Banda della Magliana
Encyclopedia
The Banda della Magliana was an Italian
criminal organization based in Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Given by the media
, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana
, of most of its members.
The Banda della Magliana was involved in criminal activities during the Italian years of lead (anni di piombo). The Italian justice tied it to other criminal organizations such as the Cosa Nostra, Camorra
or 'Ndrangheta, but most importantly also to neofascist activists such as the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
(NAR), responsible for the 1980 Bologna massacre
, the secret services (SISMI
) and political figures such as Licio Gelli
, grand-master of the freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due
(P2). Along with Gladio, the NATO clandestine anti-communist organization, P2 was involved in a strategy of tension
during the years of lead which included false flag
terrorist attacks. These ties, underground compared to their standard (i.e. "run-of-the-mill") activities (drug dealing, horserace betting, money laundering
, etc.), have led the Banda to be related to the political events of the conflict which divided Italy into two during the Cold War
, and in particular to events such as the 1979 assassination of journalist Carmine Pecorelli
; the 1978 murder of former Prime minister Aldo Moro
, also leader of the Christian Democracy who was negotiating the historic compromise
with the Italian Communist Party
(PCI); the 1982 assassination attempt against Roberto Rosone, vice-president of Banco Ambrosiano
; "banker of God" Roberto Calvi
's 1982 murder; and also the 1980 Bologna massacre
. Finally, the mysterious disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi
, a case peripherally linked to former Grey Wolves
member Mehmet Ali Ağca
's 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, has also been related to the gang, though the Emanuela Orlandi case may not be connected to the "Grey Wolves", but may have been one of the "run-of-the-mill" Banda della Magliana criminal activities, the Orlandi kidnap designed specifically to persuade the legally immune Vatican Bank to restore inequitably retained funds to Banco Ambrosiano creditors.
Unlike the Camorra
or Cosa Nostra, the Banda della Magliana was not structured around a hierarchical pyramid. It was instead composed of various decentralized cells, each working on its own. Making equal shares and living off dividends obtained from the criminal association, they quickly took over Rome, surprising the underworld by their violent methods. If members were imprisoned, money continued to be sent to them through their families - while successful members, going around in Ferraris and Rolex, had to keep up their criminal activities, thus remaining "crime laborers" (operai del crimine).
sympathizers. Crime, however, and not politics, was the main activity of the group, and some material incentives much needed to get them involved in this field. One of their first contact with the Italian neofascist movement was in summer 1978 — a few months after Aldo Moro's murder — in a villa of Rieti
owned by criminologist
, psychiatrist and neofascist professor Aldo Semerari
. In exchange of financing his political activities, Aldo Semerari proposed psychiatric expertise to arrested gang members in order to help them be released.
However, the deal did not last long, as Aldo Semerari was assassinated on 1 April 1982 in Ottaviano
(Province of Naples
). He had made the same deal with Raffaele Cutolo
's Nuova Camorra Organizzata
(NCO), as well as with the rival organization of the Cutolo, the Nuova Famiglia
(NF) headed by Carmine Alfieri
. This pleased neither Umberto Ammaturo
's family nor the NCO. Beside being a famous far right criminologist, Aldo Semerari
was also member of Propaganda Due
(P2) masonic lodge and maintained links with the SISMI
, the Italian military intelligence agency.
More important links were found between the Banda della Magliana and the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
(NAR) far right terrorist group, in particular through Massimo Carminati, a NAR member whom was a good customer of Franco Giuseppuci and Maurizio Abbatino's bar. Massimo Carminati quickly became a "pupil" of the gang, and introduced to them Valerio Fioravanti
and Francesca Mambro, both of whom were accused of complicity in the 1980 Bologna massacre
. The two criminal organizations quickly became closely linked, with the Banda della Magliana laundering the money obtained from NAR's hold-ups to finance their political activities, while the NAR helped the Banda in street activities (racket
, drug transportation, etc.). However, their most mysterious "joint venture," which raised serious questions, concerned weapons: ammunition, guns and bombs belonging to both groups were surprisingly found in the basements of the Italian Health Ministry.
In the same basement were found ammunition cartridges of a brand not easy to find on the market (Getelot). Coming from the same lot were four bullets, of the same type and use, which marked them as the ones used for a specific homicide: Carmine Pecorelli
, a journalist who had published allegations about Prime minister Giulio Andreotti
's ties to the Mafia, and was murdered in 1979. Giulio Andreotti and his leading assistant Claudio Vitalone have been suspected in this assassination : Andreotti was convicted in November 2002 of ordering the murder of Pecorelli, and sentenced to twenty-four years imprisonment. But the eighty-three-year-old Andreotti was immediately released pending an appeal, and on 30 October 2003, an appeals court over-turned the conviction and acquitted Andreotti of the original murder charge.
During the trial, the Italian justice clearly proved the involvement of the banda della Magliana in Pecorelli's murder, although the person materially responsible for the killing, Massimo Carminati, was released. Also according to the judges, the trial proved "clear links between Claudio Vitalone and the banda della Magliana through the person of Enrico De Pedis
," (alias Renatino, one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana). They continued however by stating that the "probatory evidence was not unequivocal." Thus, due to insufficient evidence, Claudio Vitalone was released.
, alias "God's Banker" in charge of Banco Ambrosiano
, which main-shareholder was the Vatican Bank
, was killed in London on 18 June 1982. Banco Ambrosiano, which crashed in one of the major financial scandals of the 1980s, was involved in money-laundering activities for the mafia, and allegedly in funneling funds to the Polish Solidarity trade union (Solidarność) and the Contras
in Nicaragua. Ernesto Diotallevi, one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana, is being prosecuted for Calvi's murder.
In 1997, Italian prosecutors in Rome implicated a member of the Sicilian Mafia, Giuseppe Calò
, in Calvi's murder, along with Flavio Carboni, a Sardinian businessman with wide ranging interests. Two other men, Ernesto Diotallevi (purportedly one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana) and former Mafia member turned informer Francesco Di Carlo
, were also alleged to be involved in the killing.
On 19 July 2005, Licio Gelli
, the grand master of the Propaganda Due
or P2 masonic lodge, was formally indicted by magistrates in Rome for the murder of Calvi, along with Giuseppe Calò, Ernesto Diotallevi, Flavio Carboni and Carboni's Austrian ex-girlfriend, Manuela Kleinszig. Licio Gelli, in his statement before the court, blamed figures connected with Calvi's work financing Solidarność, allegedly on behalf of the Vatican
. Gelli was accused of having provoked Calvi's death in order to punish him for embezzling money from Banco Ambrosiano that was owed to him and the Mafia. The Mafia was also claimed to have wanted to prevent Calvi from revealing that Banco Ambrosiano had been used for money laundering.
On 5 October 2005, the trial of the five individuals charged with Calvi's murder began in Rome. The defendants are Giuseppe Calò, Flavio Carboni, Manuela Kleinszig, Ernesto Diotallevi, and Calvi's former driver and bodyguard Silvano Vittor. The trial is taking place in a specially fortified courtroom in Rome's Rebibbia prison and is expected to last up to two years.
Furthermore, the son of Roberto Calvi has claimed that Emanuela Orlandi
's case was closely related to Calvi's case.
, a citizen of Vatican City
, mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983 at the age of fifteen. Although the case still has not been solved, and Orlandi has remained missing ever since, apparently some have tried to exchange her for Grey Wolves
member Mehmet Ali Ağca
, who shot the Pope in 1981. Allegedly, some of the persons who tried to strike the deal with the Vatican were members of the Banda della Magliana.
In 2005, an anonymous phone call broadcasted by the Rai 3 TV live program Chi l'ha visto?, a transmission about missing people's finding, stated that in order to find a resolution on the Orlandi case, it would have to be discovered as to who is buried in Saint Apollinare church, and about the favour that Enrico De Pedis
made to Cardinal Ugo Poletti at the time.
The church of Saint Apollinare, located near Rome's Piazza Navona
, is home to a crypt where popes, cardinals and Christian martyrs are buried, as well as to the tomb of Enrico De Pedis, also known as Renatino, one of the most powerful heads of the Magliana gang, assassinated on 2 February 1990. The basilica is part of the same building of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
that Orlandi attended, and where she was last seen. De Pedis' interment in the church is an unusual procedure for a common citizen, also considering his gangster status. Authorizing the interment at the time was Cardinal Poletti, now deceased.
In February 2006, an ex-member of the Magliana Gang recognized behind the voice of Mario, one of the killers working for De Pedis. Mario was one of the anonymous persons who had phoned to propose the exchange of Emanuela Orlandi for Mehmet Ali Agca.
History of Italy as a Republic
After World War II and the overthrow of Mussolini's fascist regime, Italy's history was dominated by the Christian Democracy political party for 50 years, while the opposition was led by the Italian Communist Party ; this situation prevailed until the crisis of the Soviet Union and the...
criminal organization based in Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Given by the media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana
Magliana
The Magliana neighborhood or ward is located on the South-West periphery of Rome, Italy along the Tiber River. The neighborhood dates back to the mid 1900's and is home to a diverse group of people of all ages and ethnicities. About 40,000 people reside in Magliana; housing is made up of mostly...
, of most of its members.
The Banda della Magliana was involved in criminal activities during the Italian years of lead (anni di piombo). The Italian justice tied it to other criminal organizations such as the Cosa Nostra, Camorra
Camorra
The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
or 'Ndrangheta, but most importantly also to neofascist activists such as the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari was an Italian neofascist terrorist organization active from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso...
(NAR), responsible for the 1980 Bologna massacre
Bologna massacre
The Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari...
, the secret services (SISMI
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
) and political figures such as Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
, grand-master of the freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
(P2). Along with Gladio, the NATO clandestine anti-communist organization, P2 was involved in a strategy of tension
Strategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
during the years of lead which included false flag
False flag
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is flying the flag of a country other than one's own...
terrorist attacks. These ties, underground compared to their standard (i.e. "run-of-the-mill") activities (drug dealing, horserace betting, money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
, etc.), have led the Banda to be related to the political events of the conflict which divided Italy into two during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, and in particular to events such as the 1979 assassination of journalist Carmine Pecorelli
Carmine Pecorelli
Carmine Pecorelli known as Mino, was an Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome a year after former prime minister Aldo Moro's 1978 kidnapping and subsequent killing...
; the 1978 murder of former Prime minister Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years....
, also leader of the Christian Democracy who was negotiating the historic compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
with the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
(PCI); the 1982 assassination attempt against Roberto Rosone, vice-president of Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due...
; "banker of God" Roberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. A native of Milan, Calvi was Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals...
's 1982 murder; and also the 1980 Bologna massacre
Bologna massacre
The Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari...
. Finally, the mysterious disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi
Emanuela Orlandi
Emanuela Orlandi was a citizen of Vatican City, who mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983.-Disappearance:Orlandi, then 15-year-old, vanished on June 22, 1983. She was in her second year at a liceo scientifico in Rome...
, a case peripherally linked to former Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
member Mehmet Ali Ağca
Mehmet Ali Agca
Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...
's 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, has also been related to the gang, though the Emanuela Orlandi case may not be connected to the "Grey Wolves", but may have been one of the "run-of-the-mill" Banda della Magliana criminal activities, the Orlandi kidnap designed specifically to persuade the legally immune Vatican Bank to restore inequitably retained funds to Banco Ambrosiano creditors.
Beginnings
The first criminal act of the Banda della Magliana was the kidnapping of duke Massimiliano Grazioli Lante della Rovere on November 7, 1977, against a ransom. The duke was murdered but the ransom obtained anyhow. Instead of spending everything, the group decided to keep the savings to invest in crime in Rome and take over the capital.Unlike the Camorra
Camorra
The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
or Cosa Nostra, the Banda della Magliana was not structured around a hierarchical pyramid. It was instead composed of various decentralized cells, each working on its own. Making equal shares and living off dividends obtained from the criminal association, they quickly took over Rome, surprising the underworld by their violent methods. If members were imprisoned, money continued to be sent to them through their families - while successful members, going around in Ferraris and Rolex, had to keep up their criminal activities, thus remaining "crime laborers" (operai del crimine).
Far right ties and Mino Pecorelli's assassination
Some gang members, including founder Franco Giuseppucci, Maurizio Abbatino and Alessandro d'Ortenzi, were far rightFar right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
sympathizers. Crime, however, and not politics, was the main activity of the group, and some material incentives much needed to get them involved in this field. One of their first contact with the Italian neofascist movement was in summer 1978 — a few months after Aldo Moro's murder — in a villa of Rieti
Rieti
Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of c. 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti.The town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding a wide plain at the southern edge of an ancient lake. The area is now the fertile basin of the Velino River...
owned by criminologist
Criminology
Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...
, psychiatrist and neofascist professor Aldo Semerari
Aldo Semerari
Aldo Semerari was an Italian criminologist, psychiatrist and political diplomat of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.-Background:...
. In exchange of financing his political activities, Aldo Semerari proposed psychiatric expertise to arrested gang members in order to help them be released.
However, the deal did not last long, as Aldo Semerari was assassinated on 1 April 1982 in Ottaviano
Ottaviano
Ottaviano is a comune in the Province of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 20 km east of Naples and is located in the Vesuvian Area. Ottaviano was in Roman times a hamlet of houses within a vast estate belonging to the gens Octavia, Augustus's family...
(Province of Naples
Province of Naples
The Province of Naples is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital city is Naples, within the province there are 92 Comuni of the Province of Naples.-Demographics:...
). He had made the same deal with Raffaele Cutolo
Raffaele Cutolo
Raffaele Cutolo is an Italian crime boss and the charismatic leader of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , an organisation he built to renew the Camorra. Cutolo has a variety of nicknames including "'o Vangelo" , "'o Principe" , "'o Professore" and "'o Monaco"...
's Nuova Camorra Organizzata
Nuova Camorra Organizzata
The Nuova Camorra Organizzata was an Italian Camorra criminal organization founded in the late 1970s by a Neapolitan Camorrista, Raffaele Cutolo, in the region of Campania. It was also known by the initials NCO...
(NCO), as well as with the rival organization of the Cutolo, the Nuova Famiglia
Nuova Famiglia
The Nuova Famiglia was an Italian Camorra criminal organization created in the 1980s to face Raffaele Cutolo's Nuova Camorra Organizzata....
(NF) headed by Carmine Alfieri
Carmine Alfieri
Carmine Alfieri is an Italian Camorra boss, who rose from Piazzolla di Nola to become one of the most powerful members of Neapolitan Camorra in the 1980s. As boss of the Alfieri clan, he was the undisputed head of the Camorra from 1984 until his arrest in 1992...
. This pleased neither Umberto Ammaturo
Umberto Ammaturo
Umberto Ammaturo is an Italian criminal and a member of the Neapolitan Camorra. He specialized in cocaine trafficking from South America. He was included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy until his capture in May 1993...
's family nor the NCO. Beside being a famous far right criminologist, Aldo Semerari
Aldo Semerari
Aldo Semerari was an Italian criminologist, psychiatrist and political diplomat of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.-Background:...
was also member of Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
(P2) masonic lodge and maintained links with the SISMI
SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
, the Italian military intelligence agency.
More important links were found between the Banda della Magliana and the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari
The Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari was an Italian neofascist terrorist organization active from 1977 to November 1981. It committed 33 murders in four years, and had planned to assassinate Francesco Cossiga, Gianfranco Fini and Adolfo Urso...
(NAR) far right terrorist group, in particular through Massimo Carminati, a NAR member whom was a good customer of Franco Giuseppuci and Maurizio Abbatino's bar. Massimo Carminati quickly became a "pupil" of the gang, and introduced to them Valerio Fioravanti
Valerio Fioravanti
Giuseppe Valerio Fioravanti is an Italian former child actor and terrorist, founder of the neo-fascist terrorist group Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari....
and Francesca Mambro, both of whom were accused of complicity in the 1980 Bologna massacre
Bologna massacre
The Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari...
. The two criminal organizations quickly became closely linked, with the Banda della Magliana laundering the money obtained from NAR's hold-ups to finance their political activities, while the NAR helped the Banda in street activities (racket
Racket (crime)
A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...
, drug transportation, etc.). However, their most mysterious "joint venture," which raised serious questions, concerned weapons: ammunition, guns and bombs belonging to both groups were surprisingly found in the basements of the Italian Health Ministry.
In the same basement were found ammunition cartridges of a brand not easy to find on the market (Getelot). Coming from the same lot were four bullets, of the same type and use, which marked them as the ones used for a specific homicide: Carmine Pecorelli
Carmine Pecorelli
Carmine Pecorelli known as Mino, was an Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome a year after former prime minister Aldo Moro's 1978 kidnapping and subsequent killing...
, a journalist who had published allegations about Prime minister Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
's ties to the Mafia, and was murdered in 1979. Giulio Andreotti and his leading assistant Claudio Vitalone have been suspected in this assassination : Andreotti was convicted in November 2002 of ordering the murder of Pecorelli, and sentenced to twenty-four years imprisonment. But the eighty-three-year-old Andreotti was immediately released pending an appeal, and on 30 October 2003, an appeals court over-turned the conviction and acquitted Andreotti of the original murder charge.
During the trial, the Italian justice clearly proved the involvement of the banda della Magliana in Pecorelli's murder, although the person materially responsible for the killing, Massimo Carminati, was released. Also according to the judges, the trial proved "clear links between Claudio Vitalone and the banda della Magliana through the person of Enrico De Pedis
Enrico De Pedis
Enrico De Pedis was an Italian criminal and one of the bosses of the Banda della Magliana, an Italian criminal organization based in the city of Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. His nickname was "'Renatino". Unlike other members of his gang, De Pedis...
," (alias Renatino, one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana). They continued however by stating that the "probatory evidence was not unequivocal." Thus, due to insufficient evidence, Claudio Vitalone was released.
Roberto Calvi's case
Roberto CalviRoberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. A native of Milan, Calvi was Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals...
, alias "God's Banker" in charge of Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due...
, which main-shareholder was the Vatican Bank
Vatican Bank
The Institute for Works of Religion , commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a privately held institute located inside Vatican City run by a professional bank CEO who reports directly to a committee of cardinals, and ultimately to the Pope...
, was killed in London on 18 June 1982. Banco Ambrosiano, which crashed in one of the major financial scandals of the 1980s, was involved in money-laundering activities for the mafia, and allegedly in funneling funds to the Polish Solidarity trade union (Solidarność) and the Contras
Contras
The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
in Nicaragua. Ernesto Diotallevi, one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana, is being prosecuted for Calvi's murder.
In 1997, Italian prosecutors in Rome implicated a member of the Sicilian Mafia, Giuseppe Calò
Giuseppe Calò
Giuseppe 'Pippo' Calò is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was referred to as the "Mafia's Cashier" because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering....
, in Calvi's murder, along with Flavio Carboni, a Sardinian businessman with wide ranging interests. Two other men, Ernesto Diotallevi (purportedly one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana) and former Mafia member turned informer Francesco Di Carlo
Francesco Di Carlo
Francesco Di Carlo is a member of the Mafia who turned state witness in 1996...
, were also alleged to be involved in the killing.
On 19 July 2005, Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
, the grand master of the Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
or P2 masonic lodge, was formally indicted by magistrates in Rome for the murder of Calvi, along with Giuseppe Calò, Ernesto Diotallevi, Flavio Carboni and Carboni's Austrian ex-girlfriend, Manuela Kleinszig. Licio Gelli, in his statement before the court, blamed figures connected with Calvi's work financing Solidarność, allegedly on behalf of the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
. Gelli was accused of having provoked Calvi's death in order to punish him for embezzling money from Banco Ambrosiano that was owed to him and the Mafia. The Mafia was also claimed to have wanted to prevent Calvi from revealing that Banco Ambrosiano had been used for money laundering.
On 5 October 2005, the trial of the five individuals charged with Calvi's murder began in Rome. The defendants are Giuseppe Calò, Flavio Carboni, Manuela Kleinszig, Ernesto Diotallevi, and Calvi's former driver and bodyguard Silvano Vittor. The trial is taking place in a specially fortified courtroom in Rome's Rebibbia prison and is expected to last up to two years.
Furthermore, the son of Roberto Calvi has claimed that Emanuela Orlandi
Emanuela Orlandi
Emanuela Orlandi was a citizen of Vatican City, who mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983.-Disappearance:Orlandi, then 15-year-old, vanished on June 22, 1983. She was in her second year at a liceo scientifico in Rome...
's case was closely related to Calvi's case.
Emanuela Orlandi
Emanuela OrlandiEmanuela Orlandi
Emanuela Orlandi was a citizen of Vatican City, who mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983.-Disappearance:Orlandi, then 15-year-old, vanished on June 22, 1983. She was in her second year at a liceo scientifico in Rome...
, a citizen of Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983 at the age of fifteen. Although the case still has not been solved, and Orlandi has remained missing ever since, apparently some have tried to exchange her for Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
member Mehmet Ali Ağca
Mehmet Ali Agca
Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...
, who shot the Pope in 1981. Allegedly, some of the persons who tried to strike the deal with the Vatican were members of the Banda della Magliana.
In 2005, an anonymous phone call broadcasted by the Rai 3 TV live program Chi l'ha visto?, a transmission about missing people's finding, stated that in order to find a resolution on the Orlandi case, it would have to be discovered as to who is buried in Saint Apollinare church, and about the favour that Enrico De Pedis
Enrico De Pedis
Enrico De Pedis was an Italian criminal and one of the bosses of the Banda della Magliana, an Italian criminal organization based in the city of Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. His nickname was "'Renatino". Unlike other members of his gang, De Pedis...
made to Cardinal Ugo Poletti at the time.
The church of Saint Apollinare, located near Rome's Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones , and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...
, is home to a crypt where popes, cardinals and Christian martyrs are buried, as well as to the tomb of Enrico De Pedis, also known as Renatino, one of the most powerful heads of the Magliana gang, assassinated on 2 February 1990. The basilica is part of the same building of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music or Pontificio Instituto de Música Sagrada is an institution of higher education of the Roman Catholic Church specifically dedicated to the study of sacred music. It is based in Rome, Italy.-History:...
that Orlandi attended, and where she was last seen. De Pedis' interment in the church is an unusual procedure for a common citizen, also considering his gangster status. Authorizing the interment at the time was Cardinal Poletti, now deceased.
In February 2006, an ex-member of the Magliana Gang recognized behind the voice of Mario, one of the killers working for De Pedis. Mario was one of the anonymous persons who had phoned to propose the exchange of Emanuela Orlandi for Mehmet Ali Agca.
See also
- murder of Aldo Moro
- 1980 Bologna massacreBologna massacreThe Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna, Italy, on the morning of Saturday, 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200. The attack has been materially attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari...
and strategy of tensionStrategy of tensionThe strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions.... - Giuseppe CalòGiuseppe CalòGiuseppe 'Pippo' Calò is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was referred to as the "Mafia's Cashier" because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering....
(prosecuted in Calvi's murder, along with Licio GelliLicio GelliLicio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
, headmaster of Propaganda DuePropaganda DuePropaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
) - Roberto CalviRoberto CalviRoberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. A native of Milan, Calvi was Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals...
and Banco AmbrosianoBanco AmbrosianoBanco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due... - Emanuela OrlandiEmanuela OrlandiEmanuela Orlandi was a citizen of Vatican City, who mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983.-Disappearance:Orlandi, then 15-year-old, vanished on June 22, 1983. She was in her second year at a liceo scientifico in Rome...
- Carmine PecorelliCarmine PecorelliCarmine Pecorelli known as Mino, was an Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome a year after former prime minister Aldo Moro's 1978 kidnapping and subsequent killing...
- Gladio NATO stay-behindStay-behindIn a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
network
Further reading
- Banda della Magliana, by Otello Lupacchini
- Ragazzi di Malavita, by Giovanni Bianconi
- La Banda della Magliana, by Gianni Flamini
- Romanzo criminaleRomanzo CriminaleRomanzo Criminale is an Italian-language film released in 2005, directed by Michele Placido, a criminal drama, it was highly acclaimed and won 15 awards. It is based on Giancarlo De Cataldo's 2002 novel, which is in turn inspired by the Banda della Magliana true story...
, by Giancarlo De Cataldo