Inside the Shocking Case of Maurizio Gucci's Assassination

For a man whose very name had come to symbolize elegance, Maurizio Gucci's death was sadly déclassé.

The 46-year-old third-generation scion of the Italian fashion dynasty had left his Milan apartment just after 8:30 a.m. on March 27, 1995, for the short walk to his office 50 yards away. Stylishly clad in a suit and tie — and, of course, Gucci loafers — he strode past the public gardens and into the building at 20 Via Palestro.

But as he headed up the short flight of stairs, witnesses said, an equally well-dressed middle-aged man fell into step behind him. Armed with a 7.65-mm pistol, the man fired twice at Gucci, hitting him once in the shoulder and once in the lower back.

Gucci spun around, collapsed onto the red marble floor and lay there as the gunman shot him once in the face before fleeing.

"It was clearly a premeditated murder," said Italian police Maj. Paolo La Forgia.

But who was responsible?

It took nearly two years for the world to learn the answer: Following a five-month trial, Gucci's ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani, was found guilty in 1998 of being the mastermind, along with four accomplices, in the murder plot. (She has maintained she was wrongfully convicted.) Reggiani was released from prison in 2016 after serving 18 years.

The case's twists and turns — and the greed, lust and secrets in Gucci's own family — were the subject of PEOPLE Magazine Investigates: Crimes of Fashion, which aired on July 26, 2018, on Investigation Discovery and is available for streaming on discovery+.

At the heart of the slaying was a story of a former fashion mogul whose ruthless business tactics made enemies of his relatives but secured his control of an internationally renowned and highly lucrative luxury-goods business — until his mounting debts forced him to liquidate his stake for more millions.

Before his death, Gucci was working to remake himself as a casino magnate in Switzerland.

The 2021 film House of Gucci dramatizes the case, starring Lady Gaga as Reggiani and Adam Driver as Gucci. In November 2021, Reggiani told PEOPLE that she still feels "enormous love for" for her ex-husband.

"If I met Maurizio now, I would tell him to forgive me for what happened," she said. "All the things that happened were a big misunderstanding."