Revenge for treason 4 years after the divorce: Maurizio Gucci and Patricia Reggiani

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

They were people from different worlds. Maurizio Gucci is the grandson of the founder of Gucci and heir to Rudolfo Gucci, perhaps the most enviable and wealthy groom in Italy. Patricia Reggiani is a Florentine beauty who has never worked in her life, but was beautiful and charming. They married despite the protests of the Gucci family and were happy together for 18 years. When Maurizio went to another woman, he could hardly have imagined how terrible the ex-wife's revenge for treason would be.

A worthy member of the Gucci clan

All members of the Gucci family, starting with the founder of the fashion house Guccio Gucci, had an incredible temperament. Everyone, including Maurizio, was ready to explode from any careless word. And at the same time, all the Gucci defended their opinion to the end, did not consider family conflicts to be something out of the ordinary and were able to sue anyone, even their own relatives, if something threatened their well-being.

Maurizio Gucci was no exception, who later had to prove his right to the shares of the Gucci house, left by his father as an inheritance. But so far he was young, hot and madly in love.

He did not take his eyes off Patricia Reggiani and was ready for any madness for her sake. Patricia, in turn, also did not hide her feelings. They did not notice the sidelong glances and discontent of Maurizio's relatives. True, while it was only about the novel, no one particularly interfered in the relationship of the lovers. But as soon as Maurizio started talking about the wedding, almost the whole family took up arms against him.

Love in spite of

The Gucci heir was not inclined to listen to the opinion of his family. He desperately liked Patricia, and he was going to lead her down the aisle, no matter what. She was so beautiful that she was sometimes even called Liz Taylor, comparing the Florentine diva with a famous actress. In addition to their appearance, Patricia Reggiani and Elizabeth Taylor were also related by a true love of precious jewelry.

Rudolfo Gucci hoped to the last for the prudence of his son: where has it been seen that the heir to Gucci marries a rootless girl, the daughter of a loader? But Maurizio himself did not attach any importance to conventions, in 1973 he married Patricia.

They were happy for 12 years. The wealth of Maurizio Gucci allowed Patricia to lead a completely carefree life. Yachts, luxury resorts, their own apartments, airplanes, jewelry - everything was available to them. The birth of two daughters, Alessandra and Allegra, did not complicate the life of the spouses at all.

However, their family could not be called calm. Maurizio and Patricia have never denied themselves the pleasure of arranging a classic Italian family showdown with shouts, recriminations and smashing dishes. They quarreled violently, then passionately reconciled and lived on again, without even thinking about divorce.

But in 1985, everything changed. On May 2, Maurizio Gucci informed his wife that he was leaving on a short-term business trip, but he never returned home. He had a young mistress, Paola Francini, with whom he intended to live, leaving his wife with two children. The divorce was filed only 6 years later, in 1991.

Patricia was not only angry, she was furious: a pitiful handout in the form of alimony in the amount of 860 thousand dollars a year and the remaining property to her deprived her of her usual way of life. And besides, there was a danger that sooner or later Maurizio would marry again, and then Alessandra and Allegra would have to share the future inheritance with a new wife, and if children appear in marriage, then with them.

Payback for treason

After the divorce, Gucci's ex-wife gladly gave interviews, accused her husband of treachery, and fervently wished him death. No one could have imagined that Patricia Reggiani would go from words to action.

Rumors about the upcoming marriage of her husband played the role of a trigger. At one of the seances, which were conducted especially for her by a friend of Giuseppina Auremma, the "spirits" transparently hinted to Patricia that her ex-husband should be eliminated.

The friends immediately drew up a plan to eliminate Gucci. Through the doorkeeper of one of the Milanese hotels, Ivano Savioni, whom Giuseppina turned to for help, two performers were found: Orazio Cikala, the owner of a small pizzeria, and Benedetto Ceraula, unemployed. Patricia, after a lengthy conversation, approved a plan to eliminate her husband and paid Savioni, Ceraul and Cikala in the amount of 550 million lire. Auremma received another 50 million for her help in finding an intermediary and executors.

On March 27, 1995, Orazio Chicala fulfilled the terms of the contract and shot Maurizio Gucci on the doorstep of his own office. At first, the investigation decided that Gucci's death was the work of the mafia, but this version was soon found to be untenable.

But it took another two whole years before it was possible to collect the necessary evidence base and bring charges of organizing the murder to the ex-wife of the deceased. Soon, everyone who took part in the crime appeared before the court, including Patricia's girlfriend, an intermediary who found the perpetrators and two killers, and Benedetto Ceraula did not shoot himself, but only insured his partner.

During the investigation, Reggiani began to say that her friend and the intermediary simply intimidated her and made her pay for the murder when she was ready to abandon her plan. Patricia categorically refused to admit her guilt and tried to present herself as a victim, not a criminal. The immediate performer did not want to confess what he had done.

The court's verdict was fair: the killer received a life sentence, his assistant was given 29 years in prison, the unfortunate girlfriend was sentenced to 25, and the mediator was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Patricia herself received 29 years, and after filing a complaint with the appellate court, the term was reduced by three years.

During the investigation, the daughters of Patricia Reggiani tried to present the case as if their mother did not know what she was doing, allegedly the whole story is the consequences of the operation to remove a brain tumor from Patricia in 1992. The eldest daughter Alessandra told the press that her mother was deliberately denigrated, although she is not a monster at all, but just a frightened and vulnerable little bird.

True, the words of Patricia Reggiani herself, who were willingly quoted by many publications, did not speak at all about the naivety and fear of the woman who made the decision to eliminate her ex-husband.

Patricia was allowed to keep her pet ferret in the cell and visit her elderly mother once a week. In 2011, Reggiani was offered to change the measure of restraint to corrective labor, but she refused, explaining her refusal by her fundamental unwillingness to work. However, three years later, she reconsidered her decision and still came under house arrest, during which she was forced to work for a charity and as a consultant for the selection of accessories.

In October 2016, "Black Widow," as Gucci's ex-wife was called during the trial, was released early for good behavior.

When she was released, Patricia received the money that was due to her under an agreement concluded in 1993 with Maurizio Gucci. The total amount of payments exceeded $ 26 million. Now she while away the time in boutique walks, which she makes with her macaw parrot, sitting on the shoulder of the "Black Widow".

On July 15, 1997, a similar murder occurred: Gianni Versace was shot dead on the steps of his Miami mansion. The killer was found very quickly, but before the arrest, he committed suicide. According to the official version, the motive for the crime was actions on homosexual grounds, but this explanation does not sound convincing.