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Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Daily Mail
Hitman who killed Maurizio Gucci shoots his son in the face then turns the pistol on himself
The notorious hitman who killed fashion mogul Maurizio Gucci at the behest of the revered businessman's ex-wife apparently tried to take his own life on Tuesday after shooting his son in the face. Benedetto Ceraulo, 63, allegedly shot his son, Gaetano, 37, during a family dispute then turned the pistol on himself in the front yard of his rented home in Santa Maria a Monte - just outside of Pisa, Italian media reports. Despite the injury to his face, Gaetano never lost consciousness and 'with blood everywhere... dragged himself out to his car,' according to Il Tirreno. He then reportedly drove himself to a bar in a town in the nearby province of Valdinievole, where he was picked up by first responders and rushed to a local hospital. Gaetano is now in stable condition, after receiving treatment at Felice Lotti Hospital. But Benedetto was left in critical condition, and remains at Cisanello Hospital in Pisa Tuesday night. Meanwhile, police are continuing to investigate what exactly transpired at the home Benedetto has been living at for the past two years - following his lengthy prison sentence for Gucci's death. Benedetto was an indebted restaurant owner at the time, when he took Patrizia Reggiani's - Gucci's ex-wife's - offer of 600 million lire to have him killed, according to La Stampa. He then worked with two other men to pull off the assassination on March 27, 1995, when Gucci, 46, was arriving for work at his Milan office. Benedetto was ultimately sentenced to 28 years in prison for the murder, but was granted work release in 2017 and participated in a wine-producing project on the prison island of Gorgona, The Times reports. 'You have the chance of learning, I feel lucky,' he said at the time. 'Closed in your cell, deprived even of your privacy, people become worse.' Reggiani, meanwhile, served 17 years in prison for contracting the murder. She, too, was offered the opportunity of work release in 2011 - but turned it down, saying: 'I've never worked in my life and I don't intend to start now.' The headline-grabbing crime was recently sensationalized in the film House of Gucci, which family members claimed violated their privacy. 'We are truly disappointed. I speak on behalf of the family,' one of Maurizio's second cousins, Patrizia Gucci, said ahead of the film's release. 'They are stealing the identity of a family to make a profit, to increase the income of the Hollywood system,' she claimed. 'Our family has an identity, privacy. We can talk about everything. But there is a borderline that cannot be crossed.' Her ancestor, Guccio Gucci, founded the luxury fashion house that bears his name nearly a century ago in Florence. But the family has not been involved with the fashion house since 1993, when Maurizio sold his remaining stake to the Bahrain-based company, Investcorp. It was later bought by the French group PPR, which is now Kering.
New York Post
23-04-2025
- New York Post
Hitman who killed fashion icon Maurizio Gucci shoots son in face, turns gun on self: reports
The hitman who killed fashion icon Maurizio Gucci shot his own 37-year-old son in the face and then turned the gun on himself Tuesday, according to Italian reports. Benedetto Ceraulo, 63, was hosting family at his Pisa, Italy, home for the Easter holidays when the shocking attempted filicide occurred, according to Italian newspaper La Stampa. A family argument broke out on Tuesday — which escalated when the high-fashion hitman allegedly resolved the issue by firing a small-caliber pistol into the face of Gaetano Ceraulo, Il Tirreno reported. Advertisement 3 Benedetto Ceraulo pictured in 1995 after his arrest for the shooting of Maurizio Gucci. ASSOCIATED PRESS Ceraulo then turned the pistol on himself in the front garden of the Santa Maria a Monte home in an apparent suicide attempt, according to the local reports. Despite being shot in the face, Gaetano never lost consciousness and managed to drive himself to a bar in a town in the nearby province of Valdinievole, while gushing blood. Once there, he was picked up by first responders and rushed to the hospital, according to Il Tirreno. He is currently in stable condition after receiving treatment at Felice Lotti Hospital, the outlet reported. Advertisement Meanwhile, his father, Gucci's assassin, remains in very serious condition at Cisanello Hospital in Pisa, Il Tirreno stated. Ceraulo was convicted alongside another hitman of the 1995 killing of the third-generation Italian fashion house head on orders from the doomed businessman's ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani. Gucci, 46, was shot to death outside his offices in Milan. Advertisement 3 Maurizio Gucci was shot to death outside his offices in Milan in 1995. Ipa/Shutterstock In 2023, Ceraulo was granted semi-liberty after serving only 18 years of his sentence upon condition of participating in a social reintegration project, La Stampa reported. Reggiani, dubbed the 'Black Widow,' was sentenced to 29 years in prison in 1998, but was released in 2016 after serving just 18 years. The high-profile assassination became fodder for Hollywood in 2021 when director Ridley Scott's 'House of Gucci' hit the silver screen — much to the dismay of Reggiani and Gucci's daughter, Allegra Gucci. Advertisement The 'bad caricature' of her beloved father inspired the devoted daughter to pen the book 'Game Over' in which she tried to set the record straight on her 'hard working' dad and her 'elegant' mother who was portrayed by Lady Gaga in Scott's film. 3 Patrizia Reggiani, dubbed the 'Black Widow,' ordered the hit on her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci. Associated Press For years, Allegra averred the innocence of her mother, bringing the 'Black Widow' care packages in prison and even being inspired to study law due to what the daughter perceived to be an unjust legal accusation of her mother. Reggiani eventually admitted to her daughter that she had hired the hitmen to kill Gucci.
