The Pope Who Was Murdered

By Jesús López Sáez

The author addresses in this book two important novelties, and they are not the only ones. The official biography of the beatification process (2018) brings a fact hidden for forty years: The doctor who had to make the diagnosis about the unexpected death of Pope John Paul I was denied an autopsy. Moreover, the gangster Anthony S. Luciano Raimondi, in his book When the Bullet Hits the Bone (2019), confesses that he was called by Archbishop Marcinkus, president of the Vatican Bank, to eliminate the pope "painlessly." Marcinkus administered the cyanide, and he only advised and accompanied. What happened? September 4, 2022: John Paul I is beatified in St. Peter's Square. He is beatified for his "ordinary holiness"--that is, because he was good, which no one doubts. However, it is hidden how he died and why. He is beatified, but justice is not done to him. There is maneuvering, concealment, and lying. Meanwhile, people keep on saying, "The pope they killed." The majority of Latin American bishops are convinced that Albino Luciani died, murdered (Serafini), and the world contemplates once again the Vatican scandal. The question is this: How to qualify a beatification that hides a murder?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889604303

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The Pope Who Was Murdered

JesAos LA3pez SA!ez

Copyright © 2023 Jesús López Sáez

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

Original spanish:

EL PAPA QUE MATARON (Última Línea, Málaga, 2022)

Traduction: Andy Ferguson

ISBN 979-8-88960-418-1 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-88960-430-3 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Presentation

1

The Mobster's Confession

With Valium and Cyanide

Bishop Marcinkus, the Perpetrator

The Crime Motive

2

Some Background

Poisoned Gangsters

Lightning across a Calm Sky

A Bomb against Il Gazzettino

The Moreno Luciani Case

Nikodim's Death

Low Security

3

Forensic Issues

4

Finding the Corpse

Sister Vincenza's Testimony

Dr. Buzzonetti

Further Detail

A Suspicious Shade of Purple

Different Stories

Contrasting Information

5

What the Pope Held in His Hand

The Official Version

Papers for Change

6

The Embalming

Preservation Treatment

Villot's Haste

Day and Time

7

A Testimony on the Autopsy

8

The Pope Was Fine

9

The Chest Pain

Camilo Bassotto with John Paul I.

10

The Clot in His Eye

Clinic record.

11

The Venetian Source

A Document for Pironio

Venetian Oversights

Don Germano Pattaro's Testimony

A Secret Report

Encountering Sister Lucía

12

Unfounded Diagnosis

A Revealing Letter

Firm Refusal to Perform an Autopsy

Some Questions

13

The Butler's Pill

Changing Butler

The Secretary's Getaway

Oversights

14

Image Distortion

That Poor Guy

Luciani's Personality

Bishop of the Council

The Largest Distortion

15

The Figure of Marcinkus

The Shadow of the Cypress

Banker and bishop

Sindona's Bankruptcy

Michele Sindona (Cordon Press).

Financial Fraud

On the List of Vatican Freemasons

Marcinkus Should Be Dismissed

Researching Banco Ambrosiano

The Vatican Bank's guarantee

Attack on the Pope

Calvi's Bankruptcy

Complicity of the Vatican Bank

An Arrest Warrant against Marcinkus

The Trial of Banco Ambrosiano

The Kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi

Emanuela Orlandi.

Twice in the Same Trap

16

Murdered Popes

17

Interview with Anthony Raimondi

Questions Submitted

No Reply

Various Interviews

Conclusions

Intentional Murder

Official Cover-Up

The Hidden Plot

Bibliography

About the Author

To Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I, martyr for the purification and renewal of the church

Thou must prophesy again.

—Revelation 10:11

Presentation

Having recently published Albino Luciani. An Open Case (2018), I didn't consider publishing another book on John Paul I. However, there have been two important developments—one official and the other Mafia-related—that have led me to write again. Firstly, the publication in Italy of an official biography on the beatification process: Albino Luciani. Giovanni Paolo I . The biography presents various aspects that must be discussed and various omissions that must be noted. In addition, it presents a fact that has been hidden for forty years: the refusal to perform an autopsy on the pope's corpse, requested by the doctor who was required to make a diagnosis. Secondly, the publication in the United States of When the Bullet Hits the Bone by mobster Anthony S. Luciano Raimondi , a member of the Colombo Mafia who confesses in this book to have participated in the murder of Pope John Paul I. He has also announced a second volume which has not yet been released.

The official biography of Pope Luciani was published in June 2018 in Belluno (Italy). It's the result of long and meticulous research work, directed by Dr. Stefanía Falasca, vice postulator of the cause of canonization, says Cardinal Beniamino Stella, postulator of the cause, in the introduction. The biography includes the entire volume 4 of a process that deals with the life, virtues, and fame of his holiness Pope John Paul I and presents the entire biographical outline in a scientific way, says the cardinal.¹

The work has twelve chapters. The first eight correspond to his years in Belluno and Vittorio Veneto, written by Davide Fiocco, a doctor of theology. The next two chapters correspond to the Venetian period, written by Mauro Velati, a doctor of religious history. The last two chapters correspond to his pontificate and death, written by Fiocco and Falasca. The biography, a limited release of four hundred numbered copies, is intended for scholars on Pope Luciani.² Obviously, it provides lots of information, some of which was unknown³ while other facts are known and are not mentioned. In February 2019, I completed a critical study on the official biography of Pope Luciani and sent it to Cardinal Stella. In the study, I addressed various aspects, paying special attention to what is not said in the official biography, indicating oversights that I find significant. I also pointed out Dr. Renato Buzzonetti's difficulties when diagnosing and certifying Pope Luciani's death. And I do appreciate that the biography mentions how the doctor was subject to irregular procedures since he was refused the option of performing an autopsy on the pope's corpse. However, it's surprising how it is portrayed without the slightest criticism; in fact, it's presented in a confusing way.

On March 18, 2019, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, postulator for the cause of John Paul I, wrote to me, Thank you very much for the valuable time and considerable dedication you spent studying the official biography of Pope John Paul I, venerable servant of God. With lively gratitude I receive the installment attached to your respectful letter, to which I will give careful consideration.

Having spent many years investigating the bizarre death of John Paul I and having had some issues with the Church as a result, I was greatly surprised by the release of a book by gangster Anthony Raimondi. Obviously, the news traveled around the world. In the New York Post, journalist Brad Hamilton wrote, Colombo gangster Anthony Raimondi claims that he was present in 1978 when fellow conspirators murdered Pope John Paul I, with cyanide, because the pontiff threatened to reveal a Vatican Bank fraud. He helped kill the pope so that his friends could avoid hell. Such is the shocking statement by Colombo gangster Anthony Raimondi, who says that in 1978 he went to Italy with a group of his men to kill John Paul I. They allegedly poisoned him with cyanide, 33 days into his tenure, according to Raimondi's new book.

Journalist Hamilton also states, Raimondi, nephew of legendary godfather Lucky Luciano, claims that at the age of 28 he was recruited to murder the pope by his cousin, Cardinal Paul Marcinkus, who ran the Vatican Bank. Raimondi's job was to learn the pope's habits and to be on hand to watch how Marcinkus knocked out John Paul I by dropping Valium in his evening cup of tea. I was in the hall of the pope's lodgings when the tea was served, he writes. He added that the pill worked so well that their victim would not have been able to move even if there had been an earthquake. I had done many things in my time, but I did not want to be there in the room when they killed the pope. I knew that would get me a one-way ticket to hell. Raimondi claims that he remained outside the room, while his cousin prepared the cyanide dose; he measured it with a dropper, put the dropper in the pope's mouth and squeezed it. Then, he closed the door behind him and left.⁴

According to Raimondi, the reason for the attack on the pope had to do with a multimillion-dollar fraud in which Marcinkus was involved as director of the Vatican Bank. Through the Vatican Bank, false certificates of shares of large US companies such as IBM, Sunoco, or Coca-Cola, worth one billion dollars, had been sold to naive buyers. When John Paul I took office, he promised to uncover this corruption case by expelling all those involved, which would have been half of the cardinals and bishops of the Vatican, said Raimondi.⁵

Vaticanist Francesco Antonio Grana writes in Il Fatto Quotidiano, Pope Luciani poisoned with cyanide by Marcinkus, the story by Lucky Luciano's nephew in a memoir; 41 years have passed since the death of Pope Luciani. However, the final word has not yet been put to that long and dark mystery, fueled by continuous revelations. The last one, surely to be assessed with all due precaution; the man reveals that the archbishop, his cousin, made him go to Rome to get rid of the pope, a version totally rejected by the Vatican.⁶

For his part, journalist César Cervera wrote an article in the newspaper ABC saying, The mysterious death of Pope John Paul I: Was he poisoned by a nephew of mobster Lucky Luciano? A gangster named Anthony Raimondi says that in 1978, he went to Italy with a team of hit men to poison the Holy Father with cyanide.⁷

In an extensive interview with Jordan Harbinger, Raimondi complains about what journalist Brad Hamilton writes, "The guy from the Post wrote a long article, but he said that I went to kill the pope; he changed it, you know what I mean, he changed it to say I went there with a squad to kill the pope. No, I did not go there with a squad to kill the pope; everyone understood the point. Now people look at me like I've killed the damn pope."

Raimondi was born in Brooklyn on October 12, 1953. He is the son of Frank and Mary: My parents and my grandparents migrated to the United States from Sicily when my mom and dad were young, and my grandparents kept some of the family traditions alive. He is the nephew of mobster Lucky Luciano. My uncle, Lucky Luciano, he claims. Furthermore, he is a cousin of Cardinal Raimondi: My cousin Luigi Raimondi was prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints until his death on June 24, 1975 [at age 62]. He is also a relative of Archbishop Marcinkus: He was one of my paternal grandmother's cousins, and he was the head of the Vatican Bank.⁸

In the book's dedication, we can read, This book is dedicated to my mother and my father, Mary and Frank Raimondi. To my mother—I did not leave the path you wanted me to leave, but now I'm trying to do better. And a very special dedication to my cousin Hugh McIntosh and Meyer Lansky, the men who taught me how to be a real gangster and what a real gangster is. The book ends with these words: Regret and sadness.⁹

The author, who is now fighting cancer and living in Brooklyn, says he decided to quit that life and tell his story because I no longer need this. All the old men went to prison or died or went to witness protection.¹⁰

I have talked about two important developments, but they are not the only ones. For example, the case of Moreno Luciani, the cardinal's nephew, who disappeared mysteriously and tragically on Friday, May 2, 1975. It's the first time this tremendous enigma related to the mystery of the pope is addressed. On August 22, 2018, the director of the Librería del Santo (Padova) wrote to me because the previous day he had been in Canale d'Agordo visiting the Pope Luciani Museum and spoke with its director, Loris Serafini, who was a member and president of the Historical Commission of the diocesan phase of Pope John Paul I's canonization process. Regarding Moreno Luciani's case, Loris gave the publisher a significant piece of information. It is said that Albino Luciani had mentioned to a relative, They wanted me to pay back.

Another novelty—a fact hidden for forty years—is presented as the butler's pill. Italian journalist Antonio Preziosi's book Indimenticabile includes testimony from the butler Angelo Gugel, according to which Luciani had eaten very little for dinner and he, himself, brought him a pill before bedtime.¹¹ It's surprising that the butler gave him a pill when his nurse Sister Vincenza should have done so. It's also remarkable that this butler replaced, in early September, the Gusso brothers who were dismissed by the pope's private secretary, Irishman John Magee, friend of Marcinkus and president of the Vatican Bank.

We have already pointed out another fact hidden for forty years: the refusal to allow the doctor to perform an autopsy. On October 9, 1978, Dr. Renato Buzzonetti reported in private to the stand-in Secretary of State, Giuseppe Caprio, Before writing down the diagnosis of death, I was authoritatively denied the practical possibility of requesting an autopsy, by lawyer Trocchi. Counsel Vittorio Trocchi was the secretary-general to the Vatican City government.¹² Under such (unusual) circumstances, the doctor issued a death certificate in terms of unforeseen death from acute myocardial infarction, which was disclosed ten years later.

The title of this work refers to what many people say when they speak of Pope John Paul I: Ah yes, the pope who was murdered. I don't mention the pope by name. I show a photo of his corpse. The subtitle, A Hidden Plot, raises the issue as to whether, in addition to a killing hand, there were accomplices and necessary collaborators, however unaware of their roles.

We address several aspects of the strange death of John Paul I, comparing the new data with other sources: some background information, forensic issues, the finding of the body, what the pope held in his hand, the embalming, the testimony on the autopsy, the pope's personal physician Dr. Da Ros' testimony, his alleged chest pain, his eye clot, the information from a Venetian source (omitted from the official biography), an unsubstantiated diagnosis (plus an authoritarian refusal to perform an autopsy), the butler's pill, how the missing pope's image was distorted, Marcinkus's enigmatic figure, the list of popes who were murdered, the mobster's silence after being sent an interview, and a series of conclusions answering the following questions: Is the official position acceptable? Is the gangster's confession acceptable? Who masterminded Pope Luciani's murder? Who actually killed him? Was there an official cover-up? Was there a hidden plot?

Jesús López Sáez

October 2021

1

The Mobster's Confession

Mobster Raimondi states the following, Pope Paul VI died in the summer of 1978. The cardinals were summoned, white smoke came out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, and they chose this poor bastard, Pope John Paul I. He was a good guy, but he started by creating a serious problem. He summoned all the cardinals and bishops to a meeting to announce that an investigation was beginning and every priest, cardinal, and bishop who was involved in the sale and forging of Vatican stock would be expelled and excommunicated, making them vulnerable to Italian and US law.

Mobster Raimondi.

He goes on:

I was at home when Paul Jacob Marcinkus called from the Vatican. We are going to the United States, and we want to see you. It's important. We'll tell you what it's about when we're there. I had no idea what to expect when he and two others from the Vatican showed up at my father's house on Twelfth Street.

We have to get rid of this pope, he told me.

Are you crazy? I said.

He explained that there was a single issue aside from the obvious logistics of hitting someone with such a high profile.

They wanted to do it with all due respect.

How can we kill him in a proper way for a pope? he said flatly. We don't want to use violence.

I can't believe it, I mumbled. You must be joking.

The expression on Marcinkus's face indicated that it was not a joke. This is doable. We own the law there, he said. We do what we want to do. We can kill a pope, and nothing will happen to us because the only investigation will be from within Vatican City.

Marcinkus explained that they had their own doctors, their own embalmers. Everyone is intertwined and connected, and secrets can be kept secret with the right people in the conspiracy. In other words, everything could be done at home and by people from home. Still, this is something huge.

Okay, this is one thing. But the other, how can we commit a violent act without violence?

You have experience in this, said my cousin.

I've never killed a fucking pope, I replied.

"You've been to Nam [Vietnam]." For them, it was enough.

Actually, Raimondi was familiar with the use of cyanide. In Vietnam, they taught him to use cyanide to fill bullets: In Vietnam we used to put potassium cyanide inside bullets so that if the bullet didn't kill you, the cyanide would be released into your blood system, and it would finish the job. We'd put a little wax to cover the bullet so that it wouldn't come off.

With Valium and Cyanide

Raimondi adds:

I didn't want to go back to Italy with them. I didn't want to take part in this, but they insisted that I owed it to them. You made a lot of money with us, they told him. It's the least you can do. The mobster says, I really wouldn't kill the pope; only a holy man could do it. That was a rule. My role would be to draw up a plan and supervise its execution. My cousins claimed that having someone outside the Vatican hatch the plan would absolve them of guilt and leave the responsibility at my feet.

I need to know the pope's habits, I told my cousin. He told me that the pope drank his tea at night, and with that information, we launched the plan. There must have been three bishops involved in the deadly plot: my cousin Marcinkus, Pietro Palazzini, and Antonio Riberio [sic]. It was decided that they could add Valium to the pope's tea with a dropper, an anesthetic which, in powder form, would knock him out. If you get pure Valium, you can't test it because it knocks you out. My cousin said the pope liked his tea especially sweet, and that made it easier to hide unusual flavors. They wanted his death to be quick and painless. So the plan was to put potassium cyanide in the dropper, place it between his lips while he was unconscious, and squeeze the dropper so that he swallowed the poison and was gone.

Bishop Marcinkus, the Perpetrator

According to the mobster, Bishop Marcinkus perpetrated the murder. The gangster was only a companion:

The night of the killing, the pope drank his tea and fell asleep. Even if there had been an earthquake, he would have been unable to get up. I stood in the hall, outside the pope's quarters, when the tea was served. In my time I could have done many things, but I did not want to be in the room when the pope was killed. I knew I could buy a one-way ticket to hell. But maybe by staying out of the room, I could have some leeway when my time came. Marcinkus had the cyanide bottle when he entered the room. He measured with the dropper, put it in the pope's mouth, and squeezed it.

When he did, he shut the door behind him and left. About half an hour later one of the priests went to check on the pope, as he did every night before bedtime.

The pope is dying, he yelled. My whole family rushed into the room as if it were a big surprise to all of them.

The mobster adds, The pope was wiped out at the end of September 1978. The doctor from the Vatican, a former cardinal, and another cousin of mine came to examine him. The doctor put a stethoscope to his chest, but there was nothing, there was no heartbeat. He said the pope had died of natural causes, a heart attack. The embalmer came, laid down the body, and did his job. If you opened the coffin, you could smell the soft smell of almonds, but you would have to know what you wanted to smell because a normal person wouldn't have noticed it.¹³

The Crime Motive

As we already know, John Paul I summoned all the cardinals and bishops to a meeting to announce that he was beginning an investigation and each priest, cardinal, bishop who was involved in the sale and forgery of Vatican shares would be expelled and excommunicated, making them vulnerable to Italian and American law.¹⁴

According to the mobster, his cousin Marcinkus, who would later become a cardinal, informed him of the fake bonds affair and asked if he wanted to participate in the business of selling the bonds: "When I came home from the service, my cousin Luigi told me about a deal they had made with a forger in Rome, making fake copies of Vatican shares. They were doing it since 1971, and he wanted to know if I wanted to get involved. The Vatican owns hundreds of millions of dollars in securities of large corporations such as IBM, Sunoco, and Coca-Cola. The certificates were kept in