A Mobster’s Secrets – Taken to the Grave

Scientific police inside the Courtyard of Sant'Apollinare. Preparing to open the sarcophagus of famed mobster. Freeze frame of video shot by Pietro De Cristofaro.

Last week’s most intriguing story in Rome — with still no conclusion– was a decades old mystery surrounding a missing Italian teenager that has jumped back into the headlines.

15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi– daughter of a Vatican employee– disappeared in 1983 after heading out of her family’s Vatican-owned apartment for a music lesson.

Decades of investigations have lead to dead ends….but there has been plenty of speculation mostly around a famed Roman Mobster and the Vatican. Some have tied the mystery to the machinations around the Vatican Bank, others to the Italian Secret Services and many to the famed Roman gang, La Banda della Magliana, and its leader Enrico de Pedis.

Last Monday trucks full of scientific police, forensic experts, police geologists and speleologists rolled into the courtyard of the Ponticial University for the Holy Cross in Rome, just behind the Sant’ Apollinare Basilica where the famous Roman mobster, Enrico de Pedis, is buried.

Police were following up  on a anonymous phone call to a television show called “Chi l’ha visto” (Who has seen?) which looks into mysteries of missing people.  Back in 2005, the anonymous caller said the answer to the mystery of the missing Emanuela Orlandi could be found in the tomb of De Pedis. That was not the first time the mobster’s name was linked to the case. His former lover had also said that he carried out the kidnapping under order from the American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus (now dead) who was  head of the Vatican bank from 1971 to 1989.  Marcinkus has been accused of involvement in various scandals related to the Vatican bank but was never charged with any crimes.

The problem was that De Pedis, who was gunned down on a Roman street in 1990, is buried in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare, a prominent church in the center of Rome a few steps away from the famous Piazza Navona. Church permission was needed to open the tomb.

Last Monday TV crews, photographers and journalists crowded around the gateway to the coutyard next to the church eager to get a shot of what was happening inside, but all we could see were the scientific police coming and going with white space suits and gas masks.

At noon the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare opened for its daily mass.  Two Carabinieri military policemen stood at the door.  My cameraman Paolo Santalucia suggested I go check out what was happening inside the church.  I stepped past the Carabinieri into the darkened basilica doing my best to look like a faithful Catholic rather than a busy-body journalist.  Inside I found a small chapel — hardly what one would expect hearing it described as a Basilica– with just a few pews and a confessional.  A traditional latin mass was underway.  I stepped to the back of the church and absorbed the scene.

In the traditional latin mass the priest keeps his back to the congregation so I got a good view of his back.  He was tall with slicked back grey hair and wore a red silk cape. I could see an aquiline profile.  When he turned around to give the host he was holding the round, white wafer above a gold plate.  A light from a window high up in the chapel reflected off the plate and cast a strange geometrical shadow over the priest’s face.  He looked ominous.

I couldn’t help thinking he was saying Mass while on the other side of the wall scientific police  and forensic experts were busy digging up the sarcophagus of a mobster in hopes of finding the answer to the mystery of a missing girl.  It was sinister, surreal and seemed straight out of a movie.

The priest stepped forward to give the host to the faithful and the few people in the chapel slid out of the pews and one by one dropped to their knees in front of him.  I used the moment to slide out the door, past the Carabinieri military police and back out into the hot sun.

The crowd of cameramen and photographers were still there waiting.  Then out from behind the building came Pietro Orlandi, brother of the long lost Emanuela.  It was a mob scene (no pun intended), we all pounced on him, surrounding him with cameras and microphones.  He explained to us that the sarcophagus had been pulled out, and the mobster’s body was still in good condition and there were no extraneous bones in his sarcophagus.  The scientific police had taken dna samples from his remains.

Orlandi also said he appreciated the Vatican’s decision to be more transparent and cooperative in the case.  Over the years, the family had accused the Vatican of slowing the investigation.  Last month the Pope’s spokesman said the Vatican would do everything possible to help resolve the case and agreed to allow De Pedis to be exhumed.

There were no bones in the mobster’s coffin, but in a nearby ossuary police found 200 boxes of bones.  A report in Italy’s Corriere Della Sera several days later said that initial tests on those bones found that most of them were from the pre-Napoleonic period, but at least 10 bones seem to be more recent and require further testing.

So the mystery remains ….

 

11 thoughts on “A Mobster’s Secrets – Taken to the Grave”

    1. Trisha Thomas

      You’re right about that. I have serious doubts they are going to make any big discoveries with all these bones they are studying. But I actually hope they do get some more clues, I feel so sorry for Emanuela Orlandi’s family with this strange disappearance of their daughter hanging over them for all these years. It is kind of like the Madeleine McCann case in the UK.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thanks Adri — well I promise to keep all my blog readers informed if there are any interesting developments.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you for pointing that out Michelle, I had not seen it. They actually did not mention my blog but used the term Mozzarella Mamma– which I am pretty sure I invented. A friend told me recently that she has noticed that term popping up in magazine articles and tv shows…I guess that is a good thing. I just wish I could get my book published.

  1. Trish, is everybody else wondering why is a famous Mobster buried in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare??

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Allegra, thanks for your question…I wasn’t very clear on that point.
      Yes, lots of people have been wondering why a mobster gets buried in a famous basilica in the center of Rome, and the answer is pretty straightforward. The mobster had reportedly been giving money to powerful people in the Vatican. But let me stick to the facts, and not the rumors. The former rector of the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare made a request to the Cardinal Vicario of Rome, Ugo Poletti, asking that De Pedis be moved from his original burial place in the Verano cemetary to the Basilica. The request was published on May 18th in Italy’s Daily “Corriere Della Sera” and I will copy it below for you to read in Italian, but for those who don’t read Italian it says how De Pedis was a great benefactor of the poor who came to the Basilica and helped with the Christian education and formation of the youth.
      Here’s the Italian text copied from Corriere Della Sera:
      «Si attesta che il signor Enrico De Pedis nato in Roma – Trastevere il 15/05/1954 e deceduto in Roma il 2/2/1990, è stato un grande benefattore dei poveri che frequentano la Basilica e ha aiutato concretamente tante iniziative di bene che sono state patrocinate in questi ultimi tempi, sia di carattere religioso che sociale. Ha dato particolari contributi per aiutare i giovani, interessandosi in particolare per la loro formazione cristiana e umana».

      One last note: According to “Corriere della Sera” the investigating magistrates recently added the name of the former rector, Monsignor Pietro Vergari, who made the above request, to the list of the individuals being investigated in the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Hi Lisa — Great to hear from you. Italian papers are reporting that they have found 10 bones in the ossuary that seem more recent and they are doing more DNA testing. I will update my blog with any news.
      One small comment that I didn’t make in my post but as a Mamma I should–I cannot imagine the agony for the parents not knowing what happened to their daughter for all these years.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *