Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Tried To Warn Them // The Marco Mariolini Murder Story

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Marco Mariolini was an Italian criminal driven by anoressofilia, an extreme obsession with severely thin women. Mariolini published an autobiographical warning explicitly stating he was a monster and begging authorities to stop him before he murdered.

At a press conference in front of a bunch of reporters, a man tells them that he's eventually gonna murder someone, and no one does anything to stop him. Why doesn't anyone stop him? Now the guy's name is Marco, and Marco's around 12 when this story starts, and he's living in Pisona, Italy, and one day, in 1971, he's looking through a science textbook for one of his classes at school, and he sees an illustration of a human skeleton.

And Marco starts thinking, the skeleton kind of fine. And that is when he realizes that he's attracted to extremely thin body types. Now, he knows his peers and people around him aren't going to consider this normal. So he doesn't tell anyone. He keeps it a secret. And as the years pass, he grows up and he builds a career for himself as an antiques dealer, and he makes a bit of money and he becomes somewhat wealthy. But his attraction is still very much there.

And in 1980, he gets married to a nice woman and he forces her to diet, because he wants her to be not just thin, but dangerously thin. And later in the 90s, he gets her pregnant for the second time, which makes her naturally gain weight. And he can't stand what pregnancy does to her body, so he loses interest in her and he leaves her. Then one night in 1992, he's driving around and he stops at an interstate. section, and he sees a woman in the car next to him. And this woman is super underweight.

He claims she weighs around 45 pounds, which I find that hard to believe. Either way, she's incredibly thin, so she's just his type. So he stalks her and he follows her all the way home to her house, and he harasses her for months. And supposedly he plans to essay her, but he can't bring himself to actually do it. Later, he comes back to try again. and when he pulls onto her street, he sees funeral signs in front of her house because the woman apparently died from being so underweight. And her death causes him to realize that he can't afford to take the time to date these women. He can't hesitate when it comes to essaying them,

because they might die while he's hesitating. So from here, he becomes very proactive. In 1994, he places a classified ad in the local newspaper that basically reads, looking for an extremely thin woman between the ages of 18 and 50 years old. And a lot of women respond to this ad, but one of them catches his attention. This woman, Monica. And Monica, she's pretty thin. She's also very insecure about her appearance and her weight. And so she goes and she meets up with Marco. And they like each other. And eventually they end up in a romantic relationship. And it doesn't take long for this relationship to turn

toxic and he starts micromanaging her diet to where she's basically starving herself all the time. And he forces her to weigh herself on the scale in front of him, sometimes several times a day. Sometimes he only lets her have a cup of tea and a light snack to eat. But for the most part, she's almost never allowed to eat solid food. In fact, it gets to the point where sometimes she has to sneak out and start digging through other people's trash bins for leftovers that people have thrown out. And when Marco suspects that she's been eating behind his back, he gets very physically abusive. So, none of this is good.

And so over time, she gets extremely thin. And at one point, the two of them are out at a restaurant, and he orders food for himself, but she is only allowed to order herself tea. So she has to sit and watch him eat while she gets absolutely nothing. And she's starving. She hasn't eaten in so long. and so eventually she can't handle it anymore, and she decides to take the risk and rebel against Marco.

So she flags down the waiter, and she orders a plate of nochi. And when that plate of nochi arrives at the table, Marco gets super pissed off. And Monica grabs the plate, and she starts running away, trying to eat as fast as she can. And Marco, he gets up and he chases her around the restaurant. Then he catches up with her, and he drags her back to their table, and he even slaps her in front of everyone.

And if that isn't bad, bad enough, things get even worse. Because once they return home from the restaurant, Marco decides that Monica needs to be taught a lesson. So he forces her to strip completely naked and he throws her out on the balcony and he shuts the door. I guess he's gonna force her to sleep outside all night. Now it isn't clear if he lets her back in the apartment or if she somehow gets back in on her own, but by this point he's fallen asleep in their bed. And so Monica goes and grabs a hammer and pow she busts him in the head with it and pow she hits him again and this knocks him out cold actually puts him in a coma

and so now Monica feels all bad because you know she's a good person with empathy and she doesn't want him to die so she basically calls the police on herself and ultimately she ends up getting arrested while he gets sent to the hospital and he eventually does recover while Monica is sentenced to one year of house arrest for attempted murder and she has to stay at her grandparents' house. But here's the thing. Even though Monica literally tried to kill him, he decides that he wants to be with her still, more than anything, and he becomes like all depressed and emo about it. Also, while he's still recovering from the hammer attack, he starts writing an autobiography. And he titles it,

the anorexic hunter. And it's about him, his obsession with extremely thin women. And in it, he also details all of the abuse that he had put those women through, and there's also a part in it where he basically warns Monica that he will track her down and kill her if she doesn't get back together with him. And after he writes it, he contacts a small publishing house to get it published, and in 1997, he actually does get it published. That same year, the publisher organizes a formal press presentation in Milan to promote this book.

And because this autobiography is a raw, unedited confession of psychological abuse and sexual deviance and a murder threat, this event actually attracts a small room full of local journalists. And Marco goes in front of all of them, and he straight up tells them that he's a bad person and that he can't control himself. In fact, his exact words are translated are, I'm a potential monster, and someone needs to stop me before I accidentally kill someone. And most people there, they don't do anything. Because they just assume that he's talking a bunch of shit because he's trying to get attention to sell his book. Like it's a marketing stunt or something.

Anyway, from here, he turns his attention back to Monica. And he starts stalking her and bombarding her with letters and phone calls, begging her to come back to him. He even creepily sends her a copy of his book. And so, of course, Monica's like, no, she's had enough of his nonsense and his abuse. She even tries going to the police multiple times, but in Italy, at the time, there aren't many laws protecting people against stalking. And so Marco doesn't stop. He keeps going. And one day, in 1998, he calls her up and he tells her that if she doesn't meet up with him, he's going to unalive himself. And so because of that, she finally gives in and she agrees to meet up with him. And they go and they meet in a pretty public place for herself.

safety, Lake Majore. It's a local lake where there's a beach and a lot of people are going to be there. And so the two of them, they're there and they're talking, and Marco demands that she get back with him. And she, once again, refuses. And so that does it for him. He snaps and he pulls out a knife and he starts stabbing her in front of dozens of bystanders. And this, unfortunately, kills her. After that, he runs into the lake and he tries to swim away, but a few minutes later, police catch up with him, and bam, he gets arrested. And so ultimately, he takes the Italy version of a plea deal and he gets sentenced to 30 years in prison.