Emanuela Orlandi, the role of the secret agent Gianfranco Gramendola, who said to the family: « Call me Leo »

Orlandi case: In front of the bicameral is the hour of the « Fake beards « . The hearing of Gianfranco Gramendolathe official of the secret services that in that distant June 1983, a few days after the disappearance of the daughter of the papal messenger, He took charge of the relationships with the family on behalf of the top management of the Sisde (today Aisi), was scheduled Thursday 15 May: there parliamentary commission of inquiry on the kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi and Mirella Gregori he convened gramendola, officer of the weapon for some time retiredwith the aim of shedding light on the first phase of the investigations.
A very appointment expectedin this spy story that, a spite of the 42 years spentis still topical (Here the reconstruction in 10 points). From the intersection of testimonies of his brother, Pietro Orlandiof the declarations of another secret agent deceased in the meantime (Giulio Gangi, Here his role in the story) and of acts of investigation archived at the Rome prosecutor’s office, the Courier is able to move up some of the probable content of the audition.

The entrance to the Orlandi house

Ran the June 25, 1983three days after the failure to return to the fifteen -year -old house, when Gianfranco Gramendola He introduced himself to Orlandi, inside the Vatican City State. A intervention Obviously decided from above, to give organicity to the investigation. The day before late in the evening, in fact, In Porta Sant’Anna he had showed the aforementioned Gangiwho « by personal way » had explained to Emanuela’s father that he had learned the news of the disappearance from « a fax arrived in the office » and to have been moved « by solidarity »as he knew Monica Meneguzzithe cousin of the disappearance.

Code name: « Call me lion »

The following morning, therefore, The Carabiniere dei Servizi entered the scene. Pietro Orlandi recalled the first meeting as follows: « Gramandola squeezed his hand saying: from now on call me lion ». Code name. A encrypted appellation, worthy of a action moviewhich in the family aroused sympathy. There G&G couple (Gramandola-Gangi, the first hierarchically superior), was appreciated. “The Vatican was a quiet placewe left the key in the patch – added the brother – and from that day Gianfranco and Giulio had the habit of entering without knocking. We found them in front of us suddenly, at home, and we ask him if there were news. We saw them like those who bring hope. When there are people who deal with something that It is particularly close to youinstinctively comes to you to love him ».

The posters and the first questions

Among the first concrete initiatives there was the decision, « taken behind the Council of Gramendola », of Configure the famous posters throughout Rome With the girl’s photograph with the band in her hair and under the writing: « She disappeared ». But how to explain the involvement at the highest levels of the « fake beards » for a case, painful but unfortunately frequent, of one lesser Don’t come home? Until then we thought of a « escapade ». So why many maneuvers Sottracce? Was Gangi’s « recommendation » as a friend of the cousin to alert the Sisde? Or maybe they already were already signs of a much heavier stake in the Leonine walls (blackmail, pressure, accounts regulations), to be connected to the disappearance of the girl?

The salted parcel

The next episode in which The carabiniere-007 appears He takes us to the lawyer of the Orlandi: Gennaro Egidiointernationally renowned criminal lawyer, with studies a Rome, Milan and New York. Pietro again: « It was not our choice. The agent graminentola proposed it to usadvising it warmly, so much so that he used this expression: « Dear Orlandi, this lawyer is the hand of God «  ». An accredited lawyer, without doubt, but essence: «After a few days – continues Pietro – Egidio presented us with a very high parcel « For the first expenses, » he specified. I still remember the expression of My father: « But this figure does not profit even in a year! » He went to talk to Gramendola, who told us not to worry. In fact, a fee never came again. From all this My father deduced that the lawyer was in close relationships with the secret servicesand who paid the state ». Non -influential detail: Graming has repeatedly denial this reconstruction. In any case, a lot diligence In not weighing on the Orlandi family (Mirella Gregori’s family members the same lawyer paid him to the last lira) Do you conceal something?

The blackmail to Pope Wojtyla

And we come to the third joint in which it 007 by the Roger name The scene is conquered. Why was Emanuela kidnapped? Gianfranco Gramendola called « Leone », in the first glimpse of investigations, followed one precise track: that of kidnapping of the daughter of Wojtyla’s clerk aimed at Activate a double blackmail against the Holy See (It is the version of the offender confess Marco Accetti), both on the politics of the policy international (the heated anti -communism of the Polish Pope, not everyone liked in the Vatican), both on that financial internal (malagestation of the IORcrack of the Ambrosian Banco, who died a year before Roberto Calvi).

The internal track

But as he entered the game Gramandola? Here the reconstruction is complicated. From the deeds of the Orlandi-Gregori investigation (the second girl, a month and a half passed away before) in fact it is necessary to move to those of the third investigation conducted by the investigating judge Rosario Prior On the attack on John Paul II (13 May 1981), a tragic event of the twentieth century by many considered the « first half » of the seizure of Emanuela and Mirella. Well, it is in the sentence-ordinance signed by Prior on 23 March 1998, with which the ten Turks subjected to investigation were acquitted, that it 007 Gramandola Back to materialize.

The summit in the Vatican

The secret agent today convene From the bicameral is mentioned in the passage in which the testimony of Monsignor Francesco Saverio Salernohigh Vatican Eminence in contact with John Paul II, who on 9 May 1995 placed in the minutes: «Learned from Seas (Arturo, official photographer of the Popes, editor’s note) of a conversation took place in the papal apartment, Immediately after Emanuela’s disappearanceduring which the Gugel (Angelo, butler of Wojtyla, father of two friendly girls of the disappearance, editor’s note) It was complained from the poor protection granted to Vatican employees and family members of the same, reporting that for some time the daughter Raffaella had been followed by strangers. In addition to Gugel, Berardini, Gusso and the Mari himself participated in the aforementioned conversation ».

The exchange of person

Here it is, the novelty that a new one could open in bicameral file: If Emanuela Orlandi – as can confirm gramendola – It wasn’t the first choiceyou can deduce that « dark entities » had put in place blackmail actions On the skin of citizens of the Holy See? The scenario, evaluated especially in the first phase of the investigations, When the kidnappers brought up Ali Agca, It deserves to be deepened, precisely because it is supported by stalking Not only of Raffaella, but also of another minor, the daughter of the commander of the Gendarmeria Camillo Cibin. And one affirmative response would bring the second floor the motive for sexual purposescertainly less destabilizing than a conspiracy operation. « I point out – it had been the Conclusion of Monsignor Salerno, who died in 2017 – that due to the considerable physical similarity between Emanuela Orlandi and Raffaella Gugel, Ercole Orlandi had hypothesized with Gramendolaofficer of the carabinieri who followed the case and that I had the opportunity to meet a few timesthe possibility of one Exchange of person… « 
Already. Raffaella was in the sightsbut he was saved because his father managed to protect her, escorting her from the Swiss guards. The poor Hercules, less important in the hierarchy of Vatican employees, could not. Go to discover, 42 years later, that theaffaire Orlandi was also a class crime … ([email protected])

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