Assassin at Center of House of Gucci Murder Allegedly Killed Son, Then Shot Himself

The man who murdered Maurizio Gucci in 1995 is in the hospital after allegedly shooting his son and then himself following an Easter argument at his home in Pisa, according to several reports.

Local Italian media outlets La Stampa and Il Tirreno reported Wednesday that Benedetto Ceraulo had allegedly shot his adult son in the face with a small caliber pistol during an apparent family argument before turning the gun on himself as his other son Gaetano, 37, escaped.

Ceraulo, 63, was in the hospital in serious condition as of Tuesday night, according to The Times.

Gaetano was injured in the shooting, according to the Times, but managed to escape from his father’s rented home in Santa Maria al Monte, located in the area of Pisa.

La Stampa reports that Ceraulo lives alone in the rented house and that his son was believed to be visiting for a few days over the Easter holiday.

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Ceraulo was sentenced to life in prison for the contract killing of famed fashion heir Maurizio Gucci in March 1995. The killing came less than a year after Gucci, 46, had finalized his divorce with Patrizia Reggiani, an Italian socialite who first met the heir apparent to the Gucci fashion empire in 1970.

“[Patrizia] was unkind, always put him down, didn’t want to do anything that he wanted to do,” Gucci’s later girlfriend Sheree Loud told Dateline in 2021. “He said he didn’t love her anymore. He said he just had had enough.”

The bitter separation led Reggiani to consult a friend, Pina Auriemma, who helped her hire a hitman who turned out to be Ceraulo.

The struggling restaurant owner took the job and shot Gucci outside his Milan office in 1995 while on his way to work. He was let out of prison in 2017 on a work release, while Reggiani refused a work release, according to the Times.

The high-profile murder and the family drama leading up to Ceraulo pulling the trigger became the subject of Ridley Scott’s 2021 film House of Gucci, starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver.

PEOPLE has reached out to local police for more information.