Italian entrepreneur, CEO of the House of Gucci, whose grandfather, Guccio Gucci, was founder of the fashion empire and the father of two sons, Aldo and Rodolfo. Aldo had three sons, Georgio in 1928, Paolo in 1931 and Roberto in 1932, where Rodolfo had one son, Maurizio, in 1948.
Maurizio inherited his father’s 50% of the business when Rodolfo died of cancer on 16 May 1983. The bitter competition of the two brothers extended to the four cousins and the company was a morass of duplicity and bitter lawsuits between family members.
Maurizio, the youngest cousin, was elegant, handsome and extravagant. He had a yacht with a crew of 23, two Ferraris worth $350 thou each and an art collection. Spurred on by his father Rodolfo, he managed a hostile take-over of the business in the mid-80s, ousting his uncle Aldo and three older cousins out of the Board.
He met his partner in living the high life when he married Patrizia Martinelli in 1972 and apparently more than his match in his wife’s iron-willed dominance. Patrizia had been raised in affluence, given her first mink coat when she was 12. During their 13 years together they must have spent enough money on opulence to fund a small country. Attractive, stylish people, they surrounded themselves with the best in art and beautiful environments, lavish parties, ski holidays in St. Moritz. They had two daughters, Alessandra in 1977 and Allegra in 1981.
They separated in 1985. Maurizio moved in with fashion designer Paola Franchi, 44 and her 10-year-old son in a fashionable Milan apartment. The acrimonious divorce was not finalized until 1994 with Patrizia complaining that she could barely get along on her $750,000 a year settlement.
On 27 March 1995, shortly after 8:30 AM, Maurizio left his apartment for the short walk to his office. A well-dress middle-aged man shot him twice with a 7.65mm pistol. After a hasty third shot in Maurizio’s face, the man fled.
Patrizia and her two daughters stand to inherit a $150 million fortune. The two daughters apparently knew nothing of their mother’s plans as she orchestrated his murder. Devoted to the mystic arts, Patrizia consulted her psychic, Giuseppina Auriemma, who apparently saw a lucrative future for both her client and herself as she hired the two hit men. At her trial, which began in May 1998, the prosecutor Carlo Nocerino argued that Patrizia had engaged her longtime confidante, Pina Auriemma to hire a hit man. The trial riveted Italy with its tales of scheming, ineptitude and greed among the glitterati of Italian society. Patrizia was charged with paying four people, including her psychic, $375,000 to kill Maurizio. Convicted, the erstwhile glamorous Patrizia was sentenced to prison for murder in 1997.
Link to Wikipedia biography