Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi (2022): Season 1, Episode 3 - Part 3 - full transcript

In 2013, we were
in the middle of the inquiry

related to Sabrina Minardi's testimony.

"Sabri, it's all a game of power.

Do you understand this?"

And then something new happened.

I get a call from a journalist
I knew very well, Fiore De Rienzo

and he told me a new fact.

A person had turned up who had contacted

the offices of "Chi L'Ha Visto?".

This person instructed Fiore De Rienzo

to search the warehouses
at the old De Laurentiis studios.



Something is hidden
in a room full of film materials.

He called me and said,
"Natalina, I found something

but I want you to see it.

Can we come to your house?"

And I said, "Yes, come over."

Because I haven't even opened this yet.

Here, there's the first newspaper.

Later on, we can work out
what these papers are.

-Do you want to open it?
-It's worn out.

I was shocked.

Because for me, that was,
is Emanuela's flute.

Inside, the velvet was the same color.

The cleaning rod was missing.

It was not there



because my younger sister Maria Cristina
always kept it.

So you remember
the case was just like this?

-So it matches...
-Yes.

It's even worn out around the corners.

I remember it just like this.

A bit worn out.

A man, who came into the studio

told us this is
the flute of Emanuela Orlandi.

What is behind this statement?

Attention-seeking behavior? Craziness?

Messages sent by someone else?

Pietro, you are sure
the flute belongs to your sister, right?

It's my personal opinion

of course,
we're still awaiting the results

from the forensics lab

but I do think this is Emanuela's flute.

Why would anyone want to trick us?

Maybe for the first time in a long time

I was moved when I saw it.

I could see it in Emanuela's hands.

These new revelations

to be honest, reawakened our hope.

I'm Fabrizio Peronaci.

I'm a crime journalist
at Corriere Della Sera.

It was in the afternoon,
I was in the newsroom at my desk.

The phone rang.

I answered and he said to me

"I am Marco Accetti.

I'd like to confer
with the reporter Fabrizio Peronaci.

I brought a flute

but I need to tell the story thoroughly

the whole story.

Can we meet?"

I arrived here in front of it
and parked the car.

The instructions were very precise.

He had said

"Dial this number
and let it ring four times."

And after the fourth ring, I hung up.

Then, a good-looking
blonde woman showed up and she said

"You can come in,
Marco is waiting for you."

I went down a dark corridor.

At the end, there was a large space.

On the right, there was a piano bar

and on the left, there was a stage.

But the main lights were switched off,
there were only a couple of spotlights on.

He came towards me and told me

"All of you journalists
haven't understood a thing.

For 30 years you have been
following the wrong stories."

I asked him, "How do you know?

How do you know this?"

He replied, "I am The American."

-What are you doing?
-A photo.

Of this circus.

Speak to me.

Why did you decide
to do the interview anonymously?

Because...

The public...

is very naive.

Therefore, he who puts himself forward

whatever his motive

is going to be suspected
of trying to show off.

You say you were "The American."

Yes.

You were involved in the abduction.

Yes, of course.

Honey, you're talking to who,
in all modesty, created the Orlandi case.

Let's say that I did

the so-called creative aspect.

So I selected the places
where to leave the statements...

The prose to be used in the phone calls.

It was so hot back then.

Everywhere, always in the car
waiting for something,

under a merciless heat.

Welcome back, friends.

African high pressure
continues to affect the Lazio region.

The day Emanuela went missing

was 22 June 1983.

I still remember
how hot it was that day

It was not a "real" abduction.

Simply, she was deceived.

She was told

"Your father is in trouble,
you could lose the home

they gave you."

She was afraid
that something was going to happen?

Yes, that her father would lose his home

his job, these kinds of consequences.

Before leaving school,
Emanuela called home...

To tell me that a man
approached her just outside the school...

He had parked his car

described as a green-colored BMW.

They were just tricks.

It was a "fake" abduction

a "fake" kidnapping.

That turned into a real kidnapping?

Yes.

And where did you take her after?

To this house... To begin with, actually

close to, below the Gianicolo Hill.

I have already said this

Lante della Rovere.

An institute where

young girls with problems went

and they could stay.

She was passed off
as one of the girls staying there.

There were some cheap rooms, you see?

It wasn't a prison,
there was nothing strange.

And he told me something
that blew my mind

that in the first few days
after the disappearance of Emanuela...

he, Marco Accetti

went with Emanuela
for a few strolls in the city center.

It was incredible.

It was the first or second night.

We went for a walk right there,
in the nearby streets

between Regina Coeli and Porta Settimiana.

She was wearing a short wig.

It was a wig with bangs
and short up to here.

We just had an ice cream.

Why did you do it?

Because it was
a small gesture to make her trust us.

To show her
that it was a "fake" kidnapping.

-Was she afraid?
-She wanted to go home.

So she was sad?

Yes.

Melancholic. She wanted to go back
because it was going on for so long.

Okay, Marco.

Was this when you started
calling the family as The American...

in order to negotiate
an exchange for Ali Agca?

Yes.

At that time

I felt a heavy frustration professionally.

We absolutely had to find The American

with the phone in his hand.

You told me before that at some point

one day you came close.

How did this happen?

Do you remember the moment it happened?

Yes, I'll tell you now.

Marco, I wanted to ask you
something important.

Do you remember when you were
making calls from the phone booths?

-Yes.
-You were being The American?

Do you remember an episode
where the police almost caught you?

Yes.

At that time, in those years

there was no advanced technology

but we had one clue.

Officials will contact you very soon.

There! This sound is the clue.

This is a train whistle.

There was a phone booth
in front of the railway station.

Whether they intercepted it
or not, I don't know.

The national phone company

told us that some of those phone calls

had been made
from very specific areas of Rome.

An area surrounding Termini Station,
the central station of Rome.

Our objective was

to disable some of the phone boxes

in order to concentrate our surveillance

just on those boxes
that were still working.

For a phone call to be traced,

it had to last at least
two or three minutes.

So we trained the lawyer Egidio,

who was receiving
the phone calls from The American,

to keep the conversation going
as long as possible.

One day, during a phone call...

...SIP, the phone company,
managed to track a phone box.

We were in San Silvestro square

looking at the square

with the clock on the right.

I don't know if this bar's still there.

It had payphones.

I was with two girls
because we always had a cover.

A surveillance patrol

headed very quickly
towards that phone box.

I heard a car
arriving at an incredible speed

screeching around the bend

and I instinctively put my arms
around these two girls at my sides

to pretend that
we were walking out together.

I turn around a little
and see an unmarked car

and a man getting out of it,
I still remember him now.

A tall, young man,
very tall, with a beard.

And I just walked away

towards Via del Corso.

Okay, we understand how you did it

but why?

Why take Emanuela?

Who were you working for?

This topic is too extensive.

Too extensive.

The truth is

that members of the Vatican City
kidnapped Emanuela Orlandi.

Accetti explained to me
that he was part of an organization

working secretly with some priests.

A covert unit
in the shadows of the Vatican

which I called "The Ganglion."

Who was in this group?

Not people...

Not high-level people of great rank

assistants always from the Home Office

and some people from outside.

-Priests?
-No, not all of them.

It was people
who knew each other, and tried to...

get results with unorthodox methods.

Where did you meet?

Always outside the Vatican City

in private homes.

Accetti told me that this group

was convinced that the best way
to restore the Church in the East.

To get Catholicism to grow in Russia

was through communication.

Not frontal attacks.

Not a permanent tension with the East.

Yes.

The policy was a dialogue with the East

and cooperation
towards Iron Curtain countries.

Because two years
before Emanuela's abduction

there had been an attempt
on the Pope's life in St Peter's Square.

And by mid-year Ali Agca started revealing

who was behind the attack
on St. Peter's Square.

Agca

had undermined our diplomatic aims

creating serious problems,
serious imbalances.

Therefore we needed
to make a desperate gesture

to force Agca to take a step back.

So that was you on the telephone?

Yes, of course. I was the caller.

You say you were
involved in Gregori's case.

Of course.

-Have you ever abducted girls before?
-Yes...

...no. No, of course not.

My family was made up of four people.

Me, my mother, my father,
who are no longer here, and Mirella.

Mirella Gregori, who's this one here.

A simple and smiling girl.

Fun and outgoing.

My parents at the time owned a bar.

On 7 May 1983

exactly 45 days
before Emanuela went missing...

Mirella had just returned from school.

We lived on the second floor
in a building at Porta Pia

in the center of Rome.

Someone buzzed the intercom

and she was the one who answered.

I used a name that I knew

was of one of her school friends.

Then she went to my mother and said

"It's Alessandro, my friend from school.

Five minutes and I will
come back upstairs, don't worry."

Instead, she went downstairs
and we never saw her again.

Gregori was told that
her father had serious financial problems.

He could have lost his bar

and by coming with us,
she could bring some cash home.

It was all a trick.

My parents were in an indescribable state.

She promised she would come back
in ten minutes, but I never saw her again.

No phone calls, messages, nothing?

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Total silence?

Absolute silence.

Weeks went by with no news.

At some point, everything changes.

I was working at the bar with my husband.

I answered the phone

and said, "Hello?"
and on the other side I heard someone...

He told me to write, "Antonia t-shirt.

Reading trousers with a black belt."

Then, "Woolen underwear."

And finally, they said

"Shiny black shoes with heels

by Saroyan of Rome."

It scared us because that meant

that the caller knew
what my sister was wearing.

Marco Accetti told me
that for the negotiations

between the kidnappers
and the Italian state

for the pardon of Ali Agca

they needed two little girls

of different citizenships.

One Italian and one Vatican.

Mirella Gregori, to put pressure
on the President of the Italian Republic,

who was the holder of the pardon.

And Emanuela Orlandi,
to put pressure on the Vatican.

The Pope, given that
he cared about Orlandi's destiny

would have asked
the President of the Republic, Pertini

who also cared about
an Italian citizen's disappearance

to grant him a pardon.

That is why they used Gregori.

Which basically stated

that if we wanted Mirella to be freed

my mother had to ask
the President at the time, Sandro Pertini

to appeal for Ali Agca to be freed.

Not surprisingly, Sandro Pertini
felt obligated to make an appeal

via an interview with the ANSA agency,
in October 1983.

An appeal for the girls' release.

In particular,
my thoughts are with Emanuela Orlandi

and Mirella Gregori.

As always, I also pray
for the person who attacked me.

The fact that both the Pope
and the President intervened

confirmed to me
that Accetti was telling something true

in reporting the action of the Ganglion.

And from then on we saw the faces
of Mirella and Emanuela together.

So what went wrong?

-Just the return home of the girls.
-Why?

Answers never arrived,
so time dragged on, you know?

Do you remember
the last time you saw Emanuela?

Of course.

Was she alive or dead?

She was alive, of course.

In the beginning, I certainly believed

that what Accetti said was true.

He had brought the flute.

And as a family

we were always inclined
to believe and pursue

every person who showed up and said

"I know something."

One day I was contacted by a TV show

they wanted to film a meeting
between me and Accetti.

So I accepted this meeting,
but it was a bit heavy.

But I have to say

it's not easy to confront the person who

if he's telling the truth

together with other people

has been the cause
of enormous pain to our family

and probably destroyed the life

the hopes and dreams
of a 15-year-old girl.

I overcame the difficulty

and managed to not react badly

because he was a very arrogant person.

You claim to know

how the kidnapping was orchestrated,
the motive for it.

I asked him questions.

I asked him to name the people
who had been responsible with him.

And he refused.

"I will not name anybody."

When I provide enough clues...

This is not a game! This is not a riddle

where you give me a clue
and I have to work the rest out.

Are you going
to carry on making fools of us?

Here we are questioning...

Were there important people
within the Vatican

who hired you to accomplish this task?

I'm not the kind of person who betrays...

But you are the kind of person who
organizes and takes part in a kidnapping.

It was in order
to obtain specific results

in a certain political context.

Why was Emanuela chosen?

She wasn't chosen.

-There was a whole range...
-But it was no coincidence.

-Because it was organized.
-No.

As I said to the prosecutors,
there were various girls...

Was it because of her citizenship?

Of course!

We also considered Cristina,
the youngest one.

This left me...

I mean, I wanted
to throw him against the wall.

I mean Emanuela

because of her generosity

her openness, and her freshness.

-How dare you say that?
-Excuse me?

You can't talk about Emanuela like that.

The only thing I can say for sure

is that you were never
in contact with Emanuela.

Are we getting personal?

You've spoken of the kidnapping

saying that Emanuela
had accepted this situation

because you had told her

that her family knew she was only
going away for two or three days.

Right, so this already tells me you never
had any type of contact with Emanuela.

-I knew her very well.
-Let's stop here then.

Emanuela didn't even go out at night

-she would have never, ever accepted...
-Never say never.

You claim to be one of the callers

so you must have made calls to our home.

There's a detail
that The American told us.

It's something that physically happened
to Emanuela, in the first days.

Something that has never been revealed

nor spoken of by anyone.

The person we called The American told us

that Emanuela had hurt her wrist, her arm

but she'd been treated
because she was with two Italian doctors.

You can't have forgotten this detail.

He told me, "No, it's not you,
because you don't remember

a sentence said to my uncle
in one of that phone calls"

as if it were a kind of quiz

where you win something.

It's all about the memory game.
I was there!

If I had to ask you some questions now

about facts you are supposed to know.

It's possible,
you might miss something out.

Of course,
but that was an important thing.

But that doesn't mean
that you aren't her brother.

What he said on that occasion

was upsetting and painful to me

but I realized then

on that occasion
more than ever before maybe

that he was bluffing.

If you throw bombs and run away,
it means you are a coward.

Because it means
you are making us suffer in vain.

So, I am sending this message
to everyone that acted this way

because there have been
a lot of them in our story.

They throw bombs and run away.

But they do not realize
what this causes to the family.

Marco Accetti,
who offered himself to the prosecutors

claiming responsibility for the abduction
of the daughter of a Vatican employee

as a part of a plan aimed
at blackmailing Pope John Paul II

is accused of "autocalunnia..."

She promised she would come back
in ten minutes, but I never saw her again.

This is a message from Ercole Orlandi
to the kidnappers of Emanuela.

This is not a game! This is not a riddle

where you give me a clue
and I have to work the rest out.

Accetti kept insisting
that he was The American, the caller.

And above all, he insisted on saying

"I challenge the courts.

Do the sound analysis
compare the voices.

Just listen to the voice of The American.

I'll give you mine.

Make the comparison
and then come find me."

You say you were The American.

It's not that I say so,
it's the voice that says so.

You just need to do a comparison.

So, you can confirm
that you were The American?

Yes.

We'd had some research done.

Some voice analysis research.

It's ridiculous,
simply ridiculous. It's not true.

"For Mirella

-there's nothing to do." Remember?
-It was a bluff.

-You didn't kill her?
-No.

I don't think Accetti had an actual role
in the disappearance of Emanuela.

But I do think he had a role
in the disappearance of Mirella Gregori.

I think he should
be investigated for that.

Because there is another family
waiting for answers.

Even today
I continue to hope she is alive.

I want to believe she is alive.

I won't believe
my sister's dead until I have her body.

Hope never dies, right?

As my mother used to say

"Until I can put flowers on her grave

I won't believe she's dead."

But unfortunately, despite all the tests
that were carried out

there was no trace of DNA

there was nothing inside,
there was only dust.

It was just a flute from that era.

Honey, you're talking to the one who,
in all modesty, created the Orlandi case.

It's true that

as his father told the investigators

he was obsessed
with Emanuela's story from the outset.

He did not think about anything else.

This was his desire.

He wanted to be a celebrity.

Anyway, let's have a break.

I think that we should be talking
about Accetti less and less

because he gets off on it.

He lives for this.

He's received
too much attention over the years.

The more attention you give him

the stronger he feels.

This is very harmful.

Welcome back, friends.
African high pressure continues...

I can't give you my real name

but I was one of Emanuela's best friends.

Emanuela called me

a few days before the disappearance.

She said, "Listen.

We need to meet up.
I have a secret to confess."

Then Emanuela told me

that while she was walking
in the Vatican gardens...

Did you know that was a sexual advance?

Absolutely yes.

Subtitle translation by:
Elisabetta Biagiola