noirfabi
Commoner
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2007
- Messages
- 44
- City
- sanremo
- Country
- Italy
stefano gave a lot of happiness to his family but also a lot of sadness
I saw a program on the lovely and elegant Princess Caroline on the Biography Channel, recently.
I was quite shocked to hear it claimed that her deceased husband, Casiraghi, was, allegedly, a member of a mafia family and that that's where his family garnered their wealth.
Can anyone confirm that this is true, or is it simply envious gossip?
^Organized crime can occur anywhere - and thus it is not confined to one area only. Furthermore, I find it disrespectful to the people of southern Italy who have nothing to do with the mafia. Put blame to the criminals and not to regions as a whole.
I've never heard or read any specific indictment of Stefano Casiraghi or his activities. All I have ever read and heard about this allegation of mafia connections are generalizations. No one even says, "Oh he was seen here with so-and-so of known mafia activities," or "he was known acquaintance of such-and-such." All they say is that his grave was violated in a manner supposedly typical of mafia style, and furthermore they allege that this incident indicates possible mafia connections. And of course the Italian stereotypes are drudged up.
Just to throw in my two cents' worth....
The biographer Anne Edwards alleged in her Grimaldis' book that Stefano acquired massive amounts of debt because he liked the grand life and, although he made lots of money, he enjoyed living a bit beyond his actual means, so he borrowed perhaps as much as he earned. This, alleged Edwards, was the reason for Caroline having so much debt after his death. Apparently, she had the value of her jewels assessed and the banks were able to use her jewels as collatoral so that she could make repayment arrangements. Edwards also alleged that Stefano loved Caroline dearly, but apparently had one affair; actually her words were "Caroline learned that he had a mistress all along." I don't know if Edwards's allegations are true, but all of those allegations are the worst of the more specific allegations I have read/heard about Stefano, and to me, these things are not horrible.... I mean, people fall in love, people fall out of love, people have affairs, people acquire debt.... these aren't crimes. And Stefano was so young, just 30 years old, and I am 30 now and have so much to learn, so I have empathy....
I have been hearing those rumors for a very long time, almost 20 years, about Stefano being involved in mafia.
I dont know, I am not sure, but it has been widely said that he did illegal affairs in Monaco using shamelessly his wife's name.
Let's not forget that his casket had ben dug out and put upright the night after his funeral. Some saw it as a typical " mafia act".
Tosca, maybe it's wiser never to mention any of the mafia rumors to any Casiraghi, especially in the unlikely event that the rumors are true!
What would happen to someone found to suspect "the truth"?
I hope our international friends won't think Italy is a land of crime and illegality. It's just that organized crime tends to spread were conditions of life are more difficult: that's way mafia is so visible in the poorer parts of the country while it's well hidden in the richer ones.
My husband often goes to Fino Mornasco for work, where Stefano grew up and his family still own a house called "Villa delle Cicogne", and I went there a couple of times.