Also, if the Pope had died just before midnight the previous day, why would he be dressed in his daytime clothes? If one decides to read oneself to sleep one first dons one’s bedtime clothes.
On October 10, 1978 the Vatican issued a corrected release,
“While the death of John Paul came as a surprise, there was the fact the pope suffered from a serious low blood pressure condition and was in poor health and frail throughout his brief papacy. Most recently, he had complained of swollen feet…
John Paul did not have in mind to make revolutionary changes in the Vatican hierarchy…
We wish to correct our statement it was the Pope’s secretary Magee who discovered the body. The Pope was first discovered by the nun who delivered his coffee at the usual time. When she sensed something wrong she summoned Magee…
We wish to correct our statement the Pope was reading the ‘Imitation of Christ.’ This was a communications error. He was reviewing some notes. That he retained them upright in his hands in the midst of a massive heart attack is by the grace of God…
It is immaterial who found His Holiness. It is immaterial when he was found dead. It is immaterial when he died. All that is material is that he was found dead… The Vatican”12
Effortil, low blood pressure and swollen feet
Reacting to the release, a Venice area newspaper published a photo of his physical exam of five months before his death which raised considerable question concerning the alleged heart attack.13
It showed him to be in extraordinary physical health. Pertaining to his arterial condition, his cholesterol count was at normal levels and his blood pressure was 106 over 65—considered low at the time when a ‘normal’ reading was considered to be 100 plus one’s age—yet, today, an optimal reading for anyone particularly a man of 65.
It was this blood pressure reading which led to the rumor he had been taking Effortil—a low blood pressure medication. The rumor claimed digitalis had been added to the medicine. Some authors embellished the rumor claiming Cardinal Villot pocketed the bottle of Effortil from the nightstand to build a case against him.
More damaging to the claim of an arterial problem, his blood viscosity was normal and ultrasound tests of his legs, stomach area and carotid arteries showed no blockage at all. His doctor had made this a routine part of his twice-a-year physicals since the mid-sixties when the tests had reached some level of reliability.
The premier books on John Paul’s mysterious death are David Yallop’s In God’s Name and John Cornwell’s A Thief in the Night.
These accomplished journalists interviewed dozens of the same witnesses and came up with different conclusions. Yallop proved his case for murder and Cornwell proved his case for natural death.
One thing that has always puzzled me is that neither of these men interviewed Dr. Da Ros, the only material witness I talked to.
I find it especially strange Cornwell—a renowned journalist sent by a sitting Pontiff John Paul II—claims he repeatedly tried to talk to Da Ros, a devout Catholic, but was unable to get an interview.
Even stranger, he was unable to bring a third party witness to the table who could shed some light on what Dr. Da Ros had to say. When asked, his leading witness, the Pope’s niece Lina Petri, tells Cornwell, “Da Ros refuses to talk to me. He is extremely abrupt.”15
I was practically a ‘nobody’ at the time and had no problem enjoying a fine lunch and an afternoon with the doctor on the Lido. One is talking of the possibility of murder vs. natural causes here.
Dr. Da Ros was the most qualified man in the world to write a book about the nature of John Paul’s death and come up with a logical answer. He had not only been Luciani’s doctor for twenty years, he had been his closest friend in Venice. How could one go onto second base and so forth without first touching first base?
Nevertheless, when I visited the doctor in the fall of 1978, I was searching for Luciani’s will and had no interest in his death. Yet, I did ask him if he agreed heart attack had been involved?
He laughed, “I agree with the whole of the medical community. Without autopsy, it is impossible to know what killed him. Yet, from what I knew of him, heart attack would bottom the list.”14
He dispelled the rumor digitalis had been added to Effortil.
Though Luciani’s blood pressure ran a bit on the low side, it had never been a concern and Da Ros told me he had never prescribed Effortil or any other low blood pressure medication. Not news to me, as he had told the press this when queried about the rumor.14
Investigative reporters since—including Yallop and Cornwell—clearly established no prescription was issued John Paul by the Vatican pharmacy and no Vatican doctor had treated him for any condition during his papacy—eradicating the claim of swollen feet.15
Nevertheless, because it is the strongest of rumors we must put digitalis to ‘sleep.’ A large dose will induce violent vomiting and kill in a few minutes. A teaspoonful will take an hour or so to do the job. Blurred vision and hallucinations are followed by abdominal pain and violent vomiting and often head pain ending in congestive heart failure. In any case, one is certain to empty one’s stomach.
If digitalis was used to kill the Pope, it tells one something about the perpetrator. Only an imbecile would have employed digitalis as the degree of vomiting it precipitates would ring a bell in the least suspicious doctor. Not a very wise choice when there are hundreds of lethal toxins which would have done the job with far less visible evidence. Also, vomiting is inconsistent with the position the body was found and none of those brought to the room mentioned it.
Adding digitalis to Effortil was first used by Agatha Christie in her mysteries Appointment with Death and The Secret of Chimneys and some of her other works. The Christie’ market exploded in the 1970s on the heels of the box office buster motion pictures ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (1974) and ‘Death on the Nile’ (1978). Though no one knows who started the rumor, one knows its origin.
Dr. Da Ros was more concerned with the ‘swollen feet’ in the 2nd Vatican release. Luciani had never suffered of swollen extremities. What’s more Da Ros had visited John Paul a week before his death.
The medical community had demolished the idea of ‘myocardial infarction’ in the 1st Vatican release. It made sense to Da Ros it had included ‘swollen feet’ in its 2nd release to set the stage for what it would subsequently claim the pope died of ‘pulmonary embolism.’ In this kind of embolism, the embolus originates in the legs.
One also has the conflicting rumors ‘swollen feet’ vs. ‘low blood pressure.’ Swollen feet can be symptomatic of high blood pressure, yet, is not symptomatic of low blood pressure. Medical dictionaries list scores of causes of swollen feet and low blood pressure is not among them. Unlike symptoms of high blood pressure which are vague, symptoms of low blood pressure are exact: blurry vision, lack of concentration and train of thought, dizziness, confusion or fainting. Swollen extremities is not among them.16
Though he never told me outright, I came away with a feeling the doctor suspected foul play in his friend’s death.
To me, this explains why he refused to talk to Cornwell in 1987. He knew Cornwell—as an envoy of John Paul II—was out to prove Luciani had died of natural causes. He knew if Cornwell interviewed him he would have to lie or he might not live to tell of it.
Regardless, his blood pressure—a bit low at the time—together with the viscosity and clear arterial readings of his physical all but eradicate the possibility Luciani succumbed to arterial disease of any kind. Particularly when one considers what is known today—not known in 1978—low blood pressure is as surefire a prevention of myocardial infarction and pulmonary embolism as exists.17
His physical exam was consistent with his having climbed a peak in near record time at about the same time.18 It was also consistent with his having not a hint of heart problems at any time in his life.
Because of the unexplained circumstances of his demise, his medical history has been scruti
nized for the slightest sign of arterial problems in many of the world’s medical journals to no avail.19
The missing will
Concerning his will, there are some things we know and other things we do not know. Among those things we know, Luciani willed he be interred in a pine box inscribed, “Christ picked me up from the Mud in the Street and gave me to you.” The box was to be displayed behind glass set into a side altar of the cathedral at Castlefranco in the Veneto country.20
The altar is dominated by Giorgione’s Madonna. The Madonna is framed by the soaring peaks of the Dolomites rising above the village of Canale d’Agordo where he was born and, to the other side, stand peasants in a meadow beneath a medieval castle—the bishop’s castle at Vittorio Veneto. This would, of course, have exposed his corpse to autopsy.
We know from his Venice attorney he had willed his papers to the respective dioceses he had served. The lack of a will, gave the Vatican unilateral authority to destroy records of anything he had said or done of a controversial nature. It also prevented his family from demanding autopsy or obtaining anything one might construe as DNA today other than what the Vatican chose to give them.
As a part of indoctrination, an incoming pope is counseled by the papal attorney—in John Paul’s case, Pericle Felici. A pope’s will is a part of the process. At the very least, a rider is attached to an existing will as the papacy dramatically changes one’s legal position.
On becoming pope one becomes a citizen of the Sovereign State of the Vatican and the will must comply with its laws and not those of any other nation. Yet, there is much more than just that.
It is common for popes to include in their wills their reflections on the direction the Church should take. In this respect, a pope’s will can be, as it has on occasion in the past, been interpreted as doctrine. This is not usually a problem as popes normally conform to doctrine. Yet, in John Paul’s case one has to consider he may have struck at the fundamental canon of the Church.
Certainly, he must have known he was in danger. The path his papacy had taken in the short term had not only alarmed many of those in his own ranks but his enemies across the pond as well. He would have been an imbecile not to sense he might not live to attain the objectives he had worked all his life to achieve. He would have been a fool to have not set forth his intentions in his will should he not live to bring them to fruition. Nevertheless, we have come to the suppositions regarding his will—things we don’t know.
Did his will strike at the central doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church: Some kinds of people are better than others and are entitled to more? Did he include in his will the most prolific testimony of his ministry: “We have made of sex the greatest of sins, whereas it is nothing more than human nature and not a sin at all?”21
Did he strike at the integral core of canon law that invades the privacy of bedrooms? Did he change the definition of morality in the Church from what is acceptable in the bedroom in the minds of a bunch of old men in the Curia who have never been in the bedroom, to what is humanely right or wrong? One will never know.
What one does know, there had existed at least nine copies of the will: one hardcopy and one on microfilm in his attorney’s office in Venice, a hardcopy in the diocese office in Venice, one hardcopy and one on microfilm in the Venice City Clerk’s Office, one hardcopy and another on microfilm in the Vatican Office, one with his brother Edoardo, and a hardcopy held by his secretary Lorenzi. All of these disappeared simultaneously from the face of the earth.
The slipper socks, spectacles and the lock of hair
Some questions were raised by the Luciani family. His sister-in-law sought to recover a pair of slipper socks she had knitted for him.
She knew, as a boy, he had often gone barefoot in the Italian Alps; she wanted to make sure he had something to keep his feet warm. They were white satin and had his coat of arms embroidered in gold on them. They may have been used to wipe a tinge of blood a needle or even a creature might leave. Regardless, they vanished.22
Then there were his spectacles. Though they were found on the body, they disappeared. It could be someone close to him who knew he did not require them to read—not involved in the deed itself—had been a part of a conspiracy; realizing a mistake had been made placing them on him, pocketed them for if they survived they would assay of foul play. Perhaps, they were just broken in the shuffle. 23
One will never know.
A niece, in response to a request for a lock of hair, received a clump of jet black hair which she claimed was not his as his hair was graying. If poison, particularly an element been involved, a strand of hair outside of his tomb can assay of it even centuries afterwards.24
According to the press, Cornwell, Yallop and all other accounts, John Paul’s niece Lina Petri spent a half-hour in the room alone with her uncle the morning of his death. An ally of the Vatican, one can trust the accuracy of her description, “…It was as if he was smiling at me. His face showed no sign of suffering…There was something very strange. He was wearing his daytime clothes. Why would he not be wearing his pajamas if reading in bed? …The sleeves were all torn. Why should they be torn like that? I wondered…”25
The watch that ticked the time of death
We know from the testimony of those who shared his last dinner, aside from his usual conversation, laughing and joking, the Pope had been preoccupied with his new watch. He kept fumbling with it to determine if it was waterproof as it was his custom not to remove it for sleeping or in the shower. It was of such an unusual design Vincenza said, “It looked like it had come out of ‘Dr No.’”26
We also know from her testimony it had been Pasquale Macchi who delivered the watch to the Pope. It likely arrived in the mail as Macchi—serving in transition—handled the mail. It would have come from someone the Pope would have accepted it from. We have the possibility a third person could have used the name of someone close to the Pope who they knew to be out of touch for a few days.
Like the slipper socks and the glasses, the watch vanished. That is, we know the Luciani family never recovered it. Nevertheless, this time I leave it with you to ponder with all the other circumstances surrounding the death of this unfortunate man.
Scorpions
Finally, we have the scorpions for those who wish to nibble on them. Whereas a pale yellow scorpion allows the victim time to seek help, the giant golden mutation injects enough venom to kill a dozen men instantly. The miniature desert in the gardens at the papal retreat Castel Gandolfo was home to this creature at the time.
Because its sting would have left the Pope in the position he was found and the coincidence the scorpions disappeared from the Castel Gandolfo after the Pope’s death it has found its way into a number of books including the first edition of Murder in the Vatican.27
To employ a scorpion in the murder of a pope is certainly a remote possibility, yet, if one is to include all the circumstances of John Paul’s death, one must include all the possibilities.28
Reprise
Aside from stories of his childhood and young priesthood which are my direct witness, I say nothing here that has not been said before, either in the press or in the writings of this good man.
All that is to my credit is that for the first time the full record has been brought together in one place…
…the strange set of circumstances that caused three men to sleep in the great bed in the papal apartment in the fall of nineteen hundred and seventy-eight.
Nevertheless, we are left with some questions.
Who placed the spectacles on the nose of the man who did not need them to read? Who turned the light on which was not on all night? Who turned the alarm clock off which did not ring? Who dressed him up in his daytime clothes? Who tore his sleeves? Who gave him the watch that ticked the time of death? Was the watch set for the time of death? Who took the spectacles, the slipper socks and the watch? Who took the time to methodically destroy all nine copies of his will and why? Who bred the scorpions at the
Castel Gandolfo? Where did they go after the Pope’s death?
There is only one absolute fact on which to build our case: the only circumstance of his death agreed to by all witnesses including both Vatican releases, the nun who found him, his secretaries, the embalmers and all others brought to his room, “The bed lamp was on and he was sitting up in his daytime clothes wearing his glasses reading papers held upright in his hands.”
This leaves us with the glaring inconsistency the Pope could have remained in a sitting-up position with notes still clutched upright in his hands if he had suffered a massive heart attack. Only the most gullible accepted the Vatican’s contention “…by the grace of God.”
Yet, it is from these few bits and pieces we must begin our work. From these few observations, employing the analysis and deduction techniques which lifted Sherlock Holmes to the top of his game, we will prove this good man was murdered. Yet, unlike our nineteenth century predecessor, we will not be dealing in the make-believe world of yesterday. We will be dealing in the real world of today.
We will prove beyond a shadow of doubt when he was murdered, how he was murdered, why he was murdered, who pulled the ‘trigger,’ and, most important of all, who ordered the dreadful deed.
Here, is the proof—the absolute proof—how John Paul, and those around him, fell victim to twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States.
Yet, unless one first understands the mystery of his life, one will never be able to solve the mystery of his death. So, let us first step back a few years. Back to that time the little boy Albino Luciani would begin to mold his destiny.
Let us walk with him a bit through those years he would build his dream which would eventually take him to his fate—of two hundred sixty-five popes, the only one whose remains are triple-sealed in a lead-lined vault today.
Murder in the Vatican Page 3