Italy's 'State-within-a-State'

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2017

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 19th June 1982, the body of Italian banker Roberto Calvi was found hanging beneath a bridge in London. It was the latest twist in a drama that had gripped Italy for more than a year involving a mysterious masonic lodge, whose members included many of the most powerful men in Italy, and which stretched all the way to the mafia and to the Catholic church. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to retired magistrate Giuliano Turone who helped discover this secret state-within-a-state, and to journalist Leo Sisti who reported on it.

Picture: Robert Calvi, head of Banco Ambrosiano, who was convicted of fraud but released on appeal shortly before his death (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Transcript

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1:05.4	Hello, you're listening to the Witness podcast.
1:08.4	History is told by the people who are there.
1:10.7	I'm Louis Adago and today I'm taking you back to one of the great
1:14.2	scandals of post-war Italy. In June 1982 the body of one of the country's most
1:19.9	senior bankers was found hanging beneath a bridge in London. It was the latest twist
1:25.0	in a dramatic tale that had gripped, a secret Masonic Lodge whose members included many of the most powerful men in Italy, the mafia, the Catholic Church.
	...

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