Victor Emmanuel of Savoy: This summer brought him to prison

Victor Emmanuel of Savoy
Death in Corsica – This summer landed him in prison

It was a mild summer day in August 1978 when Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, 86, was vacationing with his family in his holiday home on the Île de Cavallo off Corsica. Although the last crown prince of Italy was not allowed to set foot in his homeland, he lived a life of sheer luxury. In 1971 he quietly and secretly married his great love Marina Ricolfi Doria, 88, after their Las Vegas wedding in Tehran, together the couple has a son, Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, 51.

The life of the family was to change forever that summer. In a shootout on August 18, 1978, in which Viktor Emanuel von Savoy was significantly involved, the 19-year-old student Dirk Geerd Hamer was seriously injured. Hamer succumbed to his injuries four months after the life-threatening shot. A tragic death that would put Victor Emmanuel in prison.

A summer in Corsica that changed everything

But from the front. When Victor Emmanuel of Savoy vacationed with his family in Cavallo in the summer of 1978, the Crown Prince apparently felt disturbed by a group of young Italians who were taking a day trip to the island. This emerges from the new Netflix documentary series “The King Who Never Was One”, in which, among other things, the 86-year-old and numerous participants of that summer have their say.

After an initial confrontation at dinner, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy set off in a boat that night to join the sleeping troops, who had taken the nobleman’s rubber dinghy with them in the hours before. Arrived at the tour group, there was a confrontation with Nicky Pende. Viktor Emanuel fired two shots from his rifle, one bullet hit Dirk Geerd Hamer’s abdomen. After several operations, the student died in December 1978.

Victor Emmanuel of Savoy insists on his innocence

Since then, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy has insisted that it wasn’t his bullet that hit Hamer, but that a third shot was fired from another weapon. Nevertheless, the 86-year-old was arrested shortly after the tragic incident and imprisoned for around two months. Despite his release, the events in Corsica were to accompany the rest of the Crown Prince’s life from now on. In 1991, initiated by the sister of the deceased, Birgit Hamer, 66, he was accused before the Paris Assize Court. But the judge did not rule to the satisfaction of the Hamer family, Viktor Emanuel von Savoyen was acquitted on two out of three counts and received a six-month suspended sentence for improperly carrying a weapon. The public prosecutor’s office was never able to prove whether the devastating shot really came from the crown prince’s weapon.

“I shot and hit him in the leg”

The hope that light can ever be brought into the darkness faded more and more. However, on June 21, 2006, it was the royal himself who suddenly took the fall of his life during his incarceration in Potenza prison [er wurde wegen Korruption, Fälschung und Ausbeutung von Prosituierten festgenommen, Anm. d. Red.] again in the presence of his fellow inmates and made a surprising confession. “I shot and hit him in the leg,” said Viktor Emanuel, admitting to having “cheated” the court in Paris. What he didn’t know at the time: the cell was bugged, a recording and video recordings of the confession were released to the press and published a short time later.

Nevertheless, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy does not plead guilty. In the Netflix documentary series “The King Who Never Was” he is unusually tight-lipped. When asked about the scenes in prison, he only explains that he can’t remember what was said. Birgit Hamer, meanwhile, was finally relieved of the burden of the past few years with that confession.

Source used: Netflix documentary series The King Who Never Was, instagram.com

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