"The Monster" is a hit, and the mystery will keep you glued to the TV. The Netflix series explores the shadows of the Sardinian trail in the darkest case in Italian history: was Salvatore Vinci the Monster of Florence? Capable of eight double murders? Was there a "particular" connection between him and Florence's wealthy elite? Lawyer Rita Dedola answers. She defended him as an intern with lawyer Aldo Marongiu, and assisted him in his divorce from his second wife. Then she lost sight of him over thirty years ago.
Salvatore Vinci and the series, tell me.
"First of all, the series does justice to a handsome guy. Salvatore Vinci wasn't very tall, he was quite stocky, and had large, metallic blue eyes. He had an intellectual air about him, and was ironic. And I'd say he was reserved, more than reserved. I can say I got along well with him."
Much has been written about his relationships in certain circles…
I remember that during Vinci's detention, we received a very beautiful, elderly Florentine woman in our office with the lawyer Marongiu. She wanted to know about Vinci's situation. We were impressed. She was quite classy. She asked for "Salvatore," and you could tell he was very close to her.
In 1988, Vinci was acquitted of the murder of his wife, Barbarina Steri, in 1960 in Villacidro. The Sardinian trail began there and vanished with that ruling. But the term "monster" still carries weight.
"From this perspective, it's still an injustice. Vinci was acquitted of wife murder. After two years in prison. And all the other speculations—let's call them suspicions—remained just that."
Lawyers Marongiu and Madìa, who defended Vinci, said that "his imprisonment was instrumental in continuing and obtaining results in the investigation."
"That's exactly right. Then they tried a second time. Luigi Lombardini, a friend and colleague of Pierluigi Vigna (the prosecutor in Florence at the time, ed.), accused him in July 1988 of molesting a shepherd boy in the countryside near Villacidro."
So what?
"It was an alliance with Florence. They were trying to interrogate Vinci and move on."
And she defended him, a few months after his previous acquittal. Then Vinci disappeared.
"When I was handling the divorce from my second wife, in '93-'94, she came to the studio to say hello and thank me. She was with a Spanish girlfriend named Marisol. She told me, 'I don't want to go back to Villacidro, I want to disappear. This label has ruined my life.'"
Etiquette and alleged sexual habits.
We've all read the famous Torrisi report on the Sardinian trail [Nunziato Torrisi was the commander of the Carabinieri operations unit in Florence, ed.]. I read it like a novel. It described Salvatore Vinci as a person who was uninhibited in certain sexual aspects. These suspicions played a role."
Support for the Sardinian track?
"Like the description of the two women. Barbarina Locci (the monster's first victim in '68 and Vinci's lover, ed.) and Barbarina Steri: almost a morbid curiosity about Sardinian families in Tuscany. Stories of lovers, the vocabulary used in the relationship..."
That is to say?
«A truculent description, let's say not 'typical' from a lexical point of view».
Salvatore Mannias, who plays Salvatore Vinci in the Netflix series, told Unione Sarda that “the real monster is the patriarchy.”
I agree. Yes, we must look for the monster within ourselves. The figure of the two poor women, the two Barbarinas: the series makes us understand how they were prisoners of that situation. And yet the acts portrayed them as master manipulators. But they didn't manipulate anything. They were slaves to a culture and a family clan.
Have you heard from Salvatore Vinci since? He would be 90 today.
«Never again since that office visit.»
Of the investigation, of the headlines, of that curiosity, what remains?
Many worked to uncover what really happened. But they didn't delve deeply, and there was a lot of mythologizing. These investigations were full of prejudice and ideologically driven. Therefore, they overlooked what was needed to move forward seriously and conclusively.
