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- [00:03]
Niccolo Magnoni
You don't wake up dreaming of McDonald's fries.
- [00:07]
Mario Platero
You wake up dreaming of McDonald's hash browns. McDonald's breakfast comes first. Ba ba ba ba ba. Friends of the POD subscribers can listen to the full season of Shadow Kingdom right now. Join friendsofthepod@crooked.com friends or on Apple Podcasts Campsite Media There's a scene that I have been obsessed with for the past several years. It took place on a cool summer night in Austria in 1982. Italian banker Roberto Calvi sat in front of a cold fireplace. For him, it was a rare moment of stillness in what had been a full week on the run. His designer suit was disheveled. There were sweat stains on his once crisp button up shirt and dirt on his pants and jacket. He left his home in Rome in such a rush there wasn't much time to pack a couple of suitcases, a forged passport, and the precious item that hadn't left his sight since his leather briefcase. Calvi picked up a book of matches and struck, igniting the small cavern of the brick fireplace. One by one, he pulled the documents from the briefcase, dropping them carefully into the fire page after page. Were these paper trails of illegal wire transfers? Maybe blackmail materials on his rich and powerful clients? I can't be sure, but Calvi didn't burn everything. Some papers he stowed back in the case. Maybe he could use them to cut a deal and save himself. Or perhaps one of those powerful clients might protect him in order to protect their secrets. Among the papers he decided to save was a copy of a letter he'd written just a few weeks earlier. It was written to one of his most important, most secretive clients, Pope John Paul ii. Calvi had done so much work for the Vatican, he'd earned the nickname God's Banker. But now the Italian financier was in trouble. Santita, Calvi's letter started, I have concluded that you are my last hope. Calvi wrote that he'd secretly moved money for the Vatican around the world and that he'd willingly taken on its quote, mistakes and faults. But now, he told the Pope, I am betrayed and abandoned by the Vatican. I read this letter as both a cry for help and vaguely threatening. But why did Calvi carry it with him? And did the pope ever respond? I don't know. But I know what happened next. Five days later, Roberto Calvi would be found dead, hanging from a rope over the Thames river in London, bricks in his pockets and his briefcase nowhere to be found. From crooked media and campside media, this is Shadow Kingdom. God's banker. I'm Niccolo Magnoni and this is episode one, Death of a Banker.
- [04:03]
Niccolo Magnoni
62 year old Signor Calvi was found dangling here just a few before he was due to appear in Italian court.
- [04:09]
Unknown
And I said, oh my God, what's going on? I mean, what's the excitement?
- [04:18]
Mario Platero
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. When I was a lawyer secretly scheming about a new career, nothing actually really changed until I reached out to a small group of people and one of those people at actually had nothing to do with journalism or media. That person was a therapist. And I'd never been to therapy. I grew up in post Calvi era Italy and it really wasn't all that available, at least publicly. And beyond that it felt really complicated. How do you find a therapist? Where do you look? Until a friend of mine told me about these therapy platforms where you could be matched online with a qualified therapist and suddenly there was no excuse I had to do it. And so I did it. And I have to say I got really valuable guidance on work, on transitions, on seeing myself beyond just the career I'd chosen. So if you're at a crossroads or you just need a little outside perspective, therapy can help. BetterHelp makes therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide. And though it does have a network of more than 30,000 therapists, you can also switch your therapist anytime at no extra. So build your Support system with BetterHelp and visit betterhelp.com Kingdom to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelpH. E L-P.com Kingdom Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real.
- [05:48]
Unknown
And so is the relief from EBGLIS.
- [05:51]
Mario Platero
After an initial dosing phase of 16 weeks, about 4 in 10 people taking EVGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.
- [06:02]
Unknown
EVGLIS Lebricizumab LBKZ a 250mg per 2ml injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to EBGLIS Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglis. Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection searching for real relief.
- [06:37]
Mario Platero
Ask your doctor about epglis and visit eglis.lilly.com or call 1-800-LilyRx or 1-800-545-5979. I stumbled on the story of Calvi's death while working as a corporate lawyer. A couple years ago. I was having coffee with my friend Mario Platero, a well connected former journalist. And Mario, he told me about the story he'd always wish he could pursue. There was some longing in his voice that just drew me in. And I started researching this mysterious banker, reading everything I could find about the case, first at night, then on weekends. And then I did something relatively misguided. I quit my job to work on it full time. I also wrangled Mario into a recording studio to talk about why this story had captured us both. So, Mario, hold it. So we have very little time.
- [07:32]
Unknown
Yeah, let's go.
- [07:33]
Mario Platero
We only had about 20 minutes and he was on his cell with the foreign minister of an undisclosed country. It's very funny we're in a studio because I usually just talk to you face to face. And you know every story. You know everything. You know everyone. And is that correct also?
- [07:50]
Unknown
Well, I wish. Thank you, though, for the advertisement. It's not that I know every. First of all, I don't.
- [07:56]
Mario Platero
He does. It's how he earned our family nickname for him, Mario the Spy. Today, Mario sits on various boards and is more banker than anything else. But during the Cold War, he was a journalist.
- [08:10]
Unknown
Yes, I interviewed Reagan in the White House, in fact, and I was in Moscow when he addressed the people and he said, Mr. Gorbachev, I pledge you, tear down these walls.
- [08:26]
Mario Platero
I was looking for stories. And you, you said, hey, you know the, you know, you know about God's Banker, right? You know this God's Banker story. And I confessed I don't know that I knew almost anything about God's Banker, except for that the name sounded cool and strange. And you told me, you said the. It involves, without batting an eye. You said the Mafia, of course. The Vatican Bank, a covert organization. The Russians, The Pope.
- [08:53]
Unknown
Yeah, because, you know, it may. It might have sounded a lot like conspiracy theory, but for some reasons, you know, I happened to be at a certain moment, at a certain time, very close to this man that Dealt a lot with the Vatican that all of a sudden was found dead. Somehow.
- [09:17]
Mario Platero
In June of 1982, when Roberto Calvi was on the run, burning documents, Mario was working full time for an Italian bank in New York and moonlighting as a reporter. Calvi's bank was crashing and Calvi was a fugitive. Big newspapers were all scrambling to figure out where Calvi was hiding. It's at this moment that Mario got a call from one of those papers.
- [09:43]
Unknown
So the editor in chief calls me up and says, we heard rumors that Galvey may be in New York. Everybody's looking for him. We're looking for him. We would like to have an interview with him if you can find him. This would be a major interview.
- [09:59]
Mario Platero
Mario held a beige receiver in his hand, taking in the information. Around him, 20 or so bankers, all in suits and ties, buzzed around. But his head wasn't in banking right now. The moonlighting journalist side of him took over.
- [10:17]
Unknown
The excitement of finding Calvi at that moment became passionate. So my attention was totally diverted to that, and I started to call around.
- [10:30]
Mario Platero
Mario thought, okay, I have a secondhand connection to Calvi's son Carlos, so why don't I get Carlo's phone number in Canada and just try him? So he did. The phone started ringing.
- [10:45]
Unknown
The housekeeper picked up and she says, calvi residence. And I say, yes, I'm looking for Mr. Carlo Calvi. So he's not here. So I said, well, let's go for the full monte, as they say. May I talk to Mr. Roberto Calvi? Oh, no, he's not here either. I'm sorry, but.
- [11:05]
Mario Platero
But you're in luck. The housekeeper told Mario, the whole family, Roberto Calvi included, will be at their Bahamas home tomorrow.
- [11:14]
Unknown
So my degree of excitement and nervousness and tension at that point was at its height. But I kept my cool and I said, oh, really? I think I have the number, but I'm not sure I have it. Would you be so kind to give it to me? Oh, yes, of course. No problem.
- [11:33]
Mario Platero
Mario was doing his best to act natural, as if this was any other check in call. But his eyes were going wide. Had this housekeeper really just offered up an itinerary of one of the biggest fugitives in the world? She'd given Mario Calvi's address in the Bahamas, his phone number and an invitation to call. Probably no other reporter on the planet had that.
- [12:01]
Unknown
And I went to sleep with this excitement of pursuing my scoop. My first big scoop. Okay, And I wake up the following.
- [12:12]
Mario Platero
Morning, the morning of June 18, 1982. Mario's big day. Plane ticket to the Bahamas, ready to go. Bags are packed. He just needs to swing by the office first.
- [12:25]
Unknown
And people were a little, you know, they were talking, they were chatting, and they had this piece of paper in their hands. And I said, oh my God, what's going on? I mean, what's the excitement?
- [12:36]
Mario Platero
His colleagues were huddled around a telex machine, a 1980s version of Twitter that printed news on this never ending sheet of paper. Someone had just read, ripped the sheet of paper from the machine.
- [12:50]
Unknown
The wire said, calvi found dead in London under the Blackfriars Bridge. Suicide, question mark. My answer was immediate no.
- [13:04]
Mario Platero
As the morning turned into a hot New York afternoon, Mario's office swung into gear. Telex machines resumed their hummingbirds. Young analysts chomped nervously on pencils. But not Mario. He was replaying that headline in his head over and over.
- [13:21]
Unknown
Suicide question mark. But the kind of evidence I had was not leaning in that direction.
- [13:32]
Mario Platero
Mario stared at the wire printout, little details jumping out at him like, wait, he had 12 pounds of bricks in his pockets, suicide wads of cash, a fake passport. And Calvi had two pairs of underwear on and two watches. Why add to that what Mario knew? As a banker, Calvi had lost over a billion dollars for his bank. And Calvi was rumored to have partnered with a lot of shady characters, characters who may well have wanted revenge.
- [14:09]
Unknown
I think that this was a murder that was the result of events that were incredibly complicated, that involved the Vatican, the Mafia, the Russian Secret Service, the US and Pope Wojtyla. So you say, oh my God. Yeah, sure, they bobbed it way, way long.
- [14:35]
Mario Platero
It all sounds absurd, right? The Vatican, the Pope, spies in Russia and the U.S. mario's saying they're all involved in Calvi's death, but it might not be so far fetched. Mario tells me, remember, this is peak Cold War. So the US and the Soviet Union, they're all at war in the existential fight of their lives. And strangely enough, in the 1970s, a major front of this war was Italy, which was once ruled by a fascist dictator and now has the largest Communist party in Western Europe.
- [15:15]
Niccolo Magnoni
The loss in man hours in Italy because of strikes and absenteeism is astronomical. Five times out of France, for example, 50 times that of West Germany, major plants are operating at 3/4 capacity. Italy has the lowest growth rate in Western Europe.
- [15:34]
Mario Platero
At the time, the Communist Party in Italy was very strong. It had nearly 35% of the national vote. By 1976, this was a disaster for the U.S. if Italy, a massive Western democracy, fell to communism, what was to stop others from following. It was like Vietnam, but in the heart of Europe. So the US had a rather unlikely partner in this fight against communism in the Vatican. The Vatican hated communism because communism hated God. Most communist regimes shut down all churches and closed churches meant, among other things, no weekly donations to the Vatican. And so, supposedly, somewhere in this battle, the Vatican and the CIA joined forces to send secret cash to anti communist fighters in the Soviet Union. They'd done this by hiring God's banker, Roberto Calvi.
- [16:39]
Unknown
There was also the Mafia involved.
- [16:43]
Mario Platero
Sure, of course.
- [16:44]
Unknown
Of course, the Mafia. Exactly.
- [16:46]
Mario Platero
So to the Vatican using a bank as a money laundering operation to fight the Cold War with, but for different reasons. Let's add the Mafia.
- [16:53]
Unknown
Let's add the Mafia. Let's add.
- [16:54]
Mario Platero
Exactly. Okay, sure. If you can sense a dismissive tone in my voice there, you're not wrong. I almost got mad at Mario while we were in the studio because I am an Italian. I lived in Rome until I was 10, and then I moved to the U.S. which is why I now sound the way I do. But my body and soul are very much tied to my strange country, shaped like a boot. I moved back to Italy in my 20s to get an Italian law degree because I dreamt of being a prosecutor that would fight the Mafia. But that ended up being very scary. So I practiced corporate law in the US and the UK instead. Anyway, growing up in the us, I was always hearing Italians telling these wild stories. Always bombastic, always over the top, always taking some benign event and turning it into a big conspiracy. Mario actually told me there's a word in Italian for this, dietrologia. It basically means that Italians never accept the given explanation for something. They always suspect there's some darker truth lurking behind Dietro the curtain. As an Italian abroad, I've had to fight this stereotype of the passionate, irrational Italian. And so I was immediately skeptical of Mario's theories about Calvi, the Vatican, the Mafia.
- [18:18]
Unknown
Let me point out that I am on your side with this.
- [18:20]
Mario Platero
No, but what I'm saying is that you come to me and you tell me a man was killed because he was using the Vatican bank via Mafia, laundered money to fight the Cold War with the backing of the CIA. And I thought, this is so silly. And it's the typical Italian story that is fake.
- [18:35]
Unknown
You're implying you didn't believe me. That's another reason to beat you up.
- [18:39]
Mario Platero
I didn't believe you.
- [18:40]
Unknown
In fact, I wanted to do a story myself on this, but then I didn't have the time and I never pursued it. So I'm very glad you're doing it.
- [18:46]
Mario Platero
So the 25 year old Mario who wanted to interview Calvia, never. Did you pass that baton to me?
- [18:54]
Unknown
Exactly. I give you the baton so that you can do a nice story about it. That now it's much more complete in a way.
- [19:00]
Mario Platero
Yeah, well, it all sounded very fake and I wanted to prove you wrong. And this season is that effort. Mario had piqued my curiosity. I wanted to find out who had killed Roberto Calvi, but I wasn't buying his whole Vatican, CIA, Mafia, Da Vinci Code story. That honestly sounded a bit unhinged. Surely there was a more rational, more logical explanation. Maybe even that Roberto Calvi had very simply killed himself, just as the no nonsense British police believed at the time of death. So find out what happened to Roberto Calvi. That's what I set out to do more than two years ago. Since then, I've traveled to the scene of the crime in London and made multiple trips to Italy. I've sat in a mafioso's living room, choking on cigar smoke and tracked down a smuggler who was the last person to see Calvi alive. I've spoken to an Italian spy, forensics experts, and members of Calvi's family. I've worried about my own personal safety more than once. And my theory of the crime, which I'm going to share with you at the end of this, is completely and wildly different than I could have ever imagined at the start of this investigation. That's after the break.
- [20:34]
Unknown
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- [21:12]
Mario Platero
All you have to do is basically.
- [21:13]
Unknown
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- [21:19]
Mario Platero
Mostly fats or carbs.
- [21:21]
Unknown
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- [22:09]
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- [22:42]
Mario Platero
I started my research with something obvious. The official records of Calvi's death. In 1982, the British police said Calvi committed suicide, but Italian investigators said no, don't be fooled. This is a murder. As I've mentioned, I've lived both in Italy and in England. My instinct here is to trust the British side of my brain. The Brits had no real skin in the game and so much less bias. While the Marios of this world, the Italians, the people for whom Calvi is a celebrity, I feel like they're much more likely to see a conspiracy where there isn't one. So if I'm going with the British side of my brain, why would Calvi have killed himself? First of all, Calvi's body was found hanging over the River Thames in London's business district. Suicide attempts were common there. Overworked bankers that can't take it anymore. It's really sad, but it isn't shocking. Also, Calvi was facing some grim prospects in the coming days with the international media following his every move.
- [23:57]
Niccolo Magnoni
62 year old senor Calvi was found dangling here just a few days before he was due to appear in Italian court.
- [24:05]
Mario Platero
Calvi had recently been convicted of illegally sneaking millions of dollars outside Italy, and he was very afraid of going to jail. I also found out that Calvi had actually attempted suicide when he was facing similar legal issues just a year before.
- [24:21]
Unknown
The British coroner's jury ruled that he.
- [24:23]
Niccolo Magnoni
Had committed suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed.
- [24:28]
Mario Platero
And probably most damning to Mario's murder thesis was that when British police examined Calvi's body. There were no signs of bruises, no signs of violence.
- [24:39]
Niccolo Magnoni
All the evidence pointed towards suicide. Professor Simpson, who carried out a post mortem examination on Senor Calvi, said there was no suggestion of foul play. No fracar, no struggle. Had there been, I would have expected to have found some marks of resistance. There were none.
- [24:54]
Mario Platero
In other words, no one hit Calvi over the head and then deceptively propped him under a bridge. He didn't fight anyone. There were also no signs of chemical injections or stuff that might have knocked him out more peacefully. So there you have it. Calvi wasn't drugged. He didn't fight anyone. He was simply desperate, as he'd been in the past when he tried to kill himself. And he ended his life in a place where many other bankers do. And so ends the tale of God's banker. A very British ending. Simple, logical, a bit dark, but without any fuss. Except not so fast, because although I would like the British part of my brain to completely take over, the Italian side poked me in the middle of the night. It poked me and invited me to listen to the Italians. Why didn't they like the British suicide theory? Well, Calvi was hanging in a place that was really hard to reach, that a team of young British cops could barely get to. And Calvi, he was a middle aged banker with vertigo. How could he have filled his pockets with bricks and climbed up to hang himself? Italian investigators would also note that Calvi's body was both soaked and then dry in ways that couldn't really be explained. And the dirt all over his pants wasn't from the area around the bridge at all. It was from somewhere totally different. It was almost like Calby had levitated to his final hanging place. Italians would also point out that Calvi had a boatload of medications at his disposal, which leads me to think that he could have overdosed and died peacefully in his sleep. No slippery bridge necessary. Oh, and finally, Calvi's precious briefcase, the one with the secrets from half the world. It was gone. So there it is. A British voice assuring me it was suicide. And then Mario's Italian accent, urging me to see this as a gruesome murder. But it's kind of terrifying to entertain Mario's challenge, because if I believe that it was murder, then I opened Pandora's box. And out of that box would come conspiracy theories that tie the Mafia to the Pope, to secret Fascist societies bent on overthrowing the state. And hovering over all of this, the swinging body of Roberto Calvi. If I truly entertained Mario's challenge. I would have to admit that there's something to d'athrologia, that there is something behind the curtain, something that those in power want to stay hidden. From the start, I didn't want to be the wild eyed Italian conspiracist. I wanted to be the mild mannered English lawyer. But the deeper I went, the less the suicide theory made sense. The facts didn't quite add up. And I needed to know what really happened to follow the question from the Italians inside of my brain. Who killed God's banker? Coming up on this season of Shadow Kingdom.
- [28:22]
Niccolo Magnoni
The system is completely rotten, completely corrupt, completely illegitimate. Therefore, it's okay to blow up this entire building.
- [28:30]
Mario Platero
They've got every conspiracy. They're the masterminds. They're pulling the strings.
- [28:33]
Unknown
Top Vatican sources have now begun cautiously to discuss the plot to kill the Pope.
- [28:40]
He tells me, you need to leave.
- [28:42]
Niccolo Magnoni
With Cavi right now. He is wanted in Italy for political espionage and possession of state secrets.
- [28:47]
Unknown
I say, look, we have this guy moving.
- [28:50]
Mario Platero
We know that while on the move, he's in contact with this character. A fixer.
- [28:57]
Niccolo Magnoni
Thanking experts began to unravel the story of of a big Italian bank scandal that reads like good fiction.
- [29:03]
Unknown
All he would talk about was death.
- [29:05]
Niccolo Magnoni
It was unbelievable. He basically dropped to the floor.
- [29:09]
Unknown
He was screaming and crying saying, clara.
- [29:12]
Mario Platero
We can't find him.
- [29:13]
Unknown
And I was a bit shaken and said, who?
- [29:15]
Mario Platero
Who can't you find?
- [29:16]
Unknown
And he said, roberto, we don't know where he is.
- [29:21]
Mario Platero
Shadow Kingdom is a production of Crooked Media and Campside Media. It's hosted and reported by ME Nicolomini with additional reporting by Simona Zeki and Joe Hawthorne. The show is written by Joe Hawthorne, Ashley Ann Krigbaum and me. Joe Hawthorne is our lead producer and Ashley Ann Krigbaum is our managing producer. Tracy Samuelson is our story editor. Sound design, mix and mastering by Mark McAdam. Our theme song and original score are composed by me and Mark McAdam. Our studio engineer is Ewan Lai Tremuin. Voice acting by Bonnie Biagini, Andrea Bianchi, Ferrante Cosma, Luca Degenaro, Michele Teodori and Mustafa Zialan. Field recording by Justin Trieger, Jonathan Zenti, Pete Schev, Jonathan Gruber and Joanna Broder. Fact checking by Zoe Sullivan. Our executive producers are me, Nicola Minoni, along with Sarah Geismer, Katie Long and Allison Falsetta from Crooked Media. Josh Dean, Adam Hoff, Matt Sher and Vanessa Griffith Gregoriadis are the executive producers at Campside media. One last thing before we go. You can also listen to Shadow Kingdom in Italian. Look up Il Banchiere di Dio. The show is the same in one way, but it's full of original reporting in Italian, with unabridged versions of interviews with Italian guests. We're really excited to tell the story in its native tongue, so please go check out Il Banchiere di Dio wherever you get your podcasts.