Glamour, GREED and a FATAL GUNSHOT
Not long after Patrizia Reggiani was released from prison in 2014, a camera crew from a trashy Italian television show turned up unannounced at her Milan workplace. Reggiani had just spent a decade and a half inside after being convicted in 1998 of arranging the March 1995 murder of her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci, the last of the Gucci family dynasty to run the luxury brand. The former socialite had always maintained her innocence – her best friend had set her up, she said – but the TV crew caught her in a reckless mood.
“Patrizia, why did you hire a hitman to kill Maurizio Gucci? Why didn’t you shoot him yourself?” badgered the reporter. “My eyesight is not so good,” Reggiani lobbed back. “I didn’t want to miss.”
Sentenced to 26 years, Reggiani was freed after 16 and, as a condition of her parole, was required to find a job. Bozart, a Milanese costume jewellery firm, employed her as a “design consultant”. Co-owner Alessandra Brunero and her business-partner husband became Reggiani’s de-facto minders, tasked with ensuring she quietly rebuilt her life as a regular citizen.
“Oh, mamma mia, it wasn’t easy,” says Brunero, a stylish 40-something. “I cried after that TV interview. It was terrible,” she says. “Naturally, Patrizia was only joking.”
Even before the impromptu “confession”, persuading Reggiani to remain low-key was a lost cause. One of her first acts of freedom was to go shopping on Milan’s upscale Via
