Giancarlo Giudice was born on March 11, 1952, in Turin, Italy. His father, Primo, was a veteran of the Russian campaign and worked at Fiat; he was known for his crude demeanor and alcoholism. Giancarlo had a close relationship with his mother, who suffered from a heart ailment. When he was eight, she became seriously ill, and he took on the responsibility of caring for her.

After his mother's death, which he learned about only after her funeral, Giudice attempted suicide at the age of 13 by ingesting pills from the infirmary at the Don Orione Boarding School in Fubine Monferrato. Following this incident, he was sent back to live with his father.

As a young adult, Giudice served in the military as an Alpini but went AWOL, leading to a brief imprisonment in a military prison. After being pardoned, he completed his service as an infantryman. His father remarried and moved to Calabria, leaving Giudice behind in Turin. This abandonment deeply affected him, leading to drug use, including crack cocaine and LSD, and frequent job changes.

By the age of 27, Giudice began working as a truck driver for a transport company in Cigliano. He was known among colleagues as a workaholic, appreciated for his tenacity and punctuality, partly due to his drug use. He purchased a house in Via Cravero, 33, in the Regio Parco district of Turin.

Between December 1983 and June 1986, Giancarlo Giudice murdered nine women, primarily prostitutes, in Turin. His victims were often older, and he employed various methods, including strangulation, shooting, stabbing, and bludgeoning.

His first known victim was Francesca Pecoraro, a 40-year-old prostitute, whom he killed on December 27, 1983. He strangled her at his home and then burned her body in a stolen car. Over the next two and a half years, he continued his killing spree, targeting women he deemed "old, fat, and unkempt," reflecting his deep-seated hatred towards his stepmother.

Giudice's crimes were marked by a lack of a consistent modus operandi, making it challenging for authorities to connect the murders initially. However, after the murder of Maria Rosa Paoli on June 28, 1986, Giudice was stopped by police during a routine check. Officers noticed fresh bloodstains in his car, leading to his arrest. He confessed to all nine murders during interrogation.

He was held in a psychiatric hospital for two months before being tried and convicted. On March 22, 1989, Giudice was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was later reduced to 30 years with an additional three years in a psychiatric facility. He was released from prison in October 2008 and has lived under a new identity since then.