[tense music playing]
[reporter] Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy has spent the night in prison.
Kings are usually known for their good manners,
but this morning the prince didn't show up on time.
The family of the Italian crown prince looks worried.
[tense music continues]
[camera clicks]
[Vittorio] As the whole world was preparing to watch
the death of the bull,
while I was walking to the courtroom, that's when I was kidnapped.
[crowd shouting]
I was kidnapped, abducted
by the prison guards, as you'd call them.
They seized me
and locked me up.
I was already locked up anyway.
Then, they told me
it was because they wanted to ask the ministry of justice
to raise their wages.
[in French] Our budget is very low.
THIERRY VANDEPUT TRADE UNIONIST
That's why we are blocking the prison, not because of the prince.
[reporter] You won't let the prince out?
We're not letting anyone out. No one.
[tense music continues]
[Vittorio in English] I was taken by their leader, a brute, who told me,
"Now you walk these ten feet and sit in the back of the van."
"Should it overturn, run away, and look for the nearest police station."
I get in the van.
I mean, they were already angry.
And what do I see inside?
One of these young policemen, or whatever he was, with a machine gun.
I thought, "If this guy shoots, all hell will break loose."
[reporter] Ironically, the prison guards are pushed
out of the jail by the anti-riot squad.
The prince, finally free, is heading to the court of justice,
escorted, applauded by the crowd.
It's not a prisoner transfer but a royal parade.
[music ends]
For 17 years, I had to defend myself
from all those who wanted the death of the bull, like in a bullring.
But a bull has horns.
[upbeat music playing]
THE KING WHO NEVER WAS
[crown rattling]
[airplane whirring]
[gun fires]
[upbeat music continues]
[handcuffs clicking]
[cameras clicking]
[music fades]
[cameras clicking]
[Vittorio] Then they handcuffed me before going in.
But they weren't regular handcuffs.
They locked with a screw.
These were relics from the past.
I thought, "Were these used to handcuff Louis XVI?"
[dramatic music playing]
[cameras clicking]
He was the protagonist of my nightmares,
and the mere thought of having to see him in person
was like torture to me.
[dramatic music intensifies]
[reporter] He takes a seat in the dock, under the fresco portraying Saint Louis,
the patron of judges.
He is as still as a waxwork,
under siege by photographers and cameramen.
The Hamer family sits in front of him. Father, younger brother, and two sisters.
The mother died six years ago.
[dramatic music continues]
I remember dozens of journalists were already there.
The president, Maurice Colomb, starts the proceedings.
He opens the files and starts reading in an extremely low voice,
inaudible even to the people sitting in the front rows.
I thought, "What's going on here?"
[dramatic music continues]
[tense music playing]
[reporter in Italian] Then it's the turn of Marina, Vittorio Emanuele's wife,
who remembers vividly the tragic events
of August 18th, 1978.
"A strange group of people was near our boat,"
the princess says.
"We were threatened."
"So I told my husband to take a gun with him."
"I heard some insults and then the gunshots."
[ominous music playing]
[Marina in French] Many witnesses on the island heard four shots,
all making different sounds.
Even the witness statements against us,
of people who were on boats and had no idea what was happening,
said they heard three, four shots.
Some even said five.
[in German] Even Birgit Hamer, the sister of the deceased...
MR. GAUB LAWYER OF VITTORIO EMANUELE OF SAVOY
...heard three gunshots.
[flare sizzling]
[ominous music continues]
[Birgit in Italian] During the trial, the head defense lawyer
tried to twist my words around, as in the statement I wrote in German,
I mentioned "three explosions."
Meaning two gunshots, and the third must have been a flare.
Since I'm not an expert on these kinds of things,
I'd never heard those noises before,
I never said, "Three bullets."
But my statement was translated in French, I don't know who did it,
and it said, "I heard three bullets."
[Nicky] The witnesses all agree that the first two shots
were clearly fired by his rifle.
After that, the explosions that were heard afterwards
were the flares launched from the boats to light up the scene.
[eerie music playing]
[in English] And then came a testimony that was really unbelievable,
by someone called Isolabella.
Lawyer Isolabella.
Lodovico Isolabella.
A top lawyer, very famous in Milan.
GIANNI BARBACETTO JOURNALIST
Openly monarchist.
PINO APRILE JOURNALIST
He walked in, didn't look at anybody. He kneeled before the defendant.
[suspenseful music playing]
He says and testifies that he's heard someone in a coffee bar in Portofino,
saying that the shots weren't fired by Vittorio Emanuele but by someone else.
[reporter] The defense has produced a witness, the lawyer Isolabella,
who, somewhat confusingly, has tried
to involve a third man, Mr. Victor Guglielmi.
According to the witness, the shot that killed Dirk was fired from his gun.
[clicking]
[in Italian] I never said it was Vittorio Guglielmi, whom I don't know.
LODOVICO ISOLABELLA FRIEND OF VITTORIO EMANUELE OF SAVOY
I said that the shot might have been fired by Vittorio Guglielmi's gun.
I don't know who was handling it.
Certainly not Vittorio Emanuele,
because none of the ballistic elements allows that.
[Giorgio in English] I guess you could say their strategy
was not to accuse my brother, because his gun hadn't fired any shots,
any ballistic test would have confirmed that.
That was out of the question.
Yet, they exploited that in the trial as a means
of casting doubt on the jurors.
"Are we certain he fired? Could it be that he didn't?"
His primary purpose was to toss in a new idea,
that there was another gunman who might have, theoretically...
[somber music playing]
...fired at the exact same moment,
while Vittorio Emanuele was in the water with Nicky Pende.
Out of nowhere, another shooter appeared,
and he fired his gun at the exact same angle,
hitting the boy's femoral artery.
[in French] Our position is already firm.
The Prince of Savoy is innocent. He didn't fire the fatal gunshot.
[Birgit in Italian] Through my lawyer, Sabine Paugam, I repeatedly asked
the president of the court to hear the witnesses who were there that night,
namely, all the people on those boats.
Because if there really was a second imaginary shooter,
like a ghost, someone must have seen him.
[in English] Vittorio Emanuele was the shooter.
Why? Because everyone recognized him when he stepped on the boat.
Also, by cross-referencing the testimony of the people who were on board,
who pointed at the prince.
Basically, you don't have to be
a detective to realize that it had to be him.
But I've never been called to testify in court. Never.
Nobody ever questioned me or asked for my statement.
They never called me to testify, never, which I also found rather strange.
I was in Giovanni Malagò's boat, the one in the middle.
I'm one of the few witnesses who testified at the Paris trial.
[low eerie music playing]
I think I was called by the Savoys' legal team
and not by Birgit.
[cameras clicking]
At first they asked, "Did you see a gun fire?" "No."
"Did you see the defendant firing a gun?"
"No, because I was inside my cabin when it all happened."
"Did you happen to notice the defendant move away from your boats?"
"No," I said, "because I went out for a few seconds later,
and no one was there by then."
And that was it. They thanked me and let me go.
[intriguing music playing]
THREE WITNESSES OUT OF THIRTY HEARD BY STELLA PENDE
[Birgit] However, as if it were a thing of the utmost importance,
they kept calling moral witnesses of the defendant.
And we had to listen to them for hours.
One minor detail, though,
none of these moral witnesses were on the scene the night of the murder.
He produced witnesses that had nothing to do with the case...
BERND HAMER DIRK HAMER'S BROTHER
...such as Professor Piccard, who built submarines.
A former Italian ambassador, an oceanographer,
a French writer...
[reporter] Edmonde Charles-Roux describes her friend.
[Edmonde] "Vittorio is a good man, an exile."
"Nothing is more difficult than that."
[reporter] It's a success for the defense.
The crown prince's friends can breathe a sigh of relief.
For 13 years, I had fought to get a trial.
I believed in justice as an institution.
[solemn music playing]
And I gave a complete and thorough testimony in French.
I said everything I knew, exactly as it was.
The silence was such that you could hear a pin drop.
Then Nicky Pende testified.
[interviewer in Italian] Mr. Pende, you're one of the few witnesses
from that night who were heard.
You basically say that he shot at you, and he could have killed you, right?
I definitely think so, because I clearly felt
the heat of the bullets flying over my head.
Is it possible that another gun fired? I mean...
Do you really believe that in those 30, 40 seconds,
a second phantom shooter could have grabbed a gun
and aimed it at a boy in a cabin packed with people?
His wife said she didn't see anyone shooting from the beach.
From the boats, nobody saw anyone. So where was he?
[reporter in English] The prosecutor was very harsh.
"Two gunshots were fired," he said. "Intentionally fired."
"A young man was wounded by one of these shots."
"The French penal code doesn't focus on the identity of the victim,
but it punishes the act of violence. That is the act of shooting."
"Therefore, Vittorio Emanuele is guilty."
- [somber music playing] - [cameras clicking]
For 13 years, they've tried to cover it up,
yet in court the following day, where you swear to God,
I had faith that the truth would finally surface
and justice would be done.
[Emanuele Filiberto] You suffer
because you're seeing the person you love the most in pain.
EMANUELE FILIBERTO OF SAVOY SON OF VITTORIO EMANUELE
And when you don't know, it's out of your control.
You don't... you don't know what's gonna happen.
You don't know what went through the minds of...
I forget how many jurors. Maybe 12.
You look in their eyes, and you can't tell whether they
believe it or not, understand or not...
Until the judge asks, "Have you reached a verdict?"
"Yes, Your Honor." "What is it?"
The verdict was read aloud.
And I grabbed onto something, trying not to faint.
[dramatic music playing]
Everyone rose. It was so quiet.
I remember the exact words.
[dramatic music continues]
"Mr. Savoy was indicted on three counts."
"First count."
"Did he act intentionally?"
"Yes or no?"
"No."
[dramatic music intensifies]
"Second."
"Was he the cause of Mr. Hamer's death?"
"No."
[dramatic music continues]
"Third count. The rifle."
"Was it a military rifle? Yes."
"Did he have a license? No."
"Then we sentence him to five months on parole. You're free to go."
[indistinct conversations]
[fanfare music playing]
[fanfare music continues]
Yes.
- [in French] Later. Where to? - [guard] Towards the exit, Your Majesty.
[Emanuele Filiberto in English] We didn't just get out of a courtroom.
We got out of a 15-year nightmare.
[Vittorio in Italian] So, I have always had faith
in the French justice system
and in my lawyers.
Because I have always said I was innocent.
We're going to be crushed in here.
[in French] After 13 years, we don't know who killed Hamer?
[Vittorio] Sadly, we don't.
[reporter] The prince only knows that he didn't.
[Vittorio] Right. It wasn't me.
[in English] Yes.
[dramatic music continues]
So many people.
Whoa.
Forget about Louis XVI.
[dramatic music continues]
Then I saw my lawyer burst into tears.
Because she had believed in the French justice system.
I was with Birgit.
We left the courtroom together, with her, her partner...
their little girl, Sigrid, and Sabine Paugam.
They got to the lawyer's house, and they went into her room,
and from outside you could hear...
their sobbing, followed by a sweet, reassuring voice.
It was her partner, Harry Beck,
who was trying to comfort her,
while behind the door
their two-year-old girl was pointing at her mother with her finger.
She could hear her crying.
[sad music playing]
[Sigrid Hamer] I was one in '91.
I was taken to Paris.
SIGRID HAMER BIRGIT HAMER'S DAUGHTER
And that's when a whole new life started for all of them, therefore, for us too,
because we grew up...
in a situation that we couldn't really understand,
being children,
because our world was very different, right?
Yet we felt this pain...
It was just in the air.
[sad music continues]
[woman] I wasn't even born when this tragedy happened.
DELIA HAMER BIRGIT HAMER'S DAUGHTER
So I experienced the tragedy through my mother.
Her emotional burden, her sadness, although...
It didn't belong to me. Nevertheless, it was inherited by us.
DIRK HAMER'S PORTRAIT BY HIS NIECE DELIA
I think my father was a bit... And I don't mean to be judgmental,
but I think he was too shallow
to cope with this kind of situation.
So he decided to quit.
I was six months old, my sister was almost three years old,
and he abandoned us.
That's partly why we decided to move to Spain.
[sad music continues]
[Marzotto] Birgit was desperate. She didn't know what to do.
So I got on a plane, and I said...
PAOLA MARZOTTO FRIEND OF BIRGIT HAMER
..."If you accept my help, I'll come over and take you away from this situation."
And we found a house for her.
On the one hand, my first few years in Spain were really pleasant,
since I had my two daughters with me, whom I loved so much.
But on the other hand, the legal battle was still ongoing.
There were these two parallel realities.
[upbeat music playing]
JANUARY 23, 1993
[in Italian] You were acquitted for the events in Cavallo.
Looking back at those events, what do you make of all that?
Yes, it's been a year. A year has passed already.
Uh, surely, it's not a nice memory.
Uh, what I can tell you is
that I still feel sad whenever I think of the victim.
[reporter] Do you think this has played
a role in your relationship with the Italians?
[Vittorio] Definitely. Yes.
Now I hope that the exile law will finally be repealed
and that we'll be allowed to visit our homeland again.
I WILL RETURN TO ITALY
[in English] Italians are the best people in the world.
[intriguing music playing]
They weren't particularly nice to me, of course.
They took everything away from me.
But I was perfectly aware
of what was going on with that messy referendum.
Wish I'd been spared from that.
[intriguing music continues]
[reporter in Italian] The law banning the Savoy male heirs
from returning to Italy is being discussed again.
[reporter 2] Mr. Fini, should we keep the Savoys out a little bit longer, or...
GIANFRANCO FINI EX-PRESIDENT OF THE DEPUTY CHAMBER
Well, I reiterate that this issue should be discussed
regardless of Vittorio Emanuele and what happened on Cavallo Island.
I think Italy has no reason to worry about Savoys' bodies and heirs returning.
At least he can go on trial here in Italy.
- Lama. - I will only say this.
LUCIANO LAMA FORMER TRADE UNIONIST AND POLITICIAN
I honestly prefer to see Mr. Savoy free in France
rather than on trial in Italy.
[in English] The debate went on for decades in Italy,
about whether or not to overturn the transitional rule
of the Republican Constitution banning the Savoys male heirs
from setting foot in Italy again.
LET THEM COME BACK
[Emanuele Filiberto] I was guilty at birth.
I was guilty inside my mother's womb.
I wasn't allowed to return to Italy.
Guilty of something that I hadn't even seen.
I was born in '72, well after '46.
I can understand banning the king, banning the queen.
Perhaps I could even understand banning my father for a while.
But I was born outside of all of that. Why can't I go?
[calm music playing]
[man in Italian] When you are allowed to come to Italy,
I believe one day this will happen, where will you go?
The very first place.
To Venice.
[man] Do you ever talk about Italy with your friends?
Sometimes.
[man] What are you to them? Swiss or Italian?
- To my friends? - [man] Yes.
Swiss.
- [man] And how do you consider yourself? - Italian.
[actor on TV] What will our fate be?
[Emanuele Filiberto] What will our fate be?
[calm music continues]
[politician on TV] 460 participants, 416 voters, 44 abstentions,
JULY 11, 2002
310 votes needed. 347 voted in favor.
69 against. Motion approved.
[suspenseful music playing]
It's a wonderful day for my husband.
He has waited 56 years.
Important news for the Savoy male heirs.
After over 50 years, they will be allowed to return to Italy.
[plane whirring]
[adventurous music playing]
[film projector clicking and whirring]
[adventurous music continues]
DECEMBER 23, 2002 ROME
[tense music playing]
- [adventurous music playing] - [indistinct shouting]
Today is the best day of our life.
Finally, after all these years,
we are allowed to return to our beloved homeland.
The chapter of our exile has finally come to an end.
And the chapter of our engagement begins. Long live Italy.
VITTORIO EMANUELE ONE LIFE AND MANY MISTAKES
[adventurous music continues]
[reporter] Many social events lined up for them, as well as formal meetings.
The first one is tomorrow with the president of the republic.
[intriguing music playing]
- Mr. President. - Welcome back to the Quirinal.
CARLO AZEGLIO CIAMPI PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC 1999-2006
- This must be an emotional moment for you. - Thanks. Yes, indeed.
[intriguing music continues]
[in English] I remember seeing this street in Rome, "Corso Vittorio Emanuele."
I was really fascinated by that.
[intriguing music continues]
[Vittorio in Italian] I'll go back to Naples
and then back to Rome again.
Then I'll start touring the whole of Italy with my son, who's never seen it.
[Emanuele Filiberto in English] Going back to Naples is a bit like rewinding a tape,
going back to the beginning.
[intriguing music intensifies]
[indistinct conversations]
It was a wonderful first impression of Italy.
I went with them on their first trips.
They were met by a slew of people ready to do business with them.
LUCIANO REGOLO JOURNALIST
They had several proposals for them.
And it seemed that whatever deal they were offered
really excited them.
They seemed captivated.
[motorbike revving]
[Birgit] One day, I was with my daughters
at their boarding school in Spain, in Andalusia,
when suddenly my phone rang.
It was my dear Italian friend, and she said,
"Birgit! Birgit! You won't believe this!"
[mysterious music playing]
[Emanuele Filiberto] I was in Paris, coming back from a trip.
Really nice weather.
I was just soaking everything in, thinking,
"Everything's great. It's a gorgeous day."
I go home to see my kids and wife.
And as soon as I get off my bike, I got a phone call.
"Your father has been arrested."
"Again?" [chuckling]
[in Italian] Good evening from TG1. We're opening with some breaking news.
JUNE 16, 2006
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy
was arrested earlier today.
The allegations are serious.
Criminal conspiracy to commit bribery and sex trafficking.
Vittorio Emanuele was arrested while he was with his wife, Marina Doria,
uh, in Varenna by Lake Como. "They caught him like a bandit,"
says his son Emanuele Filiberto.
[action music playing]
GAMBLING AND WOMEN ARRESTED
VITTORIO EMANUELE ARRESTED
CHECK TO THE KING
I traveled in this small village on the edge of the lake
to deliver a bell
to the church.
And they arrested me, or rather, two people told me,
"Look, it is very dangerous for you here."
"So you should follow us. Get in the car with us."
I was taken, put inside, and kidnapped.
It was... It was not an arrest.
It was an outright kidnapping.
[mysterious music playing]
[in English] The driver was quite small.
The poor man next to him, who was a cop, was as tall as me.
Imagine both of us in a tiny Fiat.
And it's a pretty long journey to the South.
[mysterious music continues]
We basically stopped at every gas station to buy beer or something.
Then we ran out of gas.
I paid for both the beer and for the gas. [laughing]
[birds chirping]
I had no idea what I was being arrested for.
I didn't find out until I finally got to Potenza.
COURT OF JUSTICE
[Barbacetto] A prosecutor from Potenza, Henry Woodcock,
was running an investigation on a criminal association...
that was being charged with a criminal conspiracy,
which included bribery, extortion, unlawful gambling,
sex trafficking, forgeries,
threats, and aiding and abetting.
It was a diverse group,
and Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy was abetting.
[reporter] Campione d'Italia.
This is the suspected location
of the prince's and his partners' criminal operation.
According to the investigators, the goal was to entice
the casino's clientele, who had significant wealth of questionable origin,
by offering them a variety of luxuries, including women.
Sex trafficking, smuggling of... I don't even know what.
Reading on, it turns out I was also mentioned in the file.
I was accused of software piracy. I have no idea what that is.
I remember going with my daughters to the mountains,
because they'd arrested my father, and I didn't know why.
Even my mother had left Italy.
I didn't know what was going on.
My wife was told,
"Careful, they're going to lock you up. You must leave now,"
and she fled immediately.
[intriguing music playing]
[Marina] It was incredible.
The allegations made against him were crazy. So, I don't know.
I wonder if perhaps the Italians, or some of them,
were a bit scared that we still had a significant following.
[chuckling]
Mysterious things happen in Italy.
In Potenza it was freezing cold.
And I still didn't know what was going on.
They just put me in a prison cell.
I just thought, "This is insanity."
"Something's really wrong here."
I was tired. I couldn't sleep.
There was a bench.
There were four or five people in that cell.
Some old friends were there.
[mambo music playing]
[reporter] The prince's codefendants are Sicilian Rocco Migliardi,
a slot machine dealer with alleged Mafia ties,
and Ugo Bonazza,
a former meat distributor, who made a fortune in gambling.
There are pictures showing the two men handing Vittorio Emanuele
envelopes containing cash.
[in Italian] The envelope was his donation to...
to the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.
[reporter in English] Vittorio Emanuele is the grand master
of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.
[intriguing music continues]
[reporter in Italian] The investigating judge, Iannuzzi,
has signed his release, as expected, after the preliminary interrogation...
JUNE 23, 2006
...where Vittorio Emanuele has partially admitted his responsibility
in the bribery accusations of the casino in Campione d'Italia.
[police siren blaring]
The black SUV speeds away from the prison, sirens on.
Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy is running home.
Reportedly, he immediately asked about his family.
[intriguing music continues]
[in English] They put him in prison for a week, I think.
We couldn't visit him.
Then they gave him a six-month travel ban.
How ironic. First they don't want him to come to Italy,
then they say, "Now you stay, and you can't leave."
[reporter in Italian] For a few days, the prince has shared a cell
with Rocco Migliardi, from Messina,
who, the prosecutors say, did the dirty work for the prince.
According to the prince, he was giving to charity.
[Migliardi] He got a tan. If you look at him now, he has a nice suntan.
[reporter 2] In the courtyard, he'd take his shirt off and sunbathe?
[Migliardi] Yes. He'd walk around barefoot.
[in English] In September 2010,
Vittorio Emanuele and the other five codefendants
are acquitted on the grounds that there is no case to answer.
[dramatic music playing]
I remember some magazine covers. One had a photo of him naked
holding a crown here, titled "the king is naked."
Hundreds of articles. The whole world knew about him being arrested.
Then, when he was completely cleared,
there must have been something like six footnotes.
This long.
It appeared that Vittorio Emanuele would have a happy ending once more.
However, an unexpected turn of events threw the ball back in the game.
Basically, Vittorio Emanuele, while in prison in Potenza,
decides to talk about the old Cavallo incident
with his cellmate,
[tense music playing]
He's being wiretapped.
[in Italian] "I tricked the French judges."
SEPTEMBER 9, 2006
Vittorio Emanuele, wiretapped in prison, speaks in a less-than-noble way
about the Cavallo murder in 1978.
[tense music continues]
[reporter] It's not the first time Vittorio Emanuele has spoken out of turn.
This time, however, while laughing it off, he admitted to murdering a man.
Three months ago, wiretapped in prison in Potenza,
he told his cellmate the real story,
mocking the French judges who had acquitted him.
[reporter 2] "I was guilty, but I managed to trick them,"
the Savoy bragged to his cellmate.
And he added, "Amazing. I had 20 witnesses,
many high-profile French people. I was sure I would win."
Controversy over the release of the wiretapped conversation
of Vittorio Emanuele,
confessing his responsibility in the murder of a young man...
[reporter 3] ...he states the gunshots that killed the German boy
were fired from his rifle.
The words attributed to Vittorio Emanuele by the press don't exist.
GIULIA BONGIORNO VITTORIO EMANUELE'S LAWYER
I read the transcript of the wiretapping...
FRANCESCO MURGIA VITTORIO EMANUELE'S LAWYER
...and absolutely it does not contain, nor allows room for speculation,
that Vittorio Emanuele mentioned anything about his liabilities in Cavallo.
[Emanuele Filiberto] I know he never said those things.
What came out in the newspaper is a patchwork
of a 25-minute conversation in his cell.
They took some words and assembled them together
and did what they did.
He never said those things.
[action music playing]
SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 MILAN
[Vittorio] I kept quiet for many weeks,
as recommended by my lawyers.
Now it's time for me to speak up and let the truth emerge.
Random fragments of conversations have been taken out of context
regarding old events archived decades ago.
[action music continues]
They have twisted the meaning behind my thoughts and my words.
Therefore, let me talk about justice, truth, and the tragic death of Dirk Hamer.
The bullet that hit the young man could not have been shot from my rifle.
It was proven by experts before the Court of Assize
and the judge.
Someone did shoot that poor young man with a gun.
It wasn't my rifle!
[in English] He denies it so forcefully
that you begin to suspect that nothing is true.
[in Italian] Thank you.
[applause]
Here. I'll leave this here.
[in English] The issue is that these statements weren't simply stated.
They were also recorded and even recorded on video.
ANTONIO PADELLARO JOURNALIST
We knew there was a video.
The footage contained incriminating statements.
Some of these statements had been transcribed by the press,
but they didn't have the tape. So, a hunt for the tape began.
[Birgit] We packed our things, and we went to Rome to look for it.
From 2006 to 2011.
Birgit's hunt for the tape containing Vittorio Emanuele's confession
went on for a long time.
She sent countless, repeated formal requests
to the legal authorities in possession of the video.
Eventually, they gave it to Birgit, who was entitled to view it,
as the victim's sister.
[in Italian] Footage recorded in prison during the Vallettopoli scandal...
FEBRUARY 24, 2011
...nails Vittorio Emanuele, who threatens legal action.
[Barbacetto] Vittorio Emanuele confesses, "I shot him. I hit his leg."
He even mimics the shooting.
[Vittorio in Italian] ...and the trial, even if I was... guilty...
guilty...
...the rifle... I must say I was guilty.
I fired a shot like this, pointing down,
but the bullet went here and hit his leg...
and hit his leg, and he was... lying down,
passing through the cabin.
Bullet 30-0-3.
[in English] But to be honest...
I don't think I said anything.
Because I don't remember doing it. I was tired.
Or if I did, it wasn't about that. I never mentioned it to anyone.
They made everything up.
I've never seen the famous footage.
I don't know.
But I'm surprised because I've never said anything about Cavallo,
since I thought, "Cavallo is not here."
"Here we are in Italy."
[reporter] For the French judicial system this doesn't change anything.
After the final acquittal, the case cannot be reopened.
Vittorio Emanuele started a defamation lawsuit against Birgit
and our newspaper, il Fatto Quotidiano, for releasing the video.
The Court of Appeal, at the end of the investigation procedure,
acquitted both Birgit and il Fatto Quotidiano,
because the right to the truth held by the victim's family overrules
the right to oblivion demanded by Vittorio Emanuele.
VITTORIO EMANUELE AND HAMER "HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS DEATH"
What a huge relief.
We were finally done having to live...
with this tension, with
this burden...
of constantly having to sue and fight...
["Le vent nous portera" by Noir Désir playing]
Now we know that our war, in the end, through a form of divine justice,
has been won.
["Le vent nous portera" continues]
[Birgit] Personally, I decided I will never ever, ever return
to Sardinia or to Cavallo.
2022 PORTO ROTONDO, SARDINIA
However, it might be necessary to go there, where all the evil started,
to break that spell.
["Le vent nous portera" continues]
[Sigrid Hamer] I think it's important for all of us to properly understand,
process, and put things back where they belong,
so we can have peace.
["Le vent nous portera" continues]
[boat revving]
This tragedy had an impact on my family.
I mean, problems don't die with the generation in which they begin.
CAVALLO ISLAND CORSICA, FRANCE
Having a sense of closure where these events happened
is a wonderful thing.
It's a liberating power.
[Sigrid Hamer] Knowing that we did it, I mean, that we faced the black hole...
that's all we need to move on.
And we earned that.
["Le vent nous portera" continues]
[Birgit] Yes, this allows me to start over,
to find some peace within me.
[announcer in Italian] Emanuele Filiberto is the winner
of Ballando con le Stelle 2009!
[Emanuele Filiberto in English] After the exile, I appeared on Italian TV
to introduce myself to the people.
You'll never see a show quoting my full name,
"Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy."
It's just "Emanuele Filiberto."
Perhaps it was also a way for me to start, you know,
living my life.
["Le vent nous portera" continues]
My daughters are the future, but
they're the first ones after more than one thousand years
who are really free.
They have no anchor pulling them somewhere else.
And this anchor, unfortunately, when you pull it up,
it's covered in seaweed, in...
all sorts of things.
So, I want to leave something clean behind.
[song fades]
That's what I want my legacy to be.
I have no...
I have no regrets.
I'd do it all again... Well, apart from Cavallo.
Other than that, my life has been perfect.
And living differently would've been tough for me.
What should I have done instead?
[director] Ready for action. Sixty-seven, one, take three.
[Vittorio] Listen, who wants some champagne?
- [Emanuele Filiberto] Everybody. - [Vittorio] Bring it over.
I still have plenty of stories to tell, but I can't tell them.
Stories about Juan Carlos.
He was a bit rude with my wife and I when we had disagreements.
With Carlos...
JUAN CARLOS OF BOURBON KING OF SPAIN 1975-2014
...and I don't know why, because we've always been so friendly.
Better yet, I was there!
[mysterious music playing]
We were in exile, and we used to go shooting...
some jars or bottles, whatever we could find at the beach in Cascais.
[mysterious music continues]
Juanito made a mess.
He shot his brother. And he killed him.
[mournful music playing]
His name was Alfonsito.
He didn't shoot at him directly. He shot through the closet.
He just happened to be there. It was an accident. No doubt about it.
THE SAVOY FAMILY AT THE FUNERAL OF ALFONSO OF BOURBON
I immediately hid my gun. I was afraid they would have blamed me for it again.
What happened after that, Franco called.
He sent his ambassador, saying,
"Juanito, leave immediately with me and come to Spain."
That's when Franco said, "I'll make a king out of him."
[mournful music crescendos and fades]
[upbeat music playing]
[upbeat music continues]
[music ends]