An end to the mystery of God's Banker?

bbc ^ | 31 March, 2004 | Chris Summers

[Tlaloc]

Twenty-two years after the body of God's Banker, Roberto Calvi, was found hanged under London's Blackfriars Bridge, his death remains a compelling mystery. But with four people facing a murder trial in Italy, his son is hoping for an answer at last. The death of your father is always going to be traumatic.

But for Carlo Calvi the tragedy has been made worse by political intrigue, shady business practices and tales of mafia connections.

An original inquest into the death of Roberto Calvi, who was found on the morning of 18 June 1982, returned a verdict of suicide.

But his death is now widely believed to be one of the most shocking murders in Italian history, and four people are set to go on trial, charged with his murder.

His son Carlo told BBC News Online: "Like most victims' families I want something good to come out of this."

'Smoke and mirrors'

At the time of his death, Roberto Calvi was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, one of Italy's biggest banks with close ties to the Vatican, earning him the nickname 'God's Banker'.

The bank was in crisis following Calvi's conviction for currency violations.

He fled Italy pending an appeal and was smuggled out - via Austria - with a briefcase containing crucial documents about Ambrosiano's activities.

Two months after his death the bank collapsed, brought down by debts of £800m from a number of mysterious shell companies.

Calvi's death took place at a time when much of Italian politics and business was conducted through "smoke and mirrors", with nothing quite what it appeared.

So it is perhaps no surprise that Carlo Calvi is not an ordinary victim's relative. He wants more than just justice.

Mafia boss

Carlo, a short intense man with the same high forehead as his father, left Italy in 1977 to live in Montreal, Canada, but still speaks with a strong Milanese accent.

The 50-year-old says: "I have no personal grudge against the killers. I have no personal need for anyone to be convicted or sent to jail.

"It would be good if they confessed, but I am not someone who has that goal of having someone punished for the crime. I am someone who wants people to learn something from the judicial process."

Among the four people waiting to hear whether they will face trial for Calvi's murder is mafia boss Pippo Calo.

He is already serving two life sentences and has been following proceedings by video link from his island jail.

The other defendants are Flavio Carboni, a Sardinian businessman who has admitted travelling to London with Calvi, his Austrian girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig and a Rome underworld figure, Ernesto Diotallevi.

A judge will make a final decision on a trial this summer.

Several mafia supergrasses (pentiti) have testified about the mafia's involvement and two will be key prosecution witnesses.

Detectives are also looking again at the September 1982 murder of Sergio Vaccari, an antiques dealer whose business was a cover for a thriving trade in drugs and pornography.

He was stabbed to death at his home in Holland Park, west London. It is thought he may have played a part in Calvi's death and was killed to silence him.

Masonic symbols

Several questions remain to be answered: how was Calvi murdered, who carried it out and what were their motives?

Calvi's body was exhumed in 1998, providing clues which strengthened the case for murder.

Carlo Calvi believes his father, who had been living in Chelsea, was surprised by his attackers, strangled and taken a short distance by boat to the bridge, where he was hanged from scaffolding beneath it.

Bricks were stuffed in his pockets along with around £8,000 in cash.

There has been much speculation that the posing of the body and the use of Blackfriars Bridge were masonic symbols.

Carlo says: "I don't subscribe to that theory. But I do believe there was a masonic element to his death and I do believe the way he was killed was symbolic.

"I believe the killers were sending a message by killing him in public in the heart of the city. There was definitely something theatrical about it all, and the message was clearly worth the risk."

Time for truth?

Roberto Calvi has been accused of many things since his death, ranging from obsessive secrecy to ripping off a mafia money laundering operation.

Carlo, himself a banker, is naturally defensive when discussing his father. He believes he was a pawn in others' schemes: "He was a dynamic businessman but not a good judge of people."

He says: "The current position of the Rome prosecutors is that there were three motives for the murder of my father: money laundering, knowledge of the mafia's role and [the danger he would start] blackmailing politicians."

But is Carlo any nearer to finding out the truth about his father's death - and will a trial provide closure?

He believes a "window of opportunity" has opened and hopes the Italian prosecutors will make the most of it.

"I'm hoping that more of the truth will come out but I don't believe we are nearing the end. None of Italy's mysteries of the 1960s and 1970s have been solved so why should our case be any different?"

[AdmSmith]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to ask the Vatican priest that was involved with the finances (I have forgotten his name).

[Support Free Republic]

	Are you just along for the ride? Why not Donate to FR and get a real lift and help make a difference? Mail a check to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC

[AdmSmith]

Paul Marcinkus, who would later rise to the position of Archbishop and head of the Institute for Religious Works.

http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/vat13.htm

[Loyalist]

Ping.

[ClearCase_guy]

BTTT

[Land of the Irish]

There has been much speculation that the posing of the body and the use of Blackfriars Bridge were masonic symbols.

Carlo says: "I don't subscribe to that theory. But I do believe there was a masonic element to his death and I do believe the way he was killed was symbolic.

[archy]

a href="http://www.rense.com/general7/skolrich.htm"> More about Bishop Marcinkus *here.*</a>

[AdmSmith]

Here is more Marcinkus info:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-02-13/nelson.html/1/index.html


In the early stages of his 33 days as pope, John Paul I, Albino Luciani, promised a thorough investigation of the growing scandal involving Marcinkus, Robert Calvi, Michele Sindona and the Vatican Bank.

As David Yallop documents in his book, John Paul I wanted Marcinkus removed immediately from his position with the Vatican Bank.

But days before that was to happen, John Paul I died in his bed from what was officially described as an accidental overdose of medication. The pope's body was embalmed that same day, a bizarre breach of protocol that also meant no autopsy could be performed to determine if poison might have been the cause of death.

John Paul I's death was the most fortuitous death in Marcinkus' career. Marcinkus kept his position with the Vatican Bank until he was run out of Italy a decade later.

This is not the Paul Marcinkus the people of Sun City know. They have been told nothing of his past. As usual, the Phoenix Diocese has avoided telling parishioners the full story about a man presented to them as an emissary of a loving God.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Great link, thanks. I doubt the policy of protection will change under Sheehan. Marcinkus will take what he knows to his grave.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

VERY INTERESTING

[BlackElk]

The new bishop of Phoenix is Thomas Olmsted, formerly Bishop of Wichita.

Bishop Olmsted is a Roman Catholic in communion with the Holy See. He is also quite Catholic in belief and practice unlike his predecessor Thomas Hit and Run O'Brien.

Bishop Olmsted's job is to be the ordinary of the Diocese of Phoenix and not to spend his days tracking down conspiracy theories and morbid curiosities.

IIRC, David Yallop is a liberal and rushed into print to deny any foul play. Personally, I think there was foul play and I believe that Malachi Martin believed so as well. Even the very liberal Jesuit publication in the Vatican Civilta Cattolica demanded an autopsy of John Paul I.

Is Archbishop Marcinkus dirty? Very possibly so. He was also the papal bodyguard for Paul VI and John Paul II who warded off various assassination attempts. He shoved John Paul II to the floor of his vehicle in Vatican Square as JP II was being shot by Mehmet Ali Agca. He also manhandled a Filipino would be assassin of Paul VI diverting a large knife from the pope to Imelda Marcos. He is a now elderly former second team All American football player who hailed from Cicero, Illinois.

Is it somehow the responsibility of Bishop Olmsted to conduct investigation of Vatican banking operations of nearly three decades ago? Of course not. Bishop Olmsted has plenty on his hands to reverse the AmChurchian termite damage in his diocese.

It is also none of the business of the excommunicated bishops Fellay or Williamson or their schismatic followers which I know does not include you.

If Marcinkus has done wrong, he will answer to God for what has not been forgiven.

[ninenot]

[Marcinkus],who hailed from Cicero, Illinois

Did somebody say Mafia?

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Let's hope and pray for more good things in Phoenix and in Rome !

[redgolum]

Didn't the P2 lodge in Italy have something to do with this? I seem to remember an article here once about that.

Out of curiosity, was the body hung from the bridge in the "hanging man" form?

A friend of mine's father just joined the Mason, and I have been talking to them about how that is not something a Christian can belong to.

[BlackElk]

Calvi, Sindona and a number of others involved in the scandals were members of P2, claimed by Masons to be a rogue lodge. Calvi's pockets contained trowels as well as bricks, continuing the Masonic theme of his murder. This P2 does seem to have been an extraordinary group of malefactors. Catholics are not allowed to be Masons whatever Masons have been saying. Several Protestant denominations have taken the same position. It would seem that the business about the Grand Architect of the Universe is at the center of anathemas because the GAOTU can be anyone's God or god and reflects, at the least, religious indifferentism. I would also imagine that there are branches of the Masonic Order that are not fussy about atheism or agnosticism.

The ordinary rank and file Mason in the United States is quite likely to be a decent fellow, a decent citizen, a decent husband, a decent father and a religious believer. The Shriners do much that is quite admirable in the way of medical treatment for medically desperate children. There are other aspects of that Order which are, ummm, less admirable but few are the members involved in what is less admirable. P2 probably was a rogue lodge and certainly had nothing to do with the ordinary Mason one might encounter.

There are also some bad historical things that are long ago.