Saturday, February 23, 2013

An Overview From Italy #3 Dr Michel Giuttari Speaks Out About The Trumped Up Florence Case

Posted by Machiavelli



[Dr Michele Giuttari, former head of the Mobile Squad in Florenece and prominet authoer]


Dr Giuttari and Dr Mignini are connected because they both investigated the Monster of Florence case - and because a nasty case trumped up in Florence in retaliation has just been killed by the Supreme Court. .

The erratic Mario Spezi and his timid colleague the sniper from afar Doug Preston have blown up that case to gigantic proportions, as have the Knox and Sollecito forces, and most recently (very foolishly and ill-timed, as his claims may constitute contempt of court) Raffaele Sollecito himself.

Some important background can be found in Overview #2 and Comments here.

Michele Giuttari started his police career in the 1970s’ as a mobile squad detective in Calabria; after 15 years of “Calabrian ” experience he was appointed to the Anti-Mafia Division of Naples, and subsequently became the head of the Mobile Squad in Florence.  During his Florentine service time, following investigation guidelines under the direction of prosecutor Piero Luigi Vigna, he produced a solution to the “˜Monster of Florence’ case, but also brought the investigation to an unexpected turning point.



[Former Florence chief prosecutor Piero Luigi Vigna created the “monster of Florence” term]


As Vigna deduced, the MoF was not really one serial killer, but rather the manifestation of the killing activity carried on by a small group of people, at least three.  In fact three people were found guilty for taking part to the murders;  but both prosecutor and judges were not entirely satisfied: because there was evidence ““ so the court concluded ““ that someone else was involved too, who remained unknown.

The investigation into the death of Dr Francesco Narducci was opened in Perugia in 2005 as a routine cold case, because of Narducci’s wife’s and relatives’  doubts about the “official” version of his “accidental” death in Lake Trasimeno. 



[Former Perugia doctor Francesco Narducci found drowned in Lake Trasimeno]


Points of contact between Narducci and the MoF emerged independently from two directions, from the Perugia investigation, and from Giuttari’s findings from the previous Florence investigation.

Crossed analysis with the data bank collected by Michele Giuttari showed that several people were common witnesses both in the Narducci and the MoF case, while many things in the Narducci case were not adding up (for example, the unburied body was found to have died by strangulation, not by drowning, his trachea and hyoid bone were crushed). 

Something even more unexpected was that the investigation into the Narducci case revealed - and partly itself triggered - a network or other collateral crimes. A number of people were caught engaged in criminal activities with the purpose of plotting cover-ups and obstruction of justice on this cold case.  Among them were law enforcement officers and lawyers. 

But most surprising and peculiar, there was a fierce reaction from some magistrates among the Florence judiciary, in an attempt to stop the Perugia investigation. 

The first wild accusations launched by a Florentine prosecutor against Perugia offices were proven false, so the most serious charges were dropped by a preliminary judge as obviously unfounded. 

But a second wave of legal action followed, alleging that Giuttari and Mignini’s wiretapping recordings were false;  this accusation was also proven false in a trial, as expert technicians demonstrated the authenticity of all material.

But after ignoring the objection about territorial competence the judge managed to let one accusation stand ““ that of abuse of office, a charge less serious than the previous ones, which was not formulated on points of facts but only on points of law ““ at the first degree trial.

After some years,  this charge was canceled, as the courts finally declared the whole investigation illegitimate, and they nullified both the first degree trial, and the investigation and indictment itself.

A last attempt by the Florentine prosecution to further delay closure was ended by the recent, final Supreme Court verdict.  Meanwhile, a couple of Florentine magistrates were successful in stopping the investigation into the Narducci case, for a total of seven years.   

Unfortunately these happenings are not entirely new to the Italian judiciary. This one resembles other happenings ““ possibly more serious ““ that affected the system in recent Italian history (the most famous examples are the Elisa Claps, or the plots known as “Toghe Lucane” targeting known magistrates such as Luigi De Magistris and Henry John Woodcock). 

The system shows symptoms of stress from the whole extreme political instability of the country, but so far it still manages to fiercely resist those drifts.

Michele Giuttari is also an author.  Albeit he is not the top crime fiction novelist for sales in Italy (the Italian market has top-class masters in the genre), yet he is the top-selling Italian crime writer in the English speaking world. Curiously, the best-seller among all his titles published in Italy ““ the non-fiction book about the history of the true MoF investigation ““ is the only one in his books which has so far been rejected by American publishing houses.   



[The top-selling Michele Giuttari book, the non-fiction Il Mostro]


His last book bears the title “The Evil Dreams of Florence” [image of cover at bottom] and he might have chosen it as a metaphor of what he was drawn into by some people within the Florentine authorities and some in high positions.

After the final Supreme Court verdict on Feb 8., he posted a long comment about it in Italian on his Facebook page, in which he addresses his criticism mainly toward the head of police Antonio Manganelli . 



[Chief of Italy’s civil police Antonio Manganelli]


I agree with Giuttari about the shame police chief Antonio Manganelli brought on his administration through the terrible handling of the case of the Genoa G8 violence.  In 2001 some police corps attacked and tortured peaceful demonstrators in Genoa, following political inclinations, in what was called by Amnesty International “the most serious violation of civil rights committed by police forces in Western Europe” after WW2.

The leader of the Democrats (the main opposition party) at the time called it “state violence with a fascist mark”. Recently Cassation definitively called the event a “shame”, and prominent journalist Marco Travaglio wrote an open letter to Antonio Manganelli, saying “I beg you to kick out from your police force the authors of such henious crimes” . 



[Police violence against peaceful protestors at Group of 8 meeting Genoa 2001]


Yet Manganelli (ironically his name means “batons” in Italian, and the Diaz School night assault is now remembered as “la notte dei manganelli”) ““  a man who apparently has the quality of being friends with many high-profile politics ““ had chosen to “help” them, to defend and protect from prosecution the proven authors of political violence, while at the same time, apparently he didn’t care about what was going on in Florence and quietly pulled a curtain of silence on a “politically uncomfortable” issue. 

I add that Manganelli was recently found to be the most paid public employee of the Italian State (with a wage of 621,000 euros per year).

Dr Giuttari expressed his outrage against Manganelli in a comment on his Facebook page which I translate below.

He makes this statement on behalf of Dr Mignini as well. 

Seven years of deafening silence by the head of State Police Manganelli

On February 8. 2013 the Supreme Court of Cassation, by declaring them inadmissible, put the final seal on the investigations that the Florentine prosecution had “illegitimately” carried on against myself, on the basis of mere accusatory theories about absurdly formulized charges of abuse of office which, allegedly, I committed concurring together with Perugia Public Minister Giuliano Mignini in the course of official activity, during my enactment of the written orders of a PM [supervising magistrate] at the time when I was responsible for a special team which had been created by the head of the police through a Ministry decree. 

And this [Supreme Court] decision confirms, in a certain and incontrovertible way, on the one hand the “instrumental” nature of the judicial events, and on the other hand the fact that we should not ever have been investigated; and, what’s worse, that we should not ever have been tried in Florence by magistrates who weren’t impartial at all: and this is exactly what Cassation has asserted, addressing the investigators with a clear message, even if they did it by using the available legal formula of territorial incompetence (functional rectius)! 
     
So ended a case of Italian miscarriage of justice, which, besides causing damages to we the defendants, it also caused ““ and this is even more serious and absolutely unforgivable ““ the stopping in 2006 of the ongoing investigation into the death of the medical doctor Francesco Narducci in Lake Trasimeno, which was believed to be connected to the serial murders of couples around Florence (the so-called monster of Florence). 

It was seven long years of bitterness.  Seven long years of blocked investigation.  Seven long years of denial of justice to the victims’ relatives.

Seven long years during which the head of State Police held to deontologically [ethically] reprehensible behavior, which was especially serious since we are talking about a man [Manganelli] supposed to be an institutional point of reference for many people who put their lives at risk on a daily basis ““ who was appointed to occupy a top post (by the way, as we recently learned, a financially very, very well paid post), and he simply abandoned to his fate one police officer [myself] who had a professional history not inferior to his own, though not to his predecessor who held the same post before him.

This officer ““ leaving aside the solving of the monster of Florence case ““ was

(1) honored in the fight against the “˜ndrangheta [the Calabrian mafia] (on July 10. 2009 the Chief Prosecutor of Reggio Calabria declared publicly that Giuttari as a detective “created a turning point in the history of fight against “˜ndrangheta”);

(2) honored in the fight against the camorra (when responsible for the judiciary police department of the Anti-Mafia Division of Naples, I was appointed on request of the national Anti-mafia prosecutor Bruno Siclari for travel to South America for an important and dangerous investigation about an international drug traffic and an impressive series of murders);

(3) honored in the fight against the Cosa Nostra, and in particular the investigation of the 1993 mafia massacres of Florence, Rome and Milan (chief prosecutor Vigna, as he concluded the preliminary investigation, sent a letter to the head of the Anti-mafia Division ““ letter #8/95, sent on 2.2.1995 ““ where he stressed the officer’s important contribution);     

I could go on.

They were all “pure” investigation , with no contribution from mafia turncoats or cooperators!

And what about the head of the state police?

He didn’t do what he was supposed to in his function as the police chief:

(1) protect his officer, from risks including those deriving from the important police activities accomplished; answer ““ or make someone answer for his office ““ the explanatory letters that were sent to him, very detailed letters which had a judicial corroboration today (letters were sent directly to him on 2.20.2010 and 5.20. 2010);

(2) protect him from professional and economical damage (for example by paying in advance, as was his duty, the legal expenses)  since he knew very well that the officer operated in an institutional role, in the name of and on behalf of his administration.

He remained deaf to the various requests which were forwarded by the Minister of Interior himself at that time, he didn’t do anything. Inexplicably, he ignored everything. 

And further, I cannot keep quiet about the punishments against the cooperators in my working team.

None of them was allowed to go back to the Mobile Squad, they were all appointed to totally unrewarding duties such as guard work.  All these humiliations were offenses to the personal dignity of hard working people, as humble servants of the state let alone being police officers. And moreover it was true professional competences that were lost. 

A deafening silence.

I might go on but I want to recall instead what Manganelli did ““ even at the cost of his own public exposure ““ in favor of those colleagues who were involved in the Genoa G8 events, the saddest page in the history of Italian police to my memory!

They were actually promoted in their rank and functions! I think about what he did for them, even paying thousands and thousands of euros in advance for their legal expenses and for the provisional damage payments, as reported in newspapers (Il Secolo XIX of 5. 22. 2010, p.6).

A deafening silence.

These of the head of police are conducts reasonably leading anyone to conclude that he used a double standard, he considered his employees, involved in different cases, as divided between “sons and stepsons” (the Genoa case ended with definitive convictions of all on all charges, the case where I was involved was shown to be a judicial flop). 

Or even better put (it is incorrect to call his behavior a “double standard” or a different treatment for “sons and stepsons”)  it was actually two opposite policies, on situations that were opposites to each other.

No, that’s really not good at all. That’s not how it should be. 

And you should not ignore your own employees while you listen to those who are criminally indicted, you have your personal secretary call to fix a hearing at the Ministry with them, and you listen to them while they complain against others who were investigating them by written orders of the Public Minister ! (in the trial papers ““ no longer officially secret ““ there are phone call recordings with unequivocal meaning).

the head of police Manganelli was utterly disappointing to me, since he revealed himself to be light-years distant from the man and the officer I happened to know at the beginning of the eighties, before his drift into pernicious “political” things.

Hopefully, soon or later, a parliament inquiry on the Perugia and Florence judicial events will be appointed, to search into the behavior of some institutional personalities. I’ll be ready to offer my contribution to that.

And I’m sure Dr. Mignini will do the same too.

I conclude with a twofold question:  Will the head of police now feel some guil, at least morally as a person? Doesn’t he think he should respond ““ if not to an ordinary court ““ to the most severe tribunal of his own conscience, within his internal judgment?

Michele Giuttari,  ex-head of the Florence Mobile Squad

 



[Cover of Michele Gittari’s book “The Evil Dreams of Florence “]


Comments

Amazing investigation Yummi, Migninis home free and free to defend his good name, and Michele Giuttari’s charges against Antonio Manganelli are just jaw-dropping to the initiated.

This post and subject really deserves a road map to link it to many other posts which tell parts of this heating-up story.

I’m on the road and cant help now, but here is a heads-up I posted on PMF which will be replaced later with that road map.

*****

Thanks to Bedelia, JAR, etc, above for their pointers to key entry-level posts on TJMK.

Soon we’ll have two new pages up, roadmaps, for ordered reading on Meredith’s case and on the MOF case, where the KR96136’s can be dispatched to.

Skep, Kermit, Jools, JAR, and others here have often posted on the MOF case, Preston, and Mignini. Major translation was posted of a Mignini interview etc by the PMF team. On TJMK Yummi now has an excellent new post up which takes off from theirs.

In case you missed it (that post is our first time reporting it) two weeks ago Cassation definitively called a halt to ANY further attempt to “investigate” or charge Mignini and Giuttari for “obstruction of justice”.

The way is open for Mignini and Giuttari to say what they want (and sue who they want; Spezi already, and Preston is next in the crosshairs) and does Giuttari come out with an opening humdinger!!

On his Facebook page (translated by Yummi) he takes a full frontal whack at the national chief of police, Antonio Manganelli.

MANY tried to derail the Giuttari-Mignini MOF investigations and in his previous post Yummi explained some of the murky reasons why.

http://www.truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/an_overview_from_italy_2_current_perceptions_in_italy/

If Police Chief Antonio Manganelli had not actively undermined the MOF/Narducci investigations maybe it would now be known who the perps were in both cases, Prestons book would never have happened, Preston and Spezi might be sitting in prison, Mignini would not have been vilified worldwide, including by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Sforza might have found Perugia Shock impossible to bend Knox’s way, and the FOA might well have never existed.

So Giuttari’s revelations get to the rotten core of the whole thing. Good news. Gripping reading.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/24/13 at 04:24 PM | #

Look what a beautiful face our chief of police has.

Looks like a cross between Steve Moore and an abyssal fish.

Posted by Yummi on 02/24/13 at 06:00 PM | #

I had a chat with two colleages of mine recently and the topic of Meredith´s murder came up during our conversation. They asked me why I was still so fascinated by a case which happened over five years ago. “It´s old news! You´d rather focus on current events like the trial of Pinctorus ( that athlete who murdered his wife , did I get his name right ? ).
Anyway, I am shocked by to what levels of callousness human beings can resort . So I am not supposed to care about a murder merely because it happened some time ago ? Is it really that obsolete already ?
Still they agreed with me that Knox is guilty. “Knox was an absolutely unscrupulous woman .” They unsed the past tense as well ,as if Meredith´s murderer had actually taken place in some earlier era and her killers were dead as well instead of being fully alive and still on trial as they are in real life. Otherwise the contents of that last remark were fair enough.

Posted by aethelred23 on 02/24/13 at 06:34 PM | #

Thanks Yummi for a great post!

Do you believe in Karma? 

From Giuttari’s FB statement shown above: “Will the head of police now feel some guilt, at least morally as a person? Doesn’t he think he should respond – if not to an ordinary court – to the most severe tribunal of his own conscience, within his internal judgment?” 

News today from Corriere: ‘The Chief of Police, Antonio Manganelli, was rushed to San Giovanni hospital in Rome this afternoon for the removal of a cerebral hematoma as a result of a hemorrhage…’
http://www.corriere.it/cronache/13_febbraio_24/manganelli-ricovero-urgente_f9d3eafa-7ead-11e2-b686-47065ea4180a.shtml

Posted by jools. on 02/24/13 at 09:45 PM | #

@ Jools

(!) Maybe not in karma, but I believe in Yoga and holistic principles of medicine. 

“...Secondo quanto si è appreso, il capo delle Polizia avrebbe avuto la rottura di un vaso intracranico che avrebbe provocato la formazione di un ematoma intracerebrale, rimosso durante l’operazione. “

Traslation:

“As for what we could know, the chief of police suffered the rupture of an intra-cranial vase which allegedly caused the formation of a internal brain hematoma, that was removed during surgery…” 

I hope he actually manages to remove the burden and repair his brain circulation….

Posted by Yummi on 02/25/13 at 12:42 AM | #

Hi Yummi.  Thank you for another very informative post.  I remember your post on the masonic culture, but I’m curious if you have any idea regarding the more concrete reasons why Giuttari’s MoF investigation had to be stopped.  What was it that he came across which unsettled the powers-that-be so greatly?

I’m rather uninformed about the MoF case, so I’m sorry if this sounds ignorant.

Posted by Vivianna on 02/25/13 at 05:49 PM | #

Hi Yummi, as usual with your posts, this one is absolutely fascinating and really shakes up the “orthodox spin” that both Italians and non-Italians have been submitted to over the last few years from writers who have more to get out of this than simply telling the truth (jingling sound heard in pockets).

Now the high courts have negated the basis of the “investigation” against Giuttari and Mignini for “abuse of office”, and no other jurisdiction seems to have any interest in wasting time in taking up the Florentine charade. It remains to be seen if the spin doctors will accept this judicial and real truth, or if they will continue to spread lies about the two gentlemen. As public servants simply doing their job, it appears that they were touching sensitive nerves in the Monster of Florence and Narducci investigations.

I honestly don’t expect much out of those writers of lies and insinuation: the spin doctors won’t ask for forgiveness and redemption, because they have known all along that their tales were less than truthful, and they are surely convinced that their perceived material and PR gains will be maintained if they maintain the lies.

Shame.

In the meantime, the families of MoF victims see even further off the clarification of the crimes against their loved ones ... which in spite of the decades that have passed surely have provoked grief that these families will never be able to set aside.

In a similar manner, the more recent investigation into the killers behind Meredith Kercher’s brutal murder has also suffered the dark manoeuvres of the same spinners. And now that the tides are changing, these spinners are scared of the Truth.

However, the Truth will prevail and forever condemn the spinners to suffer their own anguish and lies, like the eternally punished Sisyphus. Whatever respect they may have ever commanded as communicators of news and truth will dry, shrivel up and be forgotten.

Posted by Kermit on 02/25/13 at 09:06 PM | #

@ Peter

“If Police Chief Antonio Manganelli had not actively undermined the MOF/Narducci investigations maybe it would now be known who the perps were in both cases, Prestons book would never have happened, Preston and Spezi might be sitting in prison, Mignini would not have been vilified worldwide, including by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Sforza might have found Perugia Shock impossible to bend Knox’s way, and the FOA might well have never existed.”

I don’t think Manganelli ever “actively undermined” the MOF/Narducci investigation; possibly the former prosecutor Nannucci did so. Manganelli rather just didn’t do anything to help Giuttari, at the time when he and Dr. Mignini became the targets of the questionable, obviously politically-driven investigation. He didn’t do anything, because he understood he had some political consequence to fear, what may derive from bothering powerful people.

I don’t think Spezi and Preston would be sitting in prison: Preston will not go to prison in anywas (though he committed some crimes): his crimes are not serious enough for that; Spezi instead, well it is still too early , but there are some possibilities for him to spend a little time in prison.

Preston and Spezi are going to stay a bit more quiet now. It’s time for them to defend themselves rather than to make noise. It seems Franks Sforza too sensed a wind change: did you notice, as Mignini’s lawsuit went public, he obscured his own site.

The Committee (CPJ) managed to discredit itself in the saddest possible way, as they posed in pictures together with Spezi ad called for action to defend Sforza at the OSCE.

I think they would have written the blogs and books they liked anyway; I don’t think their blogs and books will have a great impact on the history of humans.

The FOA might well exist as well as plots and corrupt journalists and judges: Manganelli is not that powerful. He is only a mean little man in power, morally inadequate to his post and to the money he gets, but he didn’t take any active nor consequential initiative in the story.

He is a character useful to understand events, you just look at the behavior of this little man and this helps you to understand the kind of political motives and powers behind the attack against Mignini and Giuttari.

Posted by Yummi on 02/26/13 at 12:21 AM | #

Hi Yummi.

I wonder if you are aware that Preston and Spezi are out to make more trouble, with a book out in Germany next month that the publisher says will make claims much the same about police and prosecution as Sollecito’s. Dont shrug them off just yet. Like too many others they have done some damage, and will have some backing down or going quiet to do. You may realize it, but do they?! Kermit aint finished holding their feet to the fire here. 

And yes Italian police are decentralized and diversified and their commands structures are diffuse but it is Giuttari himself who “credits” Manganelli with favoring some officers and cases over others and thus creating some real hurt. Timely translation, thanks.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/26/13 at 03:26 AM | #

Yes Spezi and Preston have this book going out in Germany; that was an initiative they had been planning for long, I suppose.

They expect the Supreme Court to drop their charges in the Narducci case on March 21.  I’m not sure their expectetion will be fulfilled. The SC might do that, but more likely they will re-open the case against them. 

But anyway, I bet Spezi and Preston won’t make so much noise in Italy as before; when I say “Spezi and Preston” I in fact include their friends (like Brindani, Sulas, to start). I know they are in some difficulties.

They know there will be a series of counter attacks on their “friends” from now on. Look at judge Maradei, for example. Or Rodolfo Fiesoli.  You see, I think they understand their plot is very much exposed.

It’s going to come under the attention of journalists (at this moment Italy has greater problems, both in Tuscany and on the national scale; but the old Narducci case is an evergreen Perugian topic and might get back on the radar).

Posted by Yummi on 02/26/13 at 03:37 AM | #

This is a fascinating read. Giuttari sounds very bitter, and he has a right to be.

How does the head of the state police make 621,000 euros anyway?

Posted by brmull on 02/26/13 at 09:47 AM | #

Police Chief Antonio Manganelli never fully recovered from last month’s brain hemorrhage…  His “seven years of deafening silence” will be now lasting forever. Antonio Manganelli passed away this morning!
http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2013/03/20/news/morto_capo_polizia_manganelli-54971519/?ref=HRER2-1

Posted by jools. on 03/20/13 at 06:46 PM | #

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