Who really was the Monster of Florence?

? Netflix’s The Monster of Florence follows the murky search for Italy’s most notorious serial killer in what is a criminal case that remains unsolved to this day. The new four-episode series tells the story of a series of murders perpetrated across the span of 17 years in Florence, Italy. From 1968 to 1985, 16 people were murdered — all couples who sought privacy in their cars before meeting their tragic deaths.

How it all began: The series opens in 1982 with one of the last murders to be investigated in this case — a young couple who was found murdered in their car. But it all starts with newly wed couple Stefano Mele and Barbara Locci — when Barbara and her lover Antonio Lo Bianco are found murdered in the same way in 1968.

Who killed Barbara? Was it the same person behind the later murders? These are the questions the viewers ask as each episode looks into one of the many suspects — Barbara’s husband Stefano, his brother Giovanni, among others we’re introduced to. Aside from Stefano, who confessed to the murder, served a prison sentence, and later retracted his confession, the series masterfully makes each suspect’s guilt entirely plausible. To quote Gianluca Monastra, author of the non-fiction book that inspired the show: “It’s a story in which everything can seem true, as can its contrary.”

“We wanted to tell the story without taking a position.” Instead of fixating on the gruesome details of the murders, director Stefano Sollima turns the focus to the violent attitudes these suspects had towards women, given that the women’s bodies, unlike the men’s, were famously mutilated in each case.

What makes the show all the more intriguing is how the evidence feels both convincing and uncertain, and how not one suspect was charged with all 16 murders. Bingeable and gripping, The Monster of Florence captures only the beginning of a narrative that has haunted Italy for years — and rumors of a sequel are making it all the more compelling.

WHERE TO WATCH- The Monster of Florence is streaming on Netflix. You can watch the trailer on YouTube (runtime: 2:10).