Rome
Five people accused of murdering banker Roberto Calvi were acquitted last week, deepening the mystery that has long surrounded his death. Calvi, who was found hanged from scaffolding under Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982, was a prominent Italian banker with close ties to the Vatican’s bank. Documents show he was trying to blackmail the Vatican, threatening to reveal the ways the Vatican bank was funding anti-communist groups and laundering Mafia money. The death was initially ruled a suicide, but the coroner later found that Calvi could not have maneuvered out onto the scaffolding alone. In 1991, a Mafia informer revealed some of Calvi’s Mafia connections, prompting renewed investigations that finally led to indictments in 2005. Last week’s ruling acquitted the five defendants, mostly shady businessmen, “for lack of evidence,” a phrase that in Italian law is less exonerating than “not guilty.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Taking aim at Venezuela’s autocratFeature The Trump administration is ramping up military pressure on Nicolás Maduro. Is he a threat to the U.S.?
-
Comey indictment: Is the justice system broken?Feature U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan has indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying and obstructing Congress
-
Government shuts down amid partisan deadlockFeature As Democrats and Republicans clash over health care and spending, the shutdown leaves 750,000 federal workers in limbo
