his cheating wife, but the accomplice went a step further and started the mutilations,


Facts that oppose the theory:

  • first of all the more logical explanation would be that Vinci was the Monster of Florence and Mele would be his accomplice, after all Vinci suggested that Mele "should do something about his wife" and gave him the gun, which later was used in the killings,
  • second - if that was the arrangement why Vinci waited 6 years to do something to help Mele?
  • the killings went on even thought Mele was no longer a prime suspect,
  • if the further killings would be a way to get Mele out of prison, wouldn’t it be easier to leave f.e. a note with the second victims that would drag attention away from Mele? After all it took police 14 years even to prove that the killings were done using same gun...


It is highly unlikely that Mele was the original killer and his accomplice just tried to get him out of the prison. It is possible that the Monster of Florence was in fact Salvatore Vinci (or as some authors suggest his nephew Antonio Vinci) and he killed Lo Bianco and Locci as a favour for Mele. Further killings does not suggest that they have anything to do with Mele.



 theory




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