Every person I know who visited Monte Carlo this summer has told me exactly the same thing: the circumstances of the death of Edmond Safra are a forbidden subject there. I have had calls from several friends who have been in Monaco, telling me, in effect, to be careful. Other friends were advised. "Tell Dominick not to mention the Russian Mafia." This is one of those stories that's going to go on and on, probably without a finish. Eventually, everyone will begin to forget that it happened. Everyone except Ted Maher, I guess.
He is the male nurse charged with causing the death of Edmond Safra, and he continues to have difficulties. He has not had air-conditioning in his cell this summer, though prisoners in the other cells have. He asked his family to send him two books about submarines, in which he is very interested, to pass the time. When the books arrived, a deputy sheriff showed them to him but wouldn't let him have them. Maher threw a fit and broke down his cell door. Then he went on another hunger strike, but to no avail. He was moved from the Monaco jail to the psychiatric ward of Princess Grace Hospital, where he was shackled to a bed for eight days, after which he gave up. He said he had received a telepathic message from his wife, Heidi, back in Stormville, New York, telling him to stop. Indeed, Heidi disapproved of the hunger strike, as did all Maher's lawyers, because it was certain to anger Judge Patricia Richet. However, it's easy to understand how being locked up for nearly two years with no definite trial date set could make a person behave in a rebellious fashion. Not until mid-September was Maher allowed to use his telephone privileges and speak to his wife and children. During the period in the psychiatric ward, he recognized one of the hospital guards as the first policeman he had met on the night of the catastrophic fire that ended the life of Edmond Safra and his nurse Vivian Torrente on December 3, 1999. Maher had seen the guard after coming downstairs from the Safra penthouse wounded - whether by himself, as the police contend, or by intruders, as he claims. He says he told the guard, "If only you had gone up straightaway, none of this would have happened." He says the guard replied, "Yes, sometimes mistakes are made."
My friend Denise Hale, of San Francisco, tells me that Lily Safra's new house in London is the most beautiful house she's ever seen. "Opulent" was the word she used over and over.