Ferdinand Gamper (12 September 1957 – 1 March 1996), known as The Monster of Merano, was a serial killer in South Tyrol, Italy.
[1] Born into a family devoted to pastoralism, Gamper's childhood and adolescence were characterized by poverty and work in the fields.
Gamper spent many years working as a pastor in Switzerland, then returned home, finding employment in a hayloft in Riffian.
Despite the shocking attack, the girlfriend managed to provide the investigators with a facial composite, which described a tall, blonde man in overalls, carrying a rucksack.
At this point, the authorities broke in and found the lifeless body of Ferdinand Gamper, who had committed suicide with a gunshot to the head.
[7] The agents had no doubts that he was the Monster of Merano, who had terrified the population of the South Tyrolean city, especially those who spoke the Italian language.
In the beginning, it was believed that the murders were committed solely because of schizophrenia, but this pathology had not been diagnosed by a doctor, so much so that the name Gamper was not included in any list of mentally ill patients in the Bolzano province.
The story of Ferdinand Gamper highlighted the difficult situation which made the coexistence in South Tyrol between the German and the Italian linguistic groups a problem for many decades.