Rotten Mango - #121: The House of Gucci Murder (Case of Maurizio Gucci)

Episode Date: December 8, 2021

“Welcome to the House of Gucci.” You’re instantly hit with the smell of leather and well - money. This is what Gucci is all about - wealth, excess, and opulence. It’s a household name. But have you heard of the Gucci killer? The one fueled by lust, greed, and counterfeit bags. The one that would kill in the name of Gucci. They say money can’t buy happiness - but it’ll get you a whole lot of Gucci. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. As always, full source notes are available on rottmangopodcast.com, but there's a ton of

sources for this one. I mean two different documentaries, a book called House of Gucci by Sarah Gay Fordon, which honestly this is a really good book. It's in depth, it's thorough. It's a long one. This is what the movie with Lady Gaga is based off of the House of Gucci movie that's in theaters right now. Not sponsored, but yeah, there you go. Yeah, there's actually quite a number of books out there on the Gucci brand, the Gucci family history, which honestly, I would have walked by these books at the bookstore without thinking twice. I would think, oh, it's a fashion book.

Maybe it's a memoir. I had no idea that one of the Gucci Family members was viciously murdered. Did I have any idea? Absolutely not. Okay. So the House of Gucci Movie Lady Gaga plays a very key role. There's Adam Driver in it. He plays the victim. I guess, I mean, that's really weird to say because this is a real-life story. He plays Maritcio Gucci, and we're just

gonna get into the only way that you're gonna understand. I know it's gonna be a little bit complex, but the only way that you're gonna understand how this takes place, why this even takes place, is if I take you down Gucci history. So let's talk about how Gucci the fashion powerhouse was formed. I mean I thought it was just a brand. I don't know what I was thinking, but there's a there was a man named Gucci O Gucci. First name Gucci O last name Gucci. Gucci O Gucci, oh Gucci. I love that. And this is honestly a rags-to-richest story in the beginning at least.

So Gucci, oh, he came from a not-so-well-all family. They had a straw hat making business in Florence, Italy. If you guys didn't listen to the monster in Florence, then I'm not gonna go through the whole spiel of what Florence, Italy looks like coming from someone who's never been, you know, go listen to that episode. So Gucci, oh, well my dad, he's about to go bankrupt from this straw hat business. I gotta make money somehow. I can't stay here in Florence,

there's not enough opportunity for me. Nobody's gonna want to give me a job when they find out that my dad is bankrupt. So he flees to the United Kingdom and he starts working at a five-star very fancy hotel called the Savoy. Not the sad boy. I don't know why I keep hearing that. The Savoy. So he's working lower paying jobs. I think he was either the Bellboy or the dishwasher there. Whenever he interacted with the customers, Gucci always shocked. Look at how rich these people are. I mean how blatantly they just go around displaying their wealth. They've got expensive jewelry, they're dripping in diamonds.

It looks like the diamonds are gonna fall out of their pockets. Everything that they wear head to toe was brand name, cashmere leather. I mean, this is Gucci's first glimpse of wealth and luxury and he was obsessed. So for four years he works as butt off at the hotel. He goes back to Florence with a little sack of cash that he saved up and he meets a woman by the name of Ada Cavali. So she is a dressmaker in the daughter of a tailor. So she kind of knows the thing or two and she's 24 years old. She's got a four-year-old son from a previous marriage named

Hugo. Well they weren't married okay but a previous relationship. She's got a four year old son from a previous marriage named Hugo. Well, they weren't married, okay, but a previous relationship. She was a widow, essentially. Now, back in the day, this is a huge deal. Ada's like, I'm never going to get married. I've got a son named Hugo. No one's going to marry me. Gucho did not care. After a year of dating, they get married. She gets pregnant with their daughter, Gremaldo. This is important later. Everybody forgets Gremalda. Gremalda was a person, okay. She deserves some relevance and clout. Hear me out. So with Aida's son from their previous relationship, Ugo and Gremalda, they go on to have like four, three more kids. We've got a son Aldo, another son Vasco, and another son Rodolfo. This is so important later.

I mean, you're gonna learn their names in a second because they've got some strong personalities. So in order to make money, Guchio starts working at these leather firms. He starts learning about leather, how to, you know, how to use them, how to find high quality materials, how to source leather,

how to really turn it into something else. He even gets promoted to being the manager of this leather firm. But he's not content. He's like, what? My dream is to have my own shop. What am I sitting here working for somebody else for? So one day he's on a walk with his wife.

There's a walkin' through Florence. Don't do that. There's serial killers there, but they're doin' it. They're walkin' through Florence together, and he sees this tiny little shop. For rent, on the narrow side street, of one of the most bougie streets in Florence. So think rodeo drive, think Fifth Avenue of Florence and it's like off the corner. Now the shop is small, it's not bougie, it's not big, it's not luxurious, but I mean this is the place you want to be. This is the wealthiest clientel,

this is where the bougie people come to shop. So in 1921, he opens up this shop, in Florence, Italy. And it was at first, they were focused on creating nice leather pieces. They hired a lot of artisans, they had custom designs, they imported leather from Tuscany, Germany, England. I mean, they were really bougie, okay? From the get-go Gucci is bougie. And Gucci was a really good salesman. He dressed the part of the upper class. He was always described to wear these crisp suits. Like he's dressed crisply. I've never once in my life been described as a crisp person. I mean, the sounds like the highest compliment you can get.

He's a man of great taste and it's said that his imprint was on every item that he sold. So think really... I can't even think of the words like high fashion I guess. So these kids are growing up watching their dad run this shop and he is so strict with him. Guccio Gucci is a man that rules with an iron fist. He wants his own children to refer to him as lay rather than two. So they both mean you but lay as formal. So imagine it's like saying dad and then father. He says you got to refer to me with someone with respect. Two is too informal. It's too personal. I mean you would think your parents want to be personal with you but not Guchio. He just had this like crazy strong personality. He

commanded respect everywhere he went. He actually got off on the fact that he was very distant with his children. He didn't want to have like this happy go lucky. Let me walk you to school relationship. He wanted them to just look at him like, wow, you know so much stuff. That's so bizarre. I know. So as the Gucci kids, they start getting older. They start getting interested in the business. The only one that really didn't care for it was Hugo. So this is his stepson.

And even though Gucci-O-Tree did him like his own son, Hugo just didn't care. He was like, I mean, this is kind of boring. I don't really want to do this. So he starts getting a job working for a successful real estate mogul. And he becomes an assistant manager of a farm. And he loves it.

He's like, man, this farm life is, is it? I'm making so much money. He's bragging to his family, to his parents, that he's doing so well. So when Gucci O'Neill's alone for his business, who does he call up? He calls up a Ugo. Now Ugo had lied. Ugo was not making that much money from the farm. Okay, I don't know what kind of farm this was, but he wasn't banking it.

He wasn't rolling in money. He didn't have the cash, but instead of being truthful to his dad, Gucho, he steals the cash from his boss, who happens to be Gucho's friend, because his dad got him this job, and the boss finds out, and Gucho, embarrassingly, has to explain that he didn't plot this. He didn't say, oh, I told my son to steal from you. I genuinely didn't know. I'm so sorry.

He had to return all the money. I mean, he was heartbroken too. He's like, why didn't you just tell me the truth? Why aren't you making a lot of money? What's going on? He was upset. And like, what about my business? He's probably embarrassed, right?

Yeah. A man like him. Oh, so embarrassed. He's like, what about my business? I didn't look for other loans because you told me you had the cash. So this is when Gremaldi, the eldest of Gucci, was biological children. She's absent. She's like, listen, my fiancee, he's coming to the rescue.

My fiancee is not the richest man, but his parents work in construction. They have a little bit of money and we had some savings set aside He wants to loan it to you dad What is he born money for just expansion or no for rent? Gucci was not popping off yet Yeah, so he's like I don't know what to do with my shop. I need to make sure I gotta pay rent So she feels like I'm gonna help my dad my fiance's wonderful He's helping his future father-in-law,

so they loan Gucci of the money and he pays it back in full within a few months. But I think without this loan, I mean Gucci might not be around today, it might not be a household name today, so this is important later, because some really forked up stuff happens. So business is on the up again, Gucci opens up a small workshop next to the store so that he can make his own leather goods instead of just importing pieces. He even starts repairing leather goods which honestly is pretty profitable. He hired a bunch of local craftsmen and over time he starts gaining this reputation amongst the rich.

Listen, if you've got a repair you need to do. Gucci O is reliable, he's got great service and you know what? He also sells some leather pieces. So when you're in a pinch I would just go over there and buy a new handbag I mean, I think what really helped during this time period is that a lot of the leather stores They were mainly focused on manual labor workers So they would hire these manual labor workers and they teach them how to stitch something and they would just stitch that one part Every single day like an assembly line, but Gucho, he hired artisans.

So he had them design, produce these beautiful bags, purses, suitcases, everything was made of the highest quality. He was inspired by everything that he had seen working at the Savoy Hotel when he was young. And so the business that just grows and grows and he had 60 full-time craftsmen working for him. But it wasn't even enough because all 60 of them were working overtime. It just grows and grows and he had 60 full-time craftsmen working for him. But it wasn't even enough because all 60 of them were working overtime.

I mean, people in Florence could not get enough of Gucci. So all of his kids start growing up and working for him and he starts them at the lowest ranks. So Aldo, he starts off by delivering orders to the rich customers, staying at the local hotels. And when he's not doing that, he's sweeping the floors. He's tidying up. And slowly, he's working his way up to help rearranging

the merchandise, rearranging the shelves and the displays. Out of all the kids, I would say that Aldo made the most difference in Gucci. Like, he cared the most about the business. He loved it. He had a genuine talent for it. He was very good at marketing. He's a little bit crazy, though. So just keep that in mind. But he was good. And incredibly charming.

He would use this to woo the female customers sometimes too much. So the princess Irene of Greece, I know it's a lot of people. So the princess of Greece comes in and she says, Gucho, can I talk to you on private? Well, yes, of course, your highness. The back of the day, how do you know if that's Princess? Oh, she was the Princess, yeah. Yeah, I don't know how they know, but she was the Princess. So, it's like, of course you're Highness, like, what do you need to talk to me about?

Do you need something like you need a custom purse? What's going on? No, your son Aldo is having sex with my servant, Alwyn. And this must stop. I must send her home if this doesn't stop. I am responsible for her. She is my servant. She doesn't even speak Italian.

I don't know what's wrong with them. The Gucci was shocked. Are you kidding? My good Gucci name is being smeared right now. The princess of Greece is pissed off with the Gucci family. Mm-mm. So we confront Aldo, princess. I remember her. Her father was upset. He was like, why didn't you hit on the princess of Greece is pissed off with the Gucci family. So we confront Aldo, princess. I read that.

He was upset. He was like, why didn't you hit on the princess? So princess, I read is there. Gucci is like, Aldo, you come here right now. And he's like, are you doing it with her? Are you doing it with the servant? And he's like, yeah, I mean, I take her to the Tuscan countryside. Yeah, you can listen to everything that goes down in the Tuscan countryside in our monster

of Italy episode. There's car sex, car sex stalkers, and a serial killer. So go listen to that. But when Gucci won the Princess confront Aldo, he just takes charge. He says, listen, princess, from now on, all winners no longer your concern. She's mine. I'll take care of her. I'm her knight in shining armor.

He did not mention that Alwyn was already pregnant with his child. So the two of them get married. Aldo is only 22. Alwyn is only 19. Their first child is born and Aldo proceeds to call this child quote unquote my love child for the rest of his life. I don't know why. And they just start shooting out them babies just one by one. And Owen is pretty miserable. She has to live with the Gucci's. And Gucci, oh really, was... I mean, you heard the description, he's very cold. She's like, this is the worst father in law.

This is the worst agreement. This is the worst home life. And as Gucci starts getting more successful, Owen just feels left behind. She never really learned Italian that well. She hated going out. She was a little bit on the shy side, and Aldo is getting more and more successful, and the man has always been a flirt, so she starts getting more and more jealous. Other Gucci family members said that Aldo loved life, but Owen put a damper on anything he wanted to do. She never let

him take her out anywhere. She always made excuses, oh I can't go, I gotta watch the kids. So of course, their marriage would fall apart later. But what are the other Gucci kids doing? So Vasco, he's nicknamed the underdog. Now he takes responsibility over the production of the leather goods, but compared to Aldo, he just wasn't that invested in the family business. I mean, this was a setup where it's a 9-5. He likes work, but compared to Aldo, he just wasn't that invested in the family business.

I mean, this was a setup where it's a 9-5. He likes work, but he doesn't love it. He likes to take his time off, go hunting in the Tuscan countryside. You're like, is he the monster of Florence? You know, it's just, it's a job. Grimalta, the daughter, the oldest biological kid, she worked behind the counter in the shop and she was nicknamed the Gossip. So Rodolfo the youngest, he was called Fofo, which is super cute, and he also wasn't

that into the family business either. He wanted to be a part of the silent movie industry. And Gucci always thought that's a stupid dream. I mean, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What are you talking about? The silent film industry? No, you're gonna make leather pieces. Are you kidding?

This is our shop with our family business. But one day, Redolfo's in Rome, to deliver a package to an important VIP client of Gucci goods. And while he's in the lobby of the hotel, a fancy hotel, a famous Italian director spots him and is like, whoa, you're so hot, you're so young. Let's do a screen test.

Now, Guccio was pissed when he found out about this, but Redouple was determined So he ends up starring in a bunch of silent films. He went by the stage name Maurizio Dioncora I mean he was known for his roles in these comedic silent films. He actually did really well people said he was gonna be the next Charlie Chaplin Really? Yeah, so while on the job, I mean the Gucci's are really doing a lot, okay? So while on the job, he meets a woman by the name of Alessandra Winkelhausen and she went by this stage name Sandra

but she was just this bubbly, free-spirited woman with this huge personality. They even co-started in a film together and it's like a Hollywood romance fairy tale. They fall in love on set So they get married and there's romantic wedding and Venice and the whole wedding was filmed the couple rode off in a romantic gondola gondola gondolo a gondola And after four years they have their first and only kid

Maurizio now Maurizio is gonna be this is like the whole center of the story It's gonna be Maurizio now it's not that anytime. There's a new grand this is like the whole center of the story. It's gonna be Maurizio. Now, it's not that anytime there's a new grandchild born into the family, Gucci would come over, and the first thing that he gave them was a piece of leather, and he would let them smell the leather, and he would say, for that is the smell of your future. Well, you gotta say he's pretty obsessed with his life. Yeah, he loved his life.

Yeah. So in honor of Redolfo's stage name in movies, you know, the grandchild was named Maurizio. I feel like I'm saying that wrong. I'm making it so ugly. I'm sure it's like Maurizio, you know? And I'm like Maurizio. So the rest of the kids, they're off doing their own thing.

But Guchio and Aldo, they are 110% into this business. And it's working. People are falling in love with these Gucci's pieces. They expand in Italy, then Europe and eventually all across the world, even to America. And most of it was thanks to Aldo, the sun. So Gucci always pretty risk-goodverse. Anytime Aldo mentions expansion, Gucci would ask him, yes, son, but what about the risk? Think about the investment.

Where will you get the money? Me? No. Go to the bank. Go to the bank if you want the money. Ask them if they will finance you. Now it's kind of cute because even though this is how we talked to Aldo, behind Aldo's back,

he would walk into the bank and Gu-Chi-O would say, I support my son. I think you should lend him the money because he's gonna expand and he's gonna kill it. So he really him okay, he's like this the sun's got a brain on him I think he's on to something and it wasn't misplaced faith because when they opened up their Rome shop I mean at Aldo's unrelenting pushing it changed the game for the company This was the newest place to be this was the shopping mecca of the world Aldo insisted that they spare no expense,

their shop will have to be two stories. With glass doors, ivory handles hand carved into the shape of all lives stacked on top of one another. I don't know, that's really random. They would have these massive glass covered mahogany cases to display Gucci handbags. They must have wine colored carpeting, going up the stairs. I mean, they spent a whole lot of money on this.

So they're going out expanding the business. Gucci, O'Naldo. But now, Redoltho, the youngest son, he's married, he's got Maurizio the kid now, he's like, I need a stable career. The silent film industry is dead. Did you know they're talking in movies now? Did you know they're talking in movies now? What do you believe it? What do I do? Dad, you're gonna help me. So of course, Gucci and Aldo are stoked. They're like, yeah, we're expanding too much.

We need all the help. We can get all hands on deck. Now, Reddelfa was an instant hit at the stores. The girls would wait outside and they'd fan themselves with their hands and they'd say, oh my god, isn't that, isn't that Marvizio from the silent film? You look just like him. But instead of saying yes, he'd say, oh my god, isn't that, isn't that Marvizio from the silent film? You looked just like him.

But instead of saying yes, he'd say, oh no, ma'am, I'm Redolfo Gucci and he would bow dramatically and wink at them. And they're like, oh my god, this guy's so hot, let's buy a bag. So year after year of being tested, Redolfo was proven to be an asset to Gucci, and he says, I need you to move to Milan with your whole family and manage the new Gucci store

there. They just opened up on one of the busiest streets. But back then, let me tell you, Gucci was something else. Don't get me wrong, there's still a luxury powerhouse, I mean there's a household name who doesn't know Gucci and who doesn't associate money and quality with Gucci? But back then, they had some of the most intense standards for high-end pieces. Gucci made sure that all of the artisans only had coffee breaks at the same time. At 10 in the morning. If you were fumbling with your thread, he would report you.

Because not only were you wasting time, but does that mean your hands are sweaty? Does that mean your hands are greasy? Are you greasing up the leather? No! People are paying for the best quality leather. What are you doing? Every single handbag was made start to finish by one craftsman. I believe there's only like a couple of the big designers that still do this to this day, so the quality was insane back then. If your bag needed a repair, they would have it sent to the same exact craftsman that made it. The craftsmen were even encouraged to make their own designs for the Gucci family to approve. So because of this like strange freedom, strange, super strict supervision, the workers had a love-hate relationship with

the Gucci's. They said that the Gucci seemed to care about them. You know they worked in the shops a lot. The Gucci's were not the type of family that would just hire managers No, they were in the shops all day every day right next to these employees They knew all the shop workers by name they even knew their family members by name and they'd say oh, how's your wife? You know Katie that's not an Italian name at all Is it? They would know about their children, their hobbies. An employee once said, if you needed to put a down payment on a house or a car, the Gucci's were probably

the first people you might ask as an employee. But the hate relationship came from the fact that I think that they knew no matter how hard they worked, they would never have a higher position at Gucci because all of those positions, well, they were reserved for the Gucci's. So meanwhile, Gucci was getting older and all those getting more and more ambitious. And he says, Father, why wait? You know, why wait for our customers to come to us? Why don't we go to them and open up shops in New York, London, Paris? I mean, this is what we need to do. This is the future.

And Gucci would always dramatically reach into his pocket like he's looking for something. And he would pull out a water there and say, with what money? With what money? Do you have money? You have money then you do what you want. But with what money, huh? Not my money. But secretly he would go to the banks and root for Aldo.

I mean this guy's got a plan. He just needs the funds. Come on bankers. Let's give all to the money So all do felt like they also needed better branding You know, it's got until a point where they want to be a little bit more exclusive a little bit more high class And he starts spinning this marketing tail. I don't know if you guys have ever heard But there is like this legend that Gucci is made from these old Saddle makers they used to make those saddles,

these leather saddles, very expensive ones, for the noble men in Europe and Italy to put on their horse and to sit on. What else do you do with the saddle, right? So it sounds so crazy. Wow, I mean, horses, I feel like we always associate horses with money and rich people, but that's not really true.

It's not true at all. None of the Gucci family really worked with horses, none of them were saddle makers, but all those thought this was better branding. So he started incorporating like all of these horse shaped horse bits, stirrups. He would start displaying saddles that they would make on the front displays in the display window of Gucci.

A lot of people think that maybe he was inspired by a brand called Hermes. That was a French brand that was kind of taking off and they were saddle makers. We got to be saddle makers. So they would just display saddles. Even the Gucci family encouraged employees to lie. So if someone comes in, tell them that the Gucci family

used to make saddles for some of the topic westerns of the world, for the rich and the royals. Took a really long time to them to pass up and say, yeah, we don't know anything about horses. We don't know. That's crazy, because their history sounds pretty nice, right? Yeah. They started doing this handcrafted in a very nice area.

I mean, what else do you need to... I feel like the story's good in 2021, but maybe in the 1950s people were like, oh, this is a rags-to-richest story, disgusting. I don't know, maybe that's why. So they're like, we're saddle makers. Just, I mean, he's a marketing genius. So for the longest time, I think even to this day, a lot of people think Gucci started off as saddle makers. Just, I mean he's a marketing genius. So for the longest time I think even to this day,

a lot of people think Gucci started off as saddle makers. It's still around. I mean they still have like those horseshoe bits on a lot of their designs. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's all because he wanted this marketing. No history behind it.

Just a marketing thing. But it doesn't really matter because Gucci is a status symbol. Horse or no horse. I mean, people like Princess Elizabeth, soon to be Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Taylor, Eleanor Roosevelt, Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, were seen shopping at Gucci stores in Italy. So when they finally opened up shop in America, it was in New York off the side street of Fifth Avenue, they sent home a check to Gucci, because Gucci did not like this. Although in the kids they went,

they set up shop in Gucci, I was like, oh, I don't know, America, that just seems a little crazy, okay? So the first thing that they sent Gucci is a check from John F. Kennedy. He had bought something. Wow, that's so they're like, listen dad, something's working. And Gucci was shook. He sent them a telegram that says,

come home immediately, you crazy boys. Yeah, so you just thought they were doing too much. So once he goes to New York, he sees the location for himself. I mean, it's beautiful, it's successful. He even starts claiming the idea was his. To all of his friends. He's like, yeah, yeah, I knew New York was the place to be Manhattan for sure He told his daughter. I have lived long enough to see that all those ideas were not so crazy after all and then just 15 days after the grand opening of the New York store Gucci, I dropped out of a heart attack

He was 72 years old and the doctor said that is hard just stopped like out of a heart attack. He was 72 years old. And the doctor said that his heart just stopped out of nowhere, like an old watch. So his death in his will, it caused the first huge fight in the family. So up until this point, I mean, it's a cute story. I mean, the Gucci family, sure, they're a little weird, but they're so cute. You want to support them. You're like I'm gonna go buy Gucci bag right now Until we look up the price right? That's how you're feeling. No the Gucci family is actually more synonymous with betrayal, lawsuits, greed, dramatic boardroom fights, punching each other in the face This is where it all starts when Gucci dies

He excluded his eldest biological child his only daughter from any inheritance of Gucci. All because she was a woman. She had the smarts, she worked their whole life, her husband even loaned Gucci O the money in the beginning, remember? That is crazy. Yet, Gucci O her own father stabbed her in the back and wrote a will to his sons that included even this spectacular line. No woman can inherit control of this company. That's crazy. And the brother didn't even give her some money?

Oh, that's where it's even crazier. Yeah. So, she did inherit some land, a farmhouse, and a very modest amount of cash because I mean the sky was loaded when he passed away. She tried to fight this out in court. She tried to prove, listen, I was an integral part of growing this brand. But honestly, she wasn't even upset about the money. She wanted to be part of the company. Like her brothers had not only did they not give her anything, but they completely pushed her out. They said, oh I'm sorry, your opinion doesn't matter anymore. Cause dad told us your opinion doesn't matter. So what can we do?

She just thought that her brothers would never follow this like really archaic misogynistic ideology, but they did. And so essentially they pushed her out and tossed her out and stabbed her in the back as well. Meanwhile, his three sons inherited everything else. Now, Vasco is not going to be a big part of the story for today. He's a really big part of the story and all the Gucci drama that happens, but in terms of the murder, he just kind of slips away. He dies before Aldo and Redolfo, so most of the shares are split between those two brothers. But he's got a third of the company as of right now. And they're flourishing. I mean, truly it was Aldo that was the creative drive behind Gucci. He was like the driving force of the fashion empire after Gucci died.

This is the guy that was running Gucci. I mean, honestly, he worked non-stop. He probably took only three to four vacation days per year. So his main few vices in life were that one, he liked to make fun of customers behind their backs with employees. I mean, that's gonna start a horrible work culture at Gucci, and a lot of salespeople were mean to customers, because they learned it from Aldo Gucci himself. He loved having affairs with any and all customers he thought were attractive.

He even set up a mistress up in his own apartment where he had a private entrance, from the hallway to her bedroom So that her servants and her children wouldn't see that he's sneaking out. He would even hit servant doesn't see him No, the the mistress the servants that I guess he hired or maybe she had some already I don't know how servants work. Okay. He would greet fashion editors with a full kiss on the lips Okay, so I mean that's kind of throwing people off like a full one. I mean maybe if you were an attractive fashion editor, he might just make out with you. Scary, he had a horrible temper, he would get this reddish purple in the face if you disagreed

with him, his eyes would bulge out of his suckets and he would just bang his hands on the table. He liked to break things. Whatever was in his hands, sometimes he would smash up his own eye glasses and he wouldn't stop. He'd keep smashing. And this really isn't a vice but it was weird. He wanted to be called Dr. Aldo in the United States. He just loved the status that Americans had with doctors. So he was like, call me doctor, although, very weird. So Aldo and Redolfo, they keep encouraging their sons to join in on the business. Aldo had a daughter, I believe, but she was just kind of like pushed aside misogyny, sexism. So the sons, I mean, they were under harsh conditions.

They did exactly what Guchio did to them to their own sons. They would make them start at the bottom, work their way up. Aldo went the extra mile to even pit his sons against each other because he felt like, oh, well, that's incentive for them to outdo each other, work harder. They're being compared all the time. Aldo's sons generally despised him. Like, it wasn't even the relationship that Aldo had with Guchio because his kids hate him. They don't't even the relationship that Aldo had with Guchio, because his kids hate him. They don't even have the respect that Aldo had for Guchio. Nothing. I think maybe because they were already born into the wealth, a lot of their pickles started with the fact

that they felt humiliated, starting at the bottom of the company. Why should I be working the counter when I am a Guchi? They were also always yelled at by their own father in front of all these other employees Nonetheless, so I'm sure for like a spoiled rich kid. That's like the ultimate evil. You're like this is This is harsh conditions. This is inhumane. So let's talk about Maurizio Gucci Maurizio Gucci. This is Redolfo's one and only son. He will later become CEO of Guci and murdered because of it. Yes. So his story is important. He was Redolfo's only child and when he was young his mom, Alessandra died of uterine cancer and her last dying wish was that Redolfo her husband never remarried. She couldn't

bear the thought of her child calling anyone. Mama. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in them? Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No. Who's gonna catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat?

100%. I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Autosy Originals documentary podcast series available now in the Autosy app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. And Redolfo honored her wish. He was kind of the opposite of Aldo. He really wasn't that like a kind of girl crazy. None of that.

He had some girlfriends here and there, but he never remarried and he never even had that serious of a relationship. And it wasn't just because of his late wife's wish, but I mean, for some reason these women made Maurizio really nervous. If Rodolfo was ever talking to a woman in front of his young son, Maurizio would tug on his jacket nervously. And then like kind of more frantically, like, let's go and let's go. Like we got to get out of here. Don't talk to this person. He just wanted to be the apple of his dad's eye. They had this crazy close bond since it was just the two of them and Arsli was a bit unhealthy. It was like a bit unhealthy of a co-dependent relationship. They would have this tradition.

Can you even call it a tradition if it's a daily thing, but they would have dinner together every single day. So growing up, Marizio is a bit shy and a little bit weak. I mean, his dad was so strict that he felt like he couldn't have a strong personality. He was also always lonely. He loved his dad but as Gucci got bigger, Maritio was always alone. Just with nannies, with tutors, with assistants. Sometimes the assistants were more like bodyguards. They were there 24-7 and it was a little bit strange because Rydolfo was never around. Rydolfo's not there. He's working for Gucci all the time, but he's also very possessive. Like you wanted to control everything that his son did.

I feel like it's normally not like that. Like the parents who are super, you know, gone with their work. They're just not present. But he wanted both. He tried not to spoil him, so for Maurizio's 16th birthday, Rodolfo bought him an alpha Romeo. Not a Ferrari. So sad. Yes, teaching the children, the value of money is really important. That's what Rudolfo felt. So there's Void in Maurizio's heart. A Ferrari big void. A perfect Ferrari California-sized void.

Do you know what I mean? A lot of it stemmed from the fact that his mom passed away. Even as he got older, he couldn't even say the word mama without just bursting into tears. It was just too much. He couldn't say it. And as he gets older, he became so terrified of Redolfo, his own dad, that whenever he'd got into trouble, he would ask Redolfo's employees for guidance on what to do. So Redolfo had like a right-hand hand man and this was like his second father figure. So by the time that Maurizio is in his 20s, he was a really nice person, they said. But he had a really bad temper as well.

He wasn't a backstabbing greedy businessman, they said. But he did turn on any business partner or associate that didn't really agree with his vision for the company. He's charismatic, he's charming, he's overhauled nice. A lot of his closest friends describe him as someone that when they first met him, you know, they were nervous. This guy is part of the Gucci family. This is the upper elite. They are considered old money. They're considered socialites. And I mean, they've got power.

They can move mountains. but he was humble. He wasn't that obnoxious. He didn't want to drink champagne on yachts. No, he wanted to eat paninis and drink water on yachts and sailboats that he owned and bought. I mean, I feel like their definition of humble is a little bit different from us, but maybe compared to other people in his social standing

He wasn't as aggressively annoying. Maybe that's what they meant I don't know, but he was still very very privileged and super annoyingly rich. So when he's 22 years old She's 22 years old. I know He's What was I doing? I was eating hot pockets for breakfast lunch and dinner at 22 And he's rubbing shoulders with the most prestigious wealthiest families in Milan. And the Gucci family, I mean, they're forced to be reckoned with. They're like, they're one of the top families there.

He knew Maritio, knew all the sons and daughters of all these families that were his age. The next generation of kids who would essentially run Milan, but he hadn't really dated anyone yet. There's just nobody that he liked. He already knew everybody, and his dad didn't want him dating. He was always told by his dad, Redolfo, it's straight up like the movies. Remember son, you are a Gucci. You are different from the rest. There are a lot of women who would like to get their claws into you, and your fortune.

Be careful, because there are women who will make their careers out of trapping young claws into you. And your fortune, be careful, because there are women who will make their careers out of trapping young men like you. So at one of these very fabulous parties, Maurizio's eyes, they just park up. There's a sparkle in them. He's excited for the first time. I mean, this guy's usually in the corner, kind of bored, kind of just, this is why am I here?

And he sees this woman, this glamorous, chic woman who had this amazing stuff, she was wearing this seductive, bright red dress just showing, hugging all of her curves. And in this middle of this conversation with his friends, the minute she walked into the room, he zoned out. He wouldn't even look at them. He just zoned out of the conversation, he checked out. So this woman's name was Patrizia.

God, I'm gonna have such a hard time. What is it? This is who Lady Gaga plays. It's like Patricia, but it's Patrizia. So she would glance at Maurizio. We're gonna call... Let's call him Mao, because that's what she calls him later. So Patrizia, she's glancing at Mao a few times, but she's not staring. She's never making eye contact with him. And she's smart.

If you looked at them and you looked at this interaction or maybe you were Mao Gucci, you would not ever think that she knew him. But of course she did. He was a Gucci. She knew. And her mom was an intense influence in her life. So let me talk about Patricia real quick.

She grew up learning from her mom not only do you marry rich, you marry into someone with money, you marry someone with a name. Someone whose name has power, a social standing, and honestly, Patricia, she was primed for it. Not only was she beautiful, people compared her to Elizabeth Taylor, but she had this dynamic personality. She was clever, but she wasn't too serious. She was intelligent, but she knew how to play her cards where she wouldn't threaten men. The men didn't feel like, oh she's too smart. She knows too much. She was fun, but she wasn't too messy.

She was like literally perfect. For I guess straight men. They were like, oh my God, she's perfect. I want to wife her up. So Petritya's mom, she was married to a man by the name of Fernando. Now Petritya's mom did not come from a good background. She worked at her dad's restaurant, which honestly, I don't know why they said this is not a good background, but her dad was a restaurant owner. She's working the tables. She's barely 18 years old.

When a super successful businessman in his 50s walks in and sees her and starts dating her. Even though he's in his 50s, she's 18 and he's married. So they have this affair that last years and then Fernando, the businessman's wife, died of cancer. So, I mean, at this this point Patricia was already born and this is Fernando's baby. So the mistress had a had a had a child and he just quietly moves them into the family home after his wife dies. And even though Patricia is his daughter

he never told people that because he was supposed to be loyal to his first wife during that time. So he just says, Oh, this is my stepdaughter, Pudizia, and he spoiled the living crap out of her. When she turned 15 years old, he bought her a floor-length mink coat that she would flaunt in front of her classmates. For her 18th birthday, he bought her a sports car with a giant ribbon on top. I mean, she was the apple of his eye. So Fernando, he runs this super successful trucking business. Yes, they have a whole

lot of money. More money than I think most of us will ever see in our lifetimes. But he's runs a trucking business. You know, he's not rubbing shoulders with the upper echelon of Milan. No, he's not. He just makes money. He's new money. He's not a old money. His name means nothing. He's not a Gucci. So here, Patricia's mom kept telling her, yes, money's good, money's great, but what you really want is power. And that's what you're gonna get.

Now, Maurizio, he never approached woman himself. They always came to him first. Are you, are you mad Gucci? Oh my gosh, this is my Gucci handbag, you know, that's what they did. So he was kind of shy, but he tried to work up the courage that night. He walks over. Why have I never seen you before? That's his opening line.

Patricia, she says, I guess you never noticed me. Has anyone ever told you you look just like Elizabeth Taylor? He thought this is gonna woo her over because. Because Elizabeth Taylor, are you kidding? And she looked him dead in the eye. And she smiled and said, I can assure you, I'm much better. Ulla la. And he said, well, what does your father do? Really? And you would think that Petitzi is going to sit there

and try to up her dad's name and say, oh, he runs a trucking empire. She looked him dead in the face, oh, he runs a trucking empire, you know. She looked him dead in the face and said, he's a truck driver. And from that, Maurizio is so confused. He didn't even know how to respond. And he said, oh, he's not a businessman. And Patricia just laughed at him. God forbid a Gucci be anywhere near the daughter of a measly truck driver.

I mean, Patricia isithya is smart. It worked. She had his full attention because I'm sure most other people would have been like, oh, Mr. Gucci, my dad, you know, my dad is the CEO of his own business, you know. But no, she wasn't trying to be something she wasn't. Or at least that's what he thought. So Petrithya, even if she were to be with Maruzio, she knew that she would never be accepted into this high society life.

It was always going to be hard. It was always going to be tough, but nevertheless, Maruzio falls head in love. Just full on, head over heels, he can't go a second without thinking about her, he proposed to her on their second date. What in the world? Yeah, with that, he hides all of this from his dad. His dad would never approve of her And he knows it. I mean, Redolfo and Mauricio, they had this daily tradition of eating dinner together every single night But now he's got plans with his new girlfriend. I guess fiancee cuz he proposed

So instead of telling his dad, he just starts eating faster So he can make it to dinner on time and Redolfo, of course, I mean, he's not dumb He notices and he thinks to himself. What is my little son up to now and instead of asking him He just starts eating slower He's taking his sweet time and then Maurizio couldn't take it. He jumps up and he's like I gotta go Where are you going my son? Out with friends dad out with friends. You would just leave So Redolfo checks their phone bill to see if Mauricio is talking to someone, seeing someone

and he said, Mauricio, yes father? Are you the one that's been making all these calls? Answer me, look at this phone bill, it's outrageous! You're right dad, I have a girlfriend, I love her and I want to marry her. No, this is where the drama kicks in because Redolfo did not approve of this marriage. He was super upset. In fact, he saw Patricia to be a gold digger. He saw every woman to be a gold digger.

His dream, I mean, he knew that his son would have to get married one day, but his dream was that he would marry a woman where Redolfo was friends with the parents, another wealthy upper echelon woman. It'd be more like an arranged marriage. I mean, that's his dream. It's so crazy because they already are so wealthy, right?

Yeah. So why does that freaking matter? I don't know. Right. And I mean, I'm sure Redaltho's wife was, I mean, a beautiful woman. She said everyone said that she was wonderful and she was talented, but I don't know if she was the upper echelon. So it's like, how can you marry someone you love?

But not let your son do the same thing. But now that you have all this money, you're like, what you can't marry for love. So Redalpho even called Petricea's dad and started screaming at him through the phone. I am not happy about what is going on between my son and your daughter. She's distracting him from his studies and work. Tell your daughter that she is not allowed to see my son anymore. I know. I know your daughter is only after his money, but she will never have it. Never do you understand.

And Fernando, Patricia's dad says, you are very rude, you know that, sir? You should know that you are not the only one in this world to have money. My daughter is free to see whom she pleases. Wow. So Redalfo starts digging into Patricia's personal life and he keeps saying, Maritio, you be careful. I have received information about this girl and I do not like the sound of her at all. I am told she is vulgar and vicious, a social climber.

She has nothing in mind but money. She is not the girl for you. She is not. He says, but father, I can't leave her. I love her. Love. This isn't about love. This is about her wanting to get her hands on our money.

But she won't. You have to forget her. How about we go to New York? We take a business trip to New York. Do you know how many women you can meet in New York? If you keep seeing her, I will disown you. You will not have a sent to your name. You will not get a penny from me and neither will she.

So Maritio goes upstairs, packs his things, and goes to Patricia's. And he says, I've lost it all. My dad has gone crazy. I can't even tell you the things he said. I don't even know who he is anymore, but now I don't even have a sent to my name. I don't know what to do. So Patricia, she comforts him and says, it's okay. We're like Romeo and Juliet. Fernando takes him in, offers him a job, helps him finish school and allows Maurizio to stay with them in their house.

That's awesome. Meanwhile, Redolfo, he's depressed. He thought for sure his son would come crawling back. So he's staying at work, staying busy, he's depressed. He thought for sure his son would come crawling back. So he's staying at work, staying busy. He's alone. He's like completely alone. He's sad. Even his brothers would come see him to comfort him about his son.

And he said, don't even talk to me about that boy. For me, that full of a son doesn't even exist anymore. Do you understand? But Maurizio didn't care. He was busy. He wanted to marry Patriz Patricia, but he needed permission from her father first. So he tried and tried. And finally Fernando sat them down and said, Okay, you two have convinced me that you are serious. I will agree to this marriage. And it's

a shame that your dad, Redolfo, is so stubborn for acting this way, he will lose a son, and I will gain one. So the two of them get married October 28th of 1972. Now Riddalfo is still trying to do everything in his power to stop it. When he finds out about this wedding plan, he goes to the Cardinal of Milan and says you got to stop this marriage. But of course the Cardinal says we can't do that. If they're in love, they wanna get married. There's nothing I can do to stop it, I get it.

Your Redolfo Gucci, but I can't stop weddings. Even for a Gucci, come on, I'm a cardinal, I can't do that. So nobody from the Gucci family shows up. Nobody. Definitely not Redolfo, but none of the cousins, nobody. Literally, it's like a movie. And because of this choice, they had essentially cut him off too. So you're thinking, wow, so Patricia really isn't a gold digger.

I mean, well, she wasn't really concerned about money. So like I said, her family had money, but she wanted a name. At the end of the day, she was now gonna be Patricia Gucci. And that's what she wanted. She wanted status. She wanted respect. She wanted to be part of the old money club. She can just do it like a name change or something. Yeah that's what I'm saying.

I can change my name to Stephanie Gucci tomorrow. Exactly. They'll never know and she comforted him. She said, don't worry. Things will sort themselves out, Maritio. Just wait till a grandchild or two comes along. Your father will make up with you. So two years into the marriage,

Marizio's uncle Aldo and Patricia, they persuaded father and son to reconcile. Now Patricia shared her own reasons for wanting this. But Aldo too, Aldo realized that none of his sons had the balls to go against him. Or Rodolfo, his sons were weak. But the fact that Marizio stood up Or Rodolfo, his sons were weak. But the fact that Marizio stood up to Rodolfo and married the love of his life, this is someone he wants to be his underdog

at Gucci. So the uncle notices the nephew and is like, you know what, for the business, you are exactly who I need. So the uncle doesn't want to promote the sons. I mean, later he does, but at this moment, I mean, Aldo really did love Gucci. He really made decisions based on the brand, based on the future of the company. He did not think his sons were really good enough. That's interesting, okay?

But, you know, Maritio, he's standing up, he has a backbone. So he's like, I got to make sure this works. He might be the future, he might be the next leader of Gucci So he decides we're gonna around them up. Aldo goes to redolfo and says listen You are more than 60 years old. This is your only son. He is your true fortune in life Look, but Datese is isn't that bad of a girl and I'm convinced that she really does love him And he looks at him and he calls his little brother by his nickname Fulfow Don't be a fool.

If you don't bring your son back, I'm telling you, you will only be a bitter and lonely old man. So Maurizio meets with his dad after two years. And he said it's like his dad had amnesia. The dad was like, how are you son? How do you and your wife feel about living in New York to work under Aldo? You want to go to America? Go go have fun, bye.

Like, doesn't even talk about the wedding. Does she even talk about the two years that they weren't talking? Nothing. So the couple, they moved to the United States. And while Patricia is there, she gives birth to two daughters. The first daughter was named Alessandra after Maurizio's late mother. And I mean, she was living her best life. So in Milan, it was a little bit harder for Patricia.

Like, the Milan upper elite, they didn't really wanna accept her. They thought she was a little bit... Sludi. What's wrong with her? Why is she here? How come a Gucci married her? Why didn't they marry me? My dad's best friends with Redalto and Alta.

Why didn't they marry me? What's going on? But in New York, I mean, this was a crowd of old money, new money, there was a mixture of people and as long as you had the style, as long as you had the look, the money, your hair was always on point, you have spectacular jewelry, nobody really cared that much. They're a little bit more loose, a little bit more fun. So she was a woman that people describe as um, getting her way, no matter what. She'd all just get it.

You know those people that you meet and you're like, damn, I would be terrified to say no to this person. I think Patricia was one of those people. She just didn't take it easily. So for example, they had what I'm sure was a beautiful apartment in New York City. I mean they're the Gucci's. They were actually known around town in New York as Mr. and Mrs. Gucci. So she sees this pet house unit. And for shats and giggles, for shards and giggles, she's like, now I think I want to live here. It's like, are you crazy? We have our own place already. And how am I going to go to my father? My father would doll foe and say, hey dad, I'd like to buy a pet house in Manhattan. Are you kidding me? She says, well if you don't have the courage,

I guess I'll ask him myself. And if you think about it, it's a great investment. And so over the next like week or two, she convinces him and two months later, boom, they move into this two floor pen house. I mean, she was getting everything she wanted. She did an interview, an interview for the press. And she said, I would rather weep in a Rolls-Royce

than be happy on a bicycle. That's from her? I don't think it's from her. I'm sure she just used it, but I mean the fact that someone actually said that and it's not a saying. But that, yeah, but that's a very famous thing. But it's crazy. She'd rather cry in a Rolls-Royce than be happy on a bicycle.

So obviously she's loving this life and Maritio is too. Just a little bit differently. I guess instead of Rolls Royce's, he bought boats, which I wanna see is a lot more expensive. He bought the world's biggest wooden boat at the time. A yacht, who's renovating it with one of his best friends. They literally went and bought shark skin for the couches. They traveled all across the globe to buy art

to put into the yacht. The renovation for one of the boats alone cost $25 million. And this isn't like back then money, so I'm sure today it's like a whole lot more. I mean, he loved luxury. He loved luxury. And this is the person that all of his friends were like,

oh yeah, he wasn't that boozy. He was so humble I don't know And the couple seemed genuinely happy and I know people say money doesn't buy happiness, but they seem pretty happy They seem like they're living the life. It sounds pretty nice, okay? I haven't I haven't said in a yacht before me either and Patricia said that they I haven't cried in a Rolls Royce before So maybe we don't really know. We shouldn't test it out. So Patricia said that they were like two peas in a pod.

They were faithful to each other. They gave each other serenity. Mao took her everywhere. He made initiative in their marriage. Which is a lot to say, even for someone who's so busy, running this company with, you know, his uncle and his dad. Meanwhile, business is booming. Also, I know that during this whole thing,

we made Aldo sound like a genius. Like he was great, right? Aldo was racist. There was a racist history in Gucci. I know it's still lingers here and there today, but it was starting strong. So, Aldo hated Asians, specifically Japanese people. He straight up ignored them when they would come into the store

He was so rude to them. He hated them. To the Japanese man was like, hello, can you guys help me? And everyone in the store was ignoring him. And finally he was like, I'm trying to buy something, can you help me? And an employee reluctantly helped this Japanese man. And he made the biggest purchase that the whole company of Gucci had ever had. He bought 60 bags. What? And then what happened? So then all those changes is tuned immediately.

I mean, they were still racist, but he said, you know, I tell my staff that the Japanese or the aristocrats of customers, they may not be very good looking, but right now they have the money. Oh my god. This is what he said. So I mean, he notices this. And a lot of Gucci's growth at this point can be credited to the fact that Aldo notices this.

And I'm not saying this is Aldo's idea, but they open up their market in Eastern Asia. So they had Europe, they had the America, and then now they're back in the East. So the service never really gets better. In 1975 Gucci service was so bad. I mean, this is what Aldo's saying. He's like the leader of Gucci,

that there was a New York magazine issue that had a dedicated four page spread that was titled, The Rude Is Store in New York. Yes, it was about Gucci. That's it, just four pages on Gucci, being so rude. So they don't care about customer service? No, because I mean look at Aldo. I will say I feel like Gucci is pretty nice now.

What are the nice ones? I think most luxurious brands now are trying to be nice. Be nice, yeah. Because that's part of the luxury. So now the real colors start showing in the business. So as Aldo and Redolfo's son start getting older, I mean, there starts being a rift. Let's break down the shares again.

Vasco, their other brother had died. So now the shares are all just Aldo and Redolfo. So Aldo has 50%. Redolfo has 50%. And Aldo decides to split his shares. So he gets 40% of Gucci. And his three sons each had 3.3% of Gucci, so they shared the last 10%. But Aldo was a little bit annoyed because he felt like he was doing

all the work for 50% stake. Well, 40% really. Now, if you go read the book House of Gucci, I mean, there's a lot on this, like chapters on this, the amount of lawsuits in this book was mind-boggling. So Aldo creates a subset Gucci brand underneath Gucci that would sell the cosmetics to perfume and cheaper canvas bags. Now it was called GAC. But the problem was, now they were cheapening the Gucci name. There were more counterfeiters because it's easier to copy cheaper bags. The craftsmanship is not that detailed. So they're under all of the stress. The company's all over the place. They made some bad business moves.

They were constantly suing counterfeiters. They were constantly being sued by businessmen and investors. It was a lot. All those sons were always fighting for more money. They wanted more creative control, more money, and they didn't like Redalfo. They kinda made their own little pack. Redolfo told them, hey, blame your own dad. He's the one that's so hungry for expansion

that we're really never green with cash. It your dad's the reason, you don't have a big salary. The family would get into these super intense fights where you might see Palo, the son of Aldo, throw some of Redolfo. So Palo and Redolfo never got along. You know, Aldo's son and the uncle Redolfo. There's a lot of people I know.

Wait one more time. So Palo is Aldo's son. He hated his uncle Redolfo. Yeah, so they never got along because I think both of them were very creative. So Palo wanted to be the head designer. Redolfo wanted to be the one designing. So sometimes Palo would go into stores and then really throw Redalfo's designs off the display. Then Redalfo would retaliate by going into the same store and throwing Palo's bags out the door onto the grass outside.

I mean, it was so bad when time a security officer came to work and was like, oh my God, I gotta call the cops, there was a break in. Why are there bags outside? No, it was just the Gucci's. So Palo eventually tries to start his own brand using Gucci's likeness. So now Aldo's pissed. I mean, this is his son, Sher, but at the end of the day, Aldo was Gucci. This is his life.

So he cursed out his own son and said, you are fired. You are an idiot to try and compete with us. You are a fantastic idiot. I cannot protect you anymore. So Paolo sews the family. For not giving him severance pay for his 26 years with Gucci and he wanted the rights to use his own name Gucci for business ventures. So there was an incident during a board meeting where Aldo essentially after promising

Palo that he would be back in Gucci kicked him out. And Palo's recording this all to get proof because there's a breach of contract. And he's got this tape recorder. So all the lunges at him trying to get the tape recorder and it results in Palo scratching his face and there was blood. Now I mean it was minimal but there was still blood. So he storms out and he walks through the store and he threatens to sue the Gucci family for $15 million dollars, which he did. And, so all the headlighting said, G is not for Gucci, G is for war. Aldo did an interview that only made things worse. He said, what father hasn't given their unruly son a slap in the face.

Aldo didn't know that. He said, he's not a real man. He said, he's not a real man. He said, he's not a real man. He said, he's not a real man. He said, he's not a real worse. He said, what father hasn't given their unruly son a slap in the face. What Aldo didn't know was that Paulo had gone through the financials of Gucci and realized that they were sending money overseas into

offshore accounts. Now this is tax fraud and at the time in Italy, tax fraud was normal. It was actually something you would brag about. Like if you go to a family dinner and you are paying taxes, well you're a fool, you're an idiot. But they did operate in the US and the US, since day one, has never forked around with taxes. And so the IRS gets word of the sender. They start investigating. Later Alda will spend some time in prison. Like he he's gonna be in his 80s in prison in the US and because life isn't fair He's in a country club facility essentially. No really. They had a basketball court racket ball tennis pool ping pong tables He had access to a phone inside of his cell and he used it all day every day to call employees and yell at them And some of them would get so frustrated.

I mean, this is their boss, but they would say, aren't you supposed to be in jail? Or should... And he would ask the employees that he's yelling at to pass the phone to the receptionist. Because she's cute. So although did recognize, you know, his son's not a good fit for Gucci,

but his nephew, Maritio, is, he still realizes this. So they're both aware that Gucci was fading. They needed more designer apparel. A lot more Italian names were coming up, like Versace, all of these different names were coming up, these powerhouses, and Gucci was just kind of lingering in the background. Even Patricia kept telling Marizio, you need to hire a designer, and out of house designer,

I know a guy, oh he's's great people of him his name is Armani You need to hire him. I mean how crazy is that did you know Gucci also was the beginning of Tom Ford's career He was hired by Gucci as one of the very first designers She's like you got to hire this guy named Armani. I mean all of my upper-class friends in New York are talking about a guy named Armani I love his stuff. I mean he's a great designer. But I mean, he didn't want to. Maritio is like, are you kidding?

All the Gucci designs are Gucci, the Gucci family are the designers, I'm a designer. But eventually they knew that they had to start producing like ready to wear, clothing, all of these things to remain competitive. So Maritio, he starts working hard on trying to catalyze all of Gucci's massive skew list. Just so many stuff. So the way that this brand worked for all these years is each family member just made things they wanted to make. So like if I was a Gucci, I came up with an idea of a bag.

I would tell a bunch of craftsmen, hey for the next like two weeks all you're going to do is make a bunch of these bags. And then I would throw them up for sale. So there was really no harmony. There was no really branding. I mean there were so many different styles, so many different things. The only thing they had in common was that they were being sold at Gucci That's it. You would never know. I mean, it's all over the place So he's trying to kind of narrow it down to get a couple of things that look like Gucci that look the same that they look like they're from the same designer and he wanted a different third party to handle their marketing campaigns They started hiring Gucci outside of the Gucci family for Gucci designers And he was actually widely recognized for his bold steps in fashion like people were saying wow

This this kid Maritzio, he's killing it. He is the reason Gucci is kind of popping up on the shelves again. And Patricia, she's so excited. She kept saying the era of Maritio has just begun. And with that, Rudolfo passed from cancer, leaving his entire stake of Gucci with Mauricio, his only son. His estate was valued at $230 million at the time.

So Mauricio, I mean, he's shocked, but he's also kind of liberated. He never, I mean, even up until this point, all of these decisions he was making was with the grace of his father. He was always being controlled by Rodolfo, but now he's free. Or so he thought. Because he realized a bit too late that Patricia was if anything a whole lot more demanding, a whole lot more controlling, a whole lot more possessive than his dad had ever been. She wanted to be the head of Gucci. She wanted the power, she wanted the money, she wanted to be the one that made the decisions. And it's not like she wanted an official role. It's not like she wanted a title, she wanted the money, she wanted to be the one that made the decisions. And it's not like she wanted an official role. It's not like she wanted a title, but she wanted to be recognized as the driving force behind

Mauricio, like the Jacqueline Kennedy to the JFK. That's what she wanted. So Mauricio, I mean, he had even more shares in the company than his uncle Aldo, because he's got the full 50%. And immediately Patricia is saying, you gotta show him his boss. Yes, he's the one that mentored you, but it's time to put your big boy pants on. He doesn't recognize you, he doesn't respect you. I mean, listen to the way he talks to you. He talks to you like you're a child.

And that's exactly what uncle Aldo thought. He's like, this little kid is not gonna walk in here and think he's the big boss all of a sudden Everyone except for Patricia warned Maurizio your uncle is not the one to mess with I don't care who has more shares Do not mess with your uncle. So there was a silent war that was starting to form with the family Aldo and his sons were teaming up to push Maurizio out. They're like it's our time to shine But Mauricio, he was smart. Remember Paulo? Who's Paulo? One of the sons of Aldo that was smacked in the face and he was bleeding and he sued his own dad for $50 million and later would send him to prison,

federal prison. Well, Mauricio offered him top dollar to sell his shares, to vote him as the CEO of Gucci. And it was this whole deal. Maritio is like, I will make decisions with you. I mean, secretly you'll be in power with me. We will be the directors of Gucci. I mean, sure, I will technically have the shares and the name, but you're going to be helping you make the decisions. So that's what happens. They kind of push everybody out. And now Marizio is officially the head of Gucci. Now later down the line he has this company called InvestorCorp by out the family members so he would later share the company 5050 with InvestorCorp.

Now side story, Maurizio didn't even like InvestorCorp in the beginning because they were a Middle Eastern bank. So the only reason he wanted his family members to sell their shares to investor corp was because they had recently acquired Tiffany and company. So he's thinking, okay, well, they must be fine. They must have something going on. Now, this is huge. When investor corp starts buying stocks and buying out family members, this is the first

time that someone outside the family had stake in Gucci. So now that Maurizio is kind of ahead of Gucci, more problems start showing up. Gucci is just not what it used to be. Other brands were coming out with these soft nylon bags. Prada, for example. And Gucci just have these super hard boxy leather bags that suddenly felt so outdated.

They just didn't feel like luxury anymore. They needed to get with the program. Their style's not evolving. They're losing their prestige. So Mauricio, he decides to buy a villa and spend $10 million to refurbish it. And he was gonna call it the Gucci School to teach employees about the history,

the heritage of Gucci. I mean, what? This is so crazy. I mean, everyone's saying this guy has... He's got a lot of these random visions, but he's got no priorities. He has no way to execute them. He has... I mean, he's just doing everything at once. He ends up owning tens of millions of dollars, and he's asset-rich, but he's not money-rich. And the banks are finally like, hey, you're buying too many Rolls Royces. You got to pay us back.

And Gucci's not doing well, so it's not like he can just share it's sell some stocks. They went from making $60 million a year to losing $60 million a year. Because he didn't know what he was doing. They said that he was a kid in a candy shop. Sometimes you'd wake up and decide to pull all the products from the shelves.

He said, throw all the products away. As far as I'm concerned, they don't exist anymore. Then he has this genius idea that he's going to sell all those stock, like these excess bags, to a mysterious company in Hong Kong. So he ships them everything, $20 million worth of goods. They never see a penny. They never hear from the Hong Kong company again. They lost all that merchandise.

And he says, anyways, pull them from the shelves because I'm going to replace them with all new designs because we're doing a rebrand at Gucci, but they wouldn't get there in time. So for months at a time, the entire store would be empty. I mean, people thought they were closing down. The bank's were upset, they're like, okay,

you're doing too much, you need to pay your debt, or we're gonna force you to sell your shares of Gucci. So that would mean that you're no longer the head of Gucci, you're no longer the top dog So what's it gonna be? So Maurizio without selling stocks He comes up with a money by asking a loan from one of Italy's most wanted men at the time His name was Delpho. He was accused of being a terrorist of helping plant a bomb that killed people And he fled to Japan before he was caught and he was a millionaire

So Maurizio asked for a personal loan of $40 million dollars. And Delpho wanted the rights to sell Gucci products in eastern Asia. So I mean now that the debts are paid, he stole Mr. Gucci, she stole Mrs. Gucci, right? I mean they should be happy. Sure Gucci's not doing well, but maybe it will get better. But Patricia wasn't happy. It seemed like her husband was always stressed from work. He always wanted to be the one in charge, and he just, he would always think that she was nagging, she was overpowering, she was too much.

He would only listen to his business partners for advice instead of her. I mean, that's weird. He would always listen to her prior to this, and he would always tell her, no wives allowed when he went to important meetings. What? She felt like he was becoming unstable, arrogant, unpleasant.

He stopped coming home for lunch, he stopped coming home on the weekends, he started surrounding himself with whom she called unsubstantial people that were changing him. He became detached, they didn't speak a lot, they grew cold, they were impassive with one another. Now Mauricio on the other hand, he was sick of his wife, but he still didn't really have it in him to confront her. So one day he goes home, packs all of his bags and tells her, I'm going on a business trip to Florence. And he leaves their two children. And she's like, okay, we'll have fun, love

you, come back soon. And the next day, his friend shows up. And he tells Patutia, listen to your husband, he's not coming back this weekend, or the next, or next month, he's not coming back at all. He says he doesn't love you anymore. I mean, she was infuriated. First of all, they have kids.

She felt like she made him the man that he is. I mean, sure, he was born a Gucci, but she felt like she helped him make all these decisions to help him get to be the CEO of Gucci. Wait, what about their kids? And he didn't even have the balls to tell me to my face? So Patricia, she's sitting there running back every little thing in her mind and a few things to doubt her.

One time, Redolfo, her father-in-law, the one that hated her so much, had told her, in secret. You be careful of my son. Once he gets the money, the power, he will change. They all do, and you will find yourself married to another man one day. Even Maurizio told her once, you fancy yourself the president of Gucci, but here there is only one president, me. They do run into each other at a Gucci event, so they're not legally divorced yet. They're just separated. So they have to act like Mr. and Mrs. Gucci and she confronts him and she's like, why did you leave?

And he just keeps yelling at her. I need my freedom, my freedom. Don't you understand? I had my father who told me what to do and now I have you. I have never in my life been free. I didn't enjoy my youth and now I want to do what I want to do. I feel castrated by your relentless criticism and your bossiness. And Patricia, she was heartbroken because she felt like Mauricio was blaming her and

feeling threatened for her assertiveness and her strong opinions, but she feels like these are the very things that helped him get where he is right now. These are all things that were advantages that were pros. And now now he's like, oh, well, it's all your fault. Also, she was really pissed off at the way that he told their eldest daughter about the separation. He set her down and said, so daddy doesn't love your mommy anymore, so he's gonna leave. And daddy has a new, nice house, super nice, where you can come and play and and stay with him so you can stay one night with him and one night with mommy or do whatever you want. She's like, what? Why are you so heartless? But he also, he was interested in someone else.

An American woman by the name of Sherry. Now this woman was the best friend that was helping him fix his sailboat. They kind of had this bond over sailing. She was a lot younger. She was honestly just like a suburban lady from Connecticut. She did model in her past. She was beautiful. But he told her that he was in love with her. He kept telling her, you're funny, you're smart. But most importantly, you are so unimpressed. You don't care about jewelry. You don't care about wearing fur. You're just like sailing. You're just like having fun being out in the sun. That's the opposite of my brand, my life. And I need to date you. And she kept saying no, but he was persistent.

So they start this passionate affair because technically he's still married. And you think that Patricia is just gonna sit around and move on with her life? No, she started hiring people to follow the new couple. So Mr. Gucci and Sherry would go on these vacations and their assistant would call. She's on her way. And they would have to pack all their bags and leave the vacation.

Because Patricia was on her way. And Mr. Gucci didn't, he hated confrontation. You know, Maritio, he was banned from seeing his kids for months at a time. I mean, it was really tough on everyone. Sherry, after five years of this, she couldn't do it anymore. She broke up with him. Well, I mean, there's a couple different sources that say different things. In one source, it says that she broke up with him because of the drama. There was another source that said that she asked Marizio to settle down and have kids one day, and he said he wasn't ready. So either way, they just weren't meant to be and they wake up.

And Maurizio moves on to a designer in Milan named Paola. Now they had met at a bar in Switzerland. This is so rich, I don't know what to say, it just sounds so rich. And he realized, wait, don't I know you from somewhere? They had mutual friends dating all the way back when they were teenagers. and Patricia hated, hated Paola more than Sherry, thought Paola was a gold digger. Paola even moved in with Mauricio, and they were planning on getting married. Now the only catch was, Patricia was still married to Mauricio. So how are you gonna get married to Paola, huh? She's getting more and more angry.

It's not that she's just losing her husband, but she's losing her whole brand. So I think with Sherry, Sherry didn't want to go to these events. She didn't want to be known as Mrs. Gucci. She just wanted to go sailing with the sky, okay? She wanted to have like a suburban life in Connecticut with Maurizio, Mr. Gucci, but Pala, she's a designer, she's tall, she's blonde, very, you know, beautiful, and she of course is gonna fit the title, fit the aesthetic of Mrs. Gucci, she's gonna be associated with Mrs. Gucci now. So of course Patricia, she's freaking out, she's lost her whole brand, her identity, who she is as a person, why people respect her and love her.

So one year in Tadaining Paola, he files for divorce from Patricia. Now that year was really tough because she actually gets diagnosed with a brain tumor and has a super intense surgery and in the recovery room She's kind of low-key expecting Mauricio to be there. He was not he did some flowers though and the note just said Mauricio Gucci Not even a get well soon. She's just his autograph. Yeah, just an autograph. A signature.

Maritio Gucci. She was pissed. Like, really pissed. But JTS started doing some weird things. She would go to an astrologer to find out if she was more compatible with Maritio or Paola Wise. Paola and Maritio, they even bought a two apartments in a super expensive condo in Milan. They were going to renovate it to be a total of 13,000 square feet.

There's going to be three floors. The rent alone every single year, like the mortgage alone, would have been a quarter million dollars. They were going to install a marble staircase, a terrace overlooking a garden, and Patricia, she was so upset. She felt threatened. She threatened to burn down multiple of Maurizio's estates. She would even ask servants, hey, can you just put out

some canisters of gas and I'll take care of the rest? Thankfully they didn't do that, but she just calmly was like, I'm gonna burn this place down. So you guys should get out all. She felt so out of control that she held these midnight saiances in her kitchen like black magic is what everyone associated with. I don't even know what to say. The servants were so scared. They fled, fearing for their lives. They're like, I don't know what this lady's doing. She's losing her mind. And then Maurizio falls from leadership. His whole plan was to make Gucci more exclusive.

So we started making more items that were of a higher price point, taking out all the cheaper price point ones, but that's kind of how they made their money. So of course when he does that, I mean, they were in the red, like really in the red. They took out all their cheaper stuff. So the board of investors decided to take him out as the leader of the company. And now he had no way to settle his debts. He felt the pressure getting him and he was forced to sell his shares. Invested court essentially pushed him out.

They said in a quote, Gucci is being run by three year olds. This cannot go on or the company is going to collapse. So for the first time in history, a Gucci was not running Gucci. And Patricia was so upset. She felt like she had worked hard to put in there. And like an idiot, he left her and he lost Gucci. She asked him, are you crazy? This is the most demented thing that you've done.

Are you insane or you out of your mind? For Patricia, Gucci was everything. It was money, it was power, it was an identity, and now it's gone. So all of this, I mean, there's some side stories here. So it just leads to all of them. I feel like having a midlife crisis or something. So for example, Maritio gives Alessandra for her 18th birthday, his eldest daughter, $93,000.

Okay. And he says, listen, you want to have a big party? That's fine. You want to have a small party? That's fine. This is your money for your birthday. And Patricia immediately takes over the money and plans a massive party, that's fine, you want to have a small party, that's fine, this is your money for your birthday. And Patricia immediately takes over the money and plans a massive party. And in order to prep for it, using the money, Patricia gets a nose job and she wants her

daughter to get her boobs done. It's just weird. Okay, just weird. So March of 1995 rolls around. And Maritio Gucci is starting his day like any other. I mean, he's in downtown Milan, one of the most prestigious areas, very safe, right? And he walks from his multi-million dollar apartment that he's renovating to his office every day. He walks very hashtag humble. And so he walks into his office and he greets

the staff like he always does with a polite smile on his face and as he's walking up the stairs, a man walks into the building and shoots him twice in the back. Maritio turns around before dropping down and the door man said that when Maritio turned around, there was no sense that he recognized the shooter. You know you would kind of see maybe in the face if you recognize like maybe a face of betrayal but he just looked confused and he fell down and the man shoots him again. Then he shoots him a fourth time in the temple. I mean, the door man sees all of this takes place and he's trying to hide behind the door,

but the killer on his way out sees the door man and shoots him. So honestly, I don't know, but at first a lot of people thought I was to get rid of the witnesses. You know, the door man saw everything. You gotta get rid of him. But he also passed a woman on his way out and he didn't shoot her. So the door man thought he was dead, but he opened up his eyes and saw that his arm had been shot. So he crawled over to marizio and he started screaming. He said that he couldn't hear the scream, the sound of his own scream.

He didn't know if he could even scream or if he was screaming, but someone else had heard him and they rushed to help. I mean, this entire murder was shocking, because Gucci's a household name at this point. This is the Gucci that you're probably thinking of right now, and the world had gotten news that he had been murdered, citizens, journalists, onlookers, probably even tourists. They all paraded around downtown Milan outside his office,

just kind of watched what's going on, like their sightseeing. So the whole world watched his body being taken out on a stretcher covered in a white sheet. So the door man, he's giving his statement to the police and he said, I don't really remember the face, I can do a sketch, I can do a composite sketch, but I, the gun was weird, the length of the barrel of the gun was long. And the gunshots didn't sound like what they should have sounded like. I mean, I don't really know.

I don't really hear a lot of gunshots, but it sounded weird. So the police conclude that the killer was definitely using a silencer. I mean, all of this points to a professional hit. But why didn't he kill the doorman? If this is like a mob hit, you would have killed the doorman. You would have shot him in the arm. You would have executed him. You would have shot him in the head.

None of this is making any sense. I mean, are we looking for mobs, are we looking for mafia? Is hitman, are we looking for more personal connections? So the first people that they investigate, especially in this type of case, is family, and love, and also business contacts. So of course, they bring in Patricia, because you know, she's been talking pretty loudly with anyone who would listen that she wanted to get rid of Mauricio So they bring her in she's calm she's collected sure she's stressed because her husband was killed But she wasn't nervous and she had an alibi so then they started investigating the terrorist in Japan Remember the one that he borrowed 40 million dollars from maybe he didn't pay it back

I mean tens of millions of dollars. It's kind of an incentive. That's kind of a motive to kill someone, right? But he says no, no, no, he already paid me back. I mean, here's proof. So that didn't check out. Years later, this guy was actually cleared of the terrorism charge too, so he just wasn't a suspect anymore. All those family was investigated, his side, but it was all clear. The family fights, they were old. Gucci, most of the Gucci's, had sold their shares. They were out of the family business now. They were doing their own thing.

Really, the only person that they were left with was Mrs. Gucci. Patricia. Yes, she was still calling herself that. She would say, hi, I'm Patricia Gucci. Even though they were divorced, she was at the funeral with the daughters, like a grieving widow. She was wearing a black-fail, very dramatic, and it felt like she was Mrs. Gucci all over

again. Everyone felt bad for her. Sure, they were in the process of a divorce, they were upset. But I mean, she's Mrs. Gucci. After the funeral, she went around telling her friends, Marizio may have died, but I have just begun to live. I mean, she was so bitter. She even sent him, the police found that she had sent him a bitter rant that said, you've reached the ultimate limit of making your own daughters despise you.

They don't even want to see you, so they can forget their trauma. We all want to forget you. I want to tell you, Marizio, that you are a monster. A monster that belongs on the front pages of all the papers, because I want everyone to know what you're really like. I will go on television. I will go to America to make them talk about you. You tried to crush me, but you couldn't.

Now I have looked death in the face, and you have reached the limit. Maritio, the inferno for you, is yet to come. I mean, the police are like it's clear. She hated him, but I mean, post X-Wives hate their X-husbands and vice versa, right? So what's the motive? I mean, is she gonna get money out of this? Is there life insurance? So it seems like the motive that the police find is that Maritio sold his take a Gucci. Yes, we know that. He was given, I believe, close to $120 million.

She was getting alimony, she was getting child support, but it was only a million dollars a year. She said, and I quote, it is no more than a plate of lentils. A million dollars a year, and on top of that she's watching Marizio, just spend and spend and spend. He has houses all over the world, he's renovating more boats, his home renovation with his new soon-to-be wife. I mean, soon there's not gonna be any money left for her daughters so that she can inherit the money, no money left for her. And Patricia was upset by this. This is all the money that she felt like she worked hard for. She spent her whole life for. She's very open about how much she hated

him. She told the newspapers, my husband was a very bad businesswoman. He was a weak person. He was not fit to run house of Gucci and he's like a seat cushion. He leaves the last imprint, whoever, last sat on it. Saying he's very impressionable. You know, his ideas are the last person you talk to. Can't just say something not to generalize But a lot of these like Italian sayings are the way they phrase things is really deep Just the way they you know communicate is very I like it. I mean the whole seat cushion thing So Paula she said that she was in a weird position So the apartment that they're living in was given to Marizio's daughter after Marizio died I mean she was left with

nothing. Paolo was not his wife yet. And Patricia, within 24 hours of the murder, shows up with an eviction notice. Uh, because she's the wife. Get the hell out. The eviction letter was drafted by a lawyer hours after Marizio died. Literally, that's what she was doing. Going to an attorney and getting an eviction notice, it's almost like she knew that he was going to die and she was going to move into this apartment. And on top of that, Patrizio's lawyer allegedly came to the police later and said, hey, now that Medizio's dead and a crime has been committed, Patrizio did ask me multiple times

what would happen if she paid someone to kill someone? What happened? Is she hired a hitman? I don't know, maybe you guys need this, but I'm not gonna work for her anymore. I don't represent her anymore. I just don't want to be arrested because I knew something. But he wasn't the only one. Housekeepers started coming for it and said, you know, Patrícia, when I worked for her,

she asked if I knew someone that could kill her husband. If I knew someone that could kill Maritio. I mean, I don't have proof. This is all, it's just a witness statement So the police they were frustrated. It was just a bunch of people saying I heard this she asked me this But there was no proof But they felt like all they had to do was wait because Patrizia was a passionate woman She was gonna slip up sooner or later. She wasn't very discreet

They wiretap her phone and the only odd thing that they hear is that she's talking to a woman by the name of Pina. Now this woman was from Naples, which isn't Italy and she wasn't that high society. So the police were thinking what the hell is she doing hanging out with someone like Patricia Gucci? What on earth do they have in common? How do they even know each other? What do they even talk about?

So they met on vacation in the south of Italy and Pina became like a sister to put it Patricia. She almost saw Pina as a mentor, an expert in life. Patricia said that Pina was the one that talked her out of killing herself when Marizio left. Now the fact that Pina was from Naples, the police thought, oh my god she must be part of an organized crime. Because Milan police held their nose up against Naples and thought Naples was just all gangs and, you know, it's just not a great area. That's what they thought.

Even though Peña had no criminal record, nothing. They just felt like Peña was guilty. So they started looking into this woman and they find out through Maurizio's friends that Maurizio was scared of Peña. Yeah, so that she had powers, psychic abilities. One time he told his friends that he, you can't go out of business trip, Tom Kong.

Friends like, what? Why can't I go out of business trip? Pina said something about planes. We can't go anywhere for a while. So you have to cancel your business trip. Maurizio even told his girlfriend, Sherry, that it took him years to leave Patrizia because of Pina, he was scared. Patrizzia was gonna use Pina's powers against him after

they break up and when they were dating Sherry said every little bad thing that happened he felt like it was Pina. He even had his boat exercised like an exorcism on one of his boats. So Maritzia was serious. He said Pina had a doll like a voodoo doll that he would stick pins into and it would curse him. Oddly, I don't know if Pina was the one cursing him because it's also said that Patrizia was the one that like to perform Sanchez and spells. Anyways, maybe she told Maritio is Pina doing it or maybe it was Pina telling her to do it I don't know. Now the police did not believe that she had these superstitions, but they felt like she was part of this whole thing. I mean, she was the only connection that just didn't make sense in Patricia's life.

So then finally, a call comes in, an anonymous voice. I know who killed Marizio Gucci. What? So they meet up with this guy. And he says, I checked into a one-star hotel in a super dangerous part of Milan, the opposite of where the Gucci's would spend their time and I'm from South America. I'd walked into this hotel and I was just bragging. I was pretending to be a big shot I said, you know what I do in South America. I run a cartel. I'm

I'm a drug dealer organized crime baby. I'm a mafia man and The hotel clerk looked at him and said, Oh, you think you're tough? You think you're a big, you think you're a big shot? Well, listen, I was involved in the murder of Maritio Gucci. And he said, you are what? Now, the South American was not a drug dealer. He was not a part of organized crime. He was honestly just a, a broke dude.

He was just kind of like, what? I was just trying to be tough. And I was trying to show off to people. I'll never meet again But now I'm terrified so he runs to the police and tells them all of this and they asked him can you wear a wire So he goes back to the hotel with a wire and he says so tell me you did what to Marizio This is well, I had some other guys in on it Let me introduce you because we're planning something else. Maybe you can help. So this is a pizza diona, this is a mechanic, and us three.

Yeah, we took down Maritio Gucci. So the South Americans started hanging out with him, and he's like, so what do you need my help on? And they say, well, we've got a new job. We're trying to blackmail the person that hired us to kill Maritio. Because listen, so we were paid $90,000 in advance and like another $300,000 after the kill. But we read on the news that this person inherited millions of dollars, millions upon millions

and millions and millions of dollars. So of course we must blackmail her. Who is this person? Patricia Gucci. I mean, how dare she only give us $300,000 when she's inheriting millions. Are you kidding me? So now the police are like, oh this is the lead we're looking for. So they start stalking every single member of the gang. They even tap the hotel clerk's car like they get a

GPS and like a wire in there and they hear Pina in his car. Yes, Patricia's friends. She's trying to blackmail Patricia too. The friends? Yes, she's in on it. She was like, you know what? I think I deserve more money. I think at this point, Pina realized that her friend was just using her

to set up this murder plot. So now the police had enough. They go to arrest Patricia, and she asks for one second. I need to go get dressed. In the apartment that Medizio was living in before he was murdered, she goes back upstairs and she comes back down, wearing a full face of makeup, full jewelry, a floor length, fur coat, and carrying a Gucci bag full of makeup and skin care. He's going on vacation?

She's going on vacation? Yes, and she told her kids I'll be back soon and she blew them some kisses. She said, well, I'm ready now. And she was booked at the police station. And her mom was the one that convinced her to change into more, like, relatable clothes. Because she's in like a fur-length coat. It's not looking good for you, dude. The pizzeria owner and the hotel clerk turned on each other.

They became prosecutors' witnesses for the case. Meanwhile, everybody else was tried together. They really didn't need any witnesses because when they searched Pizzeria's apartment, they found a Cartier diary of her detailed thoughts. One of them said, and I quote, there are no crimes that money can't buy. On the date that Marizio died and was shot in cold blood, there on the page was one single word. Paradise.

His mouth just dropped, yeah his jaw just dropped. Even Pina decided last minute she was ready to talk. She said it was all Patrizia. She was the one that kept saying that I'm got a murder this guy because he fell in love with Palace. She was miserable. She was so sad about losing her name. She was no longer a Gucci.

Well, why would you help her, Peña? Well, I know how stubborn Patricia is. And actually, I was just introducing her to some people that I didn't think were capable of carrying out a hit. I mean, the hotel clerk, that's the only other guy I knew in Milan. And he's just a weirdo. He thought he thought he's not a killer. So the hotel clerk, he wasn't a killer. The only other person he thought that could kill someone was the pizzeria

owner. So he gets him involved. Then the pizzeria owner is like, oh I know a guy. This is the hardest criminal I know. He's a mechanic. And the mechanic was the one that did the shooting. The pizzeria owner was the one that drove the getaway car. And the hotel clerk was the one that set it up. So the defense used this as a way to point fingers. They said maybe Pina was the one setting this all up. There's no proof that, you know, Pachitia, ever even knew these people, but you have proof that Pina was in the car with them, that Pina was talking to them. Maybe Pachitia was in the dark of all of this, and she was just being blackmailed.

Maybe she didn't even know. There was a funny moment in the trial where the defense of the prosecutor's ass pinia, do you, are you psychic? And she said, listen, if I could see into the future, don't you think that I wouldn't have lived my life like this and end up being on the stand for murder? If I could see the future, you don't think so? You don't think I would have done that. After a five-month trial is now up for the jury and Petitzia was found guilty, but she was sentenced to only 29 years in prison. She didn't show any emotions, no reaction

to the case, the rest of the crew, the mechanic, the one that did the shooting, he was sentenced to life, the Petireana was sentenced to 29 years. The hotel clerk 26 years, and Pina 25 years. I mean, it's really bizarre that these were the people that organized a crime that looked somewhat professional and so heartless. I mean, just bizarre. Pina was released in 2010. She said she's trying to live a good life, but she can't stop thinking about Maurizio.

She said this will haunt her for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, the rest of the Gucci's, they don't like the house of Gucci book or the movie. They said that they did not consent. To that information being out there, they said that it only associates their family with murder, backstabbing greed, and not for their innovative, for-we're thinking work in fashion and their influence in the fashion world. I don't really think so, because I mean, I, I didn't even know about this.

Until the movie came out, and I'm like, wait a minute, a Gucci was murdered, you know, I always associated Gucci. I didn't even think it was a family, honestly. I was like, Gucci just sounds like a rich name, you know? So, I mean, they were kind of upset. Wow. And an unfortunate twist on all those side,

all those granddaughters name is Patricia Gucci. And she was upset because when Patricia is released from prison in 2016, she still goes by Patricia Gucci. She's still around? Yeah, and Patricia Gucci, the real one, Aldo's granddaughter is saying, Hey, this is the only name I have. And you are not Petritsya Gucci.

There is only one Petritsya Gucci and it's me. Wow, the fact that these people are still around. Yeah, so Petritsya was released in 2016 and she could have been released in 2011, but they told her, Hey, you need to get a part-time job in order to get parole. And she said, I've never had to work a day in my life. Why should I start now?

So she stayed in prison. She stayed in prison. In jail, she demanded a ton of weird things. She demanded having a fridge, like a refrigerator, in her cell, so that she could store her mom's homemade meatloaf that she was sending. I don't know how prison works in Italy, but maybe your mom can send you food. in her cell so that she could store her mom's homemade meatloaf that she was sending. I don't know how prison works in Italy, but maybe your mom can send you food. I don't know.

She left paparazzi when she got south. She has a new best friend. You might see her walking around on the high fashion streets of Milan with a parrot on her shoulder. She loves her parrot. She really didn't slide into the shadows. She feeds off the attention when paparazzi asked her, Patricia. Why did you hire a hitman to kill Marizio Gucci? Why didn't you shoot him yourself? She said, my eyesight is not so good.

I didn't want to miss. What is wrong with her? And Lady Gaga plays Patricia Gucci. I believe Adam Driver plays Marizio Gucci. Honestly, I want to go see the movie after this. I might. Yeah. Yeah, that's fascinating. I think it'll, a lot of people make fun of Lady Gaga. There was a whole discourse online about her accent. And I want to say, if you were one of those people, you probably hate me. What the hell was I doing this whole podcast?

I don't even know okay. I'm so confused. Is your name Patricia? Is it Patricia? I don't know I get wanting to say and then at one point I'm like Patricia I gotta go I gotta go. I'm so uncultured and you need to take a trip one day But I hope you guys enjoyed this week's main episode and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye But I hope you guys enjoyed this week's main episode and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye