Edoardo Agnelli

From The Islamic Counterterrorism Institute

Edoardo Agnelli (9 June 1954 – 15 November 2000) was the eldest son of Gianni Agnelli the Italian industrialist patriarch of Fiat, and Marella Caracciolo, an Italian-American. Agnelli's death was ruled a suicide.

 

Edoardo Agnelli

Life

Agnelli was born in New York, in the United States. After studying at Atlantic College, he read modern literature and oriental philosophy at Princeton University,^[1] where he was allegedly given the nickname Crazy Eddie supposedly for his "wild behavior."^[2] After leaving Princeton he travelled to India, pursuing his interest in oriental religion and mysticism,^[1] and Iran, where he met Ayatollah Khamenei and was reported to have converted to Islam.^[3] According to La Repubblica Agnelli's preoccupations became increasingly erratic, "Mysticism, Franciscanism, drugs, Buddhism, lectures against Capital, praise of the poor, criticism of the behaviour of Fiat."^[4]

As an adult Agnelli claimed to be the heir apparent to the Fiat empire, but apparently his father, who had already been unhappy with Edoardo's timidity when he was a child, ensured that he would not inherit it.^[2] The only official position which the younger Agnelli held in the family businesses was as a director of Juventus football club,^[5] in which capacity he was present at the Heysel disaster.^[6]

In 1990 Agnelli was charged in Kenya with possession of seven ounces of heroin, to which he pleaded innocent.^[7] The charges were later dropped.^[8]

Death

In November 2000, 46 year old Agnelli's body was found, near Turin, Italy, on a river bed beneath a motorway viaduct, on which his car was found abandoned.^[1] The viaduct is known as the Bridge of Suicides.^[9] The death was considered by Italian investigators to have been a suicide.

A 2001 Iranian documentary film alleged, without offering any evidence,^[10] that Agnelli was the victim of a "Zionist plot" to prevent an alleged Muslim from becoming the head of Fiat, in spite of the fact that Agnelli was not an heir to Fiat^[2]. The documentary has cult status on Iranian television and is frequently repeated in prime-time slots. In the Italian press the documentary was commentated as ″building up an Urban Legend by Iranian authorities″.^[10] In 2003 it was circulated by FARS, a Iranian press agency linked to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.^[10] According to Corriere della Sera, the story is also enshrined at the Museum of Martyrs of Islam in Iran at Imam Sadiq University, which contains a portrait-shrine dedicated to Agnelli.

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Fiat chief's son dies in viaduct plunge | The Daily Telegraph | 19 June 2001 | Bruce Johnston
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} THE CHILDREN OF THE RICH & FAMOUS | CNN | 10 September 1990 | Alan Farnham
3. ↑ The curse of inheritance: Do wealthy dynasties always make for happy heirs? | Belfast Telegraph | 19 July 2007
4. ↑ Edoardo Agnelli, una vita fragile | La Repubblica | November 2000
5. ↑ Fiat family's search for an heir | Sunday Business | 26 November 2000
6. ↑ Soccer and Disaster | Page 82 | Routledge | 2005 | Paul Darby, Martin Johnes, and Gavin Mello, Gavin
7. ↑ TYCOON'S SON PLEADS | Post-Gazette | 23 September 1990
8. ↑ Death of a family firm? | The Sunday Business Post | 3 December 2000
9. ↑ Milestones Nov. 27, 2000 | Time | 27 November 2000 | Melissa August, Amanda Bower, Matthew Cooper, Steven Frank, Macabe Keliher, Ling Minhua, Ellin Martens, Michele Orecklin, Julie Rawe, Sora Song, Josh Tyrangiel
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} “Edoardo Agnelli was a Shiite Martyr” | Corriere della Sera | 11 November 2005

Article sources

The source of this article is Wikipedia.

Also see

• Ya RAFIC
• Ya RAFIC Lyrics

Article publishing history

This article page was created on 27 November 2010.