November 29, 1980, a snowstorm surprised two women driving through the Sibillini Mountains, in Italy, at five in the afternoon. It was about Jeanette Bishop Maya wealthy former British model, and first wife of Evelyn de RothschildElizabeth II’s banker; and his great friend and personal secretary, Gabriella Guerin. The blizzard seemed to have literally swallowed both women off the face of the earth. The Italian police found the car empty, but their lifeless bodies were not located until fourteen months later. What exactly happened? This case, followed with passion by the press of the time, has been reopened because, according to investigators, new clues could lead to the answer that has been awaited for forty-four years. As explained by the prosecutor in the case, Frabrizio Narbone, “this may be the last chance to find the truth.” The mysterious affair, which has been fascinating the inhabitants of the small town for years town of Sarnanocould finally be resolved. No one seems to doubt that this was a double murder, but who did it and what was their motive?
For now, Rafaelle Ruocco, head of the Carabinieri of the region, has confirmed to the Corriere della Sera that will be done new interrogations to the people involved in the events or to all those who, in some direct or indirect way, could have information about it: “We have examined the files, as we do with all unsolved cases, and we have found aspects that are worth investigating” .
© ARCHIVE HELLO!Who was Jeanette Bishop?
When in January 1982, hunters found two female bodies, in a clear state of decomposition, and badly damaged by the attack of, apparently, wild boars, in the Marche region, they did not imagine that these bodies belonged to the two women. most sought after of the time and which, until that moment, had been declared as missing. Jeanette Bishop, former model and former British television actress, had been married, from 1966 to 1971, to Evelyn de Rothschild, a famous British financier, belonging to the very powerful Rothschild family. He stood out for being Isabel II’s banker, polo player, attractive and lover of the good life.
During their marriage of just five years With one of the most desirable men of the time, Jeanette Bishop received the treatment of Baroness de Rothschild, surprising considering that her childhood had not been easy at all. She came from a humble family, but when her father died, her uncle, Sir Stanley Hooker, made sure that Jeanette received a careful education and was positioned in strict British society. Stanley Hooker was a well-known and highly respected jet engine engineer. He began his career in Rolls & Roycestood out in the aeronautical industry and never left his niece unattended.
© ARCHIVE HELLO!
© ARCHIVE HELLO!Despite her divorce from Evelyn de Rothschild, she continued to frequent her social circle and devoted herself to her great passion: interior design and collecting art objects, which is why she used to be a regular Christie’s visitor. On the other hand, he loved Italy and his friend Gabriella Urdin, who ended up widowed and raising her two children alone, lived there.
Jeanette Bishop remarried a prominent businessman, Stephen May. Precisely, the former baroness was in Italy with Gabriella Guerinbecause she wanted to supervise the renovation of a country house that she and her husband had bought in the village of Schito. That’s where it all began: on those narrow mountain roads, with the snow making the paths invisible and with the two women waiting for it to clear so they could get out of that hell.
On November 30, 1980, the alarms went off. The police searched unsuccessfully for Jeanette and Gabriella. Seventeen days later, the empty carwithout any clue that could clarify the whereabouts of the missing women. When the aforementioned hunters found the bodies in the forests of Podalla di Fiastra, near a cemetery, speculation reached its maximum expression. Immediately, different theories about the events came to the fore: that if it was a vendetta of the mafia for some shady business about which nothing was known; Whether this strange event was related to a theft of works of art that occurred in Rome, or to the murder of an Italian antiques dealer, or whether it had any connection with the unprecedented death of Roberto Calvi, known as the Banker of God. Calvi, who worked for the Vatican, was found on June 18, 1982, hanging from a scaffolding under Blackfriars Bridge in London, with the pockets full of bricks.
© GETTY IMAGESOld and new tracks
The Times also follows this fascinating case and has revealed that investigators found in the possession of Jeanette Bishop, who was forty years old at the time of her death, telegrams that directly linked her to the robbery perpetrated at the Roman headquarters of the auction house Christie’s, in Piazza Navona. Many of these telegrams were coded, making them difficult to understand, but it seems that they could describe some details of that robbery. These messages were exchanged with an antiques dealer, who responded to the name of Sergio Vaccari. Well, to further complicate this great mystery of the 20th century, Vaccari died after receiving fifteen stab wounds in his home in Holland Park, London, in that fateful year of 1982.
The Macerata prosecutor, Alessandro Lacoboni, since December 1982 investigated what was already considered to have been a double murderand was in communication with Scotland Yard, responsible for discovering who had murdered Vaccari and what was behind such a savage crime. Lacobani searched in every possible way for an answer to the strange death of Jeanette and Gabriella. On September 25, 1989, seven years later, he concluded that, indeed, the case was attributable to a double homicide. He was always left with the thorn in the side of not having been able to clarify who the murderers had been.
© GETTY IMAGESNowadays, it will not be easy to reconstruct the history and the intricacies of this double crime, forty-four years later. Some of the direct witnesses, such as Daniele Talocco – one of the last people to see Jeanette and Gabriella before their disappearance – died four years ago. Of the two hunters who found the women’s remains, one of them no longer resides in that area. The one who is still alive and willing to reveal everything he knows is the architect Nazzareno Venanzi, responsible for the remodeling of the May house in Schito. Venanzi has recalled everything he remembers from that funeral day: “We had an aperitif before eating, then he asked me if I wanted to accompany the two of them through the mountains that afternoon, but I declined because I was busy. When I found out that they had not returned to the hotel, I got worried and notified the police.”
One of the big questions that investigators face is the following: what was so urgent for Bishop and Guerin to undertake a risky trip in their car through the mountains, when the snow storm was already raging in the area? And what was the sequence of events like that was so tragic ending? It should be noted that when both women’s car, a black Peugeot 104, was found by a police helicopter seventeen days after the disappearance, it was in an abandoned farm, closed and with the handbrake on. Inside the cabin, investigators discovered that someone, probably them, had used various wooden furniture to make firewood, light a fire and warm themselves against the storm. So, if they managed to take refuge within four walls, what happened so that fourteen months later their bodies were found at another point, in the vicinity of the Fiastra lake? From the beginning, the local police speculated that the two had lost their lives due to hypothermia, but the Jeanette’s husband He did not agree with this hypothesis and, on January 14, 1982, he offered a reward of more than two hundred thousand euros to whoever found them. Two weeks later, the aforementioned hunters located both the bodies and the personal effects of the two.
According to the forensic experts, there were no signs of violence or struggle on the bodies, and everything indicates that they died at the point where they were found, but how or why? At the time, researchers also noted that none of the conclusions issued in their reports could be considered completely valid, because the skeletons were not complete. The wild boars had done their thing.