Banda Della Magliana - Emanuela Orlandi

Emanuela Orlandi

Emanuela Orlandi, a citizen of Vatican City, mysteriously disappeared on June 22, 1983 at the age of fifteen. Although the case still has not been solved, and Orlandi has remained missing ever since, apparently some have tried to exchange her for Grey Wolves member Mehmet Ali Ağca, who shot the Pope in 1981. Allegedly, some of the persons who tried to strike the deal with the Vatican were members of the Banda della Magliana.

In 2005, an anonymous phone call broadcast by the Rai 3 TV live program Chi l'ha visto?, a transmission about missing people's finding, stated that in order to find a resolution on the Orlandi case, it would have to be discovered as to who is buried in Saint Apollinare church, and about the favour that Enrico De Pedis made to Cardinal Ugo Poletti at the time.

The church of Saint Apollinare, located near Rome's Piazza Navona, is home to a crypt where popes, cardinals and Christian martyrs are buried, as well as to the tomb of Enrico De Pedis, also known as Renatino, one of the most powerful heads of the Magliana gang, assassinated on 2 February 1990. The basilica is part of the same building of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music that Orlandi attended, and where she was last seen. De Pedis' interment in the church is an unusual procedure for a common citizen, also considering his gangster status. Authorizing the interment at the time was Cardinal Poletti, now deceased.

In February 2006, an ex-member of the Magliana Gang recognized behind the voice of Mario, one of the killers working for De Pedis. Mario was one of the anonymous persons who had phoned to propose the exchange of Emanuela Orlandi for Mehmet Ali Agca.