Dateline NBC - Murder in the House of Gucci

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

Insiders close to the Gucci family speak out about the murder of Maurizio Gucci, the former CEO of the fashion empire. Natalie Morales reports.

Maurizio Gucci, a prominent, larger-than-life member of the world's most famous fashion family, had been assassinated in broad daylight in Milan. His family and friends were processing their disbelief and grief. I had to cry. He was somebody special, someone I never thought I would have the honor to have known. Sherry Loud met Maurizio in 1984 at a sailing regatta. He was wearing white jeans and a blue chamois shirt. I'll never forget it as long as I live. And he had those famous glasses, the aviator glasses. Sherry knew Maurizio by reputation as a powerful and wealthy man. But once they got on a boat, she found him to be unassuming and

humble. We didn't have champagne or wine. We had panini and water, and I got soaking wet every day, and I was in heaven. And I really enjoyed being with him, because he was so playful. I always remember him with a big smile. He was always positive, okay? Andrea Morante, who had once been Maurizio's business partner and advisor, couldn't believe the news. It was very difficult to understand. It was very difficult to understand. It was very difficult to justify.

So you had no initial suspicions as to who was behind it? No. I didn't even ask myself, you know, who could it be, because it was so far-fetched, the idea that somebody would do it, that you don't even ask yourself, you know, who can do it. The man tasked with figuring that out was Carlo Nocerino, an experienced prosecutor who nonetheless had never investigated a high-profile murder. As soon as he arrived at the murder scene,

he learned that even though the hitman shot the building's doorman, miraculously, the doorman survived. The gunman had only shot him in the arm, leaving a potential witness alive. Well, the doorman tried to give us a sketch of what he looked like, but obviously he only saw him for a few seconds, and he was terrified and he tried to protect himself, so the porter couldn't focus on the killer's appearance. But he did have information about the gun.

The doorman noticed the length of the gun was unusual. The doorman heard the shots, but they were dull shots like he was using a silencer. The shots were muted. But despite this telltale detail, the prosecutor decided this was not a professional hit no exactly a professional killer would have killed the doorman because of their proximity to each other the killer would have shot him in the middle of his head they wouldn't have missed him so who was this gunman and why had he killed Maurizio Gucci?

Investigators knew when it came to murder, the motive was usually love or money. The first thing we thought was to follow two separate leads, family and business. But the prosecutor realized very quickly that when your name was Gucci, family and business were often the same thing. Well, the Gucci name now is a brand, but I was born just a very simple name of my great-grandfather, Guccio, that opened a little shop in Florence in 1923. Patrizia Gucci is Maurizio's niece and the author of a memoir about her famous family. She played as a child on the floor of the Gucci factory, inhaling the smell of the leather, as artisans expertly crafted it into some of the world's hottest accessories.

We had a lot of love and passion, especially for their job. They put all passion, all creativity, all energy in their life. What started as a small factory began to grow, first throughout Italy, then Europe. Before long, Gucci conquered America too, beguiling the rich, famous, and powerful. Patrizia still remembers an envelope her grandfather sent back home from New York. With a check inside, signed John Fitzgerald Kennedy. So my grandfather was so proud of this. Moritzu was born into this proud and talented family in 1948. His mother tragically died when he was just five years old, and he was raised by his father, Rodolfo,

a former silent film star who had inherited half of the family business. It was a relationship always where he was told to do things, that he had to do things, that he had to do them in a certain way, that he was a Gucci and therefore he had to adjust to a certain cliché. Maurizio did what his father expected of him, but all of that changed at a party in 1970 where Maurizio met a chic, glamorous young woman named Patrizia Reggiani. She loved good style.

She was ambitious. And she had been pushed by her mother to not only marry well, but to marry a big name. Patrizia's stepfather owned a successful trucking business. So Patrizia had money, but she lacked the social status of the Milano Bene, the high society Milan elite to which the Gucci's belonged. Lady Gaga, who plays Patrizia in House of Gucci, believes it was tough, perhaps impossible, for Patrizia to win over this elitist family. She's never as shiny as the Gucci's. She's always an outsider. She never really fully makes it.

Nonetheless, Maurizio fell head over heels for Patrizia and proposed to her on their second date. She was incredibly beautiful. She was actually compared to Elizabeth Taylor in looks. But I think it was actually her personality that made her very dynamic. Dan Wakeford is People Magazine's editor-in-chief. She was very fun, very funny, and very clever. She knew what she wanted, and she went out to get it. So she wanted to get to that next echelon of society. And she met Maurizio, and she found her way.

She found her way, but I mean, she found love too, right? I mean, theirs was a true love story. It felt like a love story. And the love story turned very Romeo and Juliet when Rodolfo actually said he didn't approve of Patrizia. Maurizio's father became even more dramatic when his son told him he had proposed to Patrizia. He was very concerned about Patrizia,

the way she would spend money and the way she wanted to live her life. Domenico De Sole, who was Gucci's CEO in the late 90s, started out in the company as Rodolfo's lawyer and confidant. Did he view her as a gold digger? Yeah, you can describe that way, yes. And had even gone all the way to the Cardinal of Milan to ask him to prevent the marriage from happening.

And the Cardinal told him, no, you know, if they're in love, there's nothing we can do to stop them from wedding. Desperate, Rodolfo gave his son an ultimatum. It's either her or me. The choice Maurizio made would be life-changing, but in ways he could not foresee. Coming up... What we watch is an outsider grab a hold of Maurizio. She reminded me of Joan Collins. She was dripping in jewels and makeup and heels. Love or family, which would Maurizio choose?

When Dateline continues. It was a battle for the love of Maurizio Gucci. In one corner, Patrizia Reggiani, the up-and-coming socialite who had captured his heart. In the other, Maurizio's domineering father, who believed Patrizia was only in it for the money and the name. Not only did Rodolfo not approve, didn't he give Maurizio an ultimatum? Oh yeah, he said it's either me or her. And love did prevail for Maurizio. He chose to marry Patrizia. Rodolfo was furious. He refused to come to the wedding And cut his son off

In fact, no one from the Gucci family Showed up to watch the happy couple Walk down the aisle To Lady Gaga That turn of events Showed that Patrizia was not the gold digger The family believed her to be What we watch is an outsider

Patrizia Reggiani Come into the family And grab a hold of Maurizio. But when they got married, his family had turned their back on him. So she didn't marry for money, she married for love. Finally, about two years after their estrangement, Maurizio's uncle Aldo persuaded Maurizio and his father to reconcile. Then Aldo persuaded Maurizio to come to New York to work for him. So Aldo was really the marketing and expansion genius of the family. He opened the first store in Rome, the first store in New York, the first store in Rodeo Drive. He had a vision for how Gucci could be an empire.

And Aldo used to say, you know, my family is like a train. I am the engine and they are the caboose. In 1975, Maurizio and Patrizia moved to Manhattan where he worked hard to learn the business from Uncle Aldo. While she gave birth to two daughters, Patrizia also began to make an impression on high society. She was always perfect, you know. Makeup was perfect, and she had beautiful jewelry.

She's always impeccable. I could tell that she was a person that was very used to get away. Certainly she did get away with Maurizio. Whatever she wanted, she got? Sort of, yes. By the early 1980s, Gucci was firmly established as a must-stop for the rich and famous. With 60 luxury boutiques around the world, the company had become an empire. As investigators explored Maurizio's rise to the top of Gucci, they learned Maurizio and

Patrizia were both reveling in his success and the riches it brought. They had this phenomenal penthouse apartment and the Olympic Towers. They were kind of the Gucci couple around town. Everybody knew who they were. New York's new power couples strutted their stuff at famous celebrity haunts like Studio 54. At this point, Patricia is really enjoying life. She loves everything that's going on in New York. Celebrities, fun, money, parties. New York is all about that. There was a famous interview that Patricia did, and she talked about her lifestyle.

Patricia said, I would rather weep in a rose voice than be happy on a bicycle, which is just crazy. It just sums her up that she is fascinated by luxury things. Maurizio was too. He bought a ship called the Creole, then the largest wooden sailing boat in the world. Sherry Loud was an avid sailor who helped him renovate it, stern to bow. We bought shark skin from Japan for the couches. We traveled for art in mostly Denmark. He loved the Turkish or the Moroccan tiling. We went to

Murano to buy all the glassware and design all the dishes. The renovation took five years and the cost? $25 million. I think he was used to luxury and surrounded himself with as much as he could because he was brought up that way. He lived that life. And I don't know if he had any boundaries. It didn't occur to him. Mariccio started sponsoring sailing teams in races all over the world. He brought Patrizia, who didn't quite fit in. Mariccio would arrive by helicopter, and often she would accompany him. And she reminded me of Joan Collins. She was dripping in jewels and makeup and heels, and it was not appropriate because you're sailing. You're in dock siders or sneakers and jeans. She seemed above it all and couldn't be bothered by it.

Patrizia not only strutted her stuff in high society, she did it at Gucci, too. She tried to make decisions for him as far as who he would work with and tried to steer him in the direction that she thought the company should go in. That's how she was using her marriage. She wanted more money, more and more and more and more. So Maurizio had described his father as being domineering, but then he marries Patrizia, who turns out she seems to be domineering as well. That's for sure. I think she was more domineering than Rodolfo. When Rodolfo died in 1983

and Maurizio inherited half the company, Patrizia's wish came true. Her husband was finally on top. I mean, obviously Maurizio's upset that his father's died, but he's left him in such a strong position. Now Maurizio had more shares in the company than anyone else, even his uncle and mentor Aldo. But when Maurizio tried to exert his new power, Aldo slammed on the brakes. There was a lot of anger and frustration and jealousy. This was not a friendly family environment at all. Investigators wondered, did the ensuing fight for the heart and soul of Gucci lead to murder?

Coming up, inside the empire, infighting and intrigue. The animosity was so severe that the Italian press would say instead of G is for Gucci, it was G is for guerra, war. I witnessed that many, many occasions. As investigators were searching for clues that would bring them closer to solving Maurizio's murder, they wondered, did his sudden rise to power at Gucci ruffle any feathers, especially those of his preening Uncle Aldo? So Aldo was not really ready or willing to give up control, because, you know, you have to realize Aldo, he was Gucci.

He was Gucci and Gucci was him. He was the engine. He had built it with his own hands and the brio of his personality. And Andrea Morante, one of Maurizio's financial advisors, said making a rival of Aldo was a dangerous game. He could transform a caress into a scratch. In fact, Aldo's entire family had a reputation for ferocious infighting. I read the animosity was so severe within the family that the Italian press would say instead of, you know, G is for Gucci, it was G is for guerra, war. I witnessed that many, many, many, many occasions.

On one occasion, Di Sole was at a board meeting when Aldo objected to his son Paolo recording the proceedings and watched them come to blows. Aldo, who is a very strong man, jumps up, runs on the other side of the table, takes the tape recorder, smashes the tape recorder, and gets into a fistfight with Paolo. Maurizio tries to separate the two, okay? And needless to say, he got punched in the face. Punched in the face by one of the two, okay? And needless to say, he got punched in the face by one of the two contestants. So when Maurizio started calling the shots at Gucci, Aldo and his sons predictably threw a

punch at him, accusing Maurizio of dodging millions of dollars in taxes, charges that could land him in prison, and even worse, for a man like Maurizio, embarrass him. These lawsuits were splashed all over the front pages of the papers. And so as soon as these cases went into the courts,

they became public. And so the personal family business was in plain sight for everyone to view. Police launched an investigation and in a scene straight out of a Bond film, just as authorities were swooping in to arrest him for the alleged tax fraud, Maurizio, with help from his personal driver Luigi, escaped to his Swiss villa. When he got to St. Moritz, he called me, said, you aren't going to believe what just happened to me.

Luigi came running in and said, the police are here, they're coming for you. You have to leave right now. And he left out the back door and got on the motorcycle and he took off. From his swanky Swiss lair, Maurizio plotted his revenge as only a Gucci could. He partnered with an investment bank and together they identified a weakness in Aldo's family alliance. A son who carried his own grievances against Aldo and was more than willing to sell his share of the company. Once he did, there was nothing the remaining family members could do to stop Maurizio from becoming Gucci's top dog. I go to all the other cousins, one by one, individually, and I tell them, you know, the game is over here. With their power gone, it was fairly easy to persuade the rest of the family to cash in and sell their Gucci shares.

Was there a sense of betrayal as well, though? Yeah, there was a sense of betrayal. Aldo said one thing that I'll never forget is that, you know, I'm not selling you my shares, but I'm selling you my soul. Maurizio was willing to cut out his family, so he chose company over family. At what cost? Tough decisions require also some tough consequences, but he was aware of those consequences,

and he was not afraid of accepting those consequences. Aldo never got over his loss of Gucci. He died a bitter man in 1990. Aldo's funeral was very, very painful and Maurizio comes down from Milan, but the animosity is so great that they just give him the cold shoulder. The resentment was through the roof.

Now, five years later, Prosecutor Nocerino wondered, were the seeds of murder planted in that vicious family feud? Talking to the family members, it was clear there was a lot of feeling of resentment and betrayal, right? Well, I'm not sure about betrayal, but there surely was resentment. While investigators wondered about that, they were also pursuing a new lead. Nocerino found that almost as soon as Maurizio took control of Gucci, his life of outrageous luxury and conspicuous consumption caught up with him. You know, some people that could be very wealthy asset-wise,

because obviously they own the share of the company, but there's an issue. You didn't have the cash to keep this lifestyle. In fact, he owed tens of millions of dollars. By 1993, the banks had had enough. In fact, he owed tens of millions of dollars. By 1993, the banks had had enough. If Maurizio didn't repay his debts, they would seize his shares of Gucci. And then, a miracle.

Maurizio suddenly came up with the money. How did he do it? By reaching out to one of Italy's most wanted men, an alleged terrorist and millionaire named Delfo Sorci, who had been accused of helping to plan a bomb that killed 16 people in 1969. He fled to Japan before police could arrest him. This whole thing was very strange. It was strange that Maurizio asked for money. Maurizio got a personal loan from Sorci by promising him the rights to sell Gucci products throughout the Far East. So how much money did he borrow from Delfo Sorci?

Forty million dollars. That's 40 million reasons to kill someone, perhaps. That's why we wanted to understand why and what their agreements were. And above all, if Maurizio Gucci gave Zorzi the money back. Uncle Aldo said he sold his soul when he let go of Gucci. Investigators wondered, have Maurizio sold his to keep it? Now possible suspects in the murder were starting to pile up. And soon there would be one more to add to the list.

Someone else Maurizio had wronged who had been threatening to do something about it, loudly. Coming up... She was unkind, always put him down. He started to feel sort of preyed upon. A marriage on the rocks and a new romance on the side. He said to me, I am your knight in shining armor. When Dateline continues.

Maurizio's finances were a mess, and from the beginning, investigators had wondered if his love life was too. In fact, one of the first people Prosecutor Nocerino interrogated after the murder was Patrizia Reggiani. When I questioned her for the first time, she was calm and confident. She was tense because she understood that the questioning was important, but she wasn't crying or trembling or worried. And in terms of the evidence, I mean, I imagine the first thing you ask is the alibi. Yes, I did ask about her alibi. She had one.

We could not place her in Via Palestra that day. But now that he knew more about Maurizio, Nocerino wanted to learn about Patrizia too. So he went back in time again, to when she watched her husband lead the company for the first time. She's finally seen a return on her investment. Sofia Percio is an assistant editor at Forbes who reported on Maurizio's murder.

She feels like she has spent time and care and attention into this relationship and this glimpse of a life that she first saw in that party in Milan in the early 70s. A decade later, there they are. They are the Gucci couple, Mr. and Mrs. Gucci. In public, they were fashion's new power couple. But below the surface, Maurizio and Patrizia's 10-year marriage had begun to crack. House of Gucci explores that building tension between Maurizio and Patrizia in a pivotal scene in which Adam Driver as Maurizio looks at some Gucci counterfeits. This is serious. And you're laughing it off.

At least it's my name on the mug, it's not yours. Our name, sweetie. After some time, her pushing started to grate on him. And he started to feel restless and he started to feel sort of preyed upon. You could definitely see that he had the beginnings of really wanting to kind of call the shots himself. But there was also something else, or rather, someone else. He said, do I ever get to talk to you alone? And I said, me? You're married.

Sherry Loud was 25, 10 years younger than Maurizio, when he made his move at a dinner after one of the sailing races they'd watched together. He said he never met anybody like me. Real, funny, not impressed, not bejeweled or bedazzled, and very natural and American. Sherry resisted at first, but Maurizio was used to getting what he wanted. So several months later, there she was, waiting for him at a hotel in Nice, France. I had to walk down, I'll never forget it,

this huge flight of stairs, and he was at the bottom. And I'm not really a nervous person, but I had a lot of butterflies. And I got to the bottom, and he said to me, I am your knight in shining armor. I just forgot the horse. It was the beginning of a passionate affair that would change Sherry's life and Maurizio's.

By then, he'd been married to Patrizia for 12 years and was desperately looking for a way out. She was unkind, always put him down, didn't want to do anything that he wanted to do. He said he didn't love her anymore. He said he just had enough. Maurizio had always shied away from confronting Patrizia. So one day in May 1985, he packed his suitcase and left the apartment he shared with Patrizia and his two daughters. He didn't say anything. He packed a bag.

He said he was going to Florence for business meetings. He left. And it wasn't until the next day that he sent a friend to tell her that he wasn't coming back. Not coming back. As in ever. Sherry found out about it the next time they met. He pulled up in a Ferrari to pick me up from the airport and he said, I moved out. I'm done. I didn't really know what the future would be for both of us, but I was happy that he felt free. Maurizio may have felt liberated, but Patrizia had been blindsided. It must have been incomprehensible to her because, you know, they had built so much of what they had together in

her mind. And I think that it was also the fact that he couldn't tell it to her face was also indicative of how far apart they'd already grown. Maurizio leaving made something else painfully clear. Patrizia was never really a Gucci. She would recall later on that he told her, you fancied yourself president of Gucci, but here there's only one president. Patrizia also remembered what Maurizio's father, of all people, told her about her husband. Rodolfo warned Patrizia that Maurizio would change when he got the money and the family wealth.

She said, be careful because when Maurizio gets everything that I will bequeath to him, he will change. And that's exactly what happened. But Patrizia wasn't the kind of woman who would let things like that just happen. Coming up. Her anger starts to grow. A woman scorned. Could she be planning to settle the score? For her, it was very personal.

She said that she could never forgive what he did to her. Freed from his father, freed from his wife, Maurizio was finally his own man. He was able to be reborn. He was able to become himself, finally. He wasn't under anybody's pressure or anybody's constraint like Rodolfo or Patricia. The man with whom Sherry Loud had fallen in love didn't seem to be constrained by anything anymore. Like the time he surprised her in New York with a very expensive delicacy, he sneaked past airport customs.

He would smuggle in truffle. We loved truffle. He'd put it in a jar with rice and smuggle big, big, and we'd shave it on everything. Eggs, pasta, and he was just so excited to do something like that. But while Maurizio was feasting on the finer things in life, Patrizia was being devoured by rage. We'd go to Samaritz and we'd have to leave because someone would call, she's on her way. And everybody had to clean up and pack and leave, just leave, because he didn't want to have the confrontation.

She was very confrontational. Sherry said Patrizia was so angry she prevented Maurizio from seeing his daughters for months at a time. It was all a bit much to handle for a young suburban woman from Connecticut. So after five years, Sherry called it quits. At the end, I just got tired of traveling back and forth. And I got tired of the drama. Because it was never ending. I couldn't handle it anymore.

I didn't want to handle it anymore. She and Maurizio parted as friends, then gradually lost contact. And perhaps it was just a matter of time before another woman walked into Maurizio's life, Milan interior designer Paola Franchi. That relationship was an even greater affront to Patrizia, who was still married to Maurizio, even though they'd been separated for five years. Patrizia hated Paola and really saw Paola as the gold digger and Paola trying to get her hooks into Maurizio.

NBC News correspondent Claudio Lavanga says that Patrizia's hate grew when she found out that Maurizio and Paola had moved in together. So right there, number 38, that's where Maurizio and Paola lived, right? That's right. This is Corso Venezia, which is one of the most exclusive areas of Milan. The fashion district is literally feet away. His office is around the corner. And they lived just up there on the last floor, a beautiful, enormous apartment. They were remaking, redoing, and probably planning a future together.

Yeah, the story was that they actually were thinking to get married. Well, and that may have been a rumor that Patricia may have heard as well. Her anger starts to grow as she realizes that she's really suffering this deep loss. And it's really a loss of her own identity, too, because she had come to identify herself with Gucci and as La Signora Gucci. In 1991, a year after he met Paola, Maurizio officially filed for divorce. Even worse, the next year, Patrizia was diagnosed with a brain tumor and rushed into surgery. In the recovery room, she opened her eyes, hoping that Maurizio would be there. He was not.

He sends flowers instead with a note that just reads Maurizio Gucci, which is definitely a cold move in her eyes. And the way that she starts to think of him really is less of a person, someone who's betrayed her and let her down multiple times. The tumor turned out to be benign, but by now, Patrizia's anger had become malignant. And just when it seemed that her rage could not rise any higher, it did, when in September 1993, Maurizio lost Gucci. Maurizio had a strong vision, but Maurizio did not execute, could not execute. And the company was broke. You know, the company was really, it was just, it was a disaster.

What happened? In his effort to return Gucci to glory, Maurizio focused on high-end luxury items. But he pulled the plug on many of the cheaper products that actually made money for the company. Gucci plunged into the red. I think we already saw the light of the tunnel. But the financial investor thought that it was in the interest of the company, but also in the interest of the shareholders, to try and change the interest of the company, but also in the interest of the shareholders, to try and change the leadership of the company. Now, for the first time in its 70-year

history, there wasn't a Gucci leading the company. It was a huge blow to the Gucci family and to Patrizia, who took it personally. She said that she could never forgive what he did to her. So for her, it was very personal. When he lost Gucci, it was a personal attack to her and all that she had tried to do for him. Did that despair and disappointment add up to a motive for murder? To make that case, Prosecutor Nocerino would need to find clearer evidence. But that would have to wait.

The alleged terrorist, who had loaned Maurizio $40 million, was ready to talk. Coming up, an accused terrorist, a betrayed family, a bitter ex-wife. Were any involved in this murder? Investigators uncover a secret tape. It was pure hatred. When Dateline continues. It had been about a year since the murder of Maurizio Gucci, and still no arrests. Prosecutor Nocerino and his team took stock. Who could have killed him?

One intriguing person of interest was Delfo Sorsi, the alleged terrorist, who had loaned Maurizio $40 million to pay his debts. Zorzi had been living beyond the prosecutor's reach in Japan, but after receiving assurances he would not be extradited to Italy, Zorzi agreed to meet with Nocerino in Paris. He clearly explained to us that Gucci gave him the money back. And you believed him? Did he give you proof? Yes, he did. Zorci gave us proof of this payment. So when you left that meeting in Paris, you had eliminated Sorci as a suspect? Yes, I did. That lead was over. Years later, Sorci would be cleared of the terrorism charge too. And with him out of the picture, Nocerino turned his attention to Aldo's family.

Investigators interviewed the entire family, including his granddaughter, Patrizia Gucci. We were all called, and I told them what I knew. Did they ever seem to suspect that anyone from the family could have done this? No, no one in the family. Actually, there was someone who did this terrible article. Look for the killer inside of the family. It was something completely made up. Maurizio Gucci, murder.

That fact, horrible fact, happened. It's nothing to do with the family members. Right. So, dunk. Square. Cut. Indeed, nocerino found that aldo's sons simply took the cash and ran leaving their family business including maurizio behind right away it was clear that all the family fights were old and all of them had been settled with contractual agreements. There weren't any more remaining fights. In this murder,

the Gucci family is not involved. There wasn't any evidence. And that left Patrizia Reggiani, Maurizio's ex-wife, who still insisted on calling herself Mrs. Gucci. Even though her contentious divorce with Maurizio

had been in all the Italian tabloids, here she was at his funeral, appearing as the grieving widow. She organized the funeral for Maurizio, and she was in the front row with the girls, and so she was, she at that moment kind of became La Signora Gucci again in a very public way.

She makes this choice of wearing a black veil, which is so dramatic. And so she almost steps into the role of a black widow. It was a description the tabloids could not resist. But investigators soon learned that while most people abide by the old adage, don't speak ill of the dead, this black widow wasn't one of them. A friend called and asked if she'd heard the news and she said, Maurizio may have died, but I have just begun to live. And the more investigators looked, the more bitter Patrizia looked to them, especially after they uncovered a recording of a

dramatic rant she sent to Maurizio. She said, you reached the ultimate limit by making your own daughters despise you, who don't even want to see you so they can forget their trauma. You are a deformed outgrowth, a painful appendix that we all want to forget. And, you know, it was Maurizio, the inferno for you is yet to come. It was pure hatred. Nocerino had no evidence tying Patrizia to the shooting, but he was sure she had motive. And not just jealousy or betrayal. Maurizio had sold his stake in Gucci for $135 million. Perhaps Nocerino theorized it was about money after all.

After he lost control of the company in 1993, he had a finite amount of money. It was a lot. It was $135 million, but he was spending it like water. Maurizio and his live-in girlfriend, Paula Franchi, were completely renovating their Corso Venezia apartment, and they had expensive tastes. Add to that Maurizio's ongoing restoration of his ship Creole, his properties around the world, and some new business ventures, none of them guaranteed to succeed.

And Patrizio grew very concerned that if he kept on at that rate, that pretty soon there would be nothing left. And so Patrizia, who famously called her generous $1 million a year alimony little more than a plate of lentils, started lambasting Maurizio on TV and in the newspapers. She was furious. She didn't hide that fury. She spoke straight out to the press, saying he was a bad husband, he was a bad businessman, he was weak. She said he's like a seat cushion that keeps the imprint of the last person that has sat on it. Patrizia's public outbursts and threats scared Paola.

She said as much to investigators Paola's very transparent That she thinks that Patricio Is a lead suspect here Her life had been made hell by Patricio Making these threats And being so angry Paola told police that when Maurizio died His daughters inherited his apartment

And Patricio didn't waste any time taking possession of it. Can you believe that not even 24 hours after the murder, Patricia shows up here with an eviction order for Paola and tells Paola, Frankie, get out. Wow, 24 hours later. Well, it gets worse than that. I mean, that letter was drafted by a lawyer hours after the murder, so the body was barely cold. And Paola then was tossed to the street. It's worse than that. I mean, that letter was drafted by a lawyer hours after the murder,

so the body was barely cold. And Paola then was tossed to the street. Well, not only she, she basically tossed out everything that resembled Maurizio and Paola's lives together. That's pretty cold. It is cold. Paola's eviction was a stunning discovery for Nocerino. It was almost as if Patrizia knew she would take over the apartment before her ex-husband was killed. But that was nothing compared to the bombshell Patrizia's lawyer dropped. He told investigators Patrizia may have been looking for a hitman.

Patrizia Reggiani's lawyer told us that Reggiani asked him several times what would happen to her if she paid someone to kill her husband. Her own lawyer is raising the red flag and saying it might be Patrizia Reggiani. Yes, we couldn't officially consider her guilty just on the basis of his testimony. We needed something more. Turns out the lawyer was hardly the only one Patrizia was talking to about a hitman. We discovered there were other people who Reggiani asked to kill Maurizio Gucci. For example, housekeepers that she had in the past.

They said she asked them to find someone. But even though she's a suspect, you have no proof, right? No, we don't. We do not have the smoking gun. But all of these people she asked weren't criminals. It wasn't concrete evidence. But Patrizia seemed wildly indiscreet, and Nocerino thought it was just a matter of time before she said something incriminating. The prosecutor just needed to get it on tape.

We thought about putting a webcam in her house or bugging her house to see what kind of people she was hanging out with. But it was very difficult because her apartment was huge. She could have been talking in any room. But her phone calls were a different story. So investigators set up a wire tap, and over one of those calls, Nocerino heard a voice that caught his attention.

It belonged to a woman named Pina Auriemma. Pina Auriemma was an ambiguous person, a woman from Naples who was part of Reggiani's circle. What was a mysterious woman from Naples doing with a high society woman from Milan? The answer, he suspected, would blow his investigation wide open. Coming up, who was this mysterious woman named Pina? She'd come to be known as the Black Witch. He thought they were doing voodoo and spell casting and all kinds of crazy things. And I said, you've got to be kidding me.

Does this stuff really happen? A year and a half into his investigation, Prosecutor Nocerino had eliminated every other person of interest, except for Patrizia Reggiani. So in an effort to build a circumstantial case against her, his team had set up a surveillance operation and discovered Patrizia's curious friendship with a woman named Pina Auriemma. Pina Auriemma had a role in Reggiani's life.

This bond was unusual and we had to look at it deeper. Pina was a middle-class woman from Naples in the south of Italy, with no social pedigree. Not the sort of person with whom a high society diva like Patrizia would associate. They met on an island vacation and hit it off when they discovered they actually had a lot in common below the surface. That relationship kind of, you know, warmed and flourished because they were in sort of, they were both kind of outsiders. Pina became almost like a sister to her. Patrizia realized Pina had much to teach her about making her way in the world as a woman.

The Gianni wanted to be mentored by Pina. Maybe she saw her like a wise woman, a woman who was an expert in life. Pina was there when Patrizia's second daughter was born, and Pina comforted Patrizia when Maurizio abandoned her. Patrizia had said in the moments of her deepest depression, Pina was there, that she saved her life. It does show you how close these two women were. But what did Pina get out of this relationship?

I remember a photo of them at St. Moritz in the sleigh, you know, piled high with furs and going up the mountain probably to have a lunch or something. So she had access to this kind of wealth and glamour by virtue of her friendship with Patrizia. To investigators, the mere fact that Pina was from Naples was in itself suspicious. There's a certain connotation and stereotype that Italians of the north have towards Italians of the south, and particularly with people from the Naples area because of Naples' association with organized crime. But Nocerino found no criminal record or evidence Pina Auriemma was anything but a solid citizen. She had coincidentally once even

owned a Gucci store in Naples. One thing was strange though. Maurizio and Patricia were known to be a bit superstitious. And in their social circles, Pina was rumored to be some sort of psychic. Andrea Morante heard Pina's name when Maurizio wouldn't allow him to go on a business trip because of a premonition she had. I had to fly to Hong Kong and he came to me and he said, I'm sorry, you cannot go, you cannot go, you cannot go, you can't fly to Hong Kong. And I said, but why on earth? Marito clearly believed she had powers, perhaps dark powers. He told his girlfriend Sherry that Pina was the reason it had taken him years to leave Patrizia, even though he'd fallen out of love with her. He didn't want to go because

he didn't want to be chased down by Pina. Sherry says that after Maurizio finally mustered up the courage to leave, he became convinced Patrizia was going to use Pina's powers to exact revenge on him, like when one of Creole's masts suddenly fell and broke through the ship's floor. So he believed that that was part of Patrizia and Pina, and we had the boat exercised. And he thought they were doing voodoo and spell casting and all kinds of crazy things, and I thought it was a dramatic Italian. I said, you've got to be kidding me. Does this stuff really happen?

Whether it did or not, Maurizio clearly believed that Patrizia had it in for him and claimed she was even using tricks she might have learned from Pina to create havoc in his life. Maurizio told me a story that apparently she had a doll and she would stick pins and the doll was supposed to represent Maurizio. She was cursing him by poking it with pins. Yes, exactly, exactly. So if Patrizia was the black widow, could it be that Pina was what the Italians would

call la maga nera, the black witch? Nocerino wasn't interested in superstitions. He just wanted to know more about her. Did you think Pina Auriemma was the key to getting evidence that perhaps could tie Patrizia Reggiani to Maurizio's murder? Yes, I did. There's no doubt about that. Because Reggiani needed to be in contact with people who were far from her world. Auriemama was the perfect person from this point of view. But investigators still needed a break. Patrizia, Pina, or someone close to them would have to make a mistake, spill a secret perhaps.

And then they got what they were hoping for when the phone rang one night at police headquarters. An anonymous voice on the other end of the line. Somebody just saying, I know who killed Maurizio Gucci. Coming up... A little bit like a spy movie. Well, as a matter of fact, he became a bit of a spy. A secret informant joins the case

and hears a stunning confession. The hotel clerk said, I was involved in the murder of Maurizio Gucci. When Dateline continues. Piazza Aspromonte, on the outskirts of Milan's old city, is just a couple of miles from the fashion district where Maurizio Gucci was killed. But it is actually a world away. Here, the poor gritty streets and urban parks harbor shadowy characters hatching shady plots. It's a place where secrets are kept,

or sometimes unexpectedly revealed. It's a seedy part of Milan. It's dotted with one-star hotels, and it's in one of these hotels, this one right behind us, that a big break in the investigation took place. So what finally was it? Well, there was a guest who befriended the hotel clerk, and this guest claimed to be a big shot drug dealer from South America. And the hotel clerk said, oh, you think you're a big shot? Well, I was involved in the murder of Maurizio Gucci. Unfortunately for the hotel clerk, he was showing off to a man who was lying about

who he really was, which was a nobody. He was just a guy who was broke and he got scared when he heard about the hotel clerk's involvement in the Gucci murder. So he decided to call the police and he met with the head of the crime unit right here in this park in Milan in the middle of the night. A little bit like a spy movie. Well, as a matter of fact, he became a bit of a spy because he agreed to wear a wire so the police could find the evidence that the hotel clerk was involved in the Gucci murder. The hotel clerk unwittingly introduced the informant to his alleged accomplices, a retired pizzeria owner and a former mechanic, hardly the sort of people who commit assassinations. Police started surveilling the gang 24-7. As investigators listened over the next few days,

the informant's recordings revealed details of the plot to kill Maurizio. The pizzeria owner had done much of the planning. First, he collected information about Maurizio's daily comings and goings. Then he secured the getaway car and planned the escape route. On the day of the murder, the former mechanic joined him. They drove to Via Palestra number 20 and waited in the car until they saw Maurizio walking toward his office building. That's when the former mechanic got out of the car and stood by the building's entrance, pretending to look at the address number.

When Maurizio passed him, he sneaked up from behind and pumped him full of bullets. We were focusing our attention on these characters, and thanks to these wiretaps, we established that they were responsible for the murder of Maurizio Gucci. And who put them all up to it? Nocerino heard it loud and clear through the informant's mic, the name he'd been waiting to hear, Patrizia Reggiani. When you hear that moment in the wiretapped conversations, was it like, we got it?

More or less, but without cheering. The hotel clerk told the informant Reggiani paid about $90,000 in advance and $276,000 after the murder. But when this unlikely gang read in the papers about all the millions Patrizia and her daughters inherited, they got greedy and demanded more. And so they're very angry and they're tape recorded moaning about this and trying to come up with a plot of how to get this money back from Patricia and blackmail her. So police now know who the whole gang is and they have them all under surveillance. They even managed to wiretap the hotel clerk's car. They did. And guess who they caught in that car speaking to the hotel clerk about the murder

and about asking Patricia for more money? No nada de empina aurema. Patricia's confident. That's right. Patricia's old friend was somehow in cahoots with the hit squad and was now trying to extort her. So they're all having these conversations openly about trying to blackmail Patricia for more money. Yes, but they didn't speak only about this request. They also spoke about what they did.

And that was enough evidence then. You had plenty of evidence just in those wiretaps? Yes, we did. We had an abundance of evidence. On January 31st, 1997, almost two years after Maurizio's death, police moved in to arrest the entire Motley crew. And what happened when they showed up on Patricia's doorstep was surreal. She goes upstairs, she comes back, and she's wearing full makeup, gold jewelry, and a floor-length fur coat. She was just going to put up a face, which was the rich, untouchable woman. That was probably the

first place that she went to in her mind. Said, this can't be happening to me. Do you know who I am? As Patricia was booked at the police station, her mother persuaded her to change her clothes. By then, the press had gotten word of the arrest and captured every second as she was led away to jail. It was, here I am, I'm Senora Gucci, and, you know, if you're going to take me down, I'm going to go down fighting with my head held high. Prosecutor Nocerino was determined that this untouchable woman feel the full extent of the law.

But he also knew the case was far from over. The trial would be a media circus. And this black widow's fate could come down to the testimony of the black witch. Bina Auriemma was about to take the stand. Coming up... This was the trial of the century in Milan. The prosecutor lays out his case, tape recordings, a revealing diary,

and a surprising star witness ready to turn the tables. Wow, so this is the actual courtroom right here. The courtroom where the trial took place. And let me show you a couple of things that may be different from an American courtroom, especially during murder trials. One of them is this. The cage? Wow. It's a cage. This is where defendants in the trial, watch the trial.

In this particular case, it was the accused killer and the accused getaway driver. After a two-year investigation into Maurizio Gucci's murder, prosecutor Carlo Nocerino was about to try the case of a lifetime. This was the trial of the century in Milan. Nocerino came to court armed with wiretap recordings and surveillance footage. He also had a slew of star witnesses, including almost all of Patrizia's alleged accomplices. Patrizia and the gang were tried together, but the hotel clerk and the pizzeria owner had confessed and agreed to testify for the prosecution. The pizzeria owner turned getaway

driver told the jury that Patrizia met him to make sure he went through with the murder plot. He said, well, I'm worried because what if they catch me? And that's when Patrizia said, don't worry about that. I'm going to give you enough money for you, your children, your children's children. And if they catch you, I'm going to paper your cell with gold. So that's when he decided to go forward with it. That's it. That's when he decided that that was the time to do it. So there it was, Patrizia's direct connection to the murder plot. But don't take the pizzeria owner's words for it, the prosecutor told the jury. Take Patrizia Reggiani's. She had incriminated herself

by keeping a detailed record of her thoughts in, of all things, a Cartier diary. One of the things that she wrote in her diary is a sentence that would later come to haunt her. There are no crimes that money can buy. And to top it off, Nocerino turned the diary to the date Maurizio was shot in cold blood. There on the page, a single word, paradise. That says it all. It's practically an admission of guilt. Then the prosecution went for their coup de grace, calling Patricia's best friend and confidant, Pina Auriemma, to the stand. She'd been silent for more than a year since her arrest. But shortly before the trial, she told investigators she was ready to talk. And of course, the Italian press was falling all over itself to cover the confrontation

between the alleged murder mastermind and the reputed psychic, the Black Widow versus the Black Witch. When I was on the stand face to face with Patricia, I wasn't emotional at all. I mean, because in that moment, I was only telling them the truth. I didn't lie and I admitted my faults and my frailties. This is Pina, more than two decades after she betrayed the woman who had entrusted her with all of her deepest secrets. Why do you think she trusted you? Because it wasn't like I was part of the wealthy millionaire's world, so I couldn't talk.

Who could I tell her secrets to? The wall? So having a friend in Naples and being able to tell her everything without anyone later knowing was a big advantage for her. This is why she told me everything. Pina said that Patrizia first thought of murdering Maurizio when she realized he had fallen in love with Paola Franchi and was thinking of marrying her. She was in pain. But what I realized was that she was more sad and sorry about losing her name. So she didn't cry tears because she lost her husband, it was more she was enraged and mad because she was losing the Gucci name and the power of being a Gucci? Of course, that was what

triggered her. And Pina testified that's what led Patrizia to ask her to look for a trigger man. And why would you do that for her? Listen, it was absolutely not my intention to do such a thing. I knew how stubborn she was. So I thought I would introduce her to some people I knew who were not capable of ever killing someone, but who certainly were capable of making money off of her. Bina claimed the murder-for-hire plan she cooked up was just a scam, a double-cross designed to take Patrizia's money, not to kill anyone.

Bina recruited the hotel clerk for one simple reason. He was the only other person she knew in Milan, and someone who would never commit murder. He was not a criminal. He wasn't a delinquent. I mean, he has never seen a gun. His aim was only to trick her. We were always hoping that this idea of killing Maurizio would disappear from her mind. So the hotel clerk went to the pizzeria owner who needed the money to repay his gambling debts. But then the pizzeria owner went to the only small-time criminal he knew, the former mechanic who got a gun. It was at that point, according to Pina, that Patrizia, who was getting impatient, went behind her back to meet the gang.

The would-be scam took a horribly wrong turn. So she took me totally out of the picture. I do not know what she promised these people to commit this heinous crime. And that's how Pina claimed to be completely out of the loop when Maurizio was killed. But after the murder happened, then you went to pay them, is that right? Yes, I did. I was weak once again with her, like I always was with her. And the people needed to be paid, and she made me give these people their money. And I did that like an idiot. I was the intermediary. Prosecutor Nocerino knew that putting Pina on the stand was a gamble. Her

somewhat strange story would give the defense a chance to attack her credibility and blame her for the murder. Lijani was the instigator, the one who had to pay, but Orgama never stepped back. There wasn't a point where she said, I quit. So she probably knew about it. She wasn't sure if they would go through with it, though. She knew almost everything. She didn't know what the exact moment would be, but she knew that they were going to do it. Did Pina know much more than she let on? Was she actually the brains behind the murder?

It was the question Patricia's defense team couldn't wait to ask. Coming up, the most dramatic moment of the trial. The accused ex-wife takes the stand. When you confronted her, did she seem shaken at all? Nervous? No. Everybody wanted to hear, like, what was she going to say? When Dateline continues. Pina Auriemma had just told the court the strange story of her participation in Maurizio's murder. Now it was the defense's turn to question her, and they wasted no time.

Pina didn't just know about the murder they charged. She was the brains behind it, not Patrizia. Gaetano Pecorella was one of Patrizia's defense lawyers. Auriemma was the one who took matters into her hands and organized the murder, and then had gone back to Mrs. Gucci, saying, Now you have to pay, because otherwise you'll get into trouble. As we did, what you had gone around asking should be done. So it seemed for the defense, the strategy was to put the blame squarely on Pina.

No, that's right. In fact, during the trial, they presented a letter written by Patrizia before she got arrested, in which she wrote, if you're looking for who murdered Maurizio, it was Pina Auriemma, and then she blackmailed me. In fact, the pizzeria owner supported that idea when he testified that on the day before the murder, he'd received a call from Pina, who told him that Maurizio had returned to Milan from a business trip. The defense argued the call set the stage for the murder. The defense also brought up the rumors about Pina's psychic abilities

and charged she used them to control Patrizia. Mrs. Oriema was considered a clairvoyant, an advisor. Mrs. Oriema had a relationship of this kind with Gucci, and she had a very strong friendship with Mrs. Reggiani, over whom I believe she exercised a lot of control. But on the stand, Pina denied that she controlled Patrizia or that she saw the future. After all, if she could see the future,

wouldn't she have avoided being put on trial for murder? It is absolutely not true. I do not even believe in these kinds of things because they are totally nonsense. I would have been a bad card reader because I should have at least predicted our arrest, you know? After Pina stepped down, attorney Pecorella continued the defense case

with his own strange admission. It's true, he said, Patrizia Reggiani had been asking people around town to kill Maurizio, but that's only because she wasn't in her right mind at the time. Now, you remember the brain tumor Patrizia had? Well, the defense was making a big deal out of that. Why? Well, because they said that the brain tumor was clouding her judgment

and it kind of affected what she was talking about when she was going around telling everybody she wanted someone to kill her husband. So the personality disorder defense. That's right. So basically saying that she was going around town saying all of this, but she didn't really mean it. The court ordered Patrizia to be evaluated

by a panel of psychiatrists. And they found that she wasn't crazy at all, but that she had something called a narcissistic personality disorder. And the effect of this was that if anything happened to her, she experienced it and interpreted it as a personal attack. So it didn't come as a surprise when Patrizia took the stand in her own defense. It was the moment all Milan, all of Italy, had waited for. Everybody was in the courtroom that day, and everybody wanted to hear, like, what was she going to say? How was she going to come across?

Patrizia testified that it was Pina who organized Maurizio's murder behind her back. She said she was afraid to go to police when Pina's blackmailing started. After all, the hitman had assassinated Maurizio

on a busy Milan street in broad daylight. What would they do to her or worse, her daughters, if she didn't cooperate? You know, she was very cool. She was wearing a lemon-colored suit.

She looked good, considering that she'd been in jail for months and under a tremendous amount of pressure. But she executed her testimony very well. Now it was time for Nocerino's cross-examination. Could he rattle Patrizia? When you confronted her with the information that you had gathered, did she seem shaken at all? Nervous? No, she wasn't nervous at all.

She was very controlled and she answered the questions with confidence. Even the more insidious questions, like what she wrote in her diary that day that Gucci was killed. How did she explain that diary entry, though? I mean, writing paradise right after learning that your husband is dead. That it was a liberation for her, because she was constantly thinking about all the bad things that he did to her, about the broken marriage, about the fact that he left the family.

At the root of it all, Nocerino told the jury in his closing arguments, Maurizio's cold-blooded murder may simply have been the revenge of a woman whose self-image he shattered. It was the resentment of a woman with wounded pride. So there was a very strong component of resentment which goes beyond money. After a five-month trial that captivated the entire country, the prosecution and the defense finally left it up to the jury. Would they believe the Black Widow or the Black Witch? All of Italy held its breath. Coming up... Was she the femme fatale?

Maybe. The verdicts are rendered, all of them. Would there be justice for Maurizio Gucci? The name, the money, the fame, the drama. It's a shame. It's a sad story. The courthouse where the trial of Maurizio Gucci's alleged murderers took place isn't far from Milan's medieval house of justice. Judges once stood on this balcony to proclaim their verdicts,

their words echoing around the square. On November 3rd, 1998, Milan's current judges were about to render a verdict that would echo far beyond the city's walls. So where were you? My seat was here. And where was Patrizia Reggiani? Patrizia Reggiani was there. And then, three and a half years after Maurizio Gucci was assassinated, the gavel came down on Patrizia Reggiani. She was pronounced guilty of ordering the murder of her ex-husband

and sentenced to 29 years. Take me back to the moment, the verdict, when you hear guilty. What did you feel? For me, liberation for me. It took a toll. Yes. Yes. And what about her reaction?

Nobody reaction. Nothing? Nothing, emotion. No emotion, really? No emotion. Wow. When he heard about the guilty verdict, Domenico De Sole, Gucci's former CEO,

kept replaying a conversation he had with Patrizia at her apartment just two months before her arrest. We talked about Maurizio, we talked about Rodolfo, we talked about the family, and she was very clear about what she, in a way, Maurizio's weaknesses and faults. It was very interesting. I had no idea at that point that she was the one that murdered Maurizio. You said she kept pointing out Maurizio's weaknesses. Why do you that she was the one that murdered Maurizio. You said she kept pointing out Maurizio's weaknesses. Why do you think she was doing that? Probably to justify in her own mind what she had done, maybe. The rest of the crew was found guilty too. The former mechanic who shot

Maurizio was sentenced to life. The getaway driver got 29 years, the hotel clerk 26. Pina Auriemma was sentenced to 25 years behind bars. It was kind of ridiculous, the kinds of characters that ended up carrying out what looked like a professional hit job. It was almost a comedy of characters. Pina and Patrizia served their time in the same prison, but their friendship was over. In jail, I studied a lot. I read a lot. I worked there. Patrizia slept till two or three in the afternoon. Then she would wander around a bit. And then in the evening, she would go back to her cell. And if we did meet in prison, I ignored her and she ignored me. Pina got out in 2010 and is trying to live a quiet and private life.

But she says that doesn't mean she'll ever be able to escape what she's done. How much does this continue to haunt you? Always. Always. Always. Maurizio is always on my mind. Do you ever think the story is going to go away for you? The story will never end.

Never. It will keep coming back. Which means that Patrizia Gucci, Maurizio's cousin, will have to keep fighting to reclaim her family's good name. She said the Gucci family never gave their approval to the House of Gucci book or the movie. She also said that looking at her family through the lens of Patrizia Reggiani's crime only encourages people to associate the Gucci's with dysfunction and murder,

rather than with the influential fashions and creative ingenuity for which they should be famous. It's my family's story that a lot of things have been told in the wrong way. Always focusing all the attention on all these arguments, on all of these feuds. Newspaper articles always saying the feud continues. Just stop. It's enough. Patrizia says that Reggiani has stolen her name from her, and she wants it back. My name is Patrizia Gucci. Only this name I have. You're the only Patrizia Gucci.

I'm the only Patrizia Gucci, yes. But it is very unlikely that Patrizia Reggiani will give up the Gucci name, whether it's hers to keep or not. When she was released from prison in 2016, she proceeded to walk down Via Monte Napoleone, Milan's grandest shopping street, with a parrot on her shoulder, apparently cherishing the paparazzi's attention. Oh, she would never disappear into oblivion.

That is not in her nature. She feeds off attention. She's a narcissist. She wants to be the center of her own story. I think she was very authentic in her own way. I don't know if I would call her, was she the femme fatale? Maybe, but I don't think she started out, you know, with the vision of where she was going to end up.

She gave an interview not too long ago. The interviewer asked her, you know, if you could say anything to Maurizio today, what would you say? And she said, forgive me. Sherry Loud isn't thinking about forgiveness. She worries more about the man Patrizia had killed being forgotten. To her, Maurizio Gucci's sensational murder has come to overshadow the man she knew and loved. A visionary whose loss deprived the world of inspiration and beauty.

He was a dreamer and I felt blessed to know a soul like his. He was a very special person, regardless of the name, the money, the fame, the drama. He was just pure love. It was a shame. It was a sad story. That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.