| “ | All'Inferno? You will beg for the mercy of Hell before I am finished with you. | ” |
— Scarpa
| ||
Dr. Dominico Scarpa, a.k.a. "The Monster of Florence" or "Il Mostro di Firenze" was a prolific serial-turned-proxy killer, rapist and, later, international criminal who appeared in the Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders Season Two episode, "Il Mostro".
Background[]
Scarpa's mother Elisa was a prostitute who would solicit clients for sex in her car while her infant son was still sitting in the backseat. As an adult, he became a venerated surgeon and was employed by the Ministero della Salute[1]. From 1974 to 1985, Scarpa committed a series of murders targeting couples in Florence, which gained him the moniker of "The Monster of Florence". By 1985, he had killed a total of seven couples. In 1993, the Italian authorities commissioned the American Behavioral Analysis Unit to create a profile for the Monster. An assistant state prosecutor who received the profile, Carmela Tafani, read it and deduced Scarpa to be the Monster due to his background. However, the then-misogynistic government, unwilling to admit that a woman was right, and not wanting to prosecute a high-ranking official, buried the profile, and Scarpa was let go. At the time, he was never aware that Tafani considered him her prime suspect in the Monster's murders.
However, Scarpa was still prosecuted by Tafani, but for the rape of his own sister Renada in January 1994. Despite Tafani's best efforts, and Renada's testimony that her brother carried out the sexual assault, Scarpa was acquitted due to Renada being painted as a drug-addicted, mentally unstable woman. The bad publicity surrounding the prosecution forced Scarpa to leave Europe altogether soon after, but he continued killing as he traveled abroad. He had been last seen purchasing a condominium in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2016. Sometime afterward, he was diagnosed with fourth-stage liver cancer, prompting him to return to Italy. There, he purchased an estate in Rome, using his family trust, and took up painting as a hobby, intending to live out his last days in peace. Scarpa was later tracked down by Onario Alighieri, the product of his sister's rape, who wanted to connect with his father. He initially shunned him, but then realized this was an opportunity to ensure the Monster lived on even after his death. As a result, he instructed Onario to carry out a series of murders using his M.O.
Il Mostro[]
Scarpa is first seen in his residence, painting a picture when he is approached by Garrett and Seger. They suspect him of being the killer of fourteen people, but he hasn't been caught for it. Scarpa tells them about how he was diagnosed with liver cancer and came back home to Florence. Scarpa continues to feign his innocence of being involved with the murders. Later, Scarpa is seen in his home office, looking through the computer to see Onario's murders of Gina Price and Diane Roberts. After the IRT identify Onario as the unsub and links Scarpa's involvement, they split up and Seger goes to Carmela's residence where she finds Scarpa holding Carmela hostage. When Seger tells Scarpa to let go of Carmela, Onario ambushes her and tells her to drop the gun, which she does. When Seger tells them that she called backup, Scarpa tells her that the only way he can save himself is if he surrenders unconditionally. As Scarpa is about to mutilate Carmela with his surgery tools and Onario is going to shoot Seger, Seger tells Onario that Scarpa is not listening and that Onario did all the murders for his father and he still doesn't see him. Seger continues saying that he brought both of them to show them what he really is. Onario believes what Seger is saying to him and holds his father at gunpoint. Scarpa admits that Onario is not his son. Suddenly, Seger takes out a gun from her holster and shoots Onario, killing him instantly. Then, the team shows up and arrests Scarpa. Scarpa is last seen in the police station, where Carmela is allowed to take him to jail. While incarcerated, Scarpa dies off-screen from liver cancer.
Modus Operandi[]
In Florence, Italy, Scarpa targeted couples while they were having sex in cars parked in some secluded area in a remote county at night. He would walk up to the cars and fire at the victims through the windows or sometimes through the car doors with a .22 Beretta loaded with Winchester series H bullets. When both victims were dead or dying, he would drag the women a few feet away from the car, undress them and mutilate and stab them post-mortem, in particular around the breasts and sexual organs, which were sometimes removed and taken by the killer (with the exception of Barbara Locci, since she was his first female victim, and Antonella Migliorini for unknown reasons). The type of knife was not positively identified, but may have been a scuba knife. He is also believed to have worn surgical gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. Scarpa would later reuse this M.O. while killing abroad. In 2016, Scarpa had his son Onario continue his killings.
Profile[]
The in-show profile of the Monster of Florence was that he was a native of Florence or, at the very least, born in Italy. He was motivated by guilt, which led to him mutilating his female victims' sex organs. His Catholic roots play a part in his sense of grace versus guilt, particularly in terms of sexuality. The aggressive overkill on his female victims' bodies might be his way of punishing the feminine form for inspiring temptation in him. An aspect of the Monster's murders suggest that he has a God complex, which would fit his job as a surgeon. Instead of selecting his victims, he selects the locations where he will kill his victims, which means that the locations have some symbolic meaning to him.
Real-Life Comparison[]
As the in-show perpetrator of the original Monster murders, Scarpa obviously draws many similarities from the case. Some details of the real crimes are changed in the episode, but even these are still clearly inspired by the case:
- Scarpa's mother was a prostitute who worked in the front seat of her car while her son was in the backseat. The Monster's first canonical female victim, Barbara Locci, was rumored to be a prostitute, and her six-year-old son Natalino was in the backseat of the car when Locci and her lover Antonio Lo Bianco were murdered.
- Scarpa is only attributed to fourteen of the Monster murders instead of the canonical sixteen like suspect Pietro Pacciani was (the first two were still legally attributed to Stefano Mele). Scarpa's Interpol file also indicates that he was only sixteen at the time of the Locci-Lo Bianco murder, which, when paired by the IRT's theory that Scarpa started killing in medical school, implies that Scarpa was indeed not responsible for the Locci-Lo Bianco murders.
- Also like Pacciani, Scarpa paints as a hobby and is in poor health at the time of the last murders, requiring the assistance of an accomplice (like Pacciani was speculated to have done at the time of his trial). In addition, Scarpa has some physical resemblance to Pacciani.
- Scarpa raped his own sister, just like another Monster suspect, Giovanni Vinci, did.
- Though Carmela Tafani could not prosecute Scarpa for the Monster murders, she, in a last-ditch effort to lock him away, prosecuted him for the rape of his own sister, but the trial was a disaster and Scarpa was eventually acquitted. This scenario is extremely similar to how the Examining Magistrate, Mario Rotella, was highly suspicious of Salvatore Vinci. When he could not prosecute him without evidence (as Vinci was still in custody when French tourists Jean Michel Kraveichvili and Nadine Mauriot were murdered), he instead prosecuted him for the suspicious death of his wife (who was also raped, but the assault was not related to the death). Vinci's trial was also deemed a disaster when his son refused to testify against his father and the other witnesses' testimonies were extremely vague; this resulted in Vinci's acquittal.
- In further addition, both Scarpa and Vinci left Italy following their respective acquittals and fell out of the public eye while traveling abroad (though Scarpa ultimately returned to Florence, while Vinci was last seen in Spain in 1995 and is still alive as of 2002).
- Scarpa suffered from some late-stage form of cancer and is presumed to have died from it following his imprisonment, which could be a reference to how yet another suspect, Giancarlo Lotti, died from liver cancer.
- Scarpa was a wealthy medical doctor, much like yet another suspect, Francesco Narducci (though Narducci was born into an affluent family while Scarpa managed to move up in class and social status).
- A witness at Pacciani's trial, Giancarlo Lotti, claimed that a "Florentine doctor" (like Scarpa) had hired them to collect body parts from women, mirroring how Onario carried the latest crimes on the behalf of Scarpa.
Scarps is very similar to Teet Härm - Both are (suspected in Härm's case) serial killers with jobs involving surgical knowledge, were respected in their fields, were profiled as having the medical knowledge to commit their respective crimes, and mutilated female victims postmortem. Also, the charges against Scarpa for raping his sister is reflective of Härm's reported accomplice, Thomas Allgen, sexually abusing his daughter.
Outside of the Monster, Scarpa also drew some elements from the case of Jack the Ripper - Both were prolific (possibly in the Ripper's case) and uncaught (initially in Scarpa's case) serial killers who targeted women (though Scarpa also killed men), mutilated them post-mortem with bladed weapons, were given nicknames for their crimes, the investigations into their crimes went cold, and inspired at least one copycat serial killer. Also, Scarpa using his own surgical tools on his victims could be a nod towards the Ripper theoretically being a surgeon.
Scarpa also appears to be partly inspired by Lonnie David Franklin - Both were misogynistic rapists and serial killers with a preceding criminal record including rape before their murder sprees, worked as government employees (Scarpa was a surgeon affiliated with the Ministry of health, Franklin was a garbage collector and mechanic for a police precinct), killed their victims by shooting with a recurring signature in their murder weapons (Scarpa used the same specialty bullets, Franklin used the same pistol, though Franklin also strangled some victims), kept recordings of their murders, went dormant for decades as a consequence of response from the law before starting their killings sprees again (by proxy in Scarpa's case), were suspected of murders outside of the country they were best known as a murderer, and were finally arrested from breaks in the cases involving their sons (Scarpa was caught after making his son commit copycat murders based on his own crimes, Franklin was tied to the murders through a familial DNA match from his son).
Scarpa also appears to be partly inspired by Peter Sutcliffe - Both were misogynistic rapists and serial killers with a history in their family involving prostitutes (Scarpa's mother was a prostitute he watched have sex with johns, Sutcliffe solicited prostitutes with his brother-in-law), had a violent criminal record preceding their murders leaving them known to law enforcement, mutilated their victims with sharp objects postmortem, frustrated law enforcement from taking a long time to be caught and arrested, were profiled by consulting FBI agents, and their cases involved copycats posing as them with tape recordings, which the FBI debunked as being from the original killers, and were in part not originally caught once suspected because of internal disagreements between law enforcement.
Scarpa is also similar to Andrei Chikatilo - Both were serial killers with a warped love map from witnessing a sexual event involving their mothers (Scarpa saw his mother have sex multiple times, while Chikatilo reportedly saw his mother be raped by a German soldier during the Second World War), had sons, had records of sex crimes before their murder sprees, mutilated their victims postmortem, killed dozens of victims, and were originally not arrested from the national governments presiding over the respective sprees refusing to break from their politics.
Scarpa is also similar to John Allen Muhammad - Both were serial killers with histories of cancer in their family (Scarpa was diagnosed with and later died from liver cancer, Muhammad lost his mother to breast cancer when he was young), received prestigious recognition in their fields of expertise (Scarpa worked for the Ministry of health as a Surgeon, Muhammad was awarded high-ranking medals for his marksmanship), had the skills needed for the M.O.s in which they committed their murders (Scarpa had anatomical knowledge as a high-ranking surgeon, Muhammad was a expertly trained sniper in the military), killed their victims in public locations (Scarpa prowled lovers' lanes, Muhammad prowled freeways), trained a younger male accomplice to whom they were a father figure to kill with them, killed in increasing frequency as their sprees progressed and they and their accomplice actively collaborated, sent messages to the police to taunt them, and were motivated by a vendetta against a female attempted murder victim their murders were meant to build them up to attacking (Scarpa wanted revenge on Carmela Tafani for prosecuting and shaming him, Muhammad wanted his ex-wife dead for custody of their children).
Known Victims[]
Personal Victims
- Florence, Italy:
- September 15, 1974, Borgo San Lorenzo:
- Pasquale Gentilcore, 19 (shot five times)
- Stefania Pettini, 18 (fatally shot three times, then stabbed 97 times around the breasts and pubic area and sexually violated with a grapevine post-mortem)
- 1981:
- June 6, Via Dell'Arrigo:
- Giovanni Foggi, 30 (shot and then stabbed three times and his throat slashed)
- Carmela Di Nuccio, 21 (her vagina was removed post-mortem and taken)
- October 3, the Bartoline Fields:
- Stefano Baldi, 26
- Susanna Cambi, 24 (her vagina was removed post-mortem and taken)
- June 6, Via Dell'Arrigo:
- June 19, 1982, Montespertoli:
- Paola Mainardi, 22
- Antonella Migliorini, 20 (was not mutilated post-mortem)
- September 9, 1983, Giogoli (both victims were male; neither was mutilated):
- Horst William Meyer, 24
- Jens Uwe Rüsch, 24
- July 29, 1984, Vicchio:
- Claudio Stefanicci, 21
- Pia Gilda Rontini, 18 (her pubic area and left breast were removed post-mortem and taken)
- September 7-8, 1985, Scopeti:
- Jean Michel Kraveichvili, 25 (injured by four shots, then stabbed in the back, chest and stomach and his throat cut)
- Nadine Mauriot, 36 (shot three times in the head and once in the throat; her pubic area and left breast were removed post-mortem and taken)
- January 1994, unspecified location: Renada Scarpa (his sister; attempted, but survived; was non-fatally beaten, raped, and impregnated)
- September 15, 1974, Borgo San Lorenzo:
- Unspecified Dates
- Presumably numerous victims killed
- Unspecified location(s) in Ukraine: At least one unnamed couple
- Unspecified location(s) in Indonesia: At least one unnamed couple
- October 23, 2016, Florence, Italy: Carmela Tafani (held at knifepoint and attempted to mutilate to death)
Proxy Victims
All of the following were killed by Onario Alighieri
- 2016, Florence, Italy:
- October 21: Peyton Moss and Gina Price:
- Peyton Moss (shot in the chest)
- Gina Price (shot twice in the back and chest; mutilated her genitals and removed her reproductive organs post-mortem)
- October 22: Rory Poole and Diane Roberts:
- Rory Poole (shot twice in the chest)
- Diane Roberts (shot twice in the back and chest; mutilated her genitals post-mortem)
- October 23: Clara Seger (attempted; ordered Onario to shoot her, but he relented)
- October 21: Peyton Moss and Gina Price:
Notes[]
- Scarpa's case marks the first and only time in the entire Criminal Minds franchise where a fictional character is introduced as a real-life uncaught criminal, and also when a real-life criminal is featured as the episode's unsub.
Appearances[]
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders[]
Season Two[]
- "Il Mostro"
- "The Ripper of Riga" (referenced in flashbacks)
References[]
- ↑ "Ministry of Health" in Italian