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Corridor to John Paul I's bedroom the night of September 28, 1978`

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At seven-thirty the morning of September 29, 1978, Vatican Radio broadcast the following bulletin:

“Pope John Paul died before midnight last evening of myocardial infarction to the heart. He was discovered by his secretary Magee at six-thirty this morning who went to look for the Pope when he failed to show up for his morning chapel service... The bed lamp was on and he was sitting up in bed in his daytime clothes wearing his glasses reading the ‘Imitation of Christ’ which book was held upright in his hands... ” 

                  Contradictions and rumors

The Italian Medical Society did not delay a day, “It is irresponsible for a doctor to infer heart attack without autopsy in an unwitnessed death of an accomplished mountaineer who has had no history either himself or family of heart disease.” 
    The embalmers told Italy’s most reliable wire service ANSA in his hands were notes written on the stationary of Vittorio Veneto. They also said they were picked up by a Vatican van shortly after five-thirty—an hour before the release said the body was found. In addition, they were told by Swiss Guards a nun had discovered the Pope. It was their opinion John Paul had not been dead for much more than an hour or two as it was a cold morning and the windows were wide open and the body was still warm. The nun who had discovered the body was interviewed.

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    The clock that should have rung and did not ring

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Sister Vincenza told reporters she routinely delivered coffee at four-thirty each morning. When she first knocked there was no answer. She waited a minute or so and knocked again, this time a bit louder. It was obvious he was still in the bathroom.  

    Though he normally woke at about four o’clock it was his custom to set his alarm clock for a few minutes before four-thirty in the event he overslept. If he was sleeping, the alarm would be ringing loud enough to wake the dead. At least, that is what she thought. This meant he had risen at his usual time of about four o’clock and had completed his first task of each day—turned off the alarm.

   She opened the door and entered the room intending to leave the tray on his nightstand. The light was on. He was sitting up in bed in his daytime clothes reading papers held upright in his hands.

   Vincenza greeted, “Good morning.” He resembled a mime deeply engrossed in reading. It was not unusual for him once dressed for the day to be sitting up in bed reading when she delivered coffee.

   Vincenza who had served him for twenty years had come to know this man as a jovial one, always smiling, sometimes laughing and often joking. At first she thought it was a joke. After all, he was smiling.

   Actually, she knew it was a joke. He was wearing his glasses. Though nearsighted and required them to walk across the room, he did not require them to read. That is, to read in private.  Yet, someone not close to him would think he required them to read because he always wore them when reading from the pulpit to allow him to view his audience. 

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    Disturbed by the prank she approached the bed, “Please don’t joke with me in this way, Albino.” As she placed the tray on the bed stand she realized something was wrong.
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    Her testimony confirmed the embalmers: he was holding papers and not a book in his hands. More importantly, he had been discovered shortly after four-thirty and not at six-thirty. 
    That the clock should have rung and did not ring raised the eyebrows of the mystery buff. Either John Paul had turned it off or someone else who knew his practice had turned it off. If not it would have been ringing when the nun was at the door. 

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                               Poisoning
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That the embalmers were roused from their sleep so early in the morning fired rumors of poisoning. It was the practice of the Mafia to embalm immediately after death to erase signs of arsenic and other poisons when they were the instrument of murder—the reason it was illegal in Italy to embalm until twenty-four hours after death.
   Of course, Italian law did not apply in the Vatican. Yet, it had been the Vatican’s practice to adhere to the law ever since enacted in 1946—embalming of popes had been delayed for twenty-four hours. This included Pius XII, John XXIII and Paul VI.
   In the case of John Paul, ANSA News reported embalmers were roused at five in the morning, an hour and a half before the Vatican said the body had been found.
   A super sleuth reporter eventually verified the ANSA report by publishing a Vatican motor pool log proving a van was dispatched at 5:23AM on the morning John Paul’s death to pick them up.
    There is the possibility one wanted to avoid a repetition of what had happened in the cases of Pius and Paul where skin discoloration and odor presented problems in the viewings.     

    Yet, if this was true, why not summon the embalmers at a more reasonable time like eight o’clock which would have allowed more than ample time for the embalming before the first viewing in the St. Clementine Chapel at noon and would have avoided raising unnecessary suspicions.
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                           The bell cord
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Most questionable of all was something killed him so suddenly he was unable to reach for the bell cord which hung a whisker from his right shoulder. This would have summoned in an instant the guard at the entrance to the corridor leading to his chambers. Also, he was not afforded time to press one of the service buttons on the intercom just to his left which would have brought to his side any of five people who resided elsewhere in the palace that night.
   He also had the option of pressing an emergency button on the bedside console which would have activated a flashing red light in the corridor just outside his quarters and buzzed the guard.
    The Vatican newspaper reported an interesting coincidence. On the previous morning maintenance workers happened to have tested the bell cord something that had not been done for years as Pope Paul always used the intercom. The bell rang so loud those in the palace thought it to be a fire alarm and headed for the stairs.

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                               The time of death

The time of death is critical to the supposition the Pope died of natural causes. It is also critical to the supposition he was murdered.
   As we will demonstrate in what is to follow, if he died before midnight—as the Vatican claimed—he could have died of natural causes. Yet, if he died in the early morning hours—as the embalmers claimed—the case for murder is nearly certain.
    If he died before midnight his light would have been on all night. Both the nun and the Vatican release were explicit the light was on. This is consistent with he would not be reading in the dark.
    The light was considered of very little importance by others. John Cornwell in A Thief in the Night does not mention it at all. David Yallop in his book In God’s Name explains,‘The light had remained unnoticed all night by Vatican security guards.’  I don’t think so.

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      At the upper right hand corner of the palace building the papal bedroom overlooks St. Peter’s Square. It is in full open view of scores of hotels and apartment houses in the surrounding baroque district of Rome not to count hundreds of tourists who roam the vicinity of the Vatican into the wee hours of the morning. What’s more, a small battalion of police guard the square round the clock. Those that hang their hat on the supposition John Paul died before midnight depend on the chance not a single person noticed the light was on all night. That the light was not on all night was reported by a number of witnesses in the days following the Pope’s death. We know the Pope’s light was not on all night for more definitive reasons will we discuss later in this book. 

     Too, if the Pope had died just before midnight the previous day, why would he be dressed in his daytime clothes? If one reads oneself to sleep one first dons one’s bedtime clothes.

    Caught in a avalanche of lies on October 10, 1978 Vatican Radio issued a corrected bulletin:

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    “While the death of John Paul came as a surprise, there was the fact the Pope suffered from a serious low blood pressure condition and was in very poor health and frail throughout his brief papacy. In his last days his legs were so swollen he could barely stand… John Paul did not have in mind to make revolutionary changes in the Vatican hierarchy… We wish to correct our statement it was the Pope’s secretary Magee who discovered the body. The Pope was first discovered by the nun who delivered his coffee at the usual time. When she sensed something wrong she summoned Magee... We wish to correct our statement His Holiness was reading the ‘Imitation of Christ.’ This was a communications error. He was reviewing some notes. That he retained them upright in his hands in the midst of a massive heart attack is by the Grace of God."

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               Swollen legs vs. swollen ankles

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Though it clung to its hypothesis of ‘heart attack’ which the medical world had all but demolished the Vatican included ‘swollen legs’ in its 2nd release to set the stage for what would subsequently be its claim of ‘pulmonary embolism.’

   An embolism resulting in near instant death–extremely rare—occurs when an enormous blood clot comes up from the legs and blocks the main artery leading to the lungs. A powerful pleuritic pain to the chest—different yet on a par with that of a heart attack—is followed by rapid beating of the heart ending in cardiac arrest.

    Both Yallop and Cornwell conducted onsite investigations of the Pope’s death. They interviewed medical/pharmaceutical personnel and established no Vatican doctor had treated him for any condition and no prescription was issued John Paul by the Vatican pharmacy during his brief papacy. Vatican doctors and pharmacists confirmed this to reporters after their books were published.

    Thus no Vatican doctor could be found to substantiate the Vatican’s claims. Yet, one does have a competent witness. Antonio Da Ros was the most qualified man in the world to write a book about the nature of John Paul’s death and come up with a logical answer. He had not only been Luciani’s personal physician for twenty years, he had been one of his closest friends.

    In his interview with Andrea Tornelli in 2003, Dr. Da Ros who had visited his friend John Paul three times during his brief papacy was asked about the swollen legs: “In the twenty years I knew him, he never spent a morning or an afternoon in bed. Luciani enjoyed extraordinary health -  no heart, dietary, diabetic or cholesterol problem… In the first week of his papacy there was slight swelling in the ankles a long-standing condition characteristic of mountain climbers who place undue pressure in vertical climbs. I advised him to walk more and from that time on he walked an hour or two each day in the roof garden. The condition was alleviated by the time of my third visit the week he died...” 

    In his letter to Hippocrates in his book Illustrissimi Luciani speaks of this: “He arrives at the cliff. He looks up, once, twice, many times. He makes his calculations. Here there must be a straight up climb, then a descent with double rope, then an ascent directly up over the ice. He begins with a hardy heart, a powerful respiratory system and a driving ambition. He consults maps, makes notes, prepares a list of things he will need: backpack, rope, pulley, cord, pitons, wood wedge, axe, hammer, hooks, clips, shackles, spiked boots … He chews gum and surveys the obstacles. He says, ‘Maybe I’ll make it.’ Well, in the end, he really does make it. What does he have for all this? Short-lived self-esteem and long-lived swollen ankles…”

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    ‘Swollen legs’ and ‘swollen ankles’ are two very different conditions. Swollen legs can be symptomatic of pulmonary embolism. They are also consistent with ‘high blood pressure.’

   Conversely, swollen ankles are not consistent with embolism. Yet, they are consistent with ‘low blood pressure.’ 

    At the time the Vatican issued its release of ‘swollen legs and low blood pressure’ it was thought by the medical community swollen legs and embolisms were consistent with ‘low blood pressure.’

     But, today it is known low blood pressure has nothing to do with swollen legs and embolisms; ‘high blood pressure’ is the culprit. 

     Herein we will present medical and criminology testimony in our examination of all of the possible ways the Pope could have died and heart attack and pulmonary embolism will not be among them. As for now you will not find a cardiologist in the world who would testify in court John Paul could have died of a heart attack or a massive embolus to the lungs and not have dropped his papers.

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                       Low blood pressure

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Reacting to the Vatican’s claim of low blood pressure, a Venice newspaper published his physical exam of five months before his death which raised eyebrows concerning the alleged heart attack.

    It showed him to be in extraordinary physical health. Yet, his blood pressure was normal—121 over 78. This contradicted the Vatican’s claim of ‘low blood pressure’ as at the time (1978) a count of 120 over 80 was considered optimal. Giovanni Rama, the doctor who treated him for the condition, corrected this misconception.

    He told reporters Luciani’s blood pressure normally oscillated at about 100 over 60 and he had prescribed a small dosage of Effortil of five milliliters 3Xs a day which controlled Luciani’s blood pressure at about 120 over 80.

    So Luciani’s blood pressure did normally run on the low side. You will not find a cardiologist in the world today who would not agree that low blood pressure is as surefire a prevention of heart attack and embolism that exists.

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                  The digitalis-Effortil rumor

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Practically every author who has written about John Paul’s death including David Yallop embraced the digitalis-Effortil theory—John Paul’s Effortil was spiked with digitalis. Hence, being the strongest of rumors, we must put the digitalis-Effortil theory to ‘sleep.’

    Twelve drops—milliliters—of digitalis will kill in a few minutes. Blurred vision and hallucinations are followed by abdominal pain and violent vomiting cumulating in congestive heart failure. In any event, one will empty one’s stomach.

    If digitalis was used to kill the Pope, it tells us something about the perpetrator(s). Only a novice would have employed the drug. If nothing else the degree of vomiting it precipitates would ring a bell in the least suspicious doctor. Not a very wise choice when there are hundreds of lethal toxins which would have done the job with far less visible evidence. Vomiting is inconsistent with the position the body was found and none of those brought to the room mentioned it.

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                                Hercule Poirot

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One might wonder why so many authors ignored medical science and adopted the idea his Effortil had been spiked with digitalis? The reason? Its creator, Agatha Christie, sold a lot of books.

    In the 1970s the ‘Christie’ market exploded on the heels of the box office buster motion pictures Murder on the Orient Express in 1974 and Death on the Nile in 1978.

    Adding digitalis to blood pressure medicine was first used by Agatha Christie in her mystery novel The Secret of Chimneys and subsequently in a number of her other works. For example, consider the following dialogue from Appointment with Death, the most famous of Christie’s plays starring the Belgium detective —Hercule Poirot,

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Poirot: “Digitoxin is poison, is it not?”

Dr. Gerard: “Yes, it is obtained from digitalis purpurea—the foxglove plant. There are four elements: digitalin, digitonin, digitalein and digitoxin the most deadly.”

Poirot (with an inquisitive glare): “And a dose of digitoxin?”

Dr. Gerard (gravely): “A dozen drops of digitoxin thrown on the circulatory system causes death by quick palsy of the heart.”

Poirot: “And, Mrs. Boynton had a heart condition?”

Dr. Gerard: “Yes, she was taking a medicine containing digitalis to elevate the blood pressure.”

Poirot: “Ah!” (twisting his mustache) “Quite interesting.”

Dr. Gerard: “You think digitoxin was added to her medicine?”

Poirot: “Precisely. In a post mortem its presence would be owed to an overdose of her own medicine…”

Dr. Gerard: “Clever...clever. Most difficult to prove murder to a jury. The possibility of mistake is overwhelming…”

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The Belgium detective with the handlebar mustache is referring to one of those medicines grouped as ‘digitalin’ extracted from the foxglove plant to regulate the heart beat. For example: Lanoxin. Whoever started the digitalis-Effortil rumor assumed Poirot was referring to Effortil because it was the most common medicine used to regulate the heart beat at the time of John Paul’s death. Yet, whoever started the digitalis-Effortil rumor missed the boat.

    Effortil is not extracted from the foxglove plant nor does it contain strains of digitalis. Effortil is Etilefrine Hydrochloride. Nothing more, nothing less. Not of the digitalin’ group, it would not have masked the presence of digitoxin in an autopsy.

   Too, unlike digitalin medicines one cannot overdose on Effortil. It is harmless. With dozens of toxins that could have done the job effectively digitalis would be a most foolish choice. Particularly when one considers there is no way the killer(s) could be certain an autopsy would not be performed.

   That an autopsy would be performed was certain as John Paul’s death was unwitnessed and he was known to have no life threatening condition.  As a matter-of-fact, in retrospect, it is mindboggling an autopsy was never performed.

    I want the reader to stop and think about this for a moment. When foul play is not suspected and one has no medical history of a life threatening illness, in the event of an unwitnessed death an autopsy is normally performed to determine cause of death.

    Autopsy would be routine in the case of a head of state or any other person in the public eye. Yet, setting aside presidents and rock stars, consider one’s family. Why wouldn’t one want to prevent the same thing happening to other family members?

    That an autopsy was never performed is the most telling evidence Curial cardinals at the very least suspected foul play. Contrary to rumors there is no canon forbidding autopsy of a pope for cause.

    Nevertheless, if the Pope had been taking Lanoxin it would make sense to spike it with digitalis as its presence in an autopsy would have been owed to the Pope’s taking a medicine containing digitalis. But, he was not taking Lanoxin. He was taking Effortil.

    Too, his tiny dosage of Effortil diluted with digitalis might make him ill; it would never kill him. It might make sense to spike his soup with digitalis but not his medicine.

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                           The missing Will

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Concerning his Will, there are some things we know and other things we do not know. Among those things we know, Luciani willed he be interred in a plain pine box inscribed: ’Christ picked me up from the Mud in the Street and gave me to you.’ The box was to be displayed behind a glass panel set into a side altar of the cathedral at Castlefranco in the heart of the Veneto country. `

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Giorgione's madonna side altar at Castelfranco

 
We know from his Venice attorney he had willed his papers to the respective dioceses he had served. The lack of a will gave the Vatican unilateral authority to destroy records of anything he had said or done of a controversial nature. It also prevented his family from demanding autopsy or obtaining anything one might construe as DNA today other than what the Vatican chose to give them.
      As a part of indoctrination an incoming pope is counseled by the papal attorney—in John Paul’s case Pericle Felici. A pope’s will is a part of the process. At the very least a rider is attached to an existing will as the papacy dramatically changes one’s legal position.
      On becoming pope one becomes a citizen of the Sovereign State of the Vatican and the will must comply with its laws and not those of any other nation. Yet, there is much more than just that.
      It is common for popes to include in their wills their reflections on the direction the Church should take. In this respect, a pope’s will can be, as it has on occasion in the past, been interpreted as doctrine. This is not usually a problem as popes normally conform to doctrine. Yet, in John Paul’s case one has to consider he may have struck at the fundamental canon of the Roman Catholic Church.
      Certainly, he must have known he was in danger. The path his papacy had taken in the short term had not only alarmed many of those in his own ranks but his enemies across the pond as well. He would have been an imbecile not to sense he might not live to attain the objectives he had worked all his life to achieve. He would have been a fool to have not set forth his intentions in his will should he not live to bring them to fruition. Nevertheless, we have come to the suppositions regarding his will—things we don’t know.
     Did his will strike at the central doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church: Some kinds of people are better than others and are entitled to more? Little boys are better than little girls, and so forth. 

     Did he include in his will the most prolific testimony of his ministry: “We have made of sex the greatest of sins, whereas it is nothing more than human nature and not a sin at all?” 
     Did he strike at the integral core of canon law that invades the privacy of bedrooms? Did he change the definition of morality in the Roman Catholic Church from what is acceptable in the bedroom in the minds of a bunch of old men in the Curia who have never been in the bedroom, to what is humanely right or wrong? One will never know. 
      What one does know is there had existed at least nine copies of the will: one hardcopy and one on microfilm in his attorney’s office in Venice, a hardcopy in the diocese office in Venice, one hardcopy and one on microfilm in the Venice City Clerk’s Office, one hardcopy and another on microfilm in the Vatican Office, one with his brother Edoardo, and a hardcopy held by his secretary Lorenzi. All of these disappeared simultaneously from the face of the earth.
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         Slipper socks, spectacles and a lock of hair

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Some questions were raised by the Luciani family itself. His sister-in-law sought to recover a pair of slipper socks she had knitted for him. She knew, as a boy, he had often gone barefoot in the Italian Alps; she wanted to make sure he had something to keep his feet warm. They were white satin and had his coat of arms embroidered in gold on them. They may have been used to wipe a tinge of blood a needle or  a creature might leave. Regardless, they vanished.

    Then there were his spectacles. Though they were found on the body, they disappeared. It could be someone close to him who knew he did not require them to read—not involved in the deed itself—had been a part of a conspiracy; realizing a mistake had been made placing them on him, pocketed them. If they survived they would assay of foul play. Perhaps, they were just broken in the shuffle.

    A cousin, in response to a request for a lock of hair, received a clump of jet black hair which she claimed was not his as his hair was graying. A strand of hair can assay of poison centuries afterwards.

    According to John Cornwell’s A Thief in the Night which was commissioned by the Vatican, John Paul’s niece spent a half-hour in the room alone with her uncle’s corpse the morning of his death: “…he seemed to be smiling at me. His face showed no sign of suffering… There was something very very strange. He was wearing his daytime clothes. Why would he not be wearing his pajamas if reading in bed? The sleeves were all torn. Why should they be torn like that?” 

   One can trust the accuracy of her testimony. A devoted disciple of the Vatican and dependent on the sitting Pontiff for her uncle's canonization, why else would she unnecessarily add fuel to the fire?

   It is certainly ironic that in death he was smiling. Of hundreds of photographs of his brief papacy, not one has survived in which he is not grinning from ear to ear—the reason he is remembered as the ‘smiling pope.’ For those who claim he broke under the weight of the papacy, he was having the time of his life.

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           The watch that ticked the time of death

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We know from the testimony of those who shared his last dinner—aside from his usual conversation, laughing and joking—he had been preoccupied with his new watch.

    He kept fumbling with it to determine if it was waterproof as it was his custom not to remove it for sleeping or even in the shower. It was of such an unusual design Vincenza remarked, “It looked like it had come out of ‘Dr No.’”

    We also know from her testimony it had been Pasquale Macchi who delivered the watch to the Pope. It likely arrived in the mail as Macchi—serving in transition—handled the mail. It would have come from someone the Pope would have accepted it from. We have the possibility a third person could have used the name of someone close to the Pope who they knew to be out of touch for a few days. Like the slipper socks and the glasses, the watch vanished.

    Popes are prone to sainthood and potential relics are not normally returned to kin. Yet, Vatican Radio reported the Vatican Archives never received them.

    Regardless, I will leave this with you to ponder with all the other baffling circumstances of this man’s untimely death.

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                               Scorpions

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Finally, we have the scorpions for those who wish to nibble on them. Whereas a pale yellow scorpion allows the victim time to seek help, the giant golden mutation injects enough venom to kill a dozen men on the spot.

     The miniature desert in the gardens at the papal retreat Castel Gandolfo was home to this creature at the time.

     Because its sting would have left the Pope in the position he was found and the coincidence the scorpions disappeared from the Castel Gandolfo after the Pope’s death, it has found its way into books.

    To employ a scorpion in the murder of a pope is surely a remote option. Yet, to get at the truth we must examine all the possibilities.  Not just those that fit our preconvictions.

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                       Begin the investigation

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Nevertheless, we are left with some questions. Who placed the spectacles on the nose of the man who did not need them to read? Who turned the light on which was not on all night? Who turned the alarm clock off which did not ring? Who dressed him up in his daytime clothes? Who tore his sleeves? Who gave him the watch that ticked the time of death? Was the watch set for the time of death? Who took the spectacles, the slipper socks and the watch? Who took the time to methodically destroy all nine copies of his Will and why? Who bred the scorpions at the Castel Gandolfo? Where did they go after John Paul’s death?

   There is only one absolute fact on which to build our case: the only circumstance of his death agreed to by all witnesses including the corrected Vatican release, his secretaries, the nun, the embalmers and all others brought to his room:

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‘The bed lamp was on and he was sitting up in his daytime clothes wearing his glasses reading papers held upright in his hands.’

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This leaves us with the glaring inconsistency the Pope could have remained in a sitting-up position with notes still clutched upright in his hands if he had suffered a massive heart attack. Only the most gullible accepted the Vatican’s explanation “...by the grace of God.”

   Yet, it is from these few bits and pieces we must begin our work. From these few observations, employing the analysis and deduction techniques which lifted Sherlock Holmes to the top of his game, we will prove this good man was murdered.

    Yet, unlike our nineteenth century predecessor, we will not be dealing with the make-believe world of yesterday. We will be dealing with the real world of today.

    We will prove beyond a shadow of doubt when he was murdered, how he was murdered, why he was murdered, who pulled the ‘trigger,’ and, most important of all, who ordered the dreadful deed. Here, is the proof—the absolute proof—how John Paul and those around him fell victim to twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States.

   Nevertheless, unless one first understands the mystery of his life, one will never be able to solve the mystery of his death. So now let us step back to that time the little boy Albino Luciani would begin to mold his destiny. Let us walk with him through those years he would build his dream which would guide him to his fate—of two hundred and sixty-five popes and ten thousand cardinals the only one whose remains are triple-sealed in a lead-lined vault today.

    Now come. Let us talk with him. Let us walk with him in the woods together with his friend Pinocchio and the Cat and the Fox and the Poodle Medoro. Let us bear witness as…

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“One Beautiful Life explodes into a trail of death and destruction in the Roman Catholic Church.”

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                                         Howard Jason Smith, Boston Globe

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CHAPTER 1  IS SUPPORTED BY 52 MEDICAL AND PRESS REFERENCES OF 650 MEDIA REFERENCES THAT SUPPORT THIS WORK.

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↓ direct links to the new 2012 paperback/hardcover editions ↓

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