As I’ve observed before, the “Vatican girl” case, referring to the 1983 disappearance of a 15-year-old girl in Rome whose father was a minor Vatican employee and whose family lived in a Vatican apartment, is the Italian version of the Kennedy assassination,
That means it is the country’s most notorious unresolved mystery.
Both have become magnets for crackpots, conspiracy theorists and hucksters, whose every purported revelation is given a predictably vast media echo.
Whole industries have grown up, driving a steady stream of book sales, TV and movie ratings, social media traffic, and speaking fees.
Tragically, of course, the endless speculation does little other than to prolong the agony of the families involved and to frustrate serious efforts to get to the truth.
This background comes to mind in light of the latest purported bombshell regarding the fate of Emanuela Orlandi, dubbed the “Vatican girl” by a popular Netflix series.
In keeping with the bizarre nature of most such plot twists, this one involves a can of green paint, a bit of graffiti in a Roman cemetery, and an exercise in speculative symbology worthy of The Da Vinci Code.
In a nutshell, here’s the story. Read more