Original subtitles

[distorted chatter]

[Charlie Rose] Just think, one week from today,

Pope Benedict will be in retirement,

and he's about to get a report

on the biggest scandal of his eight-year papacy. Alan…

In 2013, we were right…

…right in the middle of the inquiry into Minardi's declarations.

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

Don't you get that?"

[heart thumping]

Something new happens.

[phone ringing]

A journalist I knew very well calls me,

Fiore De Rienzo,

and he recounts something new.

A person has popped up

and contacted the Chi L'Ha visto? team.

This person tells Fiore De Rienzo

to look in the former De Laurentiis film studio warehouses…

-[keyboard clacking] -[mouse clicks]

[tense music]

[steps creaking]

…for something hidden in a room with cinematographic materials.

[Natalina] He called me and said, "Natalina,

I found something. But I'd like you to see it.

Can we come to yours?"

I said, "Yes, come."

[Fiore De Rienzo in Italian] Because I haven't even opened it yet.

Here, there's the first newspaper,

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

[Natalina] It was a bit worse for wear.

I was shocked.

Because for me, it was-- it is Emanuela's flute.

The velvet interior was similar, the same color.

The rod to clean the inside of the flute was missing.

It wasn't there,

because my younger sister Maria Cristina always kept it.

[in Italian] So you remember the case was just like this?

-So it matches-- -[Natalina] Yes.

It's even worn out around the corners.

I remember it just like this,

a bit worn out.

[Federica Sciarelli] A man, who came into the studio,

told us this is the flute of Emanuela Orlandi.

What is behind this statement?

Attention-seeking behaviour? Craziness?

Messages sent by someone else?

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

[Pietro] It's my own very personal opinion,

of course, we're still awaiting the results

from the forensics lab,

but I do think this is Emanuela's flute.

[Natalina] Why would anyone want to trick us?

Maybe for the first time in a long while,

I got emotional when I saw it.

Because I saw it once more in Emanuela's hands.

[Pietro] Honestly, these new revelations,

had, in some way, reignited that hope in us.

[Andrea] You have to understand the significance of this,

since Emanuela disappeared 30 years before,

there was not a single piece

of evidence related to her.

And now this,

which seems to be Emanuela's flute.

The most famous symbol of this young Vatican girl.

[melancholy music]

I'm Fabrizio Peronaci, crime journalist at Corriere Della Sera.

It was afternoon, I was at the office at my desk.

The phone rang.

[phone ringing]

I answered and I heard him say,

"I am Marco Accetti.

I would like to confer with the journalist Fabrizio Peronaci.

I brought a flute,

but I need to fully tell the story,

the whole story.

Can we meet?"

[foreboding music]

"I am Emanuela Orlandi's kidnapper."

[Fabrizio] I felt a great emotion.

At the same time, uh,

I had to be sure he was the real kidnapper.

He said, uh, "We can meet in half an hour,

if you want, if you can."

And I said, "Okay, I'm coming,

give me the address."

[Fabrizio] I arrived in front of here and parked the car.

The indications had been very precise,

he had said,

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

-[phone keyboard beeping] -[line ringing]

On the fourth ring, I hung up.

Then a pretty blond girl turned up and said,

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

I moved through a dark tunnel.

And at the back, there was a large hall,

with a piano bar to the right,

and a stage to the left.

But the lights were off, with just a couple of little lamps on.

[suspenseful music]

He came towards me and told me,

"All of you journalists haven't understood anything.

For 30 years, you've been following the wrong stories."

[tape player whirring]

Police in Rome have been treating it as a tragic

but more or less routine kidnapping of a young girl.

But then today, a phone call changed all that.

[phone rings]

[Andrea] He said they are ready to kill Emanuela

unless the Italian authorities release Mehmet Ali Agca.

[announcer] The voice on the phone speaks with an accent,

that may be American.

[phone ringing]

I asked, "And how do you know? How do you know this?"

"I am The American," he replied.

-[interviewer] What are you doing? -[Marco] Photo…

of this circus.

[camera shutter clicks]

[Marco] Go ahead.

[interviewer] Why did you decide to do the interview only anonymously?

[Marco] Because…

The public…

is very naive.

So, if someone comes forward for whatever reason,

is seen under the suspicion of wanting attention, no?

[interviewer] You say you were The American, right?

[Marco] Yes, yes.

[interviewer] Were you involved in the disappearance?

[Marco] Yes, yes, of course.

Sweetheart, you are talking to the person

that humbly created the Orlandi case.

Normally, such a kidnapping would not receive international attention,

but the circumstances surrounding this…

Let's say that they managed, uh,

let's call it, in quotes, "creative aspect."

So I took care of locations, where to leave the messages…

ANSA AGENCY

…of the prose spoken on the telephone calls, no?

[Mario in Italian] … they sell this stuff,

they call her Barbara.

[Ercole] Barbarella.

[Mario] Barbarella, Barbara, I don't know.

[Marco] It was so hot back then.

Wherever she was,

she was always waiting for something in the car,

in merciless heat.

[tape player whirring]

[reporter in Italian] Welcome back, friends.

African high pressure continues to affect the Lazio region.

[Pietro] My sister went missing on the 22nd of June 1983.

I still remember how hot it was on that day.

[Marco] It wasn't a real abduction.

She was simply deceived.

[interviewer] Sorry, I don't understand. Tell me how Emanuela was tricked.

Describe to me how Emanuela was tricked.

I don't understand.

[Marco] She was told that, "Your father is in danger,

you could lose the house…

they gave you."

[interviewer] Because she feared something could happen?

[Marco] Yes, that her father could lose the house, his job,

he's in danger.

[tape player whirs, clicks]

[Pietro] Before leaving school, Emanuela calls home…

[phone ringing]

[Federica] …to tell me that a man had come up to her

outside of school…

[Mauro] He had parked his car,

described as a green BMW.

[Marco] Those were deceptions.

[interviewer] It was a fake kidnapping, a fake abduction,

but then ended up turning into a real abduction?

[Marco] Yes, yes, yes.

[car engine starts]

[interviewer] And where did you take her afterwards?

[Marco] To her house, uh, actually, at the start, at the, uh, near to,

at the foot of the Gianicolo Hill.

I've already stated these things.

-Lante della Rovere. -[interviewer] Okay, that's right.

[Marco] It's an institute where young women with problems go,

or also those who wanted to lodge there.

So, she was passed off as someone lodging there.

There were some low-cost rooms, no?

There's nothing, it wasn't a full-fledged prison,

there's nothing particular about it.

[lights buzzing]

And he told me something I found shocking, that is,

that in those first few days when Emanuela went missing…

-[engine starts] -[thunder clapping]

…he, Marco Accetti,

took walks with Emanuela in the city center.

Something incredible.

It was the first or second night,

we went for a walk just in the nearby streets, uh,

between Regina Coeli and Porta Settimiana.

She wore a short wig.

A wig with a fringe and this long.

[carousel squeaking]

And we had an ice cream.

[interviewer] Why did you do that?

[Marco] Because it was a circumscribed thing,

to get her confidence.

To show her it was a fake kidnapping.

[door closes]

-[interviewer] Was she scared? -[Marco] She wanted to go home.

[interviewer] So, she was sad?

[Marco] Yes. Yes, melancholic,

she wanted to go back because it was dragging on, this and that.

[tape player whirring]

[interviewer] Okay, Marco.

[tape player whirs, clicks]

It was then that you started calling as The American…

[phone ringing]

…to arrange the exchange of Emanuela with Ali Agca?

[Marco] Yes.

[whistle blowing]

[Mauro] At the time, I was very frustrated, professionally.

We absolutely had to catch The American

with the phone in his hand.

[interviewer] This reminds me that at a certain point,

one day, you got close.

How did that happen?

Do you remember the moment when this happened?

Uh, yes. Okay, I'll tell you right away.

[interviewer] Marco, I want to ask you something important.

Do you remember when you were calling from phone booths…

-[Marco] Yes. -[interviewer] …as The American?

Do you remember an instance when the police almost caught you?

[Marco] Yes.

[tape player whirs, clicks]

[Mauro] In that historical era, in those years,

there was no advanced technology,

but we had a clue.

[The American in Italian] Officials will contact you very soon.

[train whistles]

There, that sound is the clue.

That is the whistle of a train.

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

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

The national telephone agency,

told us that some of these calls

had come from some very specific areas in Rome.

From an area adjacent to Termini station, Rome's central station.

The intent was to shut down some of the phone booths…

OUT OF ORDER

…so we could concentrate our surveillance

on the booths that remained active.

For a call to be traced,

it had to last between two and three minutes.

[static]

We trained the lawyer, Egidio,

who received The American's calls,

to keep the conversation going for as long as possible.

[Italian song playing]

[line ringing]

[phone ringing]

[Egidio in Italian]

[both speaking in Italian]

[clock ticking]

[The American in Italian]

[Egidio in Italian]

[The American in Italian]

[Mauro] One day, during a call…

[clock ticking]

[Egidio in Italian]

[The American in Italian]

[Egidio in Italian]

…the telephone company, SIP, managed to track the phone booth.

We were in Piazza San Silvestro,

looking onto the square, the clock to the right.

[suspenseful music]

I don't know if this bar is still there, there were payphones.

[Marco] I was with two girls because we always had such covers.

[background chatter]

A surveillance team

headed rather quickly towards this telephone booth.

[car revving]

[lighter clicks]

[people laughing]

[clock ticking]

[The American] It's a challenge between two clever people,

who have to work together nevertheless.

[car revving]

[Marco] I heard a car arrive at top speed,

screeching around the bend…

[tires screeching]

…and I instinctively put my arms

around these two girls on either side of me,

clearly for a camouflage, and we walked off.

I glimpse around and see an unmarked car,

and a man getting out, I still remember him.

Tall, young, quite tall, uh, young with a beard.

[indistinct chatter]

So I moved away towards Via del Corso, yes.

[rain pattering]

[interviewer] Okay, I understand that you kidnapped her, but why?

Why did you take Emanuela? On whose behalf did you do it?

Well, it's too vast a subject, too vast.

The truth is that members of the Vatican City

had kidnapped Emanuela Orlandi.

[fast-paced classical music]

[journalist] At the head of the Vatican,

there are the most exotic civil servants in the world.

These are the curial cardinals.

Their office can be compared to that of a government minister.

But these men are entrusted with the administration of a church

which examines itself under the light of eternity.

[Andrea] It is very important to understand

that the Vatican is not a monolith.

There were and there always been, uh, different factions inside,

like, sort of Game of Thrones.

[Fabrizio] Accetti explained to me that he was part of an organization

with priests within it that worked clandestinely.

A group protected by the shadow of the Vatican,

which I named the Ganglion.

[interviewer] Who was in it?

Not of people--

[Marco] Uh, not… not high-level, high-ranking people.

Smaller players, assistants, always working in Public Affairs,

mostly abroad.

-[interviewer] So they were priests? -[Marco] Not all.

People who know each other, and who try to…

get results via unorthodox methods.

[interviewer] Where would you meet?

[Marco] Always outside the Vatican City, in private homes.

[tape player whirs, clicks]

[Andrea] We know that the objective of John Paul II

was to bring the church back to power

in the Soviet Union.

[Fabrizio] Accetti told me that this group,

that they were convinced that the best way to restore the Church in the East,

to increase Catholicism in Russia,

was dialogue.

Not with head-on attacks.

Not by promoting permanent tension with the East.

[Marco] Yes.

The policy was dialogical with respect to Eastern countries,

of détente, of dialogue with the countries of Iron Curtain, no?

[birds chirping]

[indistinct chatter on TV]

[Andrea] But according to Marco Accetti,

by 1983,

this mysterious group had a problem.

Because two years prior to Emanuela's kidnapping,

there had been an attempt on the Pope's life in Piazza San Pietro.

-[gunshots] -[crowd screaming]

[newsman] The Vatican's own security police had immediately arrested

the assailant, a 23-year-old Turk

named Mehmet Ali Agca.

[Fabrizio] Mid-year, Ali Agca started saying

who had ordered the attempted assassination

in Piazza San Pietro.

[Richard] Speaking in English, Agca surprised reporters

by giving his details about Russian involvement

in the plot to kill the Pope.

He said the Russians trained him.

[female journalist] And the KGB?

Yes, and KGB. I said…

[Marco] Agca had mined this diplomatic intention,

by creating serious problems, serious imbalances,

so a desperate gesture was required…

to make Agca retreat.

[Richard] Fifteen-year-old Emanuela Orlandi,

the daughter of a Vatican City employee, was kidnapped three weeks ago.

Her kidnappers want to swap her for Agca.

[The American in Italian] We only want one thing.

That is the liberation of the prisoner that we requested.

[interviewer] Was it you who made the calls?

[Marco] Yes, yes, I was the caller, sure.

[Andrea] Then Accetti's story takes a new twist.

He says

he didn't abduct one girl, but two.

[suspenseful music]

A second girl, whose name is Mirella Gregori.

[correspondent 1] Sixteen-year-old Mirella Gregori,

a Rome school girl who disappeared from home May 7th,

and who hasn't been heard from since.

[interviewer] You say you were involved

-in the Gregori's case. -[Marco] Absolutely.

[interviewer] Have you ever abducted girls before?

[Marco] Yes… No, no, of course not.

[Antonietta] My family was composed of four people,

me, my mother, and my father, who are no longer with us…

and Mirella. Mirella Gregori, this is her.

A normal girl, simple, smiley,

silly, sunny.

At the time my parents had a bar.

On May 7th, 1983,

exactly 45 days before the disappearance of Emanuela…

[tape player whirring]

…Mirella had just got in from school.

We lived on the second floor of a building in Porta Pia,

the center of Rome, you can say.

[buzzer rings]

[Antonietta] The buzzer rang,

and she was the one who went to answer.

I said the name of someone I knew,

I went to school with her, no?

[Antonietta] She went to my mother and said,

"It's Alessandro, my friend from school.

Look, I'll be back in five minutes, don't worry."

And nothing. Instead, she went down and we never saw her again.

[creaks, thuds]

Gregori thought we made her believe

that her father had some serious financial problems,

could lose the bar,

and with this gesture, she could bring home some money.

That's it. They were deceptions.

[tense music]

[Antonietta] My parents were in an indescribable state.

[in Italian] She promised she would come back in ten minutes,

but I never saw her again.

[correspondent 2] No phone calls, messages, nothing?

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

[correspondent 2] Total silence?

Absolute silence.

[Antonietta] We didn't hear anything for weeks.

At a certain point, everything changed.

I was working at the bar with my husband.

[phone ringing]

I answered the phone, I said, "Hello?"

and at the other end, I heard someone…

He told me to write, "Antonia shirt,

Reading trousers with black belt."

Then, "Wool undershirt."

And at the end, they said,

"Black, patent heeled shoes

by Saroyan of Rome."

[Antonietta] Fear washed over us,

because it meant that the caller knew what my sister was wearing.

[suspenseful music]

[Fabrizio] Marco Accetti said that the negotiation

between the kidnappers and the Italian State

for the pardon of Ali Agca

required two girls of differing citizenships,

one Italian and the other Vatican.

Mirella Gregori was meant to put pressure

on the President of the Italian Republic,

who could grant the pardon.

And Emanuela Orlandi, to put pressure on the Vatican State.

[Marco] The pontiff, concerned with Orlandi's fate,

asked the President of the Republic, Pertini,

also concerned due to the disappearance of an Italian citizen,

to grant the pardon.

That's why Gregori was used.

[Andrea] The 8th of September,

The American appears again on the scene,

sending a letter to the Gregori family.

[Antonietta] It basically said that

to free Mirella,

her mother had to intercede for the then President of the Republic,

Sandro Pertini,

so that he would appeal for the pardon of Agca.

[Fabrizio] It's not a coincidence, Sandro Pertini was, in some way,

obligated to launch an appeal

via this interview with ANSA, on October '83…

for the release of the girls.

I ADDRESS… THE HOPE THAT…

[Andrea] Around this time

the Ganglion strategy seems to work,

because the Pope appears…

in Castel Gandolfo,

which is the summer residence of the Pope,

and makes an appeal

to ask for the release of both the girls and to pray for their release.

[tape player clicks, whirs]

[in Italian] In particular, my thoughts are with Emanuela Orlandi

and Mirella Gregori.

[Andrea in English] Not just saying

that both the girls were abducted by one organization,

but he's also saying,

"I'm praying for the man who tried to kill me,"

which is Mehmet Ali Agca.

[in Italian] …who claim they have those innocent and helpless creatures.

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

[Fabrizio] The fact that both the Pope

and the President of the Italian Republic intervened,

confirmed to me that there was some truth in Accetti's recounting

of the Ganglio's actions.

[Natalina] From there, we saw Mirella and Emanuela's faces together.

[interviewer] What went wrong?

[Marco] Only the girls' return home, certainly.

[interviewer] Why?

We weren't getting any responses, so it dragged on, no?

[interviewer] But do you remember the last time you saw Emanuela?

[Marco] Sure.

[interviewer] And was she alive or dead?

[Marco] No, she was alive, of course.

Initially, I definitely tended to believe

with what Accetti was saying was true.

He brought that flute.

And naturally, as a family,

we have always tended to believe to, unfortunately, follow any person

that turned up and said, "I know something."

[Pietro] One day, I was contacted by a TV program.

They proposed I meet with and record a meeting with Accetti.

So, I accepted this meeting, and it was, I must say, quite tough.

[tense music]

[Andrea] That day,

everyone in Italy was watching television.

[Pietro in Italian] 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.

Overcoming the difficulty of…

of avoiding a negative reaction,

because he really was a very arrogant person.

[Pietro in Italian] You claim to know

how the kidnapping was orchestrated, the motive for it.

I asked him questions, I asked him

to tell me the people that were responsible along with him.

He refused, "I won't name names."

[in Italian] When I provide enough clues--

[Pietro] 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--

[Pietro] 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.

[moka pot whistling]

[Pietro] Why was Emanuela chosen?

She wasn't chosen.

-There was a whole range-- -[Pietro] But it was no coincidence.

[Pietro] Because it was organized.

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

Was it because of her citizenship?

-[Marco] Of course. -Of course?

We also considered Cristina, the youngest one.

[tense music]

I mean, really,

in that moment, honestly, I want to throw him against the wall.

[Marco in Italian] I mean Emanuela,

because of her generosity,

her openness, and her freshness.

-[Pietro] How dare you say that? -Excuse me?

You can't talk about Emanuela like that.

[Pietro] 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.

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

[Pietro] Emanuela didn't even go out at night,

she would have never, ever,

-accepted-- -Never say never.

[Andrea] He was credible because he has the flute,

but on the other side,

he was speculating on facts

which were already known and published on the media.

[Pietro in Italian] 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.

[phone ringing]

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

Something that's never been revealed

nor spoken of by anyone.

[Pietro] The person we called "The American" said

that Emanuela had hurt her wrist or an arm,

but that she'd been treated

because there were two Italian doctors by her side.

[Pietro in Italian] You can't have forgotten this detail.

He told me, "No, it's no surprise,

because you don't remember

a phrase spoken to my uncle in one of the calls,"

I mean, uh, as if it were some sort of quiz

with a prize.

I mean, it was all down to this memory test. I was there.

[in Italian] If I had to ask you some questions now,

about facts you are supposed to know,

it's possible, you might miss something out.

[Pietro] Of course, but that was an important thing--

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

The things he said to me on that occasion,

they made me really… They hurt me,

but I realized, maybe on that occasion, more than at other times,

that he was bluffing.

[Andrea] In front of Pietro,

Accetti has no answers.

This indicates to me that, uh,

he has nothing to do with the abduction of Emanuela.

[Andrea] He's playing a game.

If you throw a stone and hide your hand, you are also a coward.

Because it means you are causing us unnecessary pain.

Therefore, this is a message for all those who have done this,

because in this situation, there are so many people

throwing stones and hiding their hands.

They don't realize what they are doing…

to the family members.

[slow tense music]

[male reporter in Italian] 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 the blackmail of Pope John Paul II,

is accused of "auto-calumnia",

because according to the psychiatric report…

[Ferracuti] I'm Professor Stefano Ferracuti,

and I'm forensic psychiatrist of the University of Rome, La Sapienza.

And five years ago,

I was given the order by the court

to give an expert evaluation on Marco Accetti.

COURT OF ROME

He was accused of autocalunnia,

which means that he was accusing himself,

knowing that what he was saying was not true

in order to deceive the judge.

Marco Accetti had a very long history

of troubles and problems with the law.

[Ferracuti] The main stories I can remember

were a very questionable relationship

with a 17-year-old girl…

and he was convicted of the manslaughter

of a 12-year-old child.

I met him four times.

He was a person

with a very strong need of being

at the center of the attention of everybody.

He was collaborative. He liked to talk about what happened.

But the story he was telling,

was, let's say, a little bit wild.

I wrote he had a narcissistic, histrionic personality disorder

with a psychopathic element.

Because he's been using

emotions and feelings

of the families of Emanuela and the Mirella

uh, for his personal needs.

So these families that were involved in the case,

that were on television.

[tape player whirs, clicks]

[in Italian] She promised she would come back in ten minutes,

but I never saw her again.

They all participated to the construction of his important role in the story.

[tape player whirs, clicks]

[in Italian] This is a message from Ercole Orlandi

to the kidnappers of Emanuela.

"I'm important in the story,

they don't want to believe me

because there are… obscure political reasons."

[tape player whirs]

[Pietro in Italian] This is not a game. It is not a riddle,

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

[Ferracuti] My feeling was that he knows something.

Some little pieces of truth were available,

but he's not telling what he really knows.

[Fabrizio] Accetti insisted on saying, "I was The American. I was the caller."

And above all, he insisted on saying,

"I'm challenging the judiciary.

Do the voice analysis. Compare my voice.

Just let me hear The American's voice, and I'll give you mine.

Compare them. I'm yours."

[suspenseful music]

My name is Marco Perino. I'm an audio forensics expert.

[high-pitched voices on tape]

My name is Paolo Dal Checco.

I'm a digital forensics expert witness.

[rumbling]

In this particular task,

we have been asked to compare

the voice of Marco Accetti.

[in Italian, muffled] You say I should talk again to that person?

[mouse clicking]

[in normal voice] You say I should talk again to that person?

With, uh, some old audio recording from July to December '83,

uh, for a man, so-called man, The American, L'Americano.

[The American in Italian] Are you lawyer Egidio?

[Egidio] Yes, it's me.

[distorted audio]

-[The American] Are you lawyer Egidio? -[Egidio] Yes.

[The American] Are you the lawyer Egidio?

In our opinion,

the person who was talking with the… the family of Emanuela Orlandi

in, uh, in July 1983,

with, with high probability is not… Marco Accetti.

-[interviewer] Okay. -[man] So, you're gonna--

[interviewer] Yes, translate for you.

[man] So, Marco, you said that you were The American, correct?

[interviewer] You say, you said you were The American. Right?

[Marco] But I'm not the one saying it, the voice is.

You just need to compare them.

[man] But you can confirm you were The American?

[interviewer] Can you confirm that you were The American?

[Marco] Yes.

[man] We'd had some research done.

[interviewer] We'd had some research done.

[man] Some voice analysis research.

[interviewer] We did some voice analysis.

But the next surprising finding was

that there was not only one American.

There is The American making telephone call in July…

-[phone rings] -…to Emanuela Orlandi's family.

And then there is another American

making telephone calls to Gennaro Egidio,

the lawyer, the lawyer of the family,

from September to December.

The second American.

The second Americano.

THE SECOND AMERICAN

In our opinion, from September to December 1983,

the person that was making telephone calls,

we are fairly sure is Marco Accetti.

[suspenseful music]

[Andrea] What does this mean with the abduction

of Emanuela and Mirella Gregori?

The first American, who calls the Orlandi family in July 1983

only mention Emanuela.

Not once Mirella Gregori. But the second American…

[The American in Italian]

[Egidio in Italian]

[Andrea] He's obsessed with Mirella.

[The American in Italian] We're involved with that case as well.

[The American in Italian]

And it was the second American

who called, uh, uh… Mirella Gregori's, uh, family café,

-uh, to give them a complete list… -[phone rings]

…of what she was wearing the day she disappeared,

even the underwear.

[Ferracuti] Now, if your forensic evidence tells that

the second American voice is compatible with Marco Accetti's voice,

this implies that Marco Accetti

had real knowledge about Mirella Gregori kidnapping.

[man] There is a theory that you were not involved

in the abduction of Emanuela Orlandi,

but that you were involved in the abduction of Mirella Gregori.

[Marco] That's ridiculous. Simply ridiculous.

Something absolutely false.

In fact, the second American says to the family

"Non c'è più niente da fare."

"There's nothing else that we can do."

[The American in Italian]

[Ferracuti] If Marco Accetti is the second American,

uh, the verbal content of this phone callings

means he has some knowledge that the girl is dead.

[interviewer] "Regarding Mirella, there's nothing else we can do."

-Do you remember that? -[Marco] It was a bluff.

[man] You didn't kill her?

-[interviewer] You didn't kill her? -[Marco] No.

[Pietro] I don't think Accetti had an effective role

in Emanuela's disappearance,

but I think he played a role in Mirella Gregori's disappearance.

That's why I think he should be investigated,

because there's another family waiting for answers.

[Antonietta] I still hope she's alive to this day, of course.

I want to think of her as alive,

because until I have my sister's body, I won't believe she's dead.

Hope is always last to die, no?

And as my mother would say,

until I can bring her a flower at the cemetery, I…

I don't want to think of her as dead.

If Accetti was really a fraudster impersonating The American,

the implications are very big.

I mean, because he was taking the story of Mirella Gregori

into the story, into the case of Emanuela,

diverting the attention of the Magistrates,

the police, the journalists,

causing a big damage to the investigation.

Even coming out with the flute of Emanuela

is a great piece of theatrical performance

because he hid it in a studio of the most important

cinema producer in Italy, Dino De Laurentiis.

[Natalina] And so, unfortunately, with all the tests we had done,

there was no trace of DNA,

there was nothing, because there was dust, because…

it was a flute from the past.

[tape player whirs, clicks]

[Natalina in Italian]

[Ferracuti] It's very plausible and consistent

with my finding that in, uh, a situation where there's media attention

on what's happening,

he inserts himself in the story

doing those phone calls.

This is quite possible.

[tape player whirs, clicks]

[Marco] Sweetheart, you are talking to the person

that humbly created the Orlandi case.

It's true that, like his father told the investigators,

he had been obsessed with Emanuela's story since it happened.

He thought of nothing else.

That's what he desired, he wanted to be…

a public figure.

[Marco] Anyways, let's take a break because, um…

[Pietro] I think that we should be talking less and less about Accetti,

because that's his prerogative, he lives for this.

Over the years, he's been given too much attention.

The more attention he gets,

the longer he continues to feel strong.

And that's a serious mistake.

For me, now, it's time to remove the Accetti story,

the Accetti presence,

the Accetti role in this case,

uh, from the story of Emanuela Orlandi.

[reporter in Italian] Welcome back, friends.

African high pressure continues…

[Dan] Pope John Paul II returned home today,

home to his Poland.

[Andrea] What is left is the key testimony of Sabrina Minardi.

[Ferracuti] I personally think that, uh,

in this case, it's good to use the Occam's Razor.

We have been talking about the Pope,

Ali Agca, the Russians,

this… the CIA, the KGB,

we've been talking about other things.

All those stories are just confusion, smoke.

Usually the truth is the most simplest thing.

[woman] I can't give my real name,

but I was one of Emanuela's best friends.

Emanuela called a few days before her disappearance.

She said, "Listen,

I have to see you, because I have to tell you a secret."

And then Emanuela told me

that during one of her walks in the Vatican gardens,

someone very close to the Pope

had bothered her.

[interviewer] Did you know it had something to do

with sexual advances?

[woman] Yes, absolutely.

[tense music]

[closing theme music]