In God's Name
Authors: David Yallop
IN GOD’S NAME
The Vatican commented:
‘Taking fantastic speculation to new levels of absurdity’ ‘Infamous rubbish’
The World’s press disagreed:
‘His book has two strengths. It brings up to date and tells well the story of how the Vatican has conducted its financial affairs. The portrayal of the hitherto little-known John Paul I is also excellently done . . . an engrossing and disturbing book. It reflects no credit on the Vatican that its spokesmen affect to view the charges with contempt and ignore the questions raised’
The Economist
‘An important and at times frightening book. The consequences of its publication are incalculable’
Bolton Evening News
‘Deft and accurate’
Morris West, Sydney Morning Herald
‘You didn’t know “the smiling Pope” was murdered after only a month in office? Read Yallop’s . . . exhaustively researched, fascinating material and, if not convinced, you will certainly wonder . . . the case he makes is indeed impressive, shocking and frightening’
Variety
‘Deeply disturbing . . . if only a small percentage of it is true then the Vatican and the world has much to fear, for God appears far from home’
Aberdeen Evening Express
‘He has surely proved that there is a case to answer’
Irish Independent
‘Compelling reading’
South Wales Argus
‘An astounding book . . . a story of corruption, lies and disinformation’
The Daily Mail, Hull
‘Was John Paul I murdered? He may have been. To the extent the Vatican does not address itself to a responsible discussion of the evidence Mr Yallop has gathered, the probability of murder goes up’
Father Andrew M. Greeley
‘He weaves a skilful tale of intrigue . . . the story has all the elements of a first-rate thriller’
Calgary Herald
‘The book is fascinating reading’
Derby Evening Telegraph
‘David Yallop’s research is intensive, far-reaching and comprehensive . . . rich with plot arabesques and ingenious characters in a setting of international power and grandeur. However, this is no fiction; it is a documentary chronicle of greed, megalomania and the callous murder of the one good man capable of halting it’
British Book News
‘A ruthless investigation’
NZ Herald
‘This is one of the most disturbing books I have ever read and the Vatican will dismiss or ignore it at its peril, for those millions around the world who look to Rome in their faith must surely want answers’
Gloucester Citizen
‘It all makes marvellous reading’
The Yorkshire Post
‘Impressively researched . . . readers will have to look far and wide for fiction as gripping and downright readable’
The Edmonton Journal
‘I read this book with the absorbing interest aroused by an expert prosecutor at a sensational trial’
The Times
David Yallop’s first book,
To Encourage the Others,
caused the British Government to reopen the Craig/Bentley murder case – a case which had been officially cleared for twenty years. The book, which provoked a major debate in the House of Lords, and the author’s television drama-documentary, convinced many, ranging from the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Gardiner, Lords Arran and Goodman, to authors such as Arthur Koestler, that a miscarriage of justice had occurred.
Yallop’s second book,
The Day the Laughter Stopped,
was widely acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic as the definitive biography and posthumous rehabilitation of the silent film star Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle, which also solved a fifty-year-old murder mystery.
His third book,
Beyond Reasonable Doubt?
led directly to the freeing of a man serving a life sentence for double murder in New Zealand. Following publication of Yallop’s book, Thomas was granted a Royal Pardon and, after a Royal Commission had deliberated, one million dollars compensation.
Yallop’s fourth book,
Deliver Us From Evil
was stimulated by a desire to pull a man
into
prison, the Yorkshire Ripper, and his statements to Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield in June 1980 proved uncannily accurate.
Thus, David Yallop has established a reputation as ‘a seeker of justice’. He receives letters continuously from many parts of the world asking, demanding, pleading that he investigate this murder or that alleged miscarriage of justice. He received one particularly singular request, to investigate a very special death. The request came from within the Vatican, and the death was that of Pope John Paul I.
David Yallop then began the extensive research for
In God’s Name,
which has been translated into nearly forty languages, sold more than 5 million copies worldwide, and won the Crime Writers’ Gold Dagger Award for the best non-fiction book of the year in 1984.
David Yallop
ROBINSON
London
Constable & Robinson Ltd
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
First published in the UK by Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1984
Copyright © Poetic Products Ltd, 1984, 2007
The right of David Yallop to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-84529-496-0
eISBN: 978-1-47210-515-8
Printed and bound in the EU
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Dedication
To the memory of my mother, Una Norah Stanton, for the years that have gone – and to Fletcher and Lucy, love children of the middle years.
Contents
By Benefit of Murder – Business as Usual
Illustrations
PLATES
3 Giovanni and Bortola with Pia
6 Albino Luciani with his brother’s family
8 The Patriarch of Venice with some of his priests
9 Pope Paul VI and Luciani in Venice
10 Pope Paul VI with Cardinal Villot