God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican

by Gerald Posner

  ———Volume 6: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Mars 1939–Décembre 1940.

  ———Volume 7: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Novembre 1942–Décembre 1943.

  ———Volume 8: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Janvier 1941–Décembre 1942.

  ———Volume 9: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Janvier–Décembre 1943.

  ———Volume 10: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Janvier 1944–Juillet 1945.

  ———Volume 11: Le Saint Siège et la guerre en Europe Janvier 1944–Mai 1945.

  Relazioni di Commissioni Parlamentari di Inchiesti, Relazione conclusiva della commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sul caso Sindona e sulle responsabilità politiche ed amministrative ad esso eventualmente connesse, VIII legislatura–Doc. XXIII n. 2-sexies, Relazione conclusiva di maggioranza, relatore on. Giuseppe Azzaro, Rome, March 24, 1982.

  Report by the Attorney General: The Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Children by Priests and Other Clergy Members Associated with the Roman Catholic Church in Maine. February 24, 2004.

  Report by the Attorney General. The Sexual Abuse of Children in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. July 2003.

  “Schweizerische Versicherungsgesellschaften im Machtbereich des Dritten Reich” (Swiss Insurance Companies in the Area Governed by the Third Reich). Independent Commission of Experts, Karlen, Stefan and Lucas Chocomeli, Kristin D’haemer, Stefan Laube, Daniel C. Schmid, ICE, Vol. 12. Zürich: Pendo Verlag GmbH, 2002.

  Supplementary Report on Nazi Assets. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, June 1998.

  U.S. Department of the Treasury. Documents Pertaining to Foreign Funds Control, Roman Curia—Generally Licensed National—General License No. 44. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1945.

  Private Papers and Archival Collections

  Archives of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Mundelein Papers, 1872–1939.

  Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italian Central State Archives, Rome.

  Archivio Storico della Banca Commerciale Italiana, Historical Archive of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, Milan.

  Berlin Catholic Church collection, Diözesanarchiv Archiv, Berlin.

  Center for Corporate History of Allianz, historical archives of the Munich Reinsurance Company, Munich.

  Charles Higham Collection, University of Southern California, Cinematic Arts Library, Archives of Performing Arts, Los Angeles.

  Companies House, London, File 270820, British Grolux Ltd., Annual Returns, 1932–33.

  Document Archives, Laws and Legislation, NSDAP, 1933–36, Archives, National Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC.

  International Committee of the Red Cross Historical Archives, Geneva, Switzerland.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York.

  ———Henry Morgenthau III Papers.

  ———Myron C. Taylor Papers, 1933–52, Manuscript Collection.

  Georgetown University, Special Collections, Washington, DC.

  ———J. Graham Parsons Papers.

  ———William A. Wilson Collection.

  Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Independence, Missouri.

  ———Oral History Interview of Giovanni Malagodi.

  ———Papers of Bernard Bernstein, “Documents Pertaining to Foreign Funds Control.”

  ———Myron C. Taylor Collection.

  Government Collections

  Bundesarchiv, Berlin

  ———Records from the former Berlin Document Center

  ———Captured Foreign Ministry files returned from the UK

  National Archives, Kew, UK

  ———Cabinet Papers

  ———Foreign Office Papers, Financial Activities of the Vatican

  ———German Foreign Ministry

  ———Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

  National Archives (Washington, DC/College Park, Maryland)

  ———Captured German and Related Records

  ———Department of State (including the separate record group for Foreign Service Posts)

  ———Interagency Working Group, FBI Secret Intercepts

  ———Office of Military Government (OMGUS)

  ———Office of Strategic Services

  ———Safehaven Files

  ———War Department Claims Board (including separate record groups for Treasury and Foreign Claims)

  ———World War II Crimes Records

  Segreteria di Stato, Archivo Nunziatura Napoli, scatole 125–27, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Vatican City.

  Trading with the Enemy Files, Department of Trade and Industry: Enemy Property Claims Assessment Panel (EPCAP) Secretariat; Database of Seized Property, Reference Section NK 1, National Archives, Kew, UK.

  Selected Trial Transcripts and Proceedings

  Adolf Stern v. Assicurazioni Generali, Superior Court of Los Angeles, California, 1996.

  The Catholic Bishop of Spokane Debtor, Committee of Tort Litigants v. The Catholic Bishop of Spokane et al., Eastern District of Washington, May 27, 2005.

  George Dale for the State of Mississippi et al. v. Emilio Colagiovanni and The Holy See et al., United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Jackson Division, 2007.

  Friedman v. Union Bank of Switzerland, Eastern District of New York, 1996 and Weisshaus v. Union Bank of Switzerland, Eastern District of New York, 1997, are the core cases for the so-called Swiss Bankers litigation.

  SNAP v. The Holy See, Victims’ Communication Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute

  Requesting Investigation and Prosecution of High-Level Vatican Officials for Rape and Other Forms of Sexual Violence as Crimes Against Humanity and Torture as a Crime Against Humanity, International Criminal Court File No. OTP-CR-159/11, Submitted on Behalf of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests and Individual Victims/Survivors, September 13, 2011.

  William W. Gowen, Emil Alperin v. Vatican Bank, Case No. C99-04041 MMC, USDC Northern District of California, December 12, 2005.

  Interviews conducted by the author and unpublished government and private documents not listed here are cited fully in the Notes.

  Notes

  Chapter 1: Murder in London

  1 Statement of Anthony Huntley to Metropolitan Police (London), June 23, 1982, copy provided to author by Carlo Calvi. Huntley told the police, “This didn’t really register at first but on taking a second and longer look, I saw there was a complete body hanging by the neck.” See also Philip Willan, The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Mason and the Killing of Roberto Calvi (London: Robinson, 2007), 1–2.

  2 Larry Gurwin, The Calvi Affair: Death of a Banker (London: Pan, 1983), 122; see also Willan, The Last Supper, 2.

  3 Metropolitan Police Report on the death of Roberto Calvi, London, June 19–22, 1982, copy provided to author by Carlo Calvi; see also statement of Police Constable (PC) John Palmer, City of London Police, June 23, 1982.

  4 Statement of PC Donald Bartliff, City of London Police, June 28, 1982; see also Willan, The Last Supper, 2.

  5 Peter Popham, “The Case of God’s Banker: Roberto Calvi the Trial Begins,” The Independent (London), October 6, 2005.

  6 Statement of PC John Palmer, City of London Police, June 23, 1982.

  7 Rupert Cornwell, God’s Banker (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1983), 198.

  8 Metropolitan Police Report on the death of Roberto Calvi, London, June 19–22, 1982.

  9 If the police had more thoroughly examined his clothing they would have known his true identity a day earlier. His name was printed on a label of his suit’s breast pocket. Public Prosecutor’s Office, Preliminary Hearing File, Public Prosecutor’s memorandum on the murder of Roberto Calvi, Rome, December 28, 2004, 2–3. See also Willan, The Last Supper, 3, 5.

  10 Lieutenant Colonel Francesco Delfino, an Italian military intelligence officer (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare, known by the acronym SISMI), arrived two days after Calv
i’s body was found. He did not assist Scotland Yard, but instead monitored the probe’s progress with his British colleagues at MI5.

  11 The court before which he had been tried on criminal charges had impounded Calvi’s passport nearly a year before he arrived in London. Calvi’s fake was good enough to fool customs agents.

  12 Popham, “The Case of God’s Banker.”

  13 Minutes of the Ambrosiano Board from June 17, 1982, published in Il Mondo, July 12, 1982.

  14 Charles Raw, The Moneychangers: How the Vatican Bank Enabled Roberto Calvi to Steal $250 Million for the Heads of the P2 Masonic Lodge (London: Harvill/HarperCollins, 1992), 414–19; see also Penny Lernoux, In Banks We Trust: Bankers and Their Close Associates: The CIA, the Mafia, Drug Traders, Dictators, Politicians, and the Vatican (New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1984), 192.

  15 Calvi, who had a house account at London’s Claridge’s Hotel, detested his 120-square-foot Chelsea Cloisters room with two single beds. Testimony of Silvano Vittor and Margaret Lilley, Coroner’s Inquest of June 13–27, 1983, courtesy of Carlo Calvi.

  16 Author interview with Carlo Calvi, September 27, 2005.

  17 A month later the police admitted they might have unbuttoned the vest when they first searched the body at the bridge, and then incorrectly rebuttoned it before taking any photos. Italy’s L’Espresso published a front-page photo of the corpse with the incorrectly buttoned vest, sparking the first round of frenzied murder speculation. Report of Detective Inspector John White, July 20, 1982, cited in Willan, The Last Supper, 8.

  18 Metropolitan Police Report on the death of Roberto Calvi, London, June 19–22, 1982; filed London Police investigation/case summaries dated July 1982.

  19 Testimony of Fabiola Moretti, cited in Willan, The Last Supper, 183–84.

  20 One of the sightings that has become part of the widely accepted “facts” about Calvi’s whereabouts is the recollection twenty years after the event from a waiter who worked at San Lorenzo, a popular Knightsbridge trattoria. Tracked down by Italian investigators who were reexamining the case, the former waiter identified Calvi from a photo. He also picked out Umberto Ortolani, a member of a secret Masonic Lodge, as one of several of Calvi’s supposed dinner mates that night. Because of the long time lapse, and since the waiter admitted he had seen photos of Calvi in the media before the investigators showed him any pictures, the San Lorenzo sighting is at best speculative. See generally Willan, The Last Supper, xxxi–xxxiii.

  21 The policy was for 4 billion lire, approximately $3 million at the time of death.

  22 Thomas T. Noguchi and Joseph DiMona, Coroner At Large (Coroner Series) (Premier Digital Publishing, 1985; Kindle edition, location 2756 of 2971).

  23 Unfortunately for the police, the telephone system at the Chelsea Cloisters was antiquated and operated through a switchboard. The operator put incoming calls through to the rooms and no record was kept of them. As for outgoing calls, guests had to request an outside line from the operator, and rates were priced by units according to whether the call was local or international. No records were maintained of the numbers called. Records reveal that Calvi made seventeen requests for outgoing calls, although it could not be determined if all of those had been successfully completed or if in some instances they went unanswered. Calvi used 463 billing units, more than enough for the calls to which his wife and daughter testified. As for the remaining credits, police never determined whom he called. Raw, The Moneychangers, 431–32; Cornwell, God’s Banker, 196; Author interview with Carlo Calvi, September 27, 2005.

  24 See generally statement of Police Constable Donald Bartliff in Willan, The Last Supper, 6–7.

  25 In handwritten notes Simpson later made about the case he indicated that during the first call he received the morning the body was discovered, the constable indicated that the death was “Nothing very unusual” and “Doesn’t look like a crime, sir, but would you like to look at it?” See also Colin Evans, A Question of Evidence: The Casebook of Great Forensic Controversies, from Napoleon to O.J. (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2003), 191.

  26 Transcript summaries from Coroner’s Inquests, July 23, 1982, and June 13–27, 1983, courtesy of Carlo Calvi; see also Associated Press, International News, A.M. cycle, July 23, 1982.

  27 Transcript summary from Coroner’s Inquest, July 23, 1982, courtesy of Carlo Calvi.

  28 “The Vatican’s Business; Ambrosia Again,” The Economist, April 25, 1992, 58 (UK edition, 56).

  29 Evans, A Question of Evidence, 195.

  30 Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 147.

  31 “Jury in London Declares Italian Banker a Suicide,” The New York Times, July 25, 1982, 5.

  32 Barnaby J. Feder, “Calvi’s Family Asks New Inquest,” The New York Times, Section D, March 29, 1983, 5.

  33 David Willey, God’s Politician: John Paul at the Vatican (New York: St. Martin’s, 1993), 213.

  34 In 1988, a Milan civil court ruled that Calvi was likely murdered and entered a judgment ordering the insurer, Assicurazioni Generali, to pay Calvi’s family the full amount of the policy.

  35 Lt. Colonel Francesco Delfino, who monitored the London investigation, thought that the British detectives were handling the case as if it were “the suicide of a tramp.” Willan, The Last Supper, 9–10. See also Paul Lewis, “Italy’s Mysterious, Deepening Bank Scandal,” The New York Times, July 28, 1982, A1.

  36 See generally “Banco Ambrosiano Liquidated,” Facts on File World News Digest, Nexis, August 13, 1982.

  37 Richard Owen, “Plea to Pope from ‘God’s Banker’ Revealed as Murder Trial Begins,” The Times (London), October 6, 2005.

  38 Andrea Perry, Mark Watts, and Elena Cosentino, “Help Me. Murdered Banker Calvi’s Last Desperate Plea to the Pope,” Sunday Express (London), April 16, 2006, 39.

  39 Owen, “Plea to Pope from ‘God’s Banker’ Revealed as Murder Trial Begins.”

  40 Lefteris Pitarakis and Philip Willan, “So Who Did Kill Calvi?,” The Sunday Herald, June 10, 2007, 28; Perry, Watts, and Cosentino, “Help me.”

  41 “Italy Liquidates Ailing Banco Ambrosiano,” The Globe and Mail (Canada), August 10, 1982.

  42 “Banco Ambrosiano: Come Again?,” The Economist, August 14, 1982, 61.

  43 In Italy, the press previously called Calvi the “Vatican’s Banker” or the “Pope’s Banker.”

  44 “Calvis Claim New Evidence Shows Banker Was Murdered,” United Press International, International Section, A.M. cycle, March 28, 1983.

  45 Ed Blanche, “Judge Accepts Family’s Challenge to Suicide Verdict,” Associated Press, A.M. cycle, January 13, 1983; Barnaby J. Feder, “Calvi’s Family Asks New Inquest,” The New York Times, Section D, March 29, 1983, 5; Michael Harvey, “Star Solicitor of Causes Celebres,” Press Association, September 26, 1994.

  46 “Court Orders New Inquest in ‘Hanging’ Italian Banker’s Family Wins Reopening of Case,” Miami Herald, March 30, 1983, A9.

  47 “Inquest Jury Undecided on Calvi,” The New York Times, Section D, June 28, 1982, 1; “Open Verdict in Italian Banker’s Death,” Associated Press, P.M. cycle, International Section, June 27, 1983; see also “Calvi Inquest Indecisive,” The Globe and Mail (Canada), June 28, 1983.

  48 Author interview with Carlo Calvi, September 27, 2005.

  49 Chester Stern, “New Forensic Evidence May Reopen Calvi Case; ‘God’s Banker’ Murder Probe,” Mail on Sunday (London), October 18, 1992, 2.

  50 Michael Gillard, “Calvi—The Tests That May Point to Murder,” The Observer (London), January 31, 1993, 27; see also David Connett, “Calvi Was ‘Murdered,’ Tests Find,” The Independent (London), October 18, 1992, 3; Willan, The Last Supper, 8–9. In 1994, Kroll sued the Calvi family in federal court in New York for the nonpayment of $3 million of its $4.5 million fee. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount. See Chris Blackhurst, “Cash-Strapped Kroll Sues Calvis for Pounds 2M,” The Observer (London), August 7, 1994, 1.

  51 Gillard, “Calvi—The Tests May Point to Murder.”

&nb
sp; 52 “Italy Exhumes ‘God’s Banker’ to Review Earlier Suicide,” The New York Times, December 17, 1998, A19; Bob Beaty, “Mystery Extends from Alberta to Italian Mafia: Family of Roberto Calvi Allege Vatican Also Involved in Banker’s Death,” Calgary Herald (Alberta, Canada), December 31, 1998, B5.

  53 Philip Willan, “DNA May Solve Banker’s Murder,” The Guardian (London), December 30, 1998, 11; “Bruising Found on Remains of Italian Banker Calvi,” Agence France-Presse, English edition, International News, January 25, 1999; see also “New Evidence Supports Theory Death of ‘God’s Banker’ Was No Suicide, Family-Hired Expert Says,” Associated Press Worldstream, International News, December 10, 2000.

  54 Jim McBeth, “Who Killed God’s Banker,” The Scotsman, October 1, 2002, 2; Peter Popham, “ ‘God’s Banker’ Believed Murdered; New Autopsy Rejects Suicide Theory,” Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada), February 18, 2003, 4.

  55 John Phillips, “Mason Indicted over Murder of ‘God’s Banker,’ ” The Independent (London), July 20, 2005, 20. Four men were indicted, with a fifth added several months later. “Italy: 4 Charged in Banker’s 1982 Death,” World Briefing, The New York Times, April 19, 2005, A11. Carboni, and Pippo Calo, a reputed mob boss, had been charged in 1997 with conspiracy to murder Calvi. But the case was never prosecuted for lack of evidence. The 2002 indictments were superseding counts and included expanded charges. “Italy Exhumes ‘God’s Banker’ to Review Earlier Suicide,” The New York Times, December 17, 1998, A19.

  56 “ ‘God’s Banker’ Murder—Five Cleared,” Sky News (U.K.), June 6, 2007.

  57 “Italy: 5 Acquitted in Banker’s 1982 Death,” World Briefing, The New York Times, June 7, 2007, A17; Frances D’Emilio, “Jury Acquits All 5 Defendants of Murder in Death of Italian Financier Called ‘God’s Banker,’ ” Associated Press, International News, June 7, 2007.

  58 “ ‘God’s Banker’ Was Murdered, Judges Say,” ANSA English Media Service, July 15, 2010.

  59 Ibid.; Tony Thompson, “Mafia Boss Breaks Silence over Roberto Calvi Killing,” The Guardian, May 12, 2012.