The Moro Séance #3: The Explanation March 12, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary , trackback
There has been much theorizing about what really happened at the séance. Let’s review the possibilities. The first possibility is that the séance never took place; that it was a simple legal strategy to give information to the police without having to actually implicate anyone or explain where that information came from.
The second possibility is that the séance did take place and that someone at the table directed the planchette to spell out Gradoli. Here again there was no need to actually explain where information had come from, and there was the added advantage that the other participants would back up the story convincingly.
The third possibility is that Giorgio La Pira… But, no, that way madness lies.
Gun at head, Beach would go with the second option. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, the three participants have repeatedly stuck by their story about the séance: there were also other people there; someone somewhere would surely have broken rank sooner or later if the séance had never actually happened. It has been claimed that the sitters tried different combinations and still got ‘Gradoli’. This is, always assuming that it is true in this case, a phenomenon that is easy to reproduce with the planchette. The word once ‘out’ is burning in the subconscious of the sitters and so is easily spelt out again and again.
Where did the information actually come from? Well, Prodi, Baldassari and Clò and not saying anything (if all or one of them knows something). But others had strong ideas. Andreotti, Moro’s great rival and the Prime Minister during the Moro kidnapping has gone on record as saying that he does not believe in the séance: ‘This pointer came from workers autonomia of Bologna. Nothing was said so that no one got in trouble.’ (Quell’indicazione venne dall’autonomia operaia di Bologna. Non lo si disse per non dover inguaiare qualcuno’). Renato Farina, an Italian journalist, noted: The truth did not certainly come from a whisper from the other side, but from a messenger from the workers Autonomia and he went in university and said it to professor Alberto Clò. (‘La filiera autenitica di questa soffiata non parte certo da un alito d’oltretomba. Uno scagnozzo di Autonomia operaia e anadato in università e l’ha detto al professor Alberto Clò’). Even the Moro Commission noted in its records that the séance was not to be taken seriously. The Workers’ Autonomia (students not workers of course) were particularly active in Bologna at this date and this far left movement was far more tepid about violence than the Red Brigades. It is possible that they did, indeed, get some information and pass it on: instead of ‘Via Gradoli’, ‘Gradoli’ with the hopeless police raid of 6 April on a small village. However, how does this kind of information travel across half the country? Via Gradoli was one of three Red Brigade quarters in Rome: it was a fairly obscure datum.
Would it have made any difference to Moro? First, it is worth remembering that we do not know that Moro was in Via Gradoli in this period: and the general consensus is that he was not. Second, Via Gradoli was soon after uncovered. A water leak in the BR house on Tuesday 18 April led to firemen breaking down the door and the discovery of dozens of Red Brigade leaflets and documents. The police quickly took the house over (forgot to dust for fingerprints!) and still were unable to make progress on the Moro case. The two occupants Mario Moretti and Barbara Balzerani approached the house, saw flashing lights and fled. Had either of these two been caught, both of whom knew where Moro was, then there is the real possibility that the Christian Democrat would not have been murdered 9 May: Moretti was Moro’s interrogator and the man who pumped bullets into the Italian politician.
Perhaps the most incredible thing about the Moro Séance is not that it happened, but that the three main protagonists have never suffered any serious consequences in their political careers. This is not to say that any of the three deserved to be punished by the electorate: if the hypothesis above is correct then perhaps only one of the three knew something and they were trying in any case to save a life. But just imagine what would happen if a present Republican or Democrat candidate in the primaries had this kind of skeleton hanging out of the wardrobe. It would not be pretty… Prodi went through election campaign after election campaign as the head of the left and the matter was brought up but no blood was ever spilt.
Other thoughts on the Moro Séance: drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com
