“I’m Emanuela Orlandi and I attend a science high school.”

October 23, 2014 4:39 PM

The Orlandi Code: [Toronto Star] The Mafia, communist spies, the Pope and the twisted mystery of a kidnapped Vatican girl.
posted by Fizz (3 comments total)

"Three decades with no sign of life from a beloved daughter is heartache enough. But when the disappearance is linked to Cold War power struggles, the attempted murder of a pope, Vatican connections to Mob money-laundering, a mobster’s tomb in a prestigious Catholic church and claims of satanic orgies by prelates, a mother’s sorrow is lost in nationwide melodrama."

Wow, I cannot even imagine. Also, I feel very ignorant and uninformed but I have never once heard about this story. I'm not Catholic but it has just never been referenced by any person or thing that I have read or encountered. Quite a mystery.
posted by Fizz at 4:43 PM on October 23, 2014

Roman photographer Roberta Hidalgo — famous for surreptitiously snapping Pope John Paul II in a bathing suit — describes following the Orlandi family for months. At one point, Hidalgo wrapped tape around her fingers and literally stumbled into Emanuela’s mother, walking away with strands of her hair. Then she rifled through Pietro Orlandi’s garbage and took his wife’s discarded tampons.

She claims to have conducted some kind of DNA tests for her big “scoop” — Emanuela is alive and pretending to be Pietro’s wife.

Cristo! Che stronzo.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:35 PM on October 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

It's a tragedy and I feel badly for this family that has suffered so much but I cannot help think that this would make an amazing movie.
posted by Fizz at 5:55 PM on October 23, 2014