God's banker was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge with bricks in his pockets, and the Vatican bank paid $250 million to his bank's creditors

Roberto Calvi became general manager of Banco Ambrosiano in 1971 and chairman in 1975. He handled money for the Vatican and was called "God's banker." He was sentenced to four years in prison for illegally moving money out of Italy. In 1982 Ambrosiano collapsed after $1.3 billion in loans to dummy companies in Latin America disappeared. The Vatican bank had provided letters of credit for those loans. Calvi shaved his moustache and left Italy on a forged passport in the name Gian Roberto Calvini. On 18 June 1982 he was found hanging from scaffolding under Blackfriars Bridge in London, with bricks in his pockets. Shortly before, his secretary had fallen to her death from a fifth-floor window; her death was ruled suicide. A London inquest ruled Calvi's death suicide in 1982. A second inquest in 1983 returned an open verdict. His family pressed for further investigation. In the late 1990s his body was exhumed, and neck injuries were found that suggested strangling. While denying wrongdoing, the Vatican bank agreed to pay $250 million to Ambrosiano's creditors. In Italy, five people, including the Rome-based Mafia figure Giuseppe Calò, were tried for his murder. On 6 June 2007 all five were acquitted. By then Calvi's widow had died; his son Carlo lived in Canada. No one has been convicted of his death.