Giuliano Mignini

The investigation into the death of Francesco Narducci (1949-1985), a Perugian doctor, lasted about ten years, between 2000 and 2010.

It is one of the investigations connected to the principal investigation on the serial murders known as "The Monster of Florence" case.

Giuliano Mignini (born April 13, 1950) is an Italian magistrate.

Mignini was born in 1950 in Perugia, the son of a high-school teacher belonging to a family of sculptors.

He obtained his law degree from the University of Perugia.

He had wished to pursue a career in the Air Force, but he was rejected by the Pilots' Academy because of a form of daltonism.

He passed the magistrate's examination in 1979, and worked for one year in Volterra serving as pretore (an investigating judge role which does not exist anymore in the Italian system).

He served for several years as judge in the courts of Pisa and Terni, where he worked on different times both as a criminal and as a civil judge.

He is known for his involvement as the prosecutor in the investigation of the death of Dr. Francesco Narducci, who was found dead in the Trasimeno lake in 1985.

Dr. Francesco Narducci's body was recovered from Lake Trasimeno near Perugia, Umbria, in 1985 and was determined to be a drowning.

His body was discovered a month after the final double-murder linked to the Monster of Florence.

Pathology professor Giovanni Pierucci had also examined the picture of the body that was taken on the pier in 1985, and believed that the decay of the cadaver in the photo appeared too advanced to be consistent with a permanence of only five days in the lake's water, and had recommended the unburial and examination of the body.

Further discrepancies were further observed between the very good state of preservation of the exhumed body and the visible decay of the body photographed on the pier.

Further analysis of the 1985 photographs of the lake cadaver by other experts, found that the body on the pier was also shorter than Narducci, had a different head shape, a dark skin complexion, and had a waist size not compatible with the trousers on Narducci's exhumed corpse.

The prosecution concluded that a second body had been used to stage a drowning in the lake, as a cover up for the killing, and claimed to have sufficient evidence that the whole finding of the body at the lake had been a staging, performed at the time as part of a cover-up by state authorities, coordinated by the Provincial head of Police (Questore).

Mignini alleged that Narducci had been involved in the murders of the Monster of Florence case, which, according to the findings of the Florence Prosecution, also involved a network of other people linked together by a secret society, and that he had been possibly killed on order of his father, Ugo Narducci, a member of a masonic lodge himself.

The same father had masterminded the cover up.

Mignini's theory involved a complicated conspiracy of 20 people, including government officials and law enforcement officers, who all concurred in covering up Narducci's cause of death.

The name of Dr. Narducci belonged to a list of "persons of interest" issued by the Florence Police in relation to the Monster of Florence cases since 1987.

Police and prosecutors in Florence initially investigated Narducci's death as connected to the murders after a number of anonymous letters were received, but police were unable to find evidence of a connection.

In 1989 he returned to Perugia and served as investigator and criminal prosecutor (sostituto procuratore), between 2004 and 2012 he also had powers as the head of anti-mafia prosecutors (Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia) in Umbria, in 2013 he took a post at the Appeals prosecution office (Procura Generale).

Mignini opened an investigation into his death as a cold case in October 2001, as he suspected he could be the victim of a murder.

He was soon joined by prosecutors from the Florence jurisdiction who were also investigating on the deceased doctor, as they believed Narducci was involved in the Monster of Florence serial murders case.

Mignini's investigation resulted in the prosecution of 20 individuals over the following years, on allegations indirectly connected to Narducci's death such as cover-up and side-tracking charges.

In early 2002, blogger Gabriella Carlizzi contacted Mignini regarding her theories about Narducci being part of a secret society behind the Monster killings.

Narducci's name had also emerged within an ongoing phone stalking case Mignini was investigating, where some of the conversations they recorded included references to Dr. Narducci, the Monster of Florence and secret societies.

While a medical examiner had determined the cause of Narducci's death to be drowning, no autopsy had been performed at the time, despite it being mandatory under Italian law, reportedly on the insistence of Narducci's father.

Mignini regarded Narducci's death as suspicious, as in some of the phone conversations the stalker had stated that Narducci was killed by "strangulation".

Mignini deemed that an autopsy was necessary to investigate the cause of death, and, in summer 2002, also assisted by the Florence prosecutors, he had Narducci's body exhumed and examined.

The exhumed body was Narducci's, the pathologist found evidence that the cause of death was not drowning but strangulation.

Mignini came to wider public attention as one of the two prosecutors who led the 2007 investigation into the murder of Meredith Kercher, and the subsequent prosecution of Rudy Guede, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.

Mignini was convicted of abuse of office in 2008 together with police officer Michele Giuttari in a case connected to the Narducci investigations.

In 2010 all 20 individuals had their charges dropped by a Preliminary Caourt, mostly due to the expiration of limitation statute terms.

The courts however, determined that Narducci had died by strangling and not by drowning as previously declared, and that a cover-up had in fact taken place, which included a staging of the finding of the body at the lake by using the body of an unknown.

Mignini and Giuttari were both acquitted on appeal in 2014.

The conviction of Knox and Sollecito was eventually annulled by the Supreme Court of Cassation on March 27, 2015.

The verdict pointed out that as scientific evidence was "central" to the case, there were "glaring defalliances" or "amnesia" and "culpable omissions of investigation activities".

Mignini was a Consultant at the Italian Parliament Anti-Mafia Committee in 2022, which issued a 120-page report on the Monster of Florence, Narducci and connected cases.

The Parliamentary inquiry stated again the conclusion that Narducci's body had been temporarily exchanged before burial in order to cover up his murder.

He retired as a public prosecutor in Perugia, Umbria, in 2020.