Seers, hitmen and an empire dyed in blood: this was the murder of Maurizio Gucci

Nicolas Mancini

08/23/2021 7:00

• Clarín.com

• International

Updated 08/23/2021 11:19 AM

Ridley Scott will premiere in November House of Gucci, a film about

the murder of Maurizio Gucci

, grandson of the creator of the empire who bears his last name.

Seers, hitmen, doormen, family conflicts, investors, ferrets, prisons, trials, mansions, New York, Milan.

Those responsible for the film have nothing to complain about:

there is material

.

When writing the script for a film based on a true event, better than on and not missing.

The Gucci conflict had it all.

Screenwriters

Becky Johnston

and

Roberto Bentivegna

were based on the book

House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamor, and Greed

by

Sara Gay Forden

, but they could have made a hundred films on the subject just by googling.

Shortly after the film's premiere, let's play around trying to predict what the infallible filmmaker will show us in his new job and let's go through the most relevant events of a historical crime one by one.

Maurizio Gucci, grandson of Guccio, the creator of the fashion empire.

Photo: REUTER

I: Maurizio and Patrizia

Almost all films with a classic narrative structure begin by introducing their characters.

One of the protagonists of this story is the Florentine

Maurizio Gucci

, graduated in Law and Economics, son of Rodolfo and grandson of Guccio, founder of the luxury brand Gucci.

The other is

Patrizia Reggiani

, Maurizio's ex-wife.

He was born in a humble little town near Milan from the womb of a waitress married to a transport entrepreneur.

The story of both is unified in a party held in 1970.

Patrizia and Maurizio.

Photo: AP

II: The Sweet Years

The couple's sweet years were a few.

Of love?

from Maurizio and Patrizia Allegra and Alessandra were born.

At that party in 1970, she was in her early 20s.

His "exciting and different" presence - he will say later - was enough to make the young heir "madly" fall in love.

With their relationship consummated and the wedding carried out, in 1972 Reggiani officially began to be a Gucci and, as the singer Camilo would say, to make a “rich life”.

Any Great Gatsby party that resembles one these two participated in is purely coincidental.

Rodolfo warned Maurizio that Patrizia was a "social climber", but the other did not care.

Love was stronger.

Later, when the Gucci met in heaven, the father slipped the son: "I told you so."

III: The first turn

The first turning point of the argument, the situation that begins to ruin things in the life of the young Gucci and his new wife (who was also his partner in the fashion business), had to do with

Maurizio's conflictive relationship with his uncle Aldo

.

The year of his marriage, the protagonist of our film went to live in New York to work with his uncle and almost ten years later, after Rodolfo's death,

things began to get complicated between them

.

Without Rodolfo, Guccio's grandson clashed with Aldo and his cousins ​​Giorgio and Paolo to stay with absolute control of the firm.

In 1986, threats come threats, Maurizio fled to Switzerland so that his father's brother would not put him in jail for forging his signature.

According to Aldo, his nephew wanted to avoid inheritance taxes.

IV: Things are resolved

Two years after his escape, Maurizio sold 48 percent of Gucci to the investment fund Investcorp, which owns Tiffany, and the following year he became president of the company.

During his tenure it wreaked havoc

.

From '91 to '93, Gucci's numbers turned red and the way Maurizio found to solve it was by selling what was left of the brand to Investcorp for 170 million euros.

Apparently our man in question was spending money excessively at the Florence and Milan offices.

V: But not all ...

Gucci's grandson made his own with his family business and also in other people's beds.

In 1985 he told Patrizia that he would travel to Florence for a business trip, but as someone who goes to buy cigarettes and does not return, he stayed in that city and sent a friend of his to where Reggiani was to tell his wife that he wanted a divorce.

After breaking up with Patrizia, Gucci was seen in love with

Paola Franchi

, a friend of hers from childhood who had even been in her marriage to Reggiani.

The sum of these issues made Maurizio's ex live in a constant state of effervescence.

She was ceasing to be a Gucci and she couldn't afford it

.

In '94, Gucci and Reggiani are officially divorced and he partners with Franchi, his new life and business partner.

To top it off, the impending marriage had cut Patrizia's alimony in half (it was $ 860,000 a year, which she said was the equivalent of a bowl of lentils).

Out of jealousy, money, power, resentment or who knows what, Maurizio, Rodolfo's son, Guccio's grandson, Aldo's nephew and Giorgio's cousin, would

end up with three bullets in the back and one in the head

.

VI: A seer, four bullets

"I have only one defect, I don't even know how to look at a gun: I couldn't do it alone," Patrizia said in an interview.

How right

The story's new high-caliber supporting character is

Pina Auriemma

, a psychic Reggiani met on the island of Ischia while married to Maurizio.

Paola, Maurizio Gucci's wife, cries over the murder of her husband.

Photo: AP

Pina would be key when developing the "black widow" plan.

Determined to end her husband the hard way and to be a Gucci by any means, Patrizia asked the seer for help to shoot her ex-husband.

It could not be that another was occupying his place of privilege

.

So Auriemma, in an effort to execute his plan, hired a limited army of henchmen: the bricklayer

Benedetto Ceraulo

, the compulsive gambler and full of debt

Orazio Cicala

and the janitor of a temporary shelter

Ivano Savioni

.

The three of them could be quietly in a special version of the board game Clue.

VII: Holding Gucci

The end is coming.

The first turn, that related to Gucci's family conflicts over his company, is totally relegated.

As the plot progresses, Patrizia's secondary story takes place and becomes the central axis of the matter.

On March 27, 1995, Maurizio arrived at his office in Via Palestro, Milan, at 8 a.m.

He greeted goalkeeper

Giuseppe Onorato

and headed for the stairs.

As he was climbing, three bullets pushed him from behind.

As he was falling, a fourth smashed into his head.

The bearer of the weapon was Ceraulo, the official hitman.

The doorman at first thought it was a joke, but when he saw that the blood was blood

he walked over to Gucci and held him in his arms

.

Bendetto Ceraulo charged in Gucci's death.

Photo: AP

VIII: Ascent to Hell

Perpetrated the crime, Reggiani was sentenced to prison.

It is said that the day Maurizio died she wrote in her diary the word “paradeisos”, which in Greek means “paradise”.

His trial was a breeding ground for morbidity, theories and irrelevant data.

In 1998, three years after the crime, she was convicted of organizing the murder.

He was imprisoned for eighteen years

and never made much effort to prove himself innocent.

Prosecutors understood that she sent her ex-husband to be shot out of jealousy, resentment and money and that she wanted the Gucci brand no matter who was in front of it.

Months after Maurizio was shot, Reggiani released that his ex was “a simple thing called Gucci that had to be washed and dressed.

A weak ”.

Reggiani could have gotten out of jail earlier, but he didn't want to.

Photo: AP

Patrizia was released from jail in 2016 for good behavior

.

He could have gone out earlier if he did community work, but since he had never worked, he preferred to wait with his pet, a ferret.

IX: Epilogue

An epilogue does not hurt.

Patrizia got out of jail being, according to her, the most Gucci of all that remain.

The first thing he did was visit Via Monte Napoleone.

In recent interviews, he said that he did not regret what he did but that Maurizio was his only love: "If I saw him again I would tell him that I love him, because he is the person that mattered most to me in life."

What she had against him was irritation, not hatred, and she believed her love was unrequited

.

Reggiani claims to be the most Gucci of those who remained.

Photo: AP

She currently lives in Milan, where she is seen with her pet - a parrot - on her shoulder.

He receives $ 1.47 million from Gucci's estate a year and since he was released he has already received 26 million in late payments for the time he was imprisoned.

This is because of a divorce settlement in which Gucci agreed to give you alimony for life.

"The agreement with Ms. Reggiani was established by what was signed in Switzerland. It was made before the murder and has not expired despite it," argued the legal body of the woman.

The real movie

As for the House of Gucci film, Patrizia declared that she agreed that production should go ahead and was even willing to give interviews in case they needed details of the story.

But there was something that angered her: Lady Gaga, who will make her in the story,

did not consult anything

.

Adam Driver and Lady Gaga in "House of Gucci".

“I have two daughters, I don't like them reliving their father's situation.

I also wish Lady Gaga would come to meet me.

It has nothing to do with money, because I wouldn't have charged you a penny.

But it's what good actors do to compose a character.

I say it with all the sympathy I have for her ”, he commented.

Nobility forces to clarify that Gaga was not allowed to interview her by contract, since they did not want them to be shown together so as not to promote crimes.

It is not known if the actress and singer made the attempt to speak with Reggiani, but she did study his life and work by reading books and watching documentaries.

Adam Driver

will be Maurizio;

Jeremy Irons

, Rodolfo;

Jared Leto

, Paolo;

Salma Hayek

, Pina Auriemma and

Al Pacino

, Aldo.

Premium cast.

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