The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Masons, and the Killing of Roberto Calvi [Paperback]

Philip Willan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2007

This title presents the truth at last about one of the world's great unsolved crimes. The death of Roberto 'God's Banker' Calvi, found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in 1982 days before his bank's collapse, remains one of the most extraordinary crimes of all time. Straight from the dark heart of Italy, it involved dark Masonic rituals, political involvement at the highest level, bizarre forensics, intense mafia involvement, the Vatican, a man on the run, and phenomenal sums of money swirling around. Revealing new sources that speak for the first time, investigative journalist Philip Willan finally uncovers the full truth behind Calvi's death and his last days on the run. Calvi's elimination prevented the world from learning the full truth about the activities of the Masonic sect P2, that secret 'shadow state' whose top-rank membership had been discovered shortly before. Had Calvi's death been investigated properly, Italy government today might have been very different. And the failure to investigate began in England. This true story of a man falling off the precipice is also a shocking political expose.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Philip Willan is a Guardian writer based in Rome who has followed the Calvi case since it first broke. He is the author of The Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, and contributed to David Yallop's In God's Name and Charles Raw's The Money Changers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Robinson Publishing (April 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845292960
• ISBN-13: 978-1845292966
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,458,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip Willan is an author and freelance journalist specialising in Italian parapolitics. He has worked in Rome for more than 20 years and is the author of Puppetmasters, The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, first published by Constable in 1991. His latest book, The Last Supper, The mafia, the masons and the killing of Roberto Calvi, was published by Constable & Robinson in April 2007. In the past he has contributed research to David Yallop's best-selling In God's Name, about the alleged murder of Pope John Paul I, and Charles Raw's The Moneychangers, an analysis of the relationship between the Banco Ambrosiano and the Vatican bank.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crime of power, May 4, 2008

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Masons, and the Killing of Roberto Calvi (Paperback)

For Philip Willan, the enigma of Roberto Calvi's murder can only be solved in the context of the Cold War, of the global war on communism.

Italy was strategically (its border with communist countries) and politically (a strong Communist Party) a very important country in this global war. It was governed by occult forces, by unaccountable power. There was even a plan to declare Sicily independent should the mainland become communist.

Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano (BA) was a key player in this secret western power network. Calvi could blackmail (and blow the whistle on) all those groups he financed in order to save the BA, who was on the brink of bankruptcy. Who were those (intermingling) groups?

1. BA financed Western secret services and their clandestine cold war operations in and outside Italy. It financed the opposition in communist countries (Solidarity in Poland) and financial and political strongholds in South America (Argentina, Peru, Colombia).

2. Inside Italy, it supported anti-communist political parties (PSI). It exported illegally currencies for wealthy individuals and laundered money for drug traffickers, with the help of the Vatican bank, IOR.

3. The Vatican: Calvi had contacted Opus Dei for a cash injection in the IOR. But the Vatican preferred negotiated settlements with communist regimes, instead of Opus Dei's all-out ideological war.

4. The Masonic lodge P2 with its strategy of controlling the democratic State from within by buying 3 key players: the political parties, the media and the trade unions.

At the end, Roberto Calvi was deserted by the members of his secret power network. Perhaps members of the Mafia killed him, but the `contract' came from more powerful members of `a wider network of secret global power'.

This book shows eminently the all-embracing fear of real democracy by the powerful. To counter it, they create a Kafkaesque, Orwellian parallel world with covert operations, manipulations, violence and `fear strategies' in order to hide their real interests.

This book is a masterly analysis and a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Italy, a Communist state, February 7, 2011

By 

John Roberts - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Masons, and the Killing of Roberto Calvi (Paperback)

`The Last Supper' is much more than just a book about the murder of one man. It is an important part of Italian history. The struggle of anti-communist forces led by Calvi's Banco Ambrosiano and right wing factions in the Vatican against pro-communist left wing forces led by Aldo Moro, Paul VI, John Paul I and others who also lost their lives.

Whereas this book concentrates on the demise of Calvi, In God's Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I is a bit broader and perhaps most complete of all is Murder in the Vatican: The CIA and the Bolshevik Pontiff as it covers all the murders on both sides of this little recalled undeclared war of the 1970s.