Roberto Calvi (13 April 1920 – 17 June 1982) was an
Italian banker, dubbed "God's Banker" () by the press because of his close association with the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
. He was a native of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and was chairman of
Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank that collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi, and his membership in the illegal former Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due (aka P2). The Vatican-based Institute for the ...
, which collapsed in one of Italy's biggest political scandals.
Calvi's death in London in June 1982 is a source of enduring controversy and was ruled a murder after two
coroners' inquests and an independent investigation. Five people were acquitted in Rome in June 2007 of murdering Calvi. Popular speculation has linked the
Vatican Bank
The Institute for the Works of Religion ( it, Istituto per le Opere di Religione; la, Institutum pro Operibus Religionis; abbreviated IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a financial institution situated inside Vatican City and run by a ...
,
the Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
, and the clandestine
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due (; P2) was a Masonic lodge under the Grand Orient of Italy, founded in 1877. Its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, and it transformed into a criminal, clandestine, anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-leftist, pseudo-Masonic, a ...
to his death.
Life and career
Roberto Calvi's father was the manager of the
Banca Commerciale Italiana
Banca Commerciale Italiana (COMIT), founded in 1894, was once one of the largest banks in Italy. In 1999 it merged with a banking group consisting of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (aka Cariplo; est. 1823) and Banco Ambroveneto, wh ...
. Calvi joined the bank after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but he moved to
Banco Ambrosiano
Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank that collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi, and his membership in the illegal former Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due (aka P2). The Vatican-based Institute for the ...
, then Italy's second largest bank, in 1947. He married in 1952 and had two children. Soon he became the personal assistant of Carlo Alessandro Canesi, a leading figure and later president of Banco Ambrosiano. Calvi was the bank's general manager in 1971 and chairman in 1975.
Banco Ambrosiano scandal
In 1978, the
Bank of Italy
The Bank of Italy (Italian: ''Banca d'Italia'', informally referred to as ''Bankitalia''), (), is the central bank of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks. It is located in Palazzo Koch, via Nazionale, Rome. The bank's curre ...
produced a report on Banco Ambrosiano which found that several billion
lire had been exported illegally, leading to criminal investigations. Calvi was tried in 1981, given a four-year
suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...
, and fined US$19.8 million for transferring US$27 million out of the country in violation of Italian currency laws. He was released on
bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required.
In some countries ...
pending appeal and kept his position at the bank. During his short spell in jail, Calvi attempted suicide. His family maintains that he was manipulated by others and was innocent of the crimes attributed to him.
The controversy surrounding Calvi's dealings at Banco Ambrosiano echoed a scandal in 1974, when the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
lost an estimated US$30 million upon the collapse of the
Franklin National Bank
Franklin National Bank, based in Franklin Square on Long Island, New York was once the United States' 20th largest bank. On October 8, 1974, it collapsed in obscure circumstances, involving Michele Sindona, renowned Mafia-banker and member of ...
owned by financier
Michele Sindona
Michele Sindona (; 8 May 1920 – 22 March 1986) was an Italian banker and convicted felon. Known in banking circles as "The Shark", Sindona was a member of Propaganda Due (#0501), a secret lodge of Italian Freemasonry, and had clear connectio ...
. Bad loans and foreign currency transactions led to the collapse of the bank. Sindona died in prison after drinking coffee laced with
cyanide
Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms.
In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...
.
Calvi wrote a letter of warning to
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
on 5 June 1982, two weeks before the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, stating that such an event would "provoke a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions in which the Church will suffer the gravest damage."
[Plea to Pope from 'God's banker' revealed as murder trial begins]
The Times, 6 October 2005 The correspondence confirmed that illegal transactions were common knowledge among the top affiliates of the bank and the Vatican. Banco Ambrosiano collapsed in June 1982 following the discovery of debts between US$700 million and 1.5 billion. Much of the money had been siphoned off through the
Vatican Bank
The Institute for the Works of Religion ( it, Istituto per le Opere di Religione; la, Institutum pro Operibus Religionis; abbreviated IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a financial institution situated inside Vatican City and run by a ...
, which owned shares of Banco Ambrosiano.
In 1984, the Vatican Bank agreed to pay US$224 million to 120 of Banco Ambrosiano's
creditor
A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...
s as a "recognition of moral involvement" in the bank's collapse.
[Obituary Archbishop Paul Marcinkus]
The Times, 22 February 2006 It has never been confirmed whether the Vatican Bank was directly involved in the scandal due to a lack of evidence in the
subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
ed correspondence, which only revealed that Calvi consistently supported the Vatican's religious agenda. Calvi committed the crime of fiscal misconduct, and there was no evidence of church involvement otherwise, so the Vatican was granted
immunity
Immunity may refer to:
Medicine
* Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease
* ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press
Biology
* Immune system
Engineering
* Radiofrequence immunity desc ...
.
Death
Calvi went missing from his
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
apartment on 10 June 1982, having fled the country on a false passport under the name Gian Roberto Calvini, fleeing initially to
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
. From there, he apparently hired a private plane to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
via
Zurich. A postal clerk was crossing London's
Blackfriars Bridge
Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple Chu ...
at 7:30 am on Friday, 18 June and noticed Calvi's body hanging from the scaffolding beneath. Calvi had five bricks in his pockets and had in his possession about US$14,000 in three different currencies.
Calvi was a member of
Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli (; April 21, 1919 – December 15, 2015) was an Italian financier. A Fascist volunteer in his youth, he is chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the ...
's illegal
masonic lodge
A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due (; P2) was a Masonic lodge under the Grand Orient of Italy, founded in 1877. Its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, and it transformed into a criminal, clandestine, anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-leftist, pseudo-Masonic, a ...
(P2), who referred to themselves as ''frati neri'' or "black friars". This led to a suggestion in some quarters that Calvi was murdered as a masonic warning because of the symbolism associated with the word "Blackfriars".
[
The day before his body was found, Calvi was stripped of his post at Banco Ambrosiano by the Bank of Italy, and his private secretary Graziella Corrocher jumped to her death from a fifth floor window at the bank's headquarters. Corrocher left behind an angry note condemning the damage that Calvi had done to the bank and its employees. Her death was ruled a suicide.
Calvi's death was the subject of two coroners' inquests in London. The first recorded a verdict of suicide in July 1982. The Calvi family then secured the services of ]George Carman
George Alfred Carman, QC (6 October 1929 – 2 January 2001) was an English leading barrister during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1979, he successfully defended the former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe after he was charged with conspiracy to murder. ...
, QC. The second inquest was held in July 1983, and the jury recorded an open verdict The open verdict is an option open to a coroner's jury at an inquest in the legal system of England and Wales. The verdict means the jury confirms the death is suspicious, but is unable to reach any other verdicts open to them. Mortality studies c ...
, indicating that the court had been unable to determine the exact cause of death. Calvi's family maintained that his death had been a murder.
In 1991, the Calvi family commissioned the New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
-based investigation company Kroll Associates to investigate the circumstances of Calvi's death. The case was assigned to Jeff Katz, who was a senior case manager for the company in London. As part of his two-year investigation, Katz hired a former Home Office forensic scientist, Angela Gallop
Angela Mary Cecilia Gallop (born 2 January 1950)
is a British forensic scientist.
She began her career with the Forensic Science Service in 1974. Since 1986, she has run her own forensic service companies. Her findings helped solve notorious ...
, to undertake forensic tests. She found that Calvi could not have hanged himself from the scaffolding because the lack of paint and rust on his shoes proved that he had not walked on the scaffolding. In October 1992, the forensic report was submitted to the home secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
and the City of London Police
The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, including the Middle and Inner Temples. The force responsible for law enforcement within the remainder of the London region, ou ...
, who dismissed it at the time.
Calvi's body was exhumed in December 1998, and an Italian court commissioned a German forensic scientist to repeat the work produced by Katz and his forensic team. That report was published in October 2002, ten years after the original, and confirmed the first report. In addition, it said that the injuries to Calvi's neck were inconsistent with hanging and that he had not touched the bricks found in his pockets. When his body was found, the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
had receded with the tide, but the scaffolding could have been reached by a person standing in a boat at the time of the hanging. That had also been the conclusion of a separate report by Katz in 1992, which also detailed a reconstruction based on Calvi's last known movements in London and theorized that he had been taken by boat from a point of access to the Thames in West London.[Dead Man Talking]
by Jeffrey Katz, The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, 26 October 2003[Mafia, masons and murder]
BBC News, 6 January 2005.
This aspect of Calvi's death was the focus of the theory that he was murdered, and is the version of events depicted in Giuseppe Ferrara's film reconstruction of the event. In September 2003, the City of London Police re-opened their investigation as a murder inquiry. More evidence arose, revealing that Calvi stayed in a flat in Chelsea Cloisters just prior to his death. Sergio Vaccari was a small-time drug dealer who had stayed in the same flat, and he was found dead in possession of masonic papers displaying member names of P2. The murders of both Calvi and Vaccari involved bricks stuffed in clothing, correlating the two deaths and confirming Calvi's ties to the lodge.
Calvi's life was insured for US$10 million with Unione Italiana. His family's attempts to obtain a payout resulted in litigation (''Fisher v Unione Italiana'' 998
Year 998 ( CMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Spring – Otto III retakes Rome and restores power in the papal city. Crescenti ...
CLC 682). The forensic report of 2002 established that Calvi had been murdered and the policy was finally settled, although around half of the sum was paid to creditors of the Calvi family who incurred considerable costs during their attempts to establish the cause of his death.[A son's quest for truth]
Evening Standard 7 October 2003
The Observer, 7 December 2003
''The Daily Telegraph'', 10 December 2005
Prosecution of Giuseppe Calò and Licio Gelli
In July 1991, Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...
''pentito
''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
'' Francesco Marino Mannoia
Francesco Marino Mannoia (born 5 March 1951) is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who became a pentito (government witness) in 1989. His nickname was ''Mozzarella''. He is considered to be one of the most reliable government witnesses against ...
claimed that Calvi had been killed because he had lost Mafia funds when Banco Ambrosiano collapsed.[Anche Antonino Giuffré nell'inchiesta Calvi]
La Repubblica, 13 October 2002 According to Mannoia, the killer was Francesco Di Carlo
Francesco Di Carlo (February 18, 1941 – April 16, 2020) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned state witness (pentito — a mafioso turned informer) in 1996. He was accused of being the killer of Roberto Calvi, nicknamed "God's ...
, a ''mafioso'' living in London at the time, on the orders of Giuseppe Calò
Giuseppe "Pippo" Calò (born 30 September 1931) is an Italian mobster and member of the Sicilian Mafia in Porta Nuova. He was referred to as the "''cassiere di Cosa Nostra''" (Mafia's Cashier) because he was heavily involved in the financial si ...
and Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli (; April 21, 1919 – December 15, 2015) was an Italian financier. A Fascist volunteer in his youth, he is chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the ...
. Di Carlo became an informer in June 1996 and denied that he was the killer, but he admitted that Calò had approached him to commit the murder.[Mafia boss breaks silence over Roberto Calvi killing]
The Observer, 12 May 2012
According to Di Carlo, the killers were Vaccari and Vincenzo Casillo, who belonged to the from Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
; they were later murdered. In 1997, Italian prosecutors in Rome implicated Calò in Calvi's murder, along with Flavio Carboni, a Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
n businessman with wide-ranging interests. Di Carlo and Ernesto Diotallevi, a member of the Banda della Magliana
The Banda della Magliana (, ''Magliana Gang'') is an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of some of its members.
The ''Banda della ...
, were also alleged to be involved in the killing. In July 2003, Italian prosecutors concluded that the Mafia acted in its own interests and to ensure that Calvi could not blackmail them.
Gelli was the master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
of the P2 lodge, and he received a notification on 19 July 2005 informing him that he was formally under investigation on charges of ordering Calvi's murder, along with Calò, Diotallevi, Flavio Carboni, and Carboni's Austrian girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig. The other four suspects had been indicted
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...
on murder charges in April. According to the indictment, the five ordered the murder to prevent Calvi "from using blackmail power against his political and institutional sponsors from the world of Masonry, belonging to the P2 lodge, or to the Institute for Religious Works (the Vatican Bank) with whom he had managed investments and financing with conspicuous sums of money, some of it coming from Cosa Nostra and public agencies".[
Gelli was accused of provoking Calvi's death to punish him for ]embezzling
Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
money from Banco Ambrosiano that was owed to him and the Mafia. The Mafia allegedly wanted to prevent Calvi from revealing that the bank was used for money laundering
Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
. Gelli denied involvement, but acknowledged that the financier was murdered. In his statement before the court, he said that the killing was commissioned in Poland. This is thought to be a reference to Calvi's alleged involvement in financing the Solidarity
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
trade union movement at the request of Pope John Paul II, allegedly on behalf of the Vatican.[Mason indicted over murder of 'God's banker']
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
, 20 July 2005 However, Gelli's name was not in the final indictment at the trial which started in October 2005.
Trials in Italy
In 2005, the Italian magistrates investigating Calvi's death took their inquiries to London in order to question witnesses. They had been cooperating with Chief Superintendent Trevor Smith who built his case partly on evidence provided by Katz. Smith had been able to make the first arrest of a UK witness who had allegedly committed perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
during the Calvi inquest.[
On 5 October 2005, the trial began in Rome of the five individuals charged with Calvi's murder. The defendants were Calò, Carboni, Kleinszig, Ernesto Diotallevi, and Calvi's former driver and bodyguard Silvano Vittor. The trial took place in a specially fortified courtroom in Rome's ]Rebibbia
Rebibbia is an urban zone of Rome, Italy. It was located on the road Via Tiburtina on the north-east edge of the city. Administratively Rebibbia is part of both Ponte Mammolo quarter of Rome and Municipio IV of Rome.
The suburb, first developed ...
prison. All five were cleared of murdering Calvi on 6 June 2007. Judge Mario Lucio d'Andria threw out the charges, citing "insufficient evidence" after hearing 20 months of evidence. The court ruled that Calvi's death was murder and not suicide. The defence suggested that there were plenty of people with a motive for Calvi's murder, including Vatican officials and Mafia figures who wanted to ensure his silence. Legal experts following the trial said that the prosecutors found it hard to present a convincing case due to the 25 years that had elapsed since Calvi's death. Additionally, key witnesses were unwilling to testify, untraceable, or dead. The prosecution called for Manuela Kleinszig to be cleared, stating that there was insufficient evidence against her, but they sought life sentence
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
s for the four men.[
Katz claimed that it was likely that senior figures in the Italian establishment escaped prosecution. "The problem is that the people who probably actually ordered the death of Calvi are not in the dock - but to get to those people might be very difficult indeed".][Five cleared of Calvi murder]
Guardian Unlimited, 6 June 2007 Katz said that it was "probably true" that the Mafia carried out the killing, but that the gangsters suspected of the crime were either dead or missing. The verdict in the trial was not the end of the matter, since the prosecutor's office in Rome had opened a second investigation by June 2007 implicating Gelli and others.
La Repubblica, 6 June 2007
In May 2009, the prosecution dropped the case against Gelli. According to the magistrate, there was insufficient evidence to argue that Gelli had played a role in planning and executing the crime.[Omicidio Calvi: archiviato procedimento contro Licio Gelli]
Corriere della Sera, 30 May 2009 On 7 May 2010, the Court of Appeals confirmed the acquittal of Calò, Carboni, and Diotallevi. Public prosecutor Luca Tescaroli commented that "Calvi has been murdered for the second time."[Assolti Carboni, Calò e Diotallevi]
La Repubblica, 7 May 2010 On 18 November 2011, the Court of Cassation
A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...
confirmed the acquittal.[Calvi, è definitiva l' assoluzione di Carboni, Calò e Diotallevi]
Corriere della Sera, 18 November 2011 Calò is still serving a life sentence on unrelated Mafia charges.[
]
Films about Calvi's death
BBC One's programme ''Panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...
'' chronicled Calvi's last days and uncovered new evidence which suggested that others had been involved in his death. The 1983 PBS ''Frontline'' documentary "God's Banker" investigated Calvi's links with the Vatican and P2, and questioned whether his death was really a suicide. The circumstances surrounding his death were made into the feature film '' I Banchieri di Dio - Il Caso Calvi'' (God's Bankers - The Calvi Case) in 2001. A heavily fictionalized version of Calvi appears in ''The Godfather Part III
''The Godfather Part III'' is a 1990 American crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from the screenplay co-written with Mario Puzo. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy García, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, ...
'' in the character of Frederick Keinszig.
In 1990, ''The Comic Strip Presents'' produced a spoof version of Calvi's story under the title ''Spaghetti Hoops'', with Nigel Planer
Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, comedian, musician, novelist and playwright. He played Neil in the BBC comedy '' The Young Ones'' and Ralph Filthy in ''Filthy Rich & Catflap''. He has appeared in many West End mu ...
in the lead role, directed by Peter Richardson, and co-written by him and Pete Richens
Peter Richens was a British screenwriter. Richens is perhaps best known as the writing partner of Peter Richardson, writer/director/star of the long-running TV series '' The Comic Strip Presents''.
Biography
In Richens's own words, Richardso ...
. ''Variety'' magazine described the comedy film ''The Pope Must Die
''The Pope Must Die'' (alternative known title as ''The Pope Must Diet!'' in the United States and Canada) is a 1991 British Catholic Church comedy film directed by Peter Richardson, who also wrote the screenplay with Pete Richens derived from ...
'' (1991) as "loosely based on the Roberto Calvi banking scandal". In the 2009 film ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' is a 2009 fantasy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam and Charles McKeown. The film follows a travelling theatre troupe whose leader, having made a bet with the Devil, takes audience mem ...
,'' the character of Tony is found hanging alive under Blackfriars Bridge, which director Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''B ...
described as "an homage to Roberto Calvi".The ''Dr Parnassus'' Press Conference at Cannes - Part 2
edited by Phil Stubbs[The Last of Heath](_blank)
Peter Biskind
Peter Biskind (born 1940) is an American cultural critic, film historian, journalist and former executive editor of ''Premiere'' magazine from 1986 to 1996.
Biography
He attended Swarthmore College and wrote several books depicting life in Holl ...
, Vanity Fair, August 2009
See also
* Accounting scandals
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "language ...
* Corporate scandal
A corporate collapse typically involves the insolvency or bankruptcy of a major business enterprise. A corporate scandal involves alleged or actual unethical behavior by people acting within or on behalf of a corporation. Many recent corporate col ...
* List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
This list of unsolved murders includes notable cases where victims have been murdered under unknown circumstances.
19801984
* Jeannie Mills (39), was a female early defector from the Peoples Temple along with her husband and teenage daughte ...
* List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom
This is an incomplete list of unsolved known and presumed murders in the United Kingdom. It does not include any of the 3,000 or so murders that took place in Northern Ireland due to the Troubles and remain unsolved. Victims believed or known t ...
References
Further reading
* Cornwell, Rupert (1983). ''God's Banker: The Life and Death of Roberto Calvi'', London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.
* Gurwin, Larry (1983). ''The Calvi Affair: Death of a Banker''. London: Pan Books, 1984, cop. 1983. xiii, 251 p. + p. of b&w photos. ; alternative ISBN on back cover, 0-330-28338-3
* Yallop, David (1985). ''In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I
Pope John Paul I ( la, Ioannes Paulus I}; it, Giovanni Paolo I; born Albino Luciani ; 17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 26 August 1978 to his death 33 days later. Hi ...
'', London: Corgi
* Raw, Charles (1992). ''The Money Changers: How the Vatican Bank enabled Roberto Calvi to Steal $250m...'' London: Harvill.
* Willan, Philip (2007). ''The Last Supper: the Mafia, the Masons and the Killing of Roberto Calvi'', London: Constable & Robinson, 2007
Review in The Observer
*
* Aldrich, Richard J (2010). GCHQ Ref p. 407 line 7 ''Argentinian effort to procure more exocets''
External links
Sky Television
*
* ttp://www.threemonkeysonline.com/articleroberto_calvi_banco_ambrosiano_vatican.htm Who Killed Roberto Calvi? Three Monkeys Interview with journalist Philip Willan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calvi, Roberto
1920 births
1982 deaths
1982 in London
1982 murders in the United Kingdom
1980s murders in London
20th-century Italian businesspeople
Accounting scandals
Deaths related to the Years of Lead (Italy)
Italian bankers
Italian people murdered abroad
Italian Roman Catholics
Male murder victims
Members of Propaganda Due
Criminals from Milan
People murdered in London
Unsolved murders in London
Businesspeople from Milan
Italian expatriates in England
Freemasonry-related controversies