Teresa, this is Luisa.
Earlier that year, in May '78, I had acted in a movie.
That movie was released right while my brother was in agony.
They were showing me newspaper articles
claiming I was taking advantage of the publicity
and of my brother's tragedy to boost my career.
I AM LOOKING FOR JUSTICE, NOT FAME
I said, "I'll show you that my brother is much more important than my career."
"I'm prepared to quit everything and stop accepting offers."
THE PRESS SPEAKS OF MADNESS
You said,
"I'm portrayed as a monster, and I find it hard to defend myself."
From what, though?
From journalists. From the press.
HIS MAJESTY IN SAINT-MORITZ. A MOTHER YELLS MURDERER!
I am the unmentionable, the villain, let's say, the monster.
LIFE IMPRISONMENT!
There's a "before Cavallo" and an "after Cavallo."
THE KING WHO NEVER WAS
DECEMBER 8, 1978
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, no longer had to report
to the French police.
So he decided to take shelter in Switzerland.
After Mr. Hamer's death, Savoy's position has worsened,
and the "shooting prince," as the French press referred to him,
now faces up to 20 years in jail.
I declared that I will fully cooperate
with the French judiciary, in which I have complete trust,
to ascertain the truth about this tragedy which resulted in the death
of the brave Dirk Hamer, whose memory I would like to honor.
One day, I was at school and someone, a young girl...
EMANUELE FILIBERTO OF SAVOY SON OF VITTORIO EMANUELE
...said, "Look, this is the murderer's son."
Things like that, gradually, over time...
affect you.
Ten days have passed since Dirk Hamer's death.
The French judiciary is still deciding whether to revoke probation,
which had been granted a day before the death of the man,
to Vittorio Emanuele, who is currently in Switzerland.
THEY LET VITTORIO EMANUELE ESCAPE
We demand justice. We want my son's killer in prison.
DECEMBER 19, 1978
Because he took a weapon and he killed someone.
He didn't mean to kill my son but Nicky Pende.
However, my son was killed. He is dead now.
- I demand justice. - You wrote a telegram...
I asked Judge Breton, from the island of Corsica,
to immediately arrest the prince, who is now hiding in Switzerland,
so that we can have a good Christmas.
My name is Bernd, and I'm Dirk's younger brother.
I'm younger than him.
BERND HAMER DIRK HAMER'S BROTHER
At first, we were confused about what was unfolding.
"How come nothing is happening?" we wondered.
We gradually came to the conclusion that none of that was a coincidence.
So far,
no one has had a chance to testify in Ajaccio.
Until recently, Judge Hubert Breton has always claimed he was on vacation.
There was no investigation in sight. Not even a glimpse.
Neither the authorities, nor the police...
Nobody was looking into anything at the time.
There was just a lot of emotional turmoil,
and then, believe me, people were scared on the beaches of Cavallo.
PORT OF CAVALLO
There was almost a sense of fear
because, at the end of the day, we were dealing with someone who was...
UMBERTO ERCOLE WITNESS
...had history taken a different course, the crown prince of the House of Savoy,
versus a bunch of kids described as spoiled little brats
on vacation in Sardinia.
That's why many people, including myself, felt the urge to...
to duck out of this situation as soon as possible.
We were too scared to fight back.
I'm a journalist, and I tried to follow this story as much as I could, but...
STELLA PENDE JOURNALIST
...I was repeatedly threatened.
Um...
I was repeatedly stopped.
They even got to my editor.
I received phone calls...
by an unidentified woman,
who said this to me,
"Be careful because you have nice long legs
and you could, how can I say this,
not be able to walk on them anymore."
Journalists didn't want to write about it,
and when they did write something, the articles would just disappear.
I felt terribly lonely.
THEY LET VITTORIO EMANUELE ESCAPE
It's something that dominates our life ever since it happened.
Everything has radically changed.
That day changed everything.
Because of the psychological shock triggered
by his son's death, my father got sick.
He was suffering from testicular cancer.
That's when he realized that this trauma,
this incredible traumatic experience, was the cause of his disease.
Then, Dirk talked to him in a dream
and told him, "Yes, your intuition is correct."
After this dream, Dirk Hamer's father starts elaborating
on an original medical theory...
GIANNI BARBACETTO JOURNALIST
...which not only seeks to identify the root causes of cancer...
but claims, as well, to prescribe treatments for cancer.
"Cancer is triggered by an emotional trauma
for which we are unprepared and have no idea how to cope."
"We must resolve our psychological conflict
in order to heal."
"Cancer should not be treated."
His theory will be named "Dirk Hamer Syndrome," after his son."
Hamer has a big following worldwide, including in Italy.
The pernicious effect of Mr. Hamer's dream
had an impact at the time and still has an impact today.
It caused hundreds of deaths in Europe.
And still in 2022,
three or four Italian practitioners have lost their license,
as they were followers of the Hamer method.
I once told him,
"How do you believe you can genuinely heal cancer?" adding,
"After all, you're not Jesus Christ"
What their father did in his life is rather weird, isn't it?
PAOLA MARZOTTO BIRGIT HAMER'S FRIEND
He was intelligent, but he was also quite dangerous.
Today's news.
I've been a victim of some kind of extortion.
I've been contacted by the Hamer family,
and they asked for ten million German marks.
They said, "Let's agree on a settlement. If you pay this amount, we'll keep quiet,
we'll all be friends, no more problems, and so on and so forth."
It was a tragedy for them.
ALBERTO PEDERZANI VITTORIO EMANUELE OF SAVOY'S FRIEND
And it really changed their lives.
They had to give the Hamers
huge amounts of money
on a regular basis.
Ma'am, they say
that you asked for hundreds of millions from the crown prince. Is that true?
Uh, that's not true.
We asked for a fund, in case my son had survived,
to guarantee him a source of income for the rest of his destroyed life,
as a disabled person
who will never be able to work in his life.
Your son has not survived, though.
Right. We're not asking for money now.
Vittorio Emanuele claims you asked for more than 700 million.
- Is that true? - That's not true. That's a total lie.
All I know is that my father asked the German Embassy...
to speak with the Savoy family.
Then the Savoy family paid 200,000 marks.
To me, that was a terrible thing...
because it's almost like a pact with the devil
because you would accept money from anyone else
but never from the individual that shot and killed your child.
He took money from him,
only because he had financial problems at the time.
That was a big mistake, in my opinion.
He shouldn't have mixed money and justice.
But that doesn't mean that Vittorio is innocent.
They didn't refer to it as an economic agreement.
They just said that this incident was exploited
by the family to get rich off Vittorio Emanuele.
WE DON'T WANT MONEY BUT THE CROWN PRINCE IN PRISON
A brutal distortion of the truth.
After these negotiations with the Savoy family,
I said, "Okay, I'll fight alone."
"I will not blindly delegate that to my father anymore."
Her life took a new turn.
PINO APRILE JOURNALIST
It changed drastically.
She didn't choose her life.
1979 PARIS, FRANCE
In the summer of 1979, I went to Paris,
and there I started working as a model to pay my bills.
Then, in my spare time, I would tour the newsrooms.
I would share my story with anybody I bumped into.
I'd say, "This happened, but the trial isn't moving forward."
And now they tell us that we can't have a trial,
as it's impossible to reconstruct the crime scene.
So I just want the French people to know the very strange, very obscure things
that are occurring in the justice system, here.
THE TRUTH STILL AT SEA
They said, thanks to your money and power,
you managed to have the trial postponed.
No. I don't see how.
I don't see how I could have done it. Neither with money nor with...
It's impossible.
- An investigation... - There's a saying in Italy.
"Money and friends can buy justice."
Maybe, but not in France. They're different. They're slow.
They hadn't done the investigation.
So they had to start it again from scratch.
Because it hadn't been done properly. They had nothing.
The National Gendarmerie headquarters in Bonifacio, Corsica.
According to this office, in a report signed on August 18, 1978,
12 hours after the events, on the island of Cavallo,
the only shots came from Vittorio Emanuele's M1 rifle.
Little by little, they started fabricating
alternative versions.
Everything that had been crystal clear from the beginning...
But then weirder things started to happen.
Only on December 15th did French forensics hand over
the fatal bullet to investigating Judge Breton in Ajaccio.
The question is,
"Was the bullet really shot from the prince's rifle?"
Given how badly the bullet is compromised,
it can't be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Savoys' lawyers smell an opportunity.
AUGUST 18, 1978
We fell into the water, and there,
uh... I couldn't hear anything anymore.
It seems other shots were fired, after all...
By other people, evidently.
Their...
How to say, they said they heard several shots.
My rifle fired two.
In the morning, I went back to the boats.
Inside an open drawer I found a gun.
MICHEL LEVAUFRE FORMER WATCHMAN OF CAVALLO
And I took it.
It could have just been fired, probably that night or the night before.
The barrel was clean, but I could smell the powder.
It had been fired three or four times that night.
That gun had definitely been fired very recently.
His name was Levaufre.
He was a former paratrooper commander of the French Assault Navy.
He said he had found the gun and given it to the police...
so they could run some tests and analyze it.
Two bullets were missing.
It was a .38 Special. Revolver.
THE MISSING GUN
The doctor who first attended the wounded man
in Porto Vecchio,
reportedly said, "This boy has been shot point-blank,
because there were traces of gunpowder."
So if it had been my husband's gun,
as he was standing 15, or at least 12 to 14 meters away,
the bullet would have gone through something
and couldn't have left any gunpowder.
The island manager gives
the police the gun he discovered while examining the boats.
Two bullets are missing from this gun.
The police say to him, "Don't let your imagination run wild."
"This gun has nothing to do with the incident."
However, for Vittorio Emanuele's defense lawyers, this changes everything.
DID I SHOOT? YES. NO. YES. I DON'T KNOW.
The admission of guilt is rescinded.
The prince does not stand by his admission of guilt.
MR. GAUB LAWYER OF VITTORIO EMANUELE OF SAVOY
Because when it was given, he was in an understandable state of shock.
Suffice it to say that this is the first time, since Marie Antoinette,
that a member of a royal family has been imprisoned.
I learned through my father
that the record of his admission of guilt had disappeared
from the German Embassy in Marseille.
I'm like, "What? The document has disappeared?"
"Yes. And also the bullet fragment extracted from Dirk's femoral artery."
"That's also mysteriously disappeared."
That's when I said, "This is war."
HIS MAJESTY MUST PAY
It bothered me.
Especially because my wife had to fight for me.
Mom has been very, very, very brave.
Very brave.
They probably tried to protect my father a little bit,
but my mother had to carry the whole burden on her shoulders.
From that moment on, she took on a role
that was much more important than the one she had before.
Marina is a very strong person.
I met her in '55
at the Water Ski World Championships in Beirut.
As a water-skiing world champion,
the pretty Marina Doria was bound to win in Neuchâtel.
In Switzerland, she was considered a celebrity.
She was, hands down, the greatest water-skiing champion.
He's always been madly in love with Marina.
Whatever activity you suggested, he had to ask Marina first.
A wonderful couple.
The greatest pride of my life was to marry her.
I found the right person for me.
WE ARE IN LOVE AND NO ONE WILL HINDER US
He meets Marina, who is, first of all, a beautiful woman
and an Olympic water-skiing champion.
He even goes so far as to clash with his father.
LUCIANO REGOLO JOURNALIST
They had an intense correspondence,
where he tells him that if he marries this woman,
he will lose his place in the family succession.
MY FATHER WILL NOT OBJECT TO MY WEDDING
Umberto of Savoy disapproved your marriage. Why?
I think he had different expectations for his son. It's normal.
This family has its own traditions.
Perhaps he expected his son to marry a blue-blooded princess.
BIOGRAPHY OF VITTORIO EMANUELE OF SAVOY "LIGHTNINGS OF LIFE"
We received an appanage from my father.
It was taken from me because of my relationship with Marina.
FROM CASCAIS UMBERTO SAYS "NO"
They took everything from me.
But this gave me the unique opportunity of having to work.
And I got my own life back.
My husband was working in Iran,
and ironically, he was exiled from Italy.
But he worked for many Italian companies,
such as Agusta.
Corrado Agusta was a well-known Italian entrepreneur.
He produced helicopters and weapon systems.
He thinks Vittorio Emanuele is a great salesman,
the ideal man to help him grow his business.
Because he has extensive commercial contacts.
He's linked to all of European royalty.
For example, he has a close relationship with the Iranian shah,
one of the world's richest men,
who may have been an outstanding client for the Agusta company.
I got to know the shah
quite well, at the Brussels World's Fair.
I was there with my grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.
I told Mr. Agusta, "Let's go."
1971 TEHRAN, IRAN
Corrado Agusta sent him to Iran
to try and do business with the shah.
The shah, who was very fond of Vittorio,
bought 40 helicopters from him.
That's where Vittorio Emanuele got his fortune from.
I GOT MARRIED IN SECRET NOT TO UPSET UMBERTO
We had just gotten married in Tehran.
It was a small church run by friars, near the royal palace.
Very few guests were invited.
On the flight, I brought with me Marina's wedding dress, by Valentino.
Our wedding was amazing.
We got married in Iran, and the shah was our best man.
There was obviously plenty of caviar,
but at the time it was only worth a few cents a pound.
What are his qualities and flaws?
Uh, he has a few flaws and many good qualities.
- What about his character? - Well, he's very... very easygoing.
MARINA OF SAVOY WIFE OF VITTORIO EMANUELE OF SAVOY
- Not quick-tempered? - No, no, no. Absolutely not.
Contemplative?
Ah, sometimes he gets a little upset, but it's normal, isn't it?
Do you ever feel that being a Savoy is a burden?
Uh, sometimes I do.
From then on, Princess Marina devotes her life
to trying to have her husband exonerated at whatever cost.
She even flies to the US to recreate replicas of the three boats that were
on the scene that night in Cavallo
and to undertake ballistics testing to clear
Vittorio Emanuele's name.
Going to the United States, reconstructing the boats,
figuring out the ballistics,
whether my father's bullet had pierced one, two, three boats...
And what about the other bullet?
They had found another gun,
the gun had fired, then the gun got lost, then the gun was found again...
Over the years, we've done many reenactments.
We even went to America to reenact that night on the same boats.
And there's a record of everything.
It wasn't my husband's bullet that wounded that young German boy.
I'M INNOCENT
We're asking who made the evidence disappear,
who tried to muddy the waters, to instill doubts, always new doubts,
when things have been clear from the beginning.
How can someone suddenly become innocent
after being blatantly guilty all along?
I have never ever, ever believed I did it. Ever.
Even if they kept telling me. "I said no."
I WILL PROVE I AM INNOCENT
It wasn't my fault.
Bullets go straight. They don't go like this...
The judge said that two years after the investigation,
despite all the evidence, which was super solid,
which couldn't possibly be more evident, he said there were no elements,
uh, to be able to prove Vittorio Emanuele was guilty.
TWO YEARS AFTER THE SHOOTING, YOUR HONOR, IS IT A CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT?
Judge Breton, after casting doubt on the prince's guilt, has done his part.
Soon after, he's transferred to Tahiti.
Since then, he has always refused to answer any questions.
This is just one of the...
many anomalies that plagued this case from the start because, from the start,
one of the parties involved was very interested
in making this story go away, to cover it up,
to make it look like a meaningless incident.
Good morning. Our top story is an event impacting our state.
Last night, the names of members, or alleged members,
of the powerful Masonic lodge P2 have been disclosed.
The P2 is thought to be involved
in obscure political and financial power games.
Among the documents of Licio Gelli, the head of the lodge,
the judiciary has seized a list of 962 names...
VITTORIO EMANUELE ONE LIFE AND MANY MISTAKES
His name, too, appears in the P2 lists of Licio Gelli's masonry.
"Savoy, Vittorio Emanuele. PO Box 842, Geneva."
"Card number 1621."
The P2 lists show that
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy had become
a Master, which is a pretty high level in the Masonry hierarchy.
How come a young man like you,
with many privileges in his life and no need for help,
ends up hanging out with someone like Licio Gelli?
No, I met him... Actually, he came looking for me, here in Geneva.
But let me tell you, he was a friendly person, very kind,
very polite and courteous.
And he came... I met him in Geneva
to discuss business, to increase,
uh, our business in Iran.
The condition was for you to adhere to the Masonry?
Yes. Yes. Yes, a little. Yes.
Being a member of the P2 lodge granted the possibility
to access delicate, confidential, secret business.
Italian prosecutors began significant investigations
into a wide range of firms...
including lawful trade between nations such as Italy and Iran.
They might then become unlawful due to triangulations,
because weapons sent to Iran could be passed off to countries
where the weapons could not be sold.
Official sales of weapons and helicopters were made to Persia,
which at the time, was a trading partner.
However, these products would not end up in Persia.
They ended up in countries that were embargoed.
WEAPONS IN PRETORIA? MADE IN ITALY
I am Carlo Palermo,
former judge
of the Trento Court from 1975 to 1984.
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy was first brought to my attention
through some investigations
where he actually appeared as the intermediary...
...in multiple sales of arms and heavy weaponry...
to some Middle-Eastern countries.
The weapon smuggling was taking place under the watchful eye
of the Italian secret services.
Thus, it was incredibly difficult for the judiciary,
well, for the people in the judiciary that were not accomplices,
to throw light on this matter.
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy was not personally investigated
because I only worked on the case for six months
before the investigation was stopped
and the original file of the Trento investigation
was basically tampered with and almost entirely erased.
The Freemasons are precisely the linking bridge
connecting the legal and illegal worlds.
To be part of an exclusive club, such as the P2,
to be part of such groups...
means to have connections,
personal relationships with high-profile people.
Judges...
military people, secret services agents, entrepreneurs...
And Vittorio Emanuele was part of this power system.
What does it mean?
It means that if you have a problem, you know where you can get help.
In France, for instance, the Masonry's very powerful.
We always bounced against this impenetrable wall.
It was as if the system in Paris...
as if it could deactivate all the mechanisms of democracy,
and...
and even... as if the rule of law was deactivated,
and he could just find help at the highest levels.
Paris. I stayed there for two years.
I spoke with several lawyers.
I ended up meeting one...
...who was considered perhaps the top lawyer in France at the time.
And he told me, "Yes, I've heard about your story."
"You're very pretty."
"If you come on vacation with me, I'll make sure you get justice."
All my hopes came crushing down. All of them.
APRIL 12, 1985 ROME, ITALY
We lost Mom seven years after Dirk's death.
I needed to be left alone.
And to go for a walk.
I ended up in this little square.
I saw there was a long line of people, and for some reason,
I decided to ask around, "What's going on here? What is it?"
"Marina Doria is inaugurating this church."
Instinctively, I joined the line,
and on the other side of the church, on the left, there she was,
stretching out her hand to me.
During a celebration, Miss Hamer approached me,
threatened me, and almost nearly slapped me.
And it was very, very, very unpleasant.
I was so startled.
I kept thinking, "Today we buried Dirk Hamer's mother,
and justice still needs to be done."
I was taken out, to the police station,
where all the policemen tried to cheer me up.
Birgit had this ability to...
to rise like a phoenix,
despite the inner turmoil she was going through.
But it was pretty clear she was never going to give up her fight.
During all these years, I was always surrounded by people saying,
"Impossible. Impossible."
The same word, over and over again.
I started hating that word.
I crossed it off my vocabulary like this.
It no longer meant anything to me, as if this word didn't exist anymore.
You repeat it until it becomes possible.
I was working as an interpreter,
and one day I met a French man, who told me,
"Oh, yeah, there is only one absolutely incorruptible
and honest lawyer in Paris."
He gave me her number, and I called her.
She gave me an appointment, I immediately went to see her,
and she turned out to be an amazing woman.
I said, "Look, I have nothing. I have nothing."
"There's nothing but injustice in my life."
"If we win, I will cover you in gold."
"If not, you won't get anything."
SABINE PAUGAM LAWYER OF BIRGIT HAMER
Seeing her, getting to know her gave me so much strength, so much joy...
So, with her help, I filed petition after petition,
again and again, and demanded a trial.
Twelve years after the events, Vittorio Emanuele
is investigated again by the French judiciary,
accused of involuntary manslaughter.
The trial will take place before the Assize Court of Paris.
Criminal court! The Assize Court. The court of jurors.
The thing is, no one wanted a jury trial.
The Assize Court was the most terrible court in Europe.
Let's not forget that courtroom...
that courtroom
of the large Parisian Assize,
hosted the trial of a famous man
eventually sentenced to the guillotine, Louis XVI. Right there!
NOVEMBER 13, 1991
Vittorio Emanuele has prepared his defense
with lawyers Paul Lombard, Jacques Léauté, and Jacques Flécheux.
They know that his illustrious name might not help him with this jury.
If found guilty, he could be sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison.
Those five days were really, really hard.
Very hard for him, because he didn't know the outcome.
Hard for my mother.
She had gone through 15 years of legal battles.
Hard for me too because seeing
a father and a mother suffering makes your heart... ache.
When you're tried by a jury,
you have to spend the night in prison throughout its duration.
And for him, sleeping there was profoundly distressing.
"If I spend the night in prison, I don't know if I'll make it
to the following day." Because it was humiliating for him,
to the point of saying, "I could do something bad to myself".
We got to the courtroom at 9 a.m.,
and by 9:15, Vittorio wasn't there yet.
At 9:30, Vittorio still wasn't there.
I thought, "Shit, my worst fears have materialized."