Alois Estermann
An undated photo of Estermann.
Born(1954-10-29)October 29, 1954
Gunzwil, Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland
DiedMay 4, 1998(1998-05-04) (aged 43)
Vatican City
Cause of deathMurder
Allegiance Vatican City
Service/branchSwiss Guard
Spouse(s)Gladys Meza Romero

Alois Estermann (29 October 1954 – 4 May 1998) was the 31st Commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard. Estermann, in addition to his wife, was murdered in his apartment in Vatican City on 4 May 1998, the same day he was confirmed in his position after serving as acting commander for over a year. His murderer, Vice Corporal Cédric Tornay, then killed himself. Estermann's death spawned numerous conspiracy theories.

Early life and career

Estermann was born in Gunzwil, in the Canton of Lucerne. He grew up as a member of a farming family living near Beromünster. In 1975 he graduated with a degree in commerce from a business school in Lucerne.

From 1975 through 1976, Estermann attended the officer training school for the Swiss Army at Thun. He subsequently reached the rank of lieutenant as a Swiss reserve officer. In 1977 Estermann served briefly in the Pontifical Swiss Guard at the Vatican. He then lived in Argentina for two years. In July 1980 he rejoined the Swiss Guard as an officer, thereafter receiving promotions to Major (1983) and then to Lieutenant Colonel (1987). In 1988 he was appointed Commander of the Swiss Guard.

Murder

According to official Vatican statements, Estermann and his Venezuelan wife, Gladys Meza Romero, were shot and killed on 4 May 1998 by 23-year-old Swiss Guard Vice Corporal Cédric Tornay, who then killed himself with a shot to the head.[1][2] Estermann, formerly Acting Commander of the Swiss Guard, had been confirmed in his position the same day. Tornay had earlier been reprimanded by Estermann for spending a night outside Vatican City without permission, and had been passed over for a medal routinely awarded to Guards after three years of service.[2]

A note written by Tornay shortly before the murder indicates that he regarded Estermann as a harsh martinet who had a personal bias against him.[3]: 368  The Vatican also stated in its final report that drugs and mental illness were likely related to Tornay's actions; traces of cannabis were found in Tornay's body during the autopsy, in addition to a cyst in his brain "the size of a pigeon egg".[1]

Pope John Paul II personally celebrated Estermann's Funeral Mass in the Church of Saints Martin and Sebastian of the Swiss.

Conspiracy theories

The high-profile homicide gave rise to various speculative theories over the following years. The conspiracy allegation originates with Bugie di sangue in Vaticano (1999) written by "a group of Vatican ecclesiastics and lays who cannot continue to avail, with their silence, official truth told by the Vatican". The book suggests that Estermann was killed in the course of a supposed struggle between the Opus Dei and masonic parties within the Vatican hierarchy, both attempting to annex the Swiss guard.[4] Tornay's mother believed he was murdered and used as a scapegoat.[1][2]

According to a piece edited by Fabio Croce, the three were all murdered by "a Vatican killer",[5] due to Estermann's supposed knowledge of the small state's trafficks. In his 2008 book Poteri forti, Ferruccio Pinotti asserts that Estermann repeatedly travelled to Poland in 1981 to coordinate the arrival of military equipment from Scandinavia to support the Polish anti-communist organization Solidarity.[6] A competing hypothesis was published in L'Agent secret du Vatican (2004) by journalist Victor Guitard and Markus Wolf, former No. 2 of the East German secret police Stasi.[7] These authors declared that Estermann had been a Stasi agent since 1979.[6][8]

British journalist John Follain undertook extensive interviews to inform his book, City of Secrets: The Truth Behind the Murders at the Vatican (2006). Follain dismisses speculation that Estermann, his wife, and Tornay were murdered by an external fourth party or that Estermann was a spy for the former East German government. Follain's research indicated that Cédric Tornay did indeed kill his commander and the commander's wife before turning the gun on himself. Reportedly Tornay found the running of the Swiss Guard archaic, and resented the dominance of the Swiss German majority contingent. According to Follain, Tornay turned to Alois Estermann for affection and the two had a short homosexual affair, but their relationship deteriorated into acrimony as Tornay realised that Estermann had betrayed him with another guard. Estermann's close links to the Opus Dei movement, and his final refusal to award the Benemerenti medal for three years' service led to further frustration and Tornay's ultimate decision to kill Estermann, according to Follain.[9]

In a 2011 history of the modern Vatican's military and police forces, Professor David Alvarez, of the Department of Politics at St. Mary's College of California, summarizes the various conspiracy theories before concluding that they "either remain unsubstantiated or have been thoroughly discredited".[3]: 368 

References

  1. ^ a b c Stanley, Alessandra (9 February 1999). "Swiss Guard Corporal Killed Chief, Vatican Report Affirms". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Tribelhorn, Marc (5 May 2021). "Vatican murders: Swiss Guard case controversial after 23 years". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b Alvarez, David (2011). The Pope's Soldiers: A Military History of the Modern Vatican. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1770-8.
  4. ^ Discepoli di Verità (2002). Bugie di sangue in Vaticano [Blood lies in the Vatican] (in Italian). Milan: Kaos. ISBN 978-88-7953-086-6.
  5. ^ Croce, Fabio (1999). Delitto in Vaticano: la verità: Cedric Tornay martire della Chiesa cattolica [Vatican murder: The Truth: Cedric Tornay martyred by the Catholic Church] (in Italian). Rome: Croce Libreria. ISBN 978-88-87323-20-7.
  6. ^ a b Fossati, Gianni (16 January 2006). "Strage in Vaticano, un mistero tutor irrisolto" [Vatican massacre, tutor mystery unsolved]. L'Opinione delle libertà (in Italian).
  7. ^ Stephens, Thomas (4 May 2018). "The murder of the commander of the Swiss Guard". Swissinfo. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  8. ^ Guitard, Victor (2004). L'Agent secret du Vatican: Histoire d'un complot: les révélations de Giovanni Saluzzo [The Vatican's Secret Agent: The Story of a Conspiracy: Giovanni Saluzzo's Revelations] (in French). Paris: Albin Michel. ISBN 978-2-226-13804-0.
  9. ^ Follain, John (2003). City of Secrets: The Truth Behind the Murders at the Vatican. William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-06-620954-8.

Further reading

Military offices Preceded byRoland Buchs Commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard 1998 Succeeded byPius Segmüller
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