After her successful big screen debut and the Oscar for Best Song for "Shallow" heard in the movie "A Star Is Born", the Lady Gaga is getting ready for her new movie, where she will play the wife of the murdered heiress of the Gucci fashion dynasty.
Lady Gaga, under the direction of director Ridley Scott, will play Patricia Retziani, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in Italy for orchestrating the 1995 murder in Milan of her husband Mauricio Gucci.
Also known by the nickname "Black Widow", she starred in one of the most scandalous crimes of high society in the history of Italy and was released in 2016.
Born in a small town outside Milan to a waitress mother and a businessman father, Retziani did not need wealth. Her father's business was successful and, thus, he could offer her everything she dreamed of - fast sports cars, mink furs, etc. - without access to the circles of Milan's high society.
She met him later husband and her victim at a party, where the heir of the luxury house fell madly in love with her. At first she did not think much of him, as he was a quiet boy with crooked teeth, she would say several years later. However, the grandson of the Gucci founder did not give up, chasing Retziani with all the wealth at his disposal.
The two young men were married in 1972 at the age of 24, with their marriage causing a rupture in the groom's relationship with Rodolfo Gucci's father, one of Guccio Gucci's sons, who did not accept at all the origin of his bride, and of course her strong personality. Maurizio, whose mother passed away when he was just five years old, was an only child and his father was always overprotective with him.
"Maurizio felt free with me, we had fun, we were a team," a Guardian article quoted Reggiani as saying. Maurizio's father softened after the birth of the couple's first daughter, Alessandra, acknowledging to his bride that he truly loved his son.
Grandpa, now, Rodolfo Gucci, crazy with joy, bought luxury real estate in the happy pair of, including an apartment in New York.
"We were a beautiful and happy couple and we lived a beautiful life," reveals Retziani. She does not forget the fancy and luxurious parties they organized in the early 80's, as well as the trips to private islands with the luxury yacht that her husband bought for the birth of their second daughter, Allegra - this boat still belongs to the family and is used by the couple's two daughters. Their charming world also included a chalet in Saint Moritz, a cottage in Acapulco, and a farm in Connecticut.
The first problems in the couple's marriage began after the death of Rodolfo Gucci in 1983, when Maurizio inherited 50% of his father's shares in the family business. "Maurizio went crazy. Until then I was the only person who consulted about the house. However, he wanted to be the best in the field and stopped listening to me ".
The house began to lose its prestige with the excessive licensing of the use of its characteristic logo, as well as with the mass production of canvas bags. Also, for years he was in constant conflict with his uncle and cousins who owned the remaining shares of the company, until he managed to buy them. Meanwhile, his marriage to Retziani was already breaking up.
Tired of Reggiani's constant involvement in his professional affairs, one night he filled a suitcase and left the house. Meanwhile, the company under the presidency of Maurizio Gucci lost many millions, while Retziani was right, at least in that her husband abused his businesses and did not generate large revenues to implement his ideas. His personal fortune was declining more and more, forcing him to sell the house Gucci in 1993, for $ 120 million.
"I was angry with Maurizio for a lot of things at the time. But above all for the fact that he lost the family business. All this was stupid. A failure. I was full of rage, but there was nothing I could do. "He should not have done that," Retziani told the Guardian.
Regiani could not accept the fact that Gucci was the one who had abandoned her. However, what he could not accept at all was that his property would not pass into the hands of herself and her girls, as he had an affair with Paola Franchi and her 11-year-old son from a previous marriage, in a real palace on the main boulevard Corso Venezia, while in their immediate plans was their impending wedding.
In fact, as revealed by Regianni's best friend, Pina Auriemma, during the trial " , glamor and prestige.
That is why she was pressuring her accomplices murder of her ex-husband to be done as soon as possible in order to prevent his marriage to Franchi.
"Regiani was watching us," reveals Franchi, adding that "he still had spies in Maurizio's circle and knew all our plans, his business dealings, everything. In fact, many times he would call him and insult or threaten him with his life. And if he did not answer her, then he made sure to send recorded cassettes with threats and warnings that hell has not yet come for you. "
The day after Gucci's assassination, Franchi received an out-of-court settlement from Retziani, literally throwing her into the street. According to her, the time she noticed that the document was ordered was at 11.00 the morning of the previous day. Just three hours after the murder of her partner.
It was a wonderful spring morning on March 27, 1995, when Giuseppe Onorato opened the arched door to the magnificent building on Via Palestro 20, where Maurizio Gucci maintained his office. According to him, the victim arrived smiling, holding various magazines, saying goodbye to the concierge and continuing to his office. "Then I saw a hand. A beautiful, clean hand holding a gun, "71-year-old Onorato told the Guardian.
The perpetrator shot Gucci three times in the back as he climbed the stairs, and a quarter in the head as he collapsed. "I thought it was a bad joke. "Then the killer saw me and shot at me." He does not even remember how he got to the foyer, after he had been shot twice in the arm, but he was sitting there in a pool of blood when the police arrived. "I was sitting with Mr Gucci's head in my hands. He died in my arms ", the former doorman explains characteristically.
As soon as Franchi and her son were evicted from the apartment on Corso Venezia, Reggiani and her two daughters settled there. For the next two years she enjoyed the luxurious life that this apartment provided her, until one of her accomplices revealed to the wrong person his involvement in the infamous murder of Gucci.
The man who had the information informed the police, who in turn set up an entire operation to trap Retziani and her four accomplices - her friend who organized the murder, an acquaintance of her friend who suggested the killer, the killer and the driver who fled the Gucci killer- as it happened.
One of the most remarkable findings of the police investigation is the diary of the moral perpetrator of the murder of Maurizio Gucci, who wrote the word "paradise" in Greek on the date of his murder!
In court Regiani admitted that she had paid her friend $ 200.000, but denied that she was in charge of organizing the murder, claiming that Aurriemma was the one who arranged everything on her own and threatened to accuse her if she did not pay her. . All five who participated in the murder were found guilty, with her being sentenced to 26 years in prison with the right to appeal, of which she served 18. The "Black Widow" was released in 2016 with her only obligation to find a job. Maybe the first in her whole life.