Prato, 17 April 1952 night. Strange episodes, which have alarmed the population, have been happening for some months in the Prato plain, where an unknown person beats people or throws them to the ground with powerful pushes. He is an unbalanced person probably suffering from lycanthropy, given the inhuman and lugubrious screams with which he accompanies his deeds. The latest victim was the parish priest of Grignano, Don Gennaro Bigagli, who near the rectory was attacked by a figure armed with a stick who emitted inhuman screams. The next day the carabinieri immediately set out to search for the “wolf-man”. They found a vine pole with which the priest was attacked and traces left by the fleeing attacker that end in a corn field, not far from the scene of the crime. Many, questioned about the fact by the police, remember immediately after dusk a shadow that rose up behind them and, with a push or a blow, threw them to the ground with a very loud bark. Who could be this individual who, based on the phases of the moon or some other element, is seized by these crises that transform him into a beast, attacking passers-by?
The thorny issue related to the Monster of Florence is still a story full of mysteries and not completely resolved. For example, it is still not known why the so-called “snack buddies”, definitively convicted for the Monster of Florence crimes, committed those horrific crimes. Perhaps due to psychopathology, but there is no clinical evidence of psychopathology. So, commissioned? Even in this case, however, there is no material evidence of the existence of one or more instigators for the double homicides. The paradoxical result is that, for the Italian justice system, there was a psychopathological crime but no psychopathological criminal and at the same time there was a crime on commission but no instigator. It is much more likely that the crimes fall into the category of lust murders. To get a glimmer of truth, we must therefore ask ourselves not so much who but why. Cristiano Demicheli, born in Genoa in 1975, has already dealt with the Monster of Florence case in a previous volume. The book in question is That Dark Desire: A Profile of the Monster of Florence of 2020. In this new volume published by Rogas Edizioni, he manages to provide a satisfactory and coherent answer to various questions that are still open about the entire story. An answer that could take us a few steps towards the truth. The first part of the volume is dedicated to answering various questions in a general way, such as, for example, the reason for female mutilation or the use of the same gun. In the second part, however, the author focuses on the description of a specific subject who would correspond, in many respects, to a psychological identikit that would correspond to that of the monster. In fact, in 1984, a man with multiple criminal records from Prato, a certain Paolo P., declared himself to be the Monster of Florence. His home was located a few meters from at least three crime scenes and his work put him in direct contact with one of the victims.
