| Missing people |
| |
| Name |
Emanuela Orlandi |
| Age at time of disappearance |
15 years old |
| Missing since |
June 22, 1983 |
| Location |
Rome, Italy |
| Height |
160 cm |
| Hair |
Black |
| Eyes |
Brown |
Emanuela Orlandi (born January 14, 1968), a citizen of
Vatican CityVatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the capital city of Italy...
, mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983 at the age of fifteen.
Disappearance
At the beginning of a warm summer, the then 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi vanished. She was in her second year at a
liceo scientificoLiceo scientifico is a secondary school type in Italy. It lasts 5 years ....
(a scientific high school) in Rome. Although the scholastic year had concluded, she continued to take flute lessons three times per week at the
Tommaso Ludovico Da Victoria School, connected with the
Pontificium Institutum Musicæ Sacræ (The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music) She was also part of the chorus of
Saint Anna’s Church, inside Vatican City, where she had lived from birth. Emanuela was a citizen of the Vatican, the fourth of Ercole and Maria Orlandi’s five children.
In order to reach the music school, Emanuela usually rode the bus. She would exit the bus after a couple of stops and then walk six or seven hundred feet. What is known for certain is that on Wednesday, June 22, 1983, she had been late to class. Later, around 19:00, she explained her lateness in a phone call to her sister, during which she said she had a job offer from a representative of the
Avon Cosmetics CompanyAvon Products, Inc. is a US cosmetics, perfume and toy seller with markets in over 140 countries across the world and sales of $9.9 billion worldwide as of 2007....
to promote cosmetics on the occasion of a fashion show. Her sister suggested that she talk it over with her parents before making any decisions. Emanuela had allegedly met with the would-be representative shortly before her music lesson. At the end of the lesson, Emanuela spoke of the job offer with a girlfriend, who then left Emanuela at the bus stop, in company of another girl who has never been identified. Someone supposedly saw her get into a large, dark-colored
BMW, is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company. Founded in 1916, it is known for its performance and luxury vehicles. It owns and produces the MINI brand, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.-Company history:...
car. From that moment, Emanuela vanished.
Chronology
At 03:00 on Thursday, Orlandi’s parents called Sister Dolores, the director of the music school, in order to ask whether any of their daughter's classmates had information on Emanuela. The Police had suggested waiting, because ‘perhaps the girl was with friends’. On June 23, Emanuela was officially reported as a
missing personA missing person is a person who has disappeared for no known reason.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
, and on Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th an announcement of the disappearance was published with the telephone number of the Orlandi house in the newspapers
Il Tempo,
Paese Sera and
Il MessaggeroIl Messaggero is an Italian newspaper based in Rome, Italy, founded in 1878.It is owned by the Italian publishing company Caltagirone Editore, and its leaders include Azzurra Caltagirone, the partner of the political leader Pierferdinando Casini, on its board...
.
At 18:00 on Saturday, June 25, a phone call was received from a youth who identified himself as a 16 year old named
Pierluigi. The sound of his voice and manner of speech suggested that he was much younger, however. He reported that together with his fiancée, he had met Emanuela in
Piazza NavonaPiazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It follows the plan of an ancient Roman circus, the 1st century Stadium of Domitian, where the Romans came to watch the agones : It was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...
that afternoon. The young man mentioned Emanuela’s flute, her hair, and the glasses that the girl did not like to wear, along with other details that fit the missing girl. According to
Pierluigi, Emanuela had just had a haircut and had introduced herself as
Barbarella. She went on to say that she had run away from home and that she was selling Avon products – all reliable details.
On June 28, a man who said his name was
Mario called the family and claimed to own a bar near Ponte Vittorio, between the Vatican and the Music School. The man said that a girl named
Barbara, a new customer, had confided to him about being a fugitive from home but said that she would return home for her sister’s wedding. On June 30, Rome was plastered with 3,000 posters showing Emanuela Orlandi's photograph.
On Sunday July 3,
Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer...
, during the
AngelusThe Angelus is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation. The name Angelus is derived from the opening words: Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ and is practiced by reciting as versicle and response three Biblical verses describing the mystery; alternating with the salutation "Hail Mary!" The...
, appealed to those responsible for Emanuela Orlandi’s disappearance, making the hypothesis of kidnapping official for the first time. On July 5, the Orlandi family received the first of a number of anonymous phone calls. Emanuela was supposedly the prisoner of a terrorist group demanding the release of
Mehmet Ali AğcaMehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981. After serving 19 years of incarceration in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he is serving another life sentence for the murder of Abdi İpekçi, a left-wing journalist, in 1979. He is eligible for...
, the Turkish man who shot the Pope in St Peter's Square on May 13, 1981. No other information was given. In the following days, other calls were received, including one from a man identified as
The American because of his voice’s strange and adulterated accent. He played a recording of Emanuela’s voice over the phone. A few hours later, in another phone call to the Vatican, the same man suggested an exchange between Orlandi and Alì Ağca. The anonymous interlocutor also mentioned the
Mario and
Pierluigi of the earlier telephone calls, defining them as
members of the organization.
On July 6, a man with a young voice and no accent informed
ANSA news agencyANSA may refer to:*ANSA - Applied Neuroscience Society of Australasia*ANSA - Anaemia Nurse Specialist Association*Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, the most important Italian news agency....
of the demand for an Orlandi-Ağca exchange, asking for the Pope’s participation within 20 days and indicating that a basket in the public square near the Parliament would contain proof that Orlandi was indeed in his hands. These were to have been photocopies of her Music School I.D., a receipt, and a note hand-written by the kidnapped girl. However, the Magistrate who was overseeing Orlandi’s case did not believe that there was a credible connection between the Orlandi abduction and the Pope's assailant. She believed that Orlandi had probably been kidnapped and killed after a sexual assault.
On July 8, a man with Middle Eastern accent phoned one of Orlandi’s classmates saying that the girl was in his hands and that they had 20 days to make the exchange with Alì Ağca. The man also asked for a direct telephone line with the then Secretary of the Vatican State, Agostino Casaroli. The line was installed on July 18. A total of 16 telephone calls were made by
The American, all from different public telephone booths. In spite of his variety of demands and the presumed evidence, the man (who may never be identified) did not provide any leads.
In mid-2000, Judge Ferdinando Imposimato, based on what he had learned about the
Grey WolvesGrey Wolves or Idealist Youth is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party . It is accused of terrorism....
, a far-right Turkish group, declared that Orlandi, by then an adult, was living a perfectly integrated life in the Muslim community and that she had probably lived for a long time in Paris. He remains the only supporter of this idea and of the Orlandi-Ağca connection.
Sightings
Sightings of Emanuela in various places have been reported over the years, even inside Vatican City, but all have been unreliable. Ağca, who once declared that Orlandi had been kidnapped by Bulgarian Agents and the Grey Wolves of which Ağca was a member, spoke about Orlandi during a prison interview with Italy's
RAIRai , known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by parliament. RAI is the biggest television company in Italy...
state television, telling the interviewer that the girl was alive, not in danger, and living in a cloistered convent. He denied any direct knowledge of the girl's fate, though, saying that he had made "some logical deductions". With no evidence to support these claims, the case was closed in July of 1997.
A Memento Mori?
On the morning of May 14 2001, the parish priest of the Gregory VII Church near the Vatican discovered a human skull of small dimensions and lacking a jaw in a bag with an image of Padre Pio in a confessional booth. The bag had likely been left the previous day, on May 13, the twentieth anniversary of the attack on the Pope and the eighty-fourth anniversary of the
FátimaFátima is a city in Portugal famous for the religious visions that took place there in 1917. The town itself has a population of 7,756 and is located in the municipality of Ourém, in the Centro Region and sub region of Medio Tejo...
apparitionA Marian apparition is an event in which the Virgin Mary is believed to have supernaturally appeared to one or more persons. They are often given names based on the town in which they were reported, or on the sobriquet which was given to Mary on the occasion of the apparition...
of 1917. It is not clear if this was Orlandi's skull, some kind of message, or, as the priest believes, just a joke in poor taste.
In 2004, one month after giving his last interview, Orlandi’s father, Ercole, died.
In a letter published in 2006, Ağca claimed that Emanuela Orlandi and another girl,
Mirella GregoriMirella Gregori disappeared from Rome during the Spring of 1983, about 40 days before Emanuela Orlandi's mysterious disappearance. According to one of many of Mehmet Ali Ağca's accounts, the two girls' disappearances, and the disappearance of Soviet journalist, Oleg G...
, both of whom vanished in 1983, were abducted as part of plan to secure his release from prison. He claimed that the girls were whisked away to a royal palace in
LiechtensteinThe Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine microstate in Western Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over 160 km² and it has an estimated population of 35,000...
. Ağca was temporarily released from an
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
prison after serving 25 years in Italy and Turkey for the murder of
Abdi İpekçiAbdi İpekçi was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was assassinated while editor-in-chief of the major Turkish newspaper Milliyet.-Biography:...
, a prominent Turkish journalist. However, he was quickly imprisoned again, the release seemingly a "mistake."
The Orlandi case is still unsolved.
Ties with the Banda della Magliana
In 2005, an anonymous phone call
http://www.chilhavisto.rai.it/Clv/img/d/DePedisEnrico/OrlandiTel.wav attested that in order to find a resolution on the Orlandi case, it was necessary to be aware of who is buried in the
Crypt of Saint Apollinare’s Church, and about the favour that
Renatino, one of the leader of the
Banda della MaglianaThe Banda della Magliana was an Italian criminal organization based in Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of most of its members....
(Magliana Gang) made to Ugo Cardinal Poletti, at the time.
In the center of Rome, near Piazza Navona, there is
Saint Apollinare Church, with a crypt underneath its Basilica, where Popes, Cardinals and Christian martyrs are buried. Among these is the grave of
Enrico De Pedis, also known as
Renatino, one of the most powerful heads of the Magliana gang, assassinated on February 2, 1990. The Basilica is part of the same building of the
The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music that Orlandi attended, and where she was last seen. De Pedis’ interment at the Church is an unusual procedure for a common citizen, and even more because he was a gangster. Authorizing the interment at the time, was then Cardinal Poletti, now deceased.
In February 2006, an ex-member of the Magliana Gang recognized behind the voice of
Mario one of the killers working for
Enrico De Pedis (
Renatino)
http://www.rifondazione-cinecitta.org/banda-magliana3.html
Ties with the IOR scandal and Roberto Calvi
A journalist who wrote a book on
Roberto CalviRoberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press due to his close association with the Vatican. A native of Milan, Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals, and his death in London in June 1982 has been the...
’s case where the banker was found dead under
Blackfriars BridgeBlackfriars 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 near the Inns of Court and Temple Church, along with Blackfriars station...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, has recently reported an interview with the banker's son who declared that the kidnapping of Orlandi was closely connected to his father’s case. According to him, it would have been an attempt to put pressure on the Vatican so that nobody would investigate facts involving the Vatican with the
Banco AmbrosianoBanco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
and the
mafiaThe Mafia is a Sicilian criminal society which is believed to have emerged in late 19th century Sicily, and the first such society to be referred to as a mafia . It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct...
http://www.chilhavisto.rai.it/Clv/misteri/2004-2005/orlandie1.htm.
See also
- Banda della Magliana
The Banda della Magliana was an Italian criminal organization based in Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of most of its members....
- Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves or Idealist Youth is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party . It is accused of terrorism....
member Mehmet Ali AgcaMehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981. After serving 19 years of incarceration in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he is serving another life sentence for the murder of Abdi İpekçi, a left-wing journalist, in 1979. He is eligible for...
's 1981 attempt to assassinate the Pope
- Gladio
- Roberto Calvi
Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press due to his close association with the Vatican. A native of Milan, Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals, and his death in London in June 1982 has been the...
, also known as "God's Banker", chairman of Banco AmbrosianoBanco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
, the main shareholder of which was the Vatican BankThe Institute for Works of Religion commonly known as Vatican Bank is located inside the Vatican City. It is run by a professional bank CEO who reports directly to a committee of cardinals, and ultimately to the Pope...