Italo Ormanni, the magistrate who dealt with some of the most sensational Italian news cases – from the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi to the murder of Marta Russo – has died at the age of 88.
Born in Naples, he entered the judiciary in 1961 and remained there for almost half a century. Deputy prosecutor in the Neapolitan capital, he dealt mainly with the Camorra, conducting investigations which then culminated in sensational arrests: from Raffaele Cutolo to Michele Zaza, to Lorenzo Nuvoletta.
In the 1980s he applied to the Court of Cassation, consultant to the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission, and professor at the University of Naples. From 1994 to 2008 he was deputy prosecutor at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rome and from 2000 to 2008 he was anti-mafia prosecutor for Lazio. His most important investigations date back to these years, many of which had a great media impact: the Emanuela Orlandi and Marta Russo cases, the investigations into the Gladio organisation, the murder of Giovanna Reggiani, that of Maria Grazia Cutuli in Afghanistan, the of Massimo D’Antona by the Red Brigades, just to name a few.
From 2008 to 2010 he was head of department at the Ministry of Justice, where he also dealt with the extradition of Cesare Battisti.