In very serious condition

Family tragedy in Pisa: father convicted of Maurizio Gucci's murder shoots his son and attempts suicide

Family tragedy in Pisa: father convicted of the murder of Maurizio Gucci involved in a new episode of domestic violence. He is now hospitalised in a very serious condition in Pisa hospital, his son managed to escape

23 April 2025[Aggiornato il 23 aprile 2025, ore 19:40]

Lady Gaga (Patrizia Reggiani) e Adam Driver (Maurizio Gucci) nel 2021 a Milano durante le riprese del film "House of Gucci" (Miguel Medina/Afp)

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Key points

convicted for the excellent murder of Maurizio Gucci in Milan in 1995
The ex-convict had tried to build a second chance with viticulture
Four shots were fired at fashion entrepreneur Maurizio Gucci in Milan when he was only 32 years old

3' min read

Family tragedy in the municipality of Santa Maria a Monte, in the province of Pisa: a father and son were seriously injured during an argument. Benedetto Ceraulo, 63 years old, shot his 37-year-old son Gaetano and then tried to take his own life with the same firearm.

Convicted for the excellent murder of Maurizio Gucci in Milan in 1995

He tried to get back on his feet afterserving 28 years in a cell for the excellent murder of Maurizio Gucci in Milan in 1995, but today he has fallen back into the centre of a judicial conundrum, with a tragic outcome.

Benedetto Ceraulo, 63, originally from Caltanissetta, shot his son in the face at the height of an argument before attempting to take his own life. He is now hospitalised in a very serious condition at the hospital in Pisa, while his 37-year-old son is expected to pull through, although he was wounded in the face when he was hit by shots fired from a small-calibre pistol.

It all happened on the morning of 22 April in the house that the 63-year-old had rented for a couple of years in the countryside of Santa Maria a Monte, in the Pisano region, and where he lived alone. His son Gaetano, who lives in the province of Milan like his mother, had also joined him for the Easter holidays.

It was with him that she started a fight yesterday morning: the motive is still unclear to the Carabinieri who are investigating.

The fact is that at the height of the argument Ceraulo allegedly shot his son Gaetano with a small-calibre pistol, wounding him not so seriously that the 37-year-old got into his car and fled, raising the alarm on the 112 emergency number. He will be operated at Pontedera hospital (Pisa) but his life is not in danger.

In those same moments, his father Benedetto turned the gun on himself and fired. He, on the other hand, is hospitalised in a desperate condition at the polyclinic in Pisa.

The ex-convict had tried to build a second chance with viticulture

According to reports, the ex-convict had tried to build a second chance for himself with viticulture: a passion developed in the penal colony on the island of Gorgona (Livorno) where he had met Marchese Frescobaldi in 2017 for the project of a wine company he had learnt about in the prison.

Once finally free, he moved to Acciaiolo, a hamlet in the municipality of Fauglia (Pisa) and from there to Santa Maria a Monte.

Four shots were fired at fashion entrepreneur Maurizio Gucci when he was only 32 years old in Milan

In 1995, aged just 32, he shot fashion entrepreneur Maurizio Gucci four times in Milan, in a crime orchestrated by improvised bandits and commissioned by the victim's ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani, who was jealous of her husband's new relationship and frightened by his expenses incurred for this new love affair, which she claimed endangered the family fortune.

An accusation of being the killer, always rejected by Ceraulo, but which cost him first life imprisonment and then a reduced sentence until the final conviction in Cassation as the material executor of that crime conceived and orchestrated by others.

For the prosecution, he received 150 million lire in return.

Arrested in 1997, the first life sentence came on 3 November 1998. Reggiani was sentenced to 29 years, her friend and amateur magician Pina Auriemma to 25 and her accomplice, hotelier Ivano Savioni, to 27.

Life imprisonment also for Orazio Cicala, believed to be the driver of the killer.

On 17 March 2000, the appeal judges of Milan reformed the first conviction sentence, changing Ceraulo's sentence from life imprisonment to 28 years, 11 months and 20 days, which was later confirmed in the Court of Cassation.