ITALY
la Repubblica
di MARINO BISSO
I manifesti con i volti di Emanuela Orlandi e Mirella Gregori
ROMA - "C'è chi dice che assomiglio all'identikit che avete pubblicato, quello del rapitore della Orlandi. Ma se anche fosse non significherebbe nulla. La verità è che non c'entro nulla così come non c'entra nulla Renatino. Quella casa sulla Gianicolense non era la prigione di Emanuela ma il rifugio segreto dove si nascondeva Renatino ricercato dalla polizia...". A parlare è un ex componente della banda della Magliana finito nelle nuove indagini sul rapimento della quindicenne figlia del commesso della prefettura Vaticana sparita il 22 giugno dell'83.
[translation]
A very faithful follower of boss De Pedis
"The witness Minardi has reported false stories"
"Orlandi? In that bunker it was Renatino who was hiding"
by MARINO BISSO
ROME - "Someone says I resemble the identikit of the Orlandi’s kidnapper you published. But even if it were true that wouldn’t have any meaning. The truth is I haven’t anything to do with that story as well as Renatino De Pedis. That house in the Gianicolense neighborhood wasn’t Emanuela’s prison but the secret place where Renatino was hiding from the Police….”
The speaker is a former member of the Magliana gang now investigated for the kidnapping of the 15-year-old daughter of the Vatican Prefecture’s clerk, the girl who disappeared on Jun 22, 1983 (Note: according to what Ms. Minardi, the "super witness", said recently to the police, she had then been kidnapped by Renatino De Pedis by order of archbishop Marcinkus)
The investigators have found a likeness of the man with the identikit of the alleged kidnappers of Emanuela Orlandi and Mirella Gregori. He was a little over 20-year-old and his name had never appeared in the great investigations on the criminal activities of that gang . He is supported by another man, who knew boss Renatino very well and together, having been granted the benefit of anonymity , decided to speak about the super witness Sabrina Minardi and their boss.
"Sabrina says many lies and only a few things are true. She lies when she says that in the apartment house with a cellar in the Gianicolense neighborhood Orlandi was kept as a captive. That wasn’t a hiding place for the kidnapped people but only for those wanted by the police. It was Renatino’s refuge. Many times he hid down there, especially after he had a motorbike accident. He couldn’t move about and he needed a safe place. That cellar was the ideal place because it had an escape route and through the tunnel he could reach the San Camillo hospital”.
What was the relationship between Minardi and Renatino?
"I remember Minardi very well: she was very beautiful but she was already a cocaine addict. None of us would confide anything important to her. Especially Renatino…. He would never have said what she reported about Orlandi. Besides that Sabrina was never his girl friend. Yes, they had a story but then it all ended. He used her , let’s say that, to reach important people and politicians. She was the bait for the “big fish” . I recall when she tried to blackmail Mino Martinazzoli (a leader of the Christian Democratic Party). He was the Minister of Justice then and in the House they were discussing a bill which increased the length of sentence for some crimes. Renatino had built a special setting in his home at Eur ( an upper class neighborhood), he filled it with glasses behind which he put cameras. He had already hired some cameramen from Cinecitta’ (the known place were movies are made) to shoot sex scenes. To make Sabrina sexier he paid her for the expenses of breast and ankle surgery, her breasts being too small and the ankles too thick. Then the trap for Martinazzoli failed because he didn’t accept to meet her”.
Why do you think Minardi decided to speak to the Police?
"I think she did it to help her daughter who is risking many years of jail . But it also could be she needs to make some money crediting herself as a Police collaborator.”
What do Renatino’s friends think of it?
"We are not afraid of the investigation. But it’s very annoying to see Renatino being muddied with the Orlandi’s story. Renato did many things even I don’t know about but he has nothing to do with that one. He was capable to kill you but he would have never organized kidnappings. He was contrary to sequesters. He hated prisons and he would say “I’ll never be a jailer”. Lawyer Rocco Condoleo knows that very well. He defended me in a trial for drugs and I was acquitted. He was his “historical” criminal lawyer and when Renatino ended up in jail with Enrico Nicoletti he decided to assign his defense to Wilfredo Vitalone because he had been told the lawyer’s brother, Claudio, was about to be appointed as Minister of Justice”.
What has the church of Sant’Apollinare to do with the Orlandi case?
"I have no idea. I only know Renato had a special relationship with that church. He had married there and he often went there to speak with the priests. He was religious. He had expressed the wish to be buried there and that was granted to him. Renatino wasn’t only a boss. In those years he helped many poor people who needed a job. And he had many connections anywhere, even in the fashion business. Renatino was also convinced one day he would change his life. For that his wife had nothing to do with his environment and his family was kept in the dark. He was the eldest brother and he did not want the younger ones could end up like him. He was even capable to beat them up if they didn’t listen to him. But that was done because he adored them. Now they want to open his tomb at Sant’Apollinare to try to find I don’t know what. But they’ll find nothing but Renatino. I’m sure of that….”
(4 luglio 2008)