01x03 - The Merciless Padlock

[bunniefuu]

[music playing]

Sindona and Calvi's
legal troubles increase.

They begin a string of
events that will bring Calvi

ever closer to his doom.

Sindona crashed.

The largest bankruptcy
in American history.

Sindona's wanted on both
sides of the Atlantic.

The mafiosi want
their money back.

Calvi turned to the P2
Lodge for protection.

They extracted a
very high price.

Gelli used his position
to get money out of Calvi.

It was clear that Calvi
was in serious trouble.

It's not every day
in London that you

find a body swinging under one
of the great old story bridges.

It's a dramatic death.

In 1992, I was approached by
Jeff Katz of Kroll Associates

to see if I could help.

He had been charged with
reinvestigating the case

on behalf of the family.

Jeff wanted me to look
at the forensic science.

I didn't make any assumptions
about whether it was

likely to be m*rder or suicide.

I was just very interested
in the circumstances

by which this high
profile Italian banker had

come to be in this position--
hanging from a rope

under one of the
big London bridges.

How on earth did that happen?

I don't think I've ever done
a case quite like this one.

[music playing]

This model is something
that we created

to explain the results
of all our experiments

and observations and findings
in relation to the conclusions

that we finally came to.

The framework I
constructed consisted

of thinking about the
routes by which Calvi could

have got onto the position on
the scaffolding in which he

was found.

I decided in the end
that there were probably

four main routes, two suicide
routes and two m*rder routes.

There was a fixed iron
ladder on the river wall

from which the people
who wanted to get access

to the scaffolding and repair
the gate from the river fleet

used to get down onto it.

Calvi would have climbed down
this near-vertical ladder.

There was a 2 foot
8 inch gap that he

would have to have
negotiated across

to the back of the scaffolding
up against the river wall.

He would have stepped across
onto the two scaffolding

planks, which were always
apparently very slippery.

And then he would have had
to have climbed up one pole's

distance, traversed to the
other end of the scaffolding,

and then tied the rope to the
scaffolding through an eyelet,

not onto the pole.

We worked out that it
was between 1:50 and 2:45

that night.

The lights along the embankment
there are set to light the path

and not set to light the river.

So he would have to have
done that in darkness.

You have to bear in mind his
age and his physical condition.

Roberto Calvi had
vertigo, and he

had a weakness in one
of his little fingers

that tended to get disturbed if
he used his hand too roughly.

The other thing is that he was
weighted down with these stones

and half bricks.

So that was one of
the suicide routes.

Any tribunal could
make up its own mind

as to whether that
was likely or not.

[music playing]

At 6:18 on this warm
Rome evening, just a few

pops of smoke, but
unmistakably white.

On October 16, 1978, the
arrival of a new Pope

will have unseen and deadly
consequences for Roberto Calvi.

Karol Wojtyla of Poland,
the first non-Italian Pope

in more than 4
and 1/2 centuries.

The papal name he has
chosen, John Paul II.

John Paul II is very keen on
the battle against communism,

and absolutely,
the front line is

in his own homeland in Poland.

After World w*r II,
the Soviet Union

institutes a new
Communist government

in an unwilling Poland.

Karol Wojtyla, who will
become Pope John Paul II

begins a 20 year rise
through the church,

working tirelessly to
undermine Soviet control.

He was very successful
in defending

the Catholic Church in Poland.

His ascension as Pope
alarms the Soviets.

Poland, at this time, has
a communist government,

but also has a thriving
Catholic community underneath.

[church bell]

John Paul II, I think, was
the fiercest anti-communist

in the last part
of the 20th century

and had his own agenda, which
was to bring religion back

to Eastern Europe.

Bishop Marcinkus sees
this as a good way

to ingratiate himself
with his new boss.

John Paul II is inclined
to turn a blind eye

to financial malpractices.

It was more important to cover
up the dirty details in order

to preserve the
reputation of the church.

And that's exactly the
spirit that my Marcinkus

lived and espoused.

They were kindred
spirits, let's say.

Bishop Marcinkus--
his willingness

to do things that
the Pope finds useful

creates a relationship
of trust that

allows Marcinkus not only
to hold his position,

but to reinforce it.

Roberto Calvi also understands
how the new Pope can

be useful for Banco Ambrosiano.

Calvi was shrewd enough to
do things for the church,

to donate money to causes.

Those things would soon
include the Pope's homeland.

Pope John Paul II became
the first Pope to venture

behind the Iron Curtain, kissing
the tarmac on his arrival

at Warsaw airport.

He was at the start of an
historic nine day visit.

This was extremely significant
for Polish Catholics.

It was confirmation
that they had

the support of an
influential, crucial world

institution in their battle
against the Soviet domination.

There has been mixed
in all these events

fierce Polish nationalism.

After he leaves, that may prove
much harder to dampen down.

Shortly after that, in
Poland, a small union forms.

The Solidarity Trade Union were
fighting the Communist regime.

Union members locked
themselves into shipyards

and stage a strike.

The Pope, the CIA
and others starts

to see solidarity as
a potential partner

for destabilizing the
Communist government.

And Marcinkus is then keen
to have banking experts who

can help him do that.

Buongiorno, Your Eminence.

Do you know what's
happening in Poland?

Yes.

Come see us at the
Vatican, Roberto.

There are few things better
than being quote unquote,

"God's banker"
and being summoned

to the seat of the Catholic
Church Vatican City.

This drags Calvi ever
deeper into the vortex

of the Pope's obsessive
battle against communism.

The whole of my report was
based on this framework

of what seemed to me to be the
most likely routes that Calvi

could have taken.

The other suicide
routes that we consider

was he had climbed down onto the
foreshore some distance away.

Further downstream not
that far away, there

was another ladder that led
directly onto the foreshore.

So at low tide, you
could climb down that.

Calvi could have walked
along the foreshore

but he still would have
had to walk through water

to get to the scaffolding.

The water would have
been several feet deep.

He would've had to
swum to it, really.

Then he would have had to
have climbed onto scaffolding

and then climbed all
the way up to where

he was found, which was
reasonably near the top,

and then tied the rope.

Then of course, still,
this is weighted down

with bricks and
everything on his body.

We did a range of experiments.

We actually re-enacted
climbing down the ladders

at the scene and particularly
the one that led down

onto the foreshore and having
a look at the damage you

get in the shoes from that.

Secondly, the poles were
very rusty as well, and also

the yellow and green paint.

Then inspect the
shoes afterwards,

compared them with what was
found on the original shoes.

We then put the shoes in
a bucket of swirling water

for a certain period of time.

And then looked at
them to see how much

of the paint and the rust that
had been transferred and then

been removed.

We had enough physical
evidence here,

along with all of these
other suppositions,

to leave one really convinced
that neither of the suicide

routes were really possible.

That left the very
strong conclusion

that he must have been m*rder*d.

And I think the circles
that he moved in invites

that kind of speculation.

Just five weeks after the
Pope's visit to Poland,

prosecutor Giorgio
Ambrosoli, who

had been delving into
banker Michele Sindona's

fraudulent dealings
is assassinated.

[g*nsh*t sounds]

Who wanted Abrosoli dead?

It's a long list.

He was shot and k*lled
in Milan by three men

in what Italian sources called
a typical mafia execution.

But who wanted him dead that
also had connections that might

relate to Italian-Americans?

Michele Sindona.

So it turned some of the
attention toward him.

Sindona was furious.

Sindona, who's out on
bail pending this trial,

is suddenly missing.

59-year-old Michele
Sindona is under indictment

in the failure of the
Franklin National Bank,

the largest bank
collapse in US history.

He disappeared in New
York City last week.

Hello, we now have Michele
Sindona on as our prisoner.

You will be hearing from us.

So here you have
a person charged

in a criminal trial about
to take place in New York,

and he's been kidnapped.

The FBI is brought in.

One of their specialties
is kidnapping.

They are worried enough to put
Sindona's assistant at Franklin

National and who knows
a lot of the secrets

in protective custody.

But the FBI refuses
to classify it

as a kidnapping
because from the get

go they are suspicious about
it, and they think it's a setup.

[music playing]

So guess what?

The FBI was correct.

Sindona had put on
a disguise, and he

had staged a fake kidnapping.

He didn't do it
in a chintzy way.

He decided to do
it in a big way.

So he disappears, and
he travels to Sicily.

Sindona had business to do
that he had to do in Italy.

He had to make
commitments to mob bosses

that he would repay them
millions and millions

of dollars.

These were people who
wouldn't take kindly

to being bilked
by their bankers.

During this stay
in Palermo, Sindona

wrote many, many
letters, pretending

that the letters were dictated
to him by the people who

kidnapped him.

As Sindona becomes
increasingly desperate,

I think there's possibly
an element of madness.

He's losing contact with
reality at that point.

The members of the
Secret Masonic Lodge,

P2, were arriving
to the conclusion

that there was not a
possibility to trust Sindona

any longer because his
discipline was so bad.

At that time, they decided
that their financial man

was only Calvi.

Michele Sindona
turned up in New York

today just as mysteriously as
he disappeared last August 2.

He was taken to a Manhattan
hospital with what was thought

was a b*llet wound in the leg.

Unbelievably to many,
Archbishop Marcinkus

agrees to act as a
character witness.

People have asked,
you think Sindona

had something on Marcinkus?

Some blackmail to
force him to do it?

Absolutely not.

That was Marcinkus.

Loyalty was his DNA.

Marcinkus says, you know what,
I'll go over and be a character

witness.

Wait, it gets worse than that.

So will a couple of people who
work with me in the Vatican

Bank as senior lay officials
who have been here forever.

The Vatican Secretary
of State, Casaroli

is absolutely shocked at this.

Enough of this.

This Is just ridiculous.

I'm putting a stop to this.

It's vetoed.

You're not going.

Marcinkus was too much
in bed with Sindona.

So when Sindona fell apart,
they said, all right,

time to get rid of Marcinkus.

The Secretary of
State, Casaroli,

goes to a friend of his who's
running Italian intelligence

and says, will you get
me some dirt on Marcinkus

so I can force him out.

They put this fellow,
Francesco Pazienza on the case.

[music playing]

Money from the Vatican Bank
that's taken out that's

ill*gal.

Now, he doesn't know
what it's being used for.

It's not ending up
in Marcinkus' pocket.

But what does he do with it?

Does he go back to the Italian
intelligence and tell them?

This is so Italian.

Pazienza says, I've got
information on Marcinkus.

Great, I'll meet with him.

And at that moment, he knew
Marcinkus owed him a favor,

and that was worth it.

Meanwhile, investigators close
in on the truth about Sindona's

disappearing act.

The Italians pick up a fellow
coming into the country.

He is a senior member of
the Gambino crime family,

and they give him
a full frisking.

They find out that he has
a piece of paper on him.

It's actually in his shoes.

It means something.

So they took all the names of
the people on that flight--

over 180 of them.

The FBI went through one by
one and they found one of them

was a person who didn't exist.

It was a false identification.

They then pulled
out of the files

from immigration the
actual declaration card,

and on that they find
Sindona's fingerprint.

He's coming in back from
Italy at a time when

he's supposed to be kidnapped.

He's traveling back and forth
in the company of mobsters.

It's the end, as far as
the FBI is concerned,

of sandona having been
the innocent victim.

A judge in New York, today,
sentenced Italian financier

Michele Sindona to 25 years in
prison and fined him $207,000.

And that was the
end of the scenery

because he was arrested and
never was released anymore.

After I was able to eliminate
the two suicide routes,

which left the very
strong conclusion

that he must have been m*rder*d.

That left the two
m*rder routes, really.

The two m*rder
routes we considered

was first of all, that
one of his murderers

had lowered him, perhaps
on a rope, over the parapet

and down the front
of the river wall

to be caught by someone else
who was on the scaffolding,

and then pulled the
body towards him.

And he then attached the rope,
and then Calvi was suspended.

You have to think, somebody's
going to night work.

Somebody's pedaling by.

Somebody is going to
see a group of people

and later just tell the police.

The whole thing is over.

You've got a m*rder
from the get go.

There's a risk to
doing it in public.

The other route was simply
by being brought by boat.

The boat theory might
be the more likely.

That was where we ended up.

[boat sounds]

At the beginning of 1981,
we were investigating

the fake kidnapping.

It came out that Mr Joseph
Miceli Crimi was also

in Palermo with Sindona.

Miceli Crimi, the
doctor, kept traveling

between Palermo and Arezzo.

Arezzo is where Licio Gelli
had his main headquarters

and office.

Licio Gelli, head of the Secret
Lodge Propaganda Due or P2.

We already knew that this
strange Secret Masonic

Lodge existed, and we
knew that Licio Gelli was

the head of this Masonic Lodge.

Licio Gelli seemed to be a
very powerful person protected

by several circles.

So now that there was this
connection between Sindona

and Licio Gelli, we decided
to search all the known

addresses of Licio Gelli.

We found out that jelly
had a secret office

inside a textile company
in the province of Arezzo.

Castiglion Fibocchi, that's
the name of the small town.

The search was managed
by the Guardia di

Finanza, the financial police.

That's a military organization
that belongs to the Treasury

Department.

And they were created to
fight corruption and money

laundering.

We sent Francesco Carluccio.

He was a very, very brave
and clever investigator.

The lady's bag was on
a chair in the office.

Then the officer went
there and took that object.

It was the keys of the safe.

[key turning]

It's the Holy Grail of
secret relationships.

This is the who's who of Italy.

Leaders of Italian
intelligence agencies--

--prominent business people,
bankers, media figures.

He was a young guy who was
on the way up in the media

business.

He ends up being the Prime
Minister of Italy afterwards--

one of the richest
men in the country.

And of course, Sindona
was a member of P2.

Calvi also was a member of P2.

Italy was shocked completely.

It was a shock.

Having the P2 two
lists made public

was a political earthquake.

It seemed to be the
incarnation of the kind

of masonic conspiracy that
everybody had always suspected

the Freemasons would be.

The Forlani government
resigned after allegations

that nearly 1,000 prominent
Italians in all walks of life

belonged to a secret
Freemasons lodge.

Government ministers quit.

The parliament outlawed P2,
but even now, still debates

how enduring the influence
of the lodge has been.

[music playing]

Not long after the discovery
of the membership lists of P2,

Gelli's daughter arrives from
South America at Rome airport.

And in the crudely created
false bottom of her suitcase,

she has, among other
things, blackmail materials.

A document was found,
the name of which

is Piano di Rinascita
Democratica,

Plan of Democratic Rebirth.

Which is a political
manifesto, put simply.

This was a plan for a sort of
authoritarian, conservative

turn in Italian politics.

Shutting up criminals and
left wing troublemakers,

more intervention in
the press, tighter

control over trade unions.

The document also had a
kind of Masonic flavor to it

because he talked
about a secret group

within P2, which would be
kind of a rigorous moral elite

to lead society--

reform society from within,
take over the Christian Democrat

party, which was to
corrupt to be of use

in the anti-communist struggle.

That is what Gelli is
really interested in.

And the whole plan for
Democratic rebirth--

indeed the whole sort
of Cold w*r climate

of fear of communism
amplified when necessary,

allows a lot of rot
under the surface.

And Gelli wants to
operate in that rot.

That is his natural environment.

This is part of a creeping
coup d'etat, which

went on in this country during
a good part of the second part

of the last century.

We went through this
coup d'etat more or less

between the 60s and the
fall of the Berlin Wall.

The main points of this
creeping coup d'etat

are the m*ssacre of Piazza
Fontana in Milan 1969,

Brescia in 1974, all through
the m*ssacre of Bologna.

Bologna station bombing was
the worst t*rror1st atrocity

that has been seen in
Italy since the w*r.

At the time, it
wasn't at all clear

what really was behind it.

The number of claims the
responsibility for the bombing

from several groups, the most
likely being the extreme right

wing, the neofascist.

There was this sense
that this might

have been the last gasp
of the fascists paving

the way for a military coup.

The only thing was
that by 1980, that

didn't seem to be a
very plausible scenario.

So it was rather mysterious.

Also, it came out
that the Vatican Bank

was related with
the finance affairs

of Michele Sindona, Banco
Ambrosiano and Roberto Calvi.

How they were
hiding money abroad,

and there was a whole
file folder on Calvi.

And Calvi didn't disclose
ill*gal behavior.

It was a story of Gelli's
intercessions for him

over the years to help him,
to try to stop investigations,

to get them thwarted, to get
them pushed off to the side.

How he had helped Calvi
and Ambrosiano to a point

where eventually, he
couldn't do it any longer.

And Gelli fled down to
Argentina, where he has a home.

When Gelli disappeared,
Calvi was completely out

of any political connection.

Suddenly, he doesn't have the
coverage and he feels naked.

And then it gets
even worse for Calvi.

Milan's tough chief
investigating magistrate,

armed with the new
information, takes

charge of the ongoing
probe into Calvi.

He was in desperate straits.

For the first time, God's
banker has nowhere to turn.

The armed forces now rule
in Poland with martial law

and the thread of execution
for those who break it.

Crackdown was aimed at the
independent Trade Union

solidarity.

By the end of '81, General
Jaruszelski of Poland

did crackdown.

In Gdansk, they arrested
nearly all the unions

leaders gathered there
for a conference.

They cut the telephone line
communications between Poland

and Vatican City.

They knew that they had to
cut off that Vatican support.

The President of
the United States.

The pontiff finds
an enthusiastic ally

in the newly inaugurated
Reagan administration.

Under Ronald Reagan--

Thank you.

--CIA was reinvigorated.

William Casey, the
head of the CIA,

wants the Pope as a partner
for destabilizing the communist

Government

If the CIA is involved in
the plot to silence Calvi,

there's an enormous
array of things

that Calvi could have
spoken about that might have

been embarrassing for the CIA.

The Pope was getting American
Intelligence briefings

inside the Vatican.

The CIA, sending
an emissary over,

would show him photographs
from satellites of what

was happening inside Poland.

John Paul II loved those.

He took real interest in it.

Any message for America?

Well, God bless America.

The head of the CIA
wants to funnel money

through a willing partner,
the Pope and Vatican.

And guess what.

There's only one
American over there.

Casey sort of likes
the idea that he's

talking to an
American, somebody who

has this outgoing
direct nature he

feels comfortable with
Marcinkus himself.

And as a result, it gives Casey
an extra level of confidence

that everything's going to go
smoothly through the Vatican.

Getting money there
was always risky.

Somebody like Calvi to do money
laundering was always needed.

But after General Jaruzelski
had cracked down, getting money

there was even riskier.

And Marcenkus got
Francesco Pazienza

to go ahead and put together
a shipment of gold to Poland.

According to Pazienza,
a priest then

drove the vehicle loaded
with millions in gold ingots

from Switzerland to solidarity
representatives in Gdansk,

Poland.

[telephone ringing]

And then Calvi's
worst fear comes true.

Calvi was at home
with his family,

and there's a knock on the door.

And it's the police,
and they arrest him

for ill*gal capital exports,
for moving money abroad.

It was humiliating and shocking.

He was taken to prison.

Two days after Calvi's
arrest, magistrates

began interrogating him.

They confronted him with a
series of questions about Gelli

and his relationship with
Gelli and business deals

he had been involved in.

Calvi was evasive,
lying, not knowing

that his interrogators had
documents to back up what

they were asking him about.

And so with each answer,
they would confront him

with the document
that showed that he

was lying or being evasive.

This happened again and again,
and it was wearing him down.

It was clear that he
was in serious trouble.

Calvi felt he was being
treated like a common criminal.

It was very demoralizing to him.

That was sort of the
beginning of the nosedive

because it sort of
shattered his confidence.

One year before his death,
Calvi's trial begins.

To Calvi, time feels merciless.

Over seven weeks, his
blood pressure, anxiety

and depression increase.

The experience of prison
makes him incredibly

nervous and fearful
because it made

him feel extremely vulnerable.

His vertigo escalates.

So he agrees to talk
to the magistrates.

He's a bit of a drama
queen at this point.

He's going to paint himself as
a victim, much as Sindona did.

So he goes from being one of
the most important financial men

in all of Italy to now,
it's all out of my control.

I'm just being used as a pawn.

And I'm not sure how
much of that was real.

With the P2 out of commission,
the Vatican is his last chance.

His wife, Clara
and his daughter,

Anna visited Calvi in prison.

He confided in them that
the share transactions that

were the basis for the
criminal case against him

were actually done to
benefit the Vatican Bank.

So Calvi says, really
the Vatican Bank

is the one asking me
to do all these things.

There's no doubt that
there were people

who were petrified about
what Calvi might say.

When you talk, you die.

It's one of the rules.

It's a very basic rule.

You don't talk.

It's been six long years since
careful forensic re-analysis

ruled out suicide.

But in that time,
Calvi's family hasn't

been able to convince a
judge to reopen the case.

Until now.

An investigating judge in Rome
orders Calvi's remains exhumed.

He wants to start from scratch
in analyzing the death of Banco

Ambrosiano's chairman.

They brought the remains
to the forensics Institute

of pathology in Milan, one
of the most prestigious

medical examining
institutes in all of Italy.

They come to these
conclusions, but it's not

persuasive for a prosecutor
to go ahead and start a case

and get anybody indicted.

It's been 20 years since Roberto
Calvi's lifeless body was

found hanging under
Blackfriars Bridge.

The pathology lab that tested
Calvi's exhumed remains

two years earlier is relocating
to a new office across town.

The movers are packing
up and they find

what looks like body parts.

It turns out to be Calvi's
tongue, part of his neck, part

of a shirt that had
been left in as well,

and part of his intestines.

Even though it's
a gruesome moment,

it gives them a chance
to do another test.

They're able to determine
with what's left of the neck

that the vertebrae
snapped before he was

hanged from Blackfriars Bridge.

That's the moment at which you
have the absolute conclusion

from science.

It's time to open up a
m*rder probe in Italy.

[credits music]