Italy Again Probes Death of Mattei by Claire Sterling 1 5 Special to the Waehinigton Poet ROME, Nov
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Italy Again Probes Death of Mattei By Claire Sterling 1 5 Special to The Waehinigton Poet ROME, Nov. 14—Eight case just before h van- years after the officially ac- ished, and had told friends cidental death of Enrico he was onto "something Mattei, head of the Italian big." Since the circum- stances of Mattel's death state oil trust ENI and one have never been explained of the most controversial in- satisfactorily, many Italians ternational figures of his have ben unabl to resist time, Italy's parliamentary putting two and two to- Anti-Mafia Commission is lether. examining the archives to determine whether or not UUntil the recent rumors, ENRICO MATTEI he may have been mur- the Italian public knew only ... death probed dered. that Matters private jet ' The news of this investiga- plane, a French Morane- tion comes after weeks of Saulnier, had crashed Oct caller has never been discov- speculation in the press 27, 1962, within minutes of a ered, nor have those of here, following the mysteri- scheduled landing at Milan's three men who enterd th ous disappearance last Sept. Linate Airport, killing Mat- tel, his traveling companion plane during his brief ab- 17 of a reputable Sicilian sence—two dressed in main- journalist who was looking Bill McHale of Time-Life, into details of Mattei's death and the pilot. An inquiry or- tenance overalls and the for a film company. The dered by the defense minis- third in earabinieri uniform. journalist, Mauro De Mauro, try ended four years later in • An attempt had been is believed to have been kid- a formal verdict of accident, made to sabotage Mattel's naped and probably killed but the details were never plane nine months earlier, by the Mafia. )ubilshed. by taping a screwdriver in- There is no hard evidence Now, since De Mauro's side the engine. that De Mauro had discov- disappearance, a number of • Mattel, according to his ered anything sensational witnesses have spoken up, brother and closest col- about Matters fatal plane including Mattel's brother leagues in ENI, had been re- crash before the journalist Halo, who has demanded ceiving threatening letters was abducted. He might that_the case be reopened. ror of his life. He had told have gotten into trouble at Several intriguing facts his brother just before least as easily for an alto- =hem these: going to Sicily the last time that he meant to go "even if gether different inquiry he • Although the pilot ha- was making at the time, into they intend to kill me." bitually kept Mattel's plane emies Mattei had made in the Mafia's drug-running in under his close personal collaboration with Cosa Nos- international politics, diplo- watch, he had unaccounta- macy, finance and petro- tra. bly been called to the tele- Nevertheless, he is known leum, the "they" might have phone at the Catania airport meant almost anybody. But to havelnierviewedseveral shortly before Mattei's de- key witnesses in the Mattel parture. The identity of his See MATTE!, A24, Col. I Al .714 5widay. Sete. 15, 1974 THE WASHINGTON POST Italy Probes Death Of Oil Trust Chief MATTE!, From A23 Thuraud de Vosjoli, who was the late President de those familiar with the case Gaulle's top secret agent in say it referred to French the United States for 12 "ultras" in the Algerian years. In an inter-view with OAS, (Organization de the weekly l'Europeo, M. de L'Armee Secrete) who had Vosjoli claimed that the fa- sentenced Mattel to death mous OAS “barbouzes" in by kangaroo court In the the clandestine French so- summer of 1961, and had called parallel police had even published the verdict dozens of spies working in- in their clandestine bulletin. side EM, and even getting to do with a ferocious strug- T: e fatal act of CV- .tage, gle over concessions in the daily weather reports from immense oilfields discov- airports used by Mattel. ered in the Algerian Sahara in 1956. While French com- The fatal act of sabotage, panies were obliged eventu- he added, was done by an ally to let the big seven oil expert Corsican aircraft me- companies in on this, they chanic named Laurent, who refused to include ENT. Ac- had been sent by the paral- cordingly, Mattel threw in lel police some weeks before his lot with the Algerian to work In the Catania air- rebels in the FLN, becoming port for just that purpose. their principle supplier of Mafia's Role a Mystery arms and money, on the Whether or not all this is theory that an "Algerian Al- true, it is not clear where geria" would amply repay the Mafia comes in. The him in oil rights. theory is—though there are Stood by Rebels no known facts to confirm it Eventually, this strategy —that the Mafia was per- alarmed the other oil com- suaded to lend the OAS a panies in Algeria to the hand in exchange for favors point of inviting Mattel to rendered, presumably hav- join them. But when they ing to do with protection for approached him in June, its drug and other contra- 1961, he was so confident of band ships in the Western an FLYN victory that he Mediterranean. turned them down. But there seems little Directly afterwar d, doubt that the Mafia engi- France protested Mattel's neered the kidnaping of De "anti-French activities" In Mauro, who must have come an official demarche to the to know too much about Italian government. A something, Considering the month later Mattel received extraordinary resurgence of formal notice from the GAS Mafia violence in Sicily this that he and his whole family autumn, and the consequent had been condemned to improbability of any witness death. breaking the ancient Mafia The screwdriver planted law of ornerta—silence—it in his plane engine was seems most unlikely now found sir months later. It that anybody else is going to was at once reported In the find out what De Mauro Italian newspaper he fi- knew. nanced. Il Giorno, as an OAS attempt on his life. By the time his plane did crash, nine months after that, Mat- tel had completed negotia- tions with FLN leader Ben Bella for huge oil conces- sions, and was about to sign the agreement. Much of this story, backed by documentary evidence, has been confirmed recently by French espionage agent .