The body of “God’s Banker”, Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London. An Italian banker dubbed by the press as “God’s Banker”, due to his close association with the Vatican. On June 10th, 1982 Calvi went missing from his Rome apartment, having fled the country on a false passport in the name of “Gian Roberto Calvini.” He had shaved his mustache and fled initially to Venice, and from there he apparently hired a private plane to London.

At 7:30 AM on Friday June 18th 1982 a passing postman found his body hanging from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge in the financial district of London. Calvi’s clothing was stuffed with building bricks, and he was carrying around $15,000 of cash in three different currencies. Calvi had been a member of Licio Gelli’s secretive Masonic lodge, P2, and members of P2 referred to themselves as frati neri or “black friars”. This has led to a suggestion in some quarters that Calvi was murdered and his body left hanging under Blackfriars Bridge as a Masonic warning because of symbolism associated with the word “Blackfriars”.

On the day before his body was found, Calvi had been stripped of his post at Banco Ambrosiano by the Bank of Italy, and his 55 year old private secretary Graziella Corrocher had jumped to her death from a fifth floor window at Banco Ambrosiano. Corrocher left behind an angry note condemning the damage that Calvi had done to the bank and its employees. Corrocher’s death was ruled a suicide, although as with Calvi’s death there have been suggestions of foul play.

Lesson: Don’t fuck with the Vatican.