First UK arrest over (Roberto) Calvi murder

[htuttle]

British police probing the 1982 murder of "God's banker" Roberto Calvi have made their first arrest.

A 42-year-old woman has been questioned on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and perjury. She was freed on bail until February.

(snip)

The allegations are thought to concern testimony at an inquest into the death of Mr Calvi, who was found hanged under London's Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. He had been chairman of the bankrupt Vatican-linked Banco Ambrosiano.

(snip)

In September this year, City of London Police reopened their investigation as a murder inquiry. Since then, they have worked closely with the Italian authorities, who have identified four suspects, including a Mafia boss.

(more at link)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3304541.stm

anyone think this woman will survive until her court date in February?

[TolstoyAndy]

1. Re: anyone think this woman will survive until her court date?

I wouldn't put money on it!

The Banco Ambrosiano scandal involved a Masonic lodge called Propaganda Due (P2) in Italy.

P2 basically looted the Banco Ambrosiano through a lot of paper deals and banking transfer crap.

The head of P2, Licio Gelli, was a Reagan contributor in 1980 and used P2's control of several major media outlets in Italy to promote Reagan's candidacy. His reward (as far as we know) was a trip to the inauguration in '81.

George H. W. Bush is said to be an honorary member of P2.

[DUreader]

2. Wasn't there a BCCI connection to all this too?

?

[Must_B_Free]

4. here is background on the case

http://edwardjayepstein.com/question_calvi.htm

[htuttle]

3. Two interesting things about this news

One, the fact that London Police reopened a 21 year old investigation in September, and had an arrestable suspect within only a few months. What did they find out that caused them to reopen the investigation? Hmm...

Second, the charge that she received, "suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and perjury". That sounds like they have solid evidence that she lied during the initial investigation.

This could, theoretically, lead to a whole can of worms being opened. A whole bunch-o-tentacles could start crawling out of it....

BTW, P2 was also a member of the RNC's 'Heritage Groups Council'. There was a real pick of old WWII fascists on that thing, from all over Eastern Europe.

http://www.namebase.org/main2/Heritage-Groups-council-Republican.html

[Must_B_Free]

5. I think you hit it

a whole can of worms is being reopened.

and it may lead to Poppy Bush.

I am convinced this was reopened for some political purpose.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

6. "She lied during the initial investigation"

I've been wondering about this since this afternoon -- given that she would have to have been 23/4 at the time of Calvi's death. If so (and we're not talking about someone who's 'obstructed justice' in the interim years (& investigations)) then my guess would be Odetta Morris. She's the daughter of William Morris, who was a friend of Falvio Carboni. Carboni (who is highly suspicious anyway) asked the Morris' to look for a safehouse for Calvi & the three (the Morris' & Carboni) spent the day before Calvi's death looking for a place. From what I've read on the case, they possibly weren't very open about what they saw & heard when with Carboni.

I can't think of any other young English women associated with Calvi's few days in England that would be pertinent to a murder investigation. I know that there were a couple of sisters in (I think) Switzerland who housed Calvi briefly on his whirlwind trip from Italy, but from memory they've been pretty public about what they knew about Calvi, Carboni, Banco Ambrosiano, P2, etc.

Anyway, my 2c! We'll probably find out tomorrow that it's some woman called Doris! But in all seriousness, I just can't think of any women from the original investigation who would have been in their early twenties & who lived in London.

Also, it's always worth keeping in mind that Berlusconi was a member of P2 - but then with Berlusconi what else would you expect!

[htuttle]

9. Are you sure about the name Morris?

I've been looking for some reference to him or his daughter, but have come up empty so far.

The closest I have found is a William Hugh Morris, who pops up in relation to both the JFK and King assassinations (hey...I don't make this stuff up...check namebase.org), but he seems more connected to (and local to) the New Orleans mob.

The name Odetta Morris rings a bell, however, so I might have come across it before.

I've found articles that mentioned that the Italian police indicted several Cosa Nostra members in Italy in 1997 for involvement with Calvi's death, including Carboni and the alleged hitman. Predictably, it turned out the alleged hit man had been killed in a car explosion years earlier. They were proceeding on the fairly narrow (and politically safe) theory that Calvi had been killed because he stole from the mob.

I don't know whether that indictment ever went anywhere. Perhaps Berlusconi put the wraps on it when he came into office. That might have prompted someone from the Italian police to send off some tips to England. The way the BBC article reads, it seems to imply that all of the new evidence was gathered forensically (using 21st Century technology!, the bobby beamed...), but I wonder....

They say in the article that the London police were working with the Italian police, and I wonder whether the Italian police came up with something that was politically too hot for Italy, so are working to get it out through the British. The '21st century technology' angle might be more cover than truth.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

10. Yes definately William Morris

but it's Odette not Odetta. They were real bit players in terms of the Calvi story -- Carboni knew them through one of his mistress' who was Mrs Morris' niece Laura Scanu-Concas. Per the Morris' & Carboni's story, Carboni contacted them on the Wednesday, they went round estate agents on the Thursday. On Friday (when Calvi was found) Odette & Carboni rented a room in the Chelsea hotel, & Carboni made a series of phone calls, then took Odette with him too Calvi's apartment (which was empty).

At some point in all this, Carboni offered Odette a job in Italy, which her father encouraged. On the Saturday, Carboni & Odette left the Chelsea Hotel, went back to the Morris' house & told William not to worry about the apartment (because Calvi was dead). He and Odette then went up to Edinburgh (per Carboni because he was scared for his life & needed someone who spoke good English (Odette spoke Italian)). From Edinburgh Carbini escaped.

--

I'd totally forgotten about the flight to Edinburgh & the extra dealings with Odette (I didn't have a Rainman moment, but looked up Larry Gurwin's book!).

Along the way, I found this Independent article which may back up my Odette assumptions:

"The woman, who was released on bail until February, provided an alibi for Flavio Carboni, one of the four people charged with the banker's murder.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=471810

Given Berlusconi's new & improved war on Italian judges, I wouldn't be suprised if the cops are passing stuff under the table. And with the mob angle, there's the hope that none of the spooks or the Vatican or the Italian businessmen will get too narked. The really frustrating thing is though, that this is just too big a story to get across in a news bulletin, so the really big picture -- of what exactly Banco Ambrosiana was doing -- will get lost. & sadly, I predict exactly the same treatment for the BCCI suit that's coming up in the New Year.

[JoFerret]

8. Can one of you on this thread

stop being coy and lay out in simple terms what the issues are here and why it matters and what you actually think based on what evidence?

[Minstrel Boy]

7. George HW Bush and the P-2 Lodge

From Barbara Honegger's book October Surprise:

"According to Informant 'Y,' who claims his source to be Licio Gelli's top associate Francesco Pazienza, George Bush himself was made 'honourary' member of P-2 in 1976, the year that he became director of the Central Intelligence Agency."

According to the same source, shortly before the assassination of Olof Palme, "Gelli sent a message to former Republican National Committee advisor and alleged 'honorary' P-2 member Philip Guarino assuring him that 'the Swedish tree will be felled' and to 'tell our good friend Bush.'"

Interestingly, when Italian police raided Gelli's home in March 1981, Michael Ledeen - at the urging of Henry Kissinger - reportedly offered to buy the list of 954 P-2 members in an attempt to keep the names from becoming public.