The legendary House of Gucci founder’s assassin was rushed to the hospital in critical condition on Tuesday following a heated family dispute during the Easter holiday.
Benedetto Ceraulo, 63, who killed Maurizio Gucci in 1995, shot and injured his own son Gaetano, 37, in his country house in Santa Maria al Monte, near Pisa, The Times reported.
The Italian fashion entrepreneur killer allegedly used a small-caliber pistol, according to Wednesday reports from local Italian media outlets La Stampa and Il Tirreno.
Although Gaetano was injured when his father tried to shoot him in the face during their in-home altercation, he managed to escape the home where Ceraulo lives alone. His son is believed to have been visiting him for the Easter holiday, La Stampa reported.
Ceraulo was found guilty of fatally shooting Maurizio Gucci outside his Milan office on March 27, 1995.
A restaurant owner facing significant financial troubles, Ceraulo had been recruited by Gucci’s ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani, as part of a conspiracy involving three others.
Gucci’s murder occurred less than a year after he finalized his divorce from Reggiani, an Italian socialite he had met in 1970.
“[Patrizia] was unkind, always put him down, didn’t want to do anything that he wanted to do,” Gucci’s later girlfriend Sheree Loud told Dateline in 2021. “He said he didn’t love her anymore. He said he just had had enough.”
The acrimonious split prompted Reggiani to seek help from her friend, Pina Auriemma, who connected her with Ceraulo to carry out the hit.
Ceraulo was given a definitive 28-year prison sentence for the murder but was released on work release in 2017. Meanwhile, Reggiani, who served 17 years in prison, declined a similar opportunity in 2011, saying, “I’ve never worked in my life and I don’t intend to start now,” according to The Times.
The dramatic lead-up to the murder, including family tensions and power struggles within the Gucci dynasty, was portrayed in The House of Gucci, a 2021 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver.
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