True Crime with Kendall Rae - The Murder of Maurizio Gucci and the True Story Behind House of Gucci

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

This episode is sponsored by: PrettyLitter - promo code: kendallrae Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

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You can stay one step ahead of stinky. And for bigger jobs, try the superior strength of hefty large blackbacks. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. So happy to have you here. If you are new, welcome. I gotta say, I am really excited to film today's video. I've been wanting to do a video on this topic for at least a

month now if not longer, but it's a complicated one so it took a long time to pull this all together. But we are going to be talking about the true story behind the new movie House of Gucci, which is also a book that came out back in 2020 by Sarah Gay Fordon called House of Gucci. So many of you have probably seen House of Gucci. It came out in November and it stars Lady Gaga and Adam Driver and Jared Leto's in it. A bunch of other great actors. I thought it was so so good. But I do know there are mixed opinions about it out there. I personally loved it.

I saw it twice. I thought Lady Gaga was fantastic. But I do gotta say the true story behind House of Gucci is quite different than the movie was. Of course, it's a movie, it's Hollywood. They've gotta kinda twist it to make it work better, to make it not so long because, I mean, this movie was close to three hours anyway

and I can't even imagine how long it would be if it included everything in it. But it really is a fascinating story. And so today I wanted to tell you about it especially for those of you who didn't see the movie or have heard nothing about the Gucci family, which none of the Gucci family actually owns Gucci anymore. None of them, which is really interesting. But just their family history, how they started Gucci and all the scandal along the way, as well as the murder of Maurizio Gucci,

is pretty interesting stuff. So let's go ahead and dive in where it all began back with Gucci-o Gucci. And also, I just wanna say, I am clearly not Italian. I, okay, a little bit. I'm only 20% Italian, but my pronunciation for Italian words is pretty trash. So I apologize in advance to all my Italian friends

or people who just know the proper pronunciation. I'm going to do my best and hopefully seeing the movie twice, you know, helps me a little bit. But yes, starting with Gucci Gucci, who was born on March 26, 1881. He was born in Florence, Italy, to parents Alena and Gabriello, who is actually a leather craftsman. And that's an extremely important key that Gucciuchio would need in order to start the Guchi brand.

And fun fact, the double G in the Guchi logo actually stands for Guchio Guchi. So his early life wasn't too well documented, but we do know that as a teenager, Guchio was working at this Savoy Hotel in London. And it was actually during that time working at this avoid hotel that he really developed a fascination with the luxurious, luxurious lifestyle of the upper class. And obviously working at a hotel, he was handling a lot of luggage and a lot of wealthy people's luggage. And that kind of sparked an interest for him in the world of luggage. And at that time, a brand called H.J. Cave and Sons was one of the only luxury leather accessory brands

on the market. And so it was a big inspiration to him. But he felt like he could take what they were doing and do it better, especially with having a leather craftsman as a father. He had worked in his father's leather shop for years. So he actually had a lot of experience and knowledge about leather. In 1901, he ended up marrying a woman named Ida Calvelli, and together, they raised six children, some of their own, and some of them were from Ida's previous marriage.

And their names were Ugo, Aldo, Radolfo, Grimalda, Vasco, and Enzo. Aldo Gucci was born on May 26th, 1905, and he was their oldest biological son. Radolfo Gucci was born on July 16th, 1912, and Vasco's date of birth, I had trouble finding someone unclear, but we do know he was pretty close in age to his brother Radolfo. So by 1921, Gucci O'Gucci had finally opened up his first official store in Italy and at first he was actually selling leather saddles, bags, and other accessories to horsemen in the area. And that's how Gucci really began. It started as a shop for equestrians and that actually can be seen on some of their items to this day. Their horse bit emblem has lived on for over a hundred years. His son Aldo began working for him when he was 16 and he became a full-time employee after he graduated

from San Marco College in Florence. And then in the 1930s, Guccio also brought his other two sons, Vasco and Radolfo into the family business. And around that time in the 1930s, there was actually a leather shortage. And that was due to the League of Nations putting an embargo against Italy. So Gucci had to find leather alternatives for their products. And that's how the hemp woven bag with the signature brown interconnecting diamonds on a tan background was created.

And to be honest, I am pretty clueless about, you know, classic Gucci items and what they sell today. I just am not really into designers. I just think the story behind it is very fascinating. But that design actually ended up being incredibly successful for Gucci and kind of started to get them on the map. It's RAM season, which means it's time to serve

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Are we? Bundle your home and other vehicles with progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and other insurers discounted not available in all state-to-situations. So his son Aldo took full advantage of the opportunity to be part of the company and was fully dedicated to expanding the Gucci brand and making it recognizable worldwide.

We are like an Italian trattoria, the whole family is in the kitchen. And so we are. By 1938, Aldo opened the first Gucci store outside of Italy and the expansion did not stop there. Even though Gucci never wanted or intended for Gucci to go international, Aldo kinda had his own vision for the company and really took it to the next level. In late December of 1952, actually two weeks before Gucci O died, Aldo opened the first Gucci store in America.

At the Savoy Plaza Hotel on East 58th Street in New York City. And here's another little fun fact. So after Gucci, Gucci died. His son's Aldo Vasco and Radolfo took on the family business. But Aldo did take on the role of president of the company. So Aldo really had control of Gucci for the most part. And over the years, he introduced a variety

of new product lines like designer shoes, watches, perfume, and he kind of transformed Gucci into more of what we know it as today. And he started bringing in millions of dollars into the business. Redolfo was involved in the family business a little bit, not as much as his brother, because he had some other things going on in his life. He was actually an actor, and he starred in more than 40 films from

1929 to 1946. And Aldo and Radolfo ended up being the only original Gucci family members to go on and have their own families, which obviously means the family business would be passed on to their kids one day. Aldo had four kids, however, in the movie, he only had one, Paolo, but he also had a daughter and two other sons. The movie was more accurate about Radalto's family, because he only did have one son, Maurizio, who was the star of House of Gucci, really, played by Adam Driver. Maurizio was born on Septemberth, 1948 in Florence, Italy. His mother actually died when he was only 5 years old, so his father was his primary caregiver.

And Maritzo took a liking to the family business from a really young age. He actually started working for Gucci as a package boy, and that kind of gave him the opportunity to learn more about how the business operated. So in the movie, Maurizio meets Patrizia at a party. And this is actually spot on. It was November of 1970. Maurizio is just 22 years old, and he attended a party in Milan, and that's where he met his wife, Patrizia Rijani. Just like in the movie, he said that she was beautifully dressed in red and looked like Elizabeth Taylor. Now let's talk about Patricia of Rijani.

She was born December 2, 1948 in Vignola, Italy and had a much different upbringing than Maurizio. Her mother, Sylvana, worked as a waitress until she got pregnant with her, and she actually raised her alone because the man who impregnated her pretty much dipped out as soon as he found out. So she and her mother struggled a lot during her childhood and it wasn't till she was 12 years old that she got her first kind of taste of wealth. At that point, Sylvanna met and married

a rich entrepreneur named Ferdinando Regiani who adopted Patricia and showed her kind of what it was like to live the extravagant life. And from the beginning, Patricia loved it and never wanted to go back. As she got older, she really started to understand the difference between old money and new money. Old money means higher status. And that was something that Patricia realized she wanted from a young age. So when she met Maurizio Gucci, this was a very good opportunity for her.

Now Patricia has said that she didn't really think much of Maurizio when she first met him, and she has denied that she wanted to marry him because he was a Gucci, but a lot of people suspect that. But the two of them began dating and from the start their relationship caused issues in their family. Because Radolfo, Maurizio's father, hated Patricia. From the beginning, he thought that she was just using him for his money and his name.

But Maurizio did not think that was true and he ended up proposing to Patricia after knowing her for about two years. And when Radolfo found out about this, he basically gave Marizzo an ultimatum. He would have to pick between Gucci and Patricia. And he ended up picking her, so he was kind of exiled from the Gucci family

for a couple of years. And just like in the movie, no one from the Gucci family attended his wedding. And there was a lot of other drama going on in the Gucci family just from the Gucci family attended his wedding. And there was a lot of other drama going on in the Gucci family just from the time that Gucci had passed away. Especially between Aldo and Radolfo, they had a lot of differences in opinion when it came to how the brand should be run. In one instance, Palo, who was played by Jared Leto, rotted on his own father and had him put in jail for a year and a day on tax evasion charges after learning about his father's illegal activity. And one of the reasons

that Paulo did this, and this is well portrayed in the movie, is he wanted to start his own designer label that was a little bit more affordable and accessible for the average person, and although did not like that, so he shut it down. And not only did he reject the idea of this label, but he also demoted his son to a smaller role in the business. And this really hurt Paulo, so he turned the tables right back on him. And Paulo decided to go ahead and try to create this label anyway. He went behind his father and uncle's back and tried to create the label and he ended up getting temporarily fired from Gucci because of that.

So getting back to Maurizio and Patricia, they ended up getting married in 1973 and that same year Vasco dies, which caused another major shift in the business. Because Vasco and his wife never had children, his percentage of Gucci went to her. But she was quickly bought out by Aldo and Redalfo, and they ended up sharing the company 50-50 at that point. Aldo ended up giving each of his son's 3.3% of his 50% of the company, leaving himself with 40%, which means Redalfo now had the majority stake. But this wasn't really an issue for them at the time because they all did have a similar vision for where they wanted Gucci to go in the future. And Aldo still was definitely headhunch-o when it came to the everyday of the business.

He was operating as the chairman for all Gucci shops starting in 1953 and he was recognized as a marketing genius at the time. A lot of people also described him as the engine behind Gucci. And Aldo ended up helping smooth things over between Maurizio and Redolfo after he got married about two years after he and Patricia had gotten married. After they kind of patched things up, Maurizio was back in the family business.

And Aldo actually wanted him and Patricia to move to New York and work with him there. And eventually, Petrizia had one over Redolfo. She was just very likable, very charming, and he ended up gifting her and Maurizio a luxury penthouse in the Olympic tower in New York City. So by the late 1970s, the two of them

are living their lives in luxury. And as you can imagine, Petrizia is happier than ever. She was starting to make a major impression on high society and all the elite women of New York. It's true, Monica does not buy happiness. This for sure. But anyway, it's better to have money, not to have.

It's better to cry in Rolls Royce than to be happy in on the bicycle. That's it. It's for sure. She would always be found wearing the most expensive clothing and attending the most important social events. She had lunch, you know, she'd have a pin on that was probably been $125,000 and she made no bones about it that she loved what she'd got.

She was up and running and doing and always going somewhere with him or, you know, going on a yacht or going on a private plane. The two of them really presented themselves as kind of this powerhouse couple and they became friends with people like the Kennedys and the Taylors, even though they did have kind of a rocky relationship with them. And they definitely definitely not afraid of flaunting their wealth. The two of them owned a variety of multi-million dollar homes, including Avila in Mexico, and

a 54 meter wooden yacht named Crayole. And it was actually the nicest and most expensive racing yacht of its time. And they were also really known for their parties. They would have these big, luxurious parties, and of course they invited tons of celebrities. Patricia also was working for Gucci at the time as the chief advisor of the fashion house. She had many ideas for the company and she was not shy about sharing her vision with her husband, who actually was not too interested in what she had to say. Patricia was constantly trying to control Maurizio, and it was really no secret to all of

their friends and family that she wanted to steer the company in the direction that she saw fit, despite really not having the power to do so. And eventually she became known as Lady Gucci, and that title meant a lot to her. Now Maurizio and Patricia did have two children together. This was one thing that the movie did not show correctly. I'm sure just for time's sake. They did show that they had a daughter named Alessandra, who was born in 1977, but they

also had another daughter named Allegra, who was born in 1981. And at the time where they were very socially famous, Gucci was probably at its peak as well. Stores had been opened in Palm Beach, Paris, London, Beverly Hills, Tokyo, and many other notable locations. By this time, Gucci had become one of the top names in fashion, especially in the 1960s and 70s. Their designs were being worn by famous celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, and of course Elizabeth Taylor. By 1982,

after seven years of living in New York City, they decided to move back to Italy to Milan. And by this point, they were living the dream life. The most luxurious life you could possibly imagine. But behind the scenes, the two of them were fighting a lot. Their relationship was quite rocky. And only one year after their return to Milan, Maurizio's father, Redalfo passed away. And as you can imagine, this turned the entire Gucci family and business upside down once again. Because now, Maurizio, who was only 38 years old,

was the majority shareholder in Gucci, owning 50% of the business. And obviously, Patrizio was absolutely thrilled about this, mainly because she thought she was gonna end up with more control. I mean, the more control her husband had, she figured she would get that control as well. She really believed that with Maurizio in power,

that she was kind of in power. But Maurizio was not a trusting person. He didn't trust anyone in his own family. And now that he owned half the business, he got to start calling the shots, and he really didn't have much concern for what anyone else wanted. And I thought that this was pretty well portrayed in the movie, that there was a major shift in Maritzo around this time. Before he got majority ownership of Gucci, he was a much kinder man. Many people said that afterwards he just became very money-hungry and selfish. And Patricia has said that as soon as Maritio got his 50%,

he really stopped caring about anything and anyone except for himself. We have this transformation. Mr. Jacky became Dr. Hyde. And this is incredible because I'm still convinced that he's a good person, but he's acting in a different way. As I mentioned earlier, the 1960s and 70s was really the golden era of Gucci, as it's called, and that's because sales were through the roof and business was thriving. They were opening tons of locations. However, when Redalfo died, the company had really spread itself too thin by licensing the brand. They were starting to lose their luxury title, and it was no longer something just for the elite. Basically, any department store that wanted to carry Gucci could, making it something that the everyday person would have, not just the socially elite. And it was also around this time that there were a lot of fakes being made. And they showed this in the movie, and Patricia was very upset about it.

Of course, everyone in the family had an opinion on how they could return Gucci to its former glory, especially Maurizio. He really wanted to reign in the licensing and try to make the products really only accessible to the rich once again. He decided that he kinda wanted a fresh start. He wanted all new designs and all new designers. And the idea of Gucci being a family run business, which was really important to everyone else before him,

really was not important to Maurizio. He really wanted to bring in some new people with new ideas. And Aldo was especially unhappy. He was not ready or willing to give up control of the company that he was responsible for making so successful. So once Maurizio really started trying to call the shots because he had a majority stake, Aldo and his sons started retaliating. Maurizio was consumed with the desire to be Aldoguchi. And it was never meant to be because they were two, they were cut out of different clothes. In life, I've been the engine, the family.

And they're a whole family, they were the wagons. Now you know, the engine without the wagons is worthless and the wagon without the engines the the the the move but if you put them together you create something. I also want to point out that there were a lot of things happening with the Gucci family during the 80s both personally and professionally and I'm gonna start out by talking about what happened with the actual business and then I'll rewind a little bit and talk about the crazy things that were happening behind closed doors. So by the mid-80s, Aldo and his sons were convinced that Maurizio had forged a signature, his father's signature, on documents that would allow him to avoid paying millions of dollars

in inheritance taxes. But he denied all these allegations and stated publicly that this was just a preordained personal attack. But the lawsuit against Maurizio actually made news all around the world, and an investigation began. And eventually, a Gucci employee actually testified that the signature was fake. So authorities went to Maurizio's house to make an arrest. And as the authorities headed over to Maurizio's house to make an arrest. And as the authorities headed over to Maurizio's house to make an arrest, his personal driver, Luigi,

actually tipped him off and he was able to leave before they could do that. He was actually able to escape through the back door before they could get to him and take off on his motorcycle and head to Switzerland. You are not in hiding because you are innocent. You are in hiding because you must have done something. Your husband is guilty.

Well, I'm sure yes. Of. Of, I mean, you know, he has been too excessive. Did you participate in the forged signing of a document which would have saved immense an amount of taxes and inheritance? Absolutely. For two years after that, the Italian magistrate seized Maurizio's shares of Gucci until he was later acquitted of all charges relating to the forgery in 1987.

And because the charges were now dropped, Maritio was now in possession of 50% of the company once again and was ready to take revenge against his uncle Aldo. So in order to finally get complete control over Gucci, Maritio would need more shares to tip his percentage over 50%. But he knew with all the animosity in the family, 50%, but he knew with all the animosity in the family, he would have a hard time doing that. So he partnered with merchant bankers, Morgan Stanley, to help him find a buyer, someone willing to put forward the cash to help Maurizio buy out more of the company. And they ended up settling on Invest Corp, and they helped Maurizio identify a weakness

in the family alliance. Maurizio targeted his cousin Paolo, who was still struggling to set up his own label, as the Gucci most likely to sell. He was one of all those oldest sons, who clearly did not have a very good relationship with him, and at the time he was really struggling financially, so they used him to their advantage. After a very long negotiation, Paolo ended up selling his 3.3% of Gucci, to Maurizio for $47 million.

Alba's reaction was quite desperate in fact. He was certainly upset almost in a physical way. He thought that not only there was the additional betrayal by his son Paulo, which in a a way he was not surprised of. He was just sorry because he felt that somehow his participation in the company and his children's participation in the company were creating value and he saw that value being destroyed by somebody else. And sadly for Aldo and his other sons, it wasn't long after he took complete control that the rest of the family

cached in as well, selling over the rest of their shares to Maritzo. And then just two years after losing the company that he had really built in his father's name, Aldo died at the age of 84. And surprisingly, Maritzo did attend his uncle's funeral. But because of how everything had gone down and how much he really screwed him at the end, he was definitely not welcome at the reception. But now that he had full control and his family was out of the way, Maurizio was able to do whatever he wanted, which was to redeem the Gucci brand. As I mentioned before, Gucci had really overlicensed the brand and that really kind of diluted its novelty. So Maurizio decided to end up pulling 16 thousand products from the shelves, leaving only 4,000 that could actually be

produced and sold. From 20,000 different items Gucci reduced the line to 7,000 and then to 4,000 different items. And he decided to bring in an entirely new team to replace his family members. And this is when Tom Ford got involved. He was hired as the new chief designer. And this actually was a good move for Gucci. They started becoming more positively viewed fashion shows and their image started to improve as well. So now let's backtrack a little bit. I said we were going to go over the business.

It's too confusing to do this all at once. Now let's get back to their personal lives. So while all of this madness and drama is going on within the business and within the Gucci family, Marizzo and Patricia's marriage was really falling apart. Now, Marizzo was always known to have mistresses from time to time, but in the early 1980s he started really developing a relationship with a woman named Cherie, and he'd actually met her three years prior at a yacht race. So the two of them actually worked closely with each other on the design of his yacht, the Creole, which ended up costing him more than $25 million in decor and renovations. And they actually were both married at the time that they met, but this did not stop them.

When they were together, he would tell her how unloving and unkind Petricea was. And on many occasions, he actually told her that he was worried Petrizia might have him killed, especially if she lost her power or any social status after they inevitably would become divorced. So eventually, he had enough of her, and he decided to leave her and his daughters and filed for divorce. So Petrizia lost her husband and her pri her prize social status and all the benefits that came along with being a Gucci all at once and she was pissed. And Maritio pulled a real dick move by not even telling her that he was leaving.

Instead, he told her that he was taking a business trip to Florence and then he had one of his friends come and tell her the news. Now, obviously this is a really shitty thing for someone to do, pretty cowardly. But it really shows you just how distant their relationship really was at this point. So as you can imagine, Patricia wanted to get even. She wanted to take revenge. So, four years after he left, Patricia would stalk him and his new lover. She would also call them and leave

super threatening messages, and she even paid off some of Maurizio's drivers to spy on them. And everyone knew how much she hated him and Shari. And eventually, Shari just had enough of the drama, and the two of them decided to split. In 1980, Maurizio quickly moved on, and he became romantically involved with interior designer Paola Franchi. Now, Paola actually was a childhood friend to Maurizio, and she actually went to his and Petrizia's wedding. The two of them rekindled their relationship after running into each other at a private club in Switzerland, although Petrizia hated Shuri.

Petrizia thought that Paola was the real gold digger, and that she was only using Maurizio for his status and money. Which is super ironic because that's clearly what Patricia was doing all along. Plus, it didn't really make a lot of sense because the man that Paola was married to before Maurizio was actually much richer than him. So as Mauritzo began to win over the family business and straight further away from Patricia, her anger just got worse. She was just absolutely boiling over with anger because he seemed to just be doing better and better, becoming richer and richer,

and the Gucci brand was coming back. Meanwhile, she was losing everything. In the beginning of their divorce negotiations, Maurizio's lawyer offered to pay Patrizia a settlement of $2.5 million in addition to $650,000 every year, and she actually denied this. But the reality was, Maurizio was not as rich as he seemed to be. The dude was always flexing, and eventually all of that caught up with him. Cars, chauffeurs, private planes, furniture in the office, big dinners in the land, whatever, this was always paid with his personal credit cards. He didn't

want to feel responsible of taking one lira out of the company. He actually owed tens of millions of dollars, which he didn't have to investors. And he did have a ton of assets that were worth millions of dollars, but he didn't have any tangible cash to pay off these debts. And if he didn't pay the money, he would end up losing ownership of Gucci, despite everything he had done to gain control. Now a large reason that money was tight

had to do with the restructuring of Gucci. The entire revamp of Gucci did bring it back, but it happened at an insanely high cost. In 1991, just a year after dating Paola, he ended up filing for a divorce from Patricia. He had left her years before, but this really made it real, and made it real to her. Patricia always kinda thought she would get him back in the end, but him filing papers

just made it concrete. And that same year, Patricia was actually diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to be rushed into emergency surgery, and she actually thought that this might win him back. You know, she thought he would be so scared and worried about her that this might win him back. You know, she thought he would be so scared and worried about her that he would come crawling back. She had hoped that he would rush to the hospital and be right there by her side when she woke up from surgery, but that was not the case. In reality, when she woke up from surgery, Maurizio had only sent her a bouquet of flowers and he

had a card along with it that just had his name on it. So she was quite disappointed. But luckily for her, the tumor ended up being benign, so it was not a concern. But this entire experience and feeling like Maurizio truly didn't care about her anymore, really sent Patrizia over the edge. And by this point, it kind of became common knowledge that she wanted him dead. In fact, on several different occasions, she brought up the idea of having Maurizio killed. One time she just mentioned it to her house cleaner.

Another time she asked her lawyer, what would happen if she went through with it? She was obsessed with the idea of getting rid of him and getting that revenge. And it was around this time that she started asking strangers if they knew anyone who could take care of him for her. Now Patrizia says that her obsession was truly just an obsession. It was just an idea, but she wasn't actually going to go forward with it. But then in 1993, she got serious about it because she was angry and devastated that Maurizio ended

up selling all of his shares of Gucci to invest Corp. Now Invest Corp is a global manager of alternative investment products for private and institutional clients. They also acquired Tiffany and Co in 1984 and over the years they've had over 175 huge investments. So why did Maurizio decide to sell the rest of his shares to invest corp? Well he did it for many reasons, but mainly it was an attempt to bring the company back to the top of the charts and it was around that time that he ended up pulling several thousand lower end products to focus on higher end products.

But when he did that, the reality was that these lower end products to focus on higher end products. But when he did that, the reality was that these lower end products were actually really bringing in the company most of their money. And pulling them cost the company millions of dollars. And selling his percentage of the business was really the only way to keep him from going broke. Because he was also spending a wild amount of money on various luxury items, watches, houses, yachts,

and he was in quite a lot of debt. And so Patrizia was very angry about this because she was definitely no longer Lady Gucci anymore. She owned 0% of the company. Although the number varies depending on who reports it, it's estimated that Maritio got $200 million for selling out. And once he did, for the first time in over 70 years, there were no Gucci family members involved in Gucci at all. And of course, Patrizio was very

angry about this. You know, all the decisions that Maritio was making, his spending habits, she felt like he had kind of betrayed his whole family and her So it was then that she really hit her breaking point and that brings us to March 27th 1995 Maritio was casually walking into his office in Milan when he was shot three times first in the shoulder then in the back and the third in his head and First in the shoulder, then in the back, and the third in his head. And Marizio was pronounced dead on arrival. And not many Gucci's actually showed up to his funeral. He didn't really have a lot of family who cared about him at the end. His daughters, Alessandra and Allegra were there, and Patricia, surprisingly was there.

Even though her behavior right off the bat at the funeral really struck people there as incredibly odd. During the initial investigation, police spoke with the doorman at Maurizio's office who witnessed the whole attack happen. He told police that when he saw the gun, he thought it was an unusual length. It looked long as if the shooter had used a silencer, and he said that the shots had definitely been muted. But surprisingly, or not surprisingly,

the police dismissed the idea of this being a professional attack. But this was mainly because they believed a professional would have also shot and killed the door man for being a witness. And they also felt if this was a true professional hitman, they wouldn't have needed three shots to get the job done. Because Maurizio's dead was no secret, it was also suspected that someone he had owed money to came after him. They looked into some possibilities, but they ended up dismissing them. From the beginning, many people had a strong suspicion that it was Petrizia, especially

because she had mentioned wanting him dead and wanting to hire someone to kill him many times over the years. And everyone knew how much she hated him. But when she was brought in for questioning, her alibi was rock solid. So the case actually went cold for two years before an anonymous tip eventually came into the police chief in January of 1997. This man called me. He said he had information about a murder. He said to meet him in this rather dangerous part of Milan if I was interested to find out more. So I asked him to give a reason why I should meet him in such a dingy area. And he said, I know about the Gucci murder. And when the chief met with this anonymous tipster, he told him that the hotel

porter, which is basically a bellman, had been bragging about being part of the gang that was hired to kill Mary Tseogucci. This man's name was Ivano Savioni, and even though he wasn't responsible for actually pulling the trigger, he knew who was and who orchestrated it. So to catch the rest of the people responsible for what happened, an officer went undercover as a Colombian gangster. And during this operation, he learned the names of four other individuals involved, including Benedad Ocearo Alo. Who was the hitman, and Arazza Cicala, who was the getaway driver, and also a woman named Pena Alriema, who actually was a psychic, who helped Patricia find the hitman and arrange the whole thing. Now, this is very interesting, but when Patricia was arrested, she was brought to the police station

that was right across the street from the very church that she had gotten married in almost 30 years prior. And of course, Patricia did deny having any direct connection to the murder of her ex-husband. Instead, she told police that Pina and the others had blackmailed her for $375,000 for the crime that they had already committed. However, she didn't deny that she had mentioned wanting Mauricio dead. She said at first she'd been blackmailed

by the killers into paying them for carrying out the murder. Yes, I know that people, the killer group, yes, I've paid them, but I didn't order to make them harder. They were asking me money, saying, hey, we have done what you always wish. We know that you want to do it and we have done it. Now you have to pay us. And she said, I got them money because they were blackmailing me. They were saying, if you don't pay something bad, we'll happen to your daughter, to your family."

But she always said that it was just a thought, not something that she was actually going to fall through with. Of course, the police were insanely skeptical of this, considering how many people she told that she wanted Mauricio dead. And they found out that Pina and Patricia were actually really good friends. Turns out Pina had actually been in Patricia's life for years, and the two of them had actually even been seen together after Maurizio's death. So if Pina was actually blackmailing Patricia, it wouldn't make sense why they were still

hanging out. Patricia and Johnny had continued to have a good relation with Pinauria. You can't have a good relation with a person who will kill your husband and then ask you money for that. And after the police collected all of their evidence, it became very clear that Patricia was absolutely involved in the murder of Maurizio. And she was named by everyone else involved as the mastermind behind it all. And they actually did find out that a variety of different payments were made by Patricia

to her co-conspirators, which made it very obvious that she was the mastermind. But the creepiest thing that they found was Patricia's diary. Just 10 days before Maurizio was shot, Patricia wrote in her diary that there was no crime that couldn't be bought. And on the actual day of the murder, in her own diary, Patricia just wrote the word paradise in Italian. Patricia spent a year in prison before her case actually went to trial, and in this year she tried to maintain her innocence, and even went into the trial with a plea of not guilty

by reason of insanity. During trial in 1999, she explained that, yes, she did have an obsession with the idea of killing her husband, but it was Pina who took advantage of her and acted on it without her knowledge. Although, on the stand, Patricia did say that paying Pina was worth every penny. So that's odd, but in the end,

it was determined that Patricia had orchestrated the entire thing. The hitman, Benedetto, was actually a pizzeria owner with a great deal of debt, and he agreed to kill Maurizio for 250,000 euros, which today is worth about $455,000 in US currency. And at the end of the trial, all five of them were found guilty. Benetetto was sentenced to life in prison. Ivano was sentenced to 26 years. Orazio, the Getaway driver, was sentenced to 29 years. And Pina was sentenced to 25. And lastly, Patricia was sentenced to only 29 years in prison. And about a year later, in 2000, her sentence was actually reduced to only 26 years.

And while in prison, Patricia said that she was able to catch up on her sleep, which is nice, she spent a lot of her time watering her plants, and she even was able to bring her pet ferret in there. And he kept her busy as well. And this is wild, but in October of 2011, Petritsiya was offered early release if she joined a work program. Surprisingly, she turned this down and said that she had never worked her day in her life and was not going to start now. However, three years after denying her first work release opportunity, she did agree to join one in 2014 and was actually employed by a costume jewelry firm in Milan called Bozart.

And in 2016, Patricia was released from prison for good behavior, meaning she only served 18 years for orchestrating Maurizio's death. And this is absolutely wild, but as soon as she was released from prison, a reporter came up to her and asked her why she had hired someone to kill Maurizio instead of just doing it herself. And she actually responded and said, my eyesight is not so good. I did not want to miss. So let's talk about the House of Gucci Movie vs Reality. What was different here?

I know I mentioned a few of them along the way, but the major difference was the timeline. The opening scene of the movie sets the timeline at 1978, but Patricia and Marrito actually met in 1970. Obviously, I totally understand why they pushed it forward. It's a movie, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. And I mean, there were a lot of years in between the meeting and the drama really taking place. So it was a little sped up, but I did think it was interesting

that they cut out almost an entire decade. Another thing that was pretty interesting was their portrayal of Patricia's family being poor, because they certainly weren't. Yes, like I said, she grew up poor until she was about 12 when her mother got married to a very wealthy man. But in the movie, for a dramatic effect, they made it seem like Patricia was very poor when the two of them met. But in reality, she did live a somewhat luxurious lifestyle when the two of them met, and he just took that to the next level. Also, like I said earlier, the movie only includes two

of Guchio's sons, Aldo and Radolfo. But this is kind of understandable considering the other son didn't really have that much of a role. Like I mentioned earlier, they made it seem like Aldo only had one son when he actually had three sons and all of them worked for Gucci. Also, there was a lot of criticism in the movie about how Palo was portrayed. They basically portrayed him as a big idiot. When in reality, he really wasn't, and the movie kind of made it seem like Palo mistakenly sent his father to jail, like he just wanted to spook him, but in reality that was fully intentional. Also, like I said earlier, Maurizio and Patricia had two daughters, only one was included, Allegra was just completely left out. Also, they really skipped over Maurizio's first relationship post-separation from Patrizia and jumped right into his second relationship with Paola.

But honestly, I think for the most part, they did a pretty good job of showing how the family was portraying these characters. And I thought the murder itself was portrayed pretty well and kind of the downfall of Maurizio and how the Gucci family ended up losing all control of the Gucci business. I think it was pretty well done and considering it's almost three hours long, I understand that they had to cut some of it out. But there was a lot of criticism

about the movie, so let me know your thoughts in the comments below and definitely let me know what you think of the actual story. I found it to be very fascinating. And honestly just sad how these people got so caught up in the money and the notoriety that they let everything else go. I don't really know how much of a true love, Patricia and Marazzo ever really had, but it does seem like all of the fame and money really corrupted

any relationship that they did have. That is going to be it for me today guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there.