The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia by Paul L. Williams

Author:Paul L. Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-05-28T04:02:00+00:00

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Matt. 7:6

June 29, 1971, Vincent Rizzo, an underboss of the Genovese crime family, traveled to the Churchill Hotel in London for a meeting with Leopold Ledl, an Austrian con man. It concerned a matter that captured the interest of Matteo de Lorenzo ("Uncle Marty"), who had succeeded Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Vito Genovese as capo of the crime family.' At sixty-two, Uncle Marty was a short, stout man with a round, open face and a ready smile. He looked like a harmless, congenial guy who might be at home behind the counter of a neighborhood grocery store. But, in truth, Uncle Marty was neither harmless nor congenial. He had climbed from the slums of the lower East Side to serve as a soldier during the internecine gang wars of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. He had grad uated from bootlegging to loan sharking, and from loan sharking to counterfeiting. He was not the type of man anyone would want to cross. Uncle Marty could order an execution with a smile on his face.

Michele Sindona, one of the men most esteemed by the Gambino and Genovese families, had brought a certain matter to Uncle Marty's attention. The Roman Catholic Church, Sindona had said, wanted to purchase $1 billion in counterfeit securities through Ledl, an approved middleman, and Uncle Marty was the right man to handle the order. The very notion of Holy Mother Church wanting to engage in such a transaction made Rizzo shake his head. But Uncle Marty had received assurance that the deal was "legit," that is, "a sure thing." And Rizzo was in no position to question Uncle Marty, let alone such a respected family member as Don Michele, the pope's banker.

Rizzo was a swarthy shylock, operating out of the Columbia Civic League Club; supplying money to businessmen, restaurant owners, and other big-league borrowers in Manhattan; and employing a crew of strong-armed thugs to make sure that payments were made on time. Rizzo's rap sheet filled several pages. He had been arrested for car theft, transportation of stolen bonds in interstate commerce, robbery, possession of illegal weapons, and a string of felonious assaults with blackjacks and guns. FBI and Interpol officials knew that Rizzo also ran a ring that moved stolen weapons to South America; that he was a major distributor of cocaine and heroin; and that he dealt with counterfeit securities with outlets throughout the world.'

The man whom Rizzo had traveled to meet-the suave and sophisticated Leopold Ledl-was also a subject of interest to the FBI and Interpol. He was involved in gunrunning, drug trafficking, and counterfeiting securities. The Austrian millionaire had important connections in Italy. His friends included Mario Foligni, the selfstyled "Count of San Francisco," who ran an insurance and finance company called Nuova Sirce with offices in Rome and Munich; Dr. Tomasso Amato,

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