Why was Fusellu kept “alive” for a considerable time after he had been shot dead?
Fusellu (ringed in red) with Dom Mintoff. The man standing directly behind Mintoff is Il-Qahbu.
When Fusellu was shot, he died almost immediately. But he was kept hooked up to machines at the hospital and more weirdly still, the Xandir Malta cameras were brought in to film him in bed linked up to tubes and pipes while, and this is where it gets really strange, half the Labour cabinet and assorted fixers sat round him looking like they weren’t even going to leave to go to the lavatory.
It was surreal: back at home we knew what Fusellu did and why half the government was glued to his dead body pretending it was alive – ON THE TELEVISION NEWS – but how might others have rationalised it?
Who was John Bondin and why were all those ministers fretting round his bed? Or maybe they didn’t wonder at all, because living in Malta was like living in a mob state.
Anyway, here is the story of why they pretend he was alive when he wasn’t, and why they brought in the cameras to film him ‘dying’.
Several Labour ministers and other Labour big names had their monies in bank accounts in Fusellu’s name (he did their fixing, made their deals, collected their protection money and was their main enforcer in their extortion rackets).
As a precaution, they had obtained from him an irrevocable power of attorney (prokura), authorizing them to withdraw the money – one form of retaining control over their loot, just in case.
A power of attorney lapses automatically the moment the person who signs it dies.
The Ministers (and the others) panicked: if Fusellu was dead, THEY COULD NOT RECOVER THEIR MONEY FROM THE BANK.
So Fusellu was kept ‘alive’ just long enough for them to be able to make use of his power of attorney and withdraw their monies ‘legally’.
When the last penny had been withdrawn, Fusellu was pronounced dead.
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It all makes sense now.
All money in il-Fusellu’s name was, at some point, part of his income.
Did he comply with the law by filing an income tax return and pay income tax at 65% as ordinary mortals were supposed to do?
Did he pay social security contributions to help finance the welfare state for which we are supposed to be eternally grateful to Mintoff?
The great unwashed need to be let in on a few of their hero’s dirty secrets. Joe Grima may wish to oblige, rather than telling us we should be grateful to Gaddafi for ‘giving’ us money to cover social benefits.
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW, THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT COMES INTO FORCE IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS
Were any monies of the Kaxxa Ta’ Malta held in the Fusellu bank accounts too?
Oh dear, bring on the next wave of invectives.
Would that include Leo Brincat, Karmenu Vella and Alex Sciberras Trigona?
I believe Moran was one of the vistiors at Fusellu’s deathbed, though I stand to be corrected.
And, I believe, Lorry Sant.
I have it on authority that Moran was already there waiting for him to arrive at the hospital, under the pretext that he was a doctor. *cough cough*
I realise how ignorant I am of things that happened so long ago. Why did we have to wait for this blog to write these things? This is Maltese history.
The Xandir Malta footage is probably still in TVM’s archives somewhere. Maybe somebody would care to dig it out.
Possibly…however I understand that this is only conjecture.
Are there bank statements confirming this story?
[Daphne – You cannot be serious.]
Be careful. The last time someone asked that question he ended up sawn to pieces and dumped in a well.
Where did you get this information from Daphne? I would like a copy myself to prove it to other people who do not believe!
Yes, I am.
There must be some sort of record somewhere, if big sums of money were withdrawn from banks just on the eve of Il-Fusellu’s death.
Still – you mentioned a Notary being present, and we have heard nothing about this notary.
I doubt it was a prokura if the notary was present. It must have been something else.
We need to know more about these wheeler dealers and their moral heirs.
Stejjer tal-wahx iktar minn ta’ Anton Grasso.
Who took over from Fusellu as ‘enforcer’?
The one behind Mintoff in the picture, sort of. He was leased Fort Delimara for a pittance to raise pigs.
The old Armstrong Muzzle loaders(Guns) in the fort could be reached after passing through knee high pig manure which was directed to the sea through an old tunnel.
Mintoff’s body guard Cikku Bezzghani from Luqa was given Fort Benghisa for bird trapping and breeding wild rabbits .
” Kemm kien qalbu tajba l-perit, Alla jtiegh il-glorja tal-genna!”
Then there’s the Rialto, Australia Hall, Radio City and Il-Macina.
Not to mention Fort St.Angelo, where a swimming pool was set into the bastions, practically causing them to settle, a palazzo in Tarxien pillaged to make way for a ‘health farm’, and the notorius Hal-Ferh holiday complex.
All these abandoned after a few years of loss making operations.
Then there’s the social vandalism, turning squares and town centres into traffic management systems; Msida creek was turned into the mess we see today, Marsa was literally bisected. Imagine if GonziPN tried to do the same today.
Which leads us to vindictive vandalism, Birgu’s steps leading from the church down to the shore, imagine the place, reminiscent of Trinita’ dei Monti, were removed to make way for that eyesore, whilst the square in front of Castille had to undergo surgery turning it into roundabout.
Wherever one feels inadequate due the nerve jangling geometry of space, lack of context or a claustrophobic cacophany, one can rest assured il-perit had a hand in it.
In Valletta, the rape proceeded with the eight month deadline given for the MCC, opening up the fad for fuq il-fil, ornament being a reactionary no-no, whilst a private property next to the Manoel theatre was forcibly taken by Madame Barbara for our progressive entertainment.
The palace armoury suffered its greatest losses when practically all the armour lining it was thrown into dank humid storage and bronze cannons were nonchalantly set into concrete to anchor ships in port.
Sometimes Dom went kitsch, Castille and Montgomery house had their internal courtyards filled with a riot of shells, mermaids without nipples, rigorously tal-franka, surrounding the single pathetic spout.
Not everything was so lucky, whole streets paved with lava were torn up, and a myriad of palaces and St.Elmo’s left to rot or handed to some association to dump their gear or play with papier mache’.
The triton’s fountain was damaged after he thought how nice it would be if he used it for motorcycle acrobatics, skint enough to refuse the correct restoration, managing to get a couple of doves, he loved them, in.
He failed his very first commission, completion of St.Anne’s street, included plans for a new parliament building and, as already pointed out from the UK, rebuilding of the opera house.
Grazzi perit indeed.
No need to publish comment, Ms. Caruana Galizia. I just wanted to flag up this article from Prof Henry Frendo http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=143582
It essentially says what you say.
Additionally, it would be amiss not to point out that Malta’s champion of democracy and father of the nation (how droll) was a great Maoist (or is it Fabian?) socialist.
Such was his conviction, and that of the MLP, that two of their long standing old faces are Alex Sceberras Trigona and John Attard Montalto.
AST is currently the “Baron of Montagna di Marzo” and JAM is “Baron of San Paolino”. It escapes them that aristocracy, nobility, tradition and the establishment, are avowed opponents of socialism. If they had any self-respect, they would have voluntarily refused the title and let it go to the next heir in line.
But no.
Imagine if a Nationalist MP were to be a communist!
But then this was elitist socialism – make the rank and file live grimy, grey, wanting, socialist lives, whilst the cream of socialist society sip champagne on yachts with topless women, carrying contraband into the island, to sell to the mindless serfs.
There’s a perverse inversion of equality when it comes to totalitarian ideologies degenerating into manifestation of bloodlines.
Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Ceaucescu, Castro, Kim Il Sung, Arafat, all objects of adulation by the local strain, passed on their legacy to their next of kin. Be it their consort, brothers or offspring.
The fetish with bloodline is the latest phenomenon on Super One, of all places, where faux knights and dames spend afternoons sharing their photo albums with Kalamita Zammit.
Trust them to turn charity into a medieval spectacle.
I think this illustrates perfectly well the above.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Grima-shrugs-off-PL-disapproval-I-m-only-answerable-to-Joseph-Muscat-20120829
‘I am only answerable to Joseph Muscat and certainly to no employee of the Labour Party.’
Enough said.
Bull’s eye.
Can you enlighten us as to who were the persona beside his deathbed when he was filmed on TV? I don’t think you can risk anything by saying their names.
Engineer, I don’t think Daphne would be overly worried about taking risks. As anyone can see from her blog, she has no hesitation in sticking our her neck for the sake of the truth.
Ghandek ragun.
It would be interesting to kmow if joe Grima was one of.the ministers who were at John Bondin’s bedside.
Maybe he’d care to oblige without releasing a string of expletives.
Unlikely, there wouldn’t have been place for anyone else.
Can we name any names? Or better still, is that TV footage still around somewhere?
Do you think Xandir Malta would keep such footage given that even “Ahn’ahna jew M’Ahniex?” reels ‘went missing’?
Even the footage of the raising of the Maltese flag during the 1964 Independence ceremony was erased. Someone who used to work at Xandir Malta told me that when, years later, they wanted to show it, they quickly set up and shot another flag being raised and pretended it was the original one.
What a story. Where is the press? How can one half the country want MLP in government again?
More than one half, Matt. Even after so many years of relative comfort and affluence and open access to tertiary education, Malta still needs to pull itself out of the gutter of ignorance and ineptitude.
Plausible deniability and ignorance of the past. The so called good of Mintoff is embedded so deep, it’s scary
It would be sheer madness to have them back in power.
Jekk din vera Malta veru kienet f’dittatorjat aghar minn ta’ Hitler.
Mhux ta’ b’xejn fl-indipendenza minghalija tal-1974 kien fuq il-bejt tal-bank b’xita ta’ gebel niezla fuq in-nies.
Tghid se nergu ghal dawk iz-zminijiet? Alfred sant kien naddaf imma dan donnu jrid jigbor lil kullhadd zball jarah wara.
Il-Qahbu jigi xi haga minnek?
[Daphne – Le, imma tigix tghidli li bastid iehor minn ta’ Mintoff, marelli.]
Il-qahbu jigi xi haga minnek nahseb Karl. Jigi ala bieb zobbu.
Har har
Halluh kiwiet li Edwin ta.min ma jkellimkhomx tkellmuhx.
Now this is interesing news. It is an interpretation of the events, but a plausible one.
Oh no, this is anthing but interpretation and conjecture.
Bank managers had all the names of ministers and other Labour notables who hurridly withdrew monies from Fusellu’s bank accounts, armed with Fusellu’s prokura, in that convenient interval between the time he was shot dead, and the moment he officially died, quite some time later. They are all there in the banks’s records. We are not talking of a few thousands, either.
Beano, I admire your naivety because you must be at least half my age if not less.
Do you think the bank managers in those days were allowed to record anything of the sort when the banks were all state-owned?
If you do, think again.
They required a ‘valid’ poa to cover their arses.
Otherwise they recorded nothing.
They were all staunch Mintoffians anyway otherwise they would not be Bank Managers.
Randon, why would Fusellu’s wife have had to resort to placing adverts (via her accountant, who went missing shortly afterwards, only to be found, chopped up in a well in Buskett, several years later) in The Times, appealing for information as to the whereabouts of her late husband’s very consipicuous cars?
Il-Qahbu. I remember him when I was a teenager driving up our road in Sliema riding a jeep with others challenging people to come out (presumably for a fight). But we all hid behind the persjani puzzled at his outlandish behaviour.
Then there was another one – possibly a “Toto'” – who used to drive around Sliema with a megaphone fixed to his jeep, with posters of some candidate or other, repeating politicall “messages” on the eve of the general elections in the early 1980s, on the day when electoral propoganda was banned.
@ Anthony
Most bank managers were Labour stooges, granted. But withdrawals from deposits, whether in person or by power of attorney, were ALWAYS recorded. In the interval between the shooting of Fusellu, and the moment he was finally pronounced dead, a number of substantiual deposits were widrawn from his accounts by several persons making use of his prokura, still technically valid beacuse he was “alive”.
Persons working at the banks were well aware how Fusellu’s accounts were depleted in that providential interval, and by who.
I know perfectly well what I am saying.
And there is more and more and more! That is why he only had the backing of the Maltese electorate for 13 out of 35 years as leader of the MLP. Eddie did not have the backing of the Maltese for 22 months out of 27 years as leader of the Nationalist Party!
I suspect there was more to it than recovering money as that could have been arranged without the drama of the TV crew and all as these louts had plenty of pull to fix all that.
They were probably trying to convince some other power entity that normally resides outside Malta and was here during this happening that was involved in the goings on with Fusellu as the front-man for these ministers.
It could have been some clandestine activity involving the Mafia/CIA/SMOM triad and these ministers feared for their life if a contract was reneged on due to Bondin’s death and these guys needed to buy some time till everything was worked out.
The mysterious murders of Lino Manfre and Lino Cauchi later on proves that there was more involved in all this than meets the eye.
I can understand reconciliation with misguided Mintoffians, but we’re talking gangsters here. It was a big mistake by the PN that they did not clean up the country; we’re paying for it now.
After Bondin died, the police raided several establishments and confiscated all the amusement machines present, including juke boxes which were taken to the depot in Floriana.
Who might have ordered this and were any of those his?
A relative of mine had quite an experience to retrieve those which were legally his and was appalled at the damage these had sustained. At the time these machines were being operated in a legal grey area but while Bondin was alive, nobody took any notice.
I know that you are a good proof reader and in this last week you sad a lot of things, but still there is a big question about the truth.can you proof what you sad especially in this case by at least you name one name.
[Daphne – Proof readers do not prove things. They read proofs.]
Sorry Daphne, you should have sad proof things.
I’d employ one if I were you.
Bet you enjoyed replying to that one. How thick can one be?
I wonder whether Bondin also signed certain documents while he was brain dead and on life support in ITU at St Luke’s.
I wonder.
I really wonder who took the documents to ITU.
Was it a very well known lawyer by any chance ?
Could it have been a lawyer with strong MLP connections ?
After thirty one years I am still wondering.
Oh dear, Oh dear I am turning into a white rabbit.
?
Why not spell it out? As it is you’re making everyone think ill of all sorts of people.
A lawyer (avukat) or a notary (nutar)?
This happened again later. When Lorry Sant died they pulled the same stunt to have the time for Piju Camilleri to transfer all Sant’s property held by him to Sant’s family.
That’s what I mean – transfer of property NOT moneys.
There is enough material to write the Fussellu’s biography. It will be a best seller.
Niehu pjacir nara li l kitba tieghek jaqrawha hafna nies minn malta kollha. ghal min hu tal eta tieghi (55), biex ma jinsiex min xiex ghaddejna, u ghal dawk li ghadhom zghar u forsi jithajjru jippruvaw lill tal lejber…..tajjeb li jkunu jafu li kien zmien tal biza. U minix nesagera. Kompli ikteb u fakkar in nies min xiex ghaddejna u hallihom jaghmlulek reklam fuq il FB halli izjed jaqrawk.
U zgur li ma toghogobhomx il kitba tieghek…iggib wisq memorji koroh.
xieraq xi wahda li hadt xi post jew plot tal-gvern int ??
I had no idea about this – thanks for making these things public, Daphne.
Il-Fusellu was a man who literally brought fear to all that crossed his path. I know of a woman who, when she refused to dance with him (in a disco), got her whole dress torn. I don’t know if she was stripped completely naked.
Thank you Daphne for these news.Though I lived those days, I never heard about them. As I told you in other news items of yours this makes very interesting reading. Please do tell us all you know about those days.
showing how everyone was scared and how life was a nightmare during those days !!!! ara veru nies tan-nejk ( LIVED THOSE DAYS AND NEVER HEARD ABOUT THEM ) kompli dahhaq daphne ma fadal xejn aktar hlief tivvinta fuq il-mejtin ghax ma tiktibx ftit fuq il-hajjin ta’ l-oligarkija !!
I really would like this story be investigated further. A investigative piece on him would shed light on a guy who my generation knows nothing about.
In the footage taken at St.Lukes ITU, there is a sequence where the cameras briefly focus on the telimeter. Those few frames might be very insightful.
Any idea where the footage may be accessed?
In those days the country was run by a corrupt Mafia-style government that passed laws specificically designed to make ministers and a few chosen friends very very wealthy.
When you think about it, it really was a well planned out, and ingenious money-making strategy of national proportions.
For those too young to remember the terrible 70s and 80s, THIS IS THE SCENARIO.
Government bans most imports and decrees that businessmen now need an import licence to import anything at all. The catch: mport licences are IMPOSSIBLE to get hold of unless you are part of the ‘Labour Family’.
Then you get Fusellu turning up at the desperate businessman’s office offering a quick solution.
A hefty sum of money would be placed in a brown envelope and the licence issued practically on the spot.
Fusellu often had official ministry rubber stamps in his briefcase (though he never held any official position) and could actually issue your permit there and then. No waiting in the ‘KJU’ under Labour.
Cordless phones, colour TVs, chocolate, most electronics – anything in fact that made life fun or even workable was officially banned by the Labour Government, but many people had all of these things in their homes, thanks to a nice payment to a minister or his henchman.
A BRILLIANT PLAN – these guys made a killing for 16 years. Al Capone would have been envious, because unlike him, they had the police on their side.
25 years have passed and the same people who were Labour ministers in the Mafia years are still in the running.
Their bank accounts must be running dry by now.
“Time to get back into Government…….and a few more ‘GOLDEN YEARS’ so we can retire in style”
NO THANK YOU.
I was actually going to ask why Fusellu had other people’s money. This is one possible explanation.
We need new history books!
ALL IS STILL GOING ON – OLIGARKIJA, WE CALL IT THESE DAYS.
Strange how your Lejbor fans always go silent when you remind us about people like il-Fusellu, Labour-sponsored corruption, violence, and terror in the 70s and 80s.
Is it because they know it is the truth and they are ashamed? Or is it perhaps because they are pleased with the way more than half of the population (the other half) was treated in those terrible years and can’t wait to do it all again? I wonder.
oh dear oh dear why hasn’t the tax department investigated that yet. We may at least use some of the funds to cover for the state funeral that none of us taxpayers wanted to pay for.
Dawk kif irnexxielek taqbadhom, Xerlokk?
They must have anticipated that banking secrecy laws were to be swept aside by money laundering legislation in the mid-90s.
And they must have reckoned, ‘Why not keep my extortion and racketeering gains in a Fusellu account!’.
X’idea dik, ustra!
Imma Deffney xorta qabdithom!
Money laundering came later, dude.
Point is, if there was the transfer of property, there is a record somewhere because it is public.
Min fejn il ‘Grote Markt’ zgur ma se taqbad xejn Kev. U l’anqas ma jaqbillek!
Unsurprisingly, straight-forward explanations hold no fascination for our kev. Wild-eyed conspiracy theories, on the other hand…
Funny that its taken all these years for somebody to bring this subject up.
When Xandir Malta showed the film at the time, they inadvertently got the ECG by Fusellu’s bedside : it was on, but there was no pulse beat.
Patrick Holland +import licences =Fusellu
While on the subject of Mintoff, corruption and il-Fusellu:
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=81332
After making you pay a hefty sum to oil some Minister’s pocket, to buy a colour TV, they would send the Police some weeks later to expropriate it, eventually the TV being re-sold or enjoyed by the ‘klikka’.
A late friend of mine preferred to throw his 26″ colour TV set from his 5th floor balcony, rather than let those scum re-possess it. Those were the days we lived – and those people are still there, waiting for the next ‘golden years’.
they were ready to fuck you dear witch!
“The church was brimming with dignitaries, Mr Mintoff’s close friends, among them former Drydocks chairman Sammy Meilaq, and people from all walks of life, including two notorious thugs from the pre-1987 era of political violence – Anthony Carabott (it-Toto) and Edwin Bartolo (il-Qaħbu).”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120826/local/Chants-and-flowers-for-the-service.434323
U halliena, Kev.
You jolly well know that this is all true.
Weren’t you already in the police force at the time?
And let me add one more to the above.
Dr Ettore Lucia, a businessman, went to complain at the trade department that he was not being granted import licences since he was refusing to pay bribes to Fusellu.
The next thing you know Fusellu comes out of Patrock Holland’s (Sliema’s Lorry Sant in case you didn’t know) office and gives Dr Lucia a good beating.
These episodes should all be well recored for posterity’s sake because the Labour Party is doing its utmost to rewrite history and soon these bad experiences will be all forgotten.
Thanks to EFA’s reconciliation of course.
It all sounds so familiar. Well all I can say is they will pay their dues in good time, like dear Dom is today.
please do not include my name in the comments
call me observer
i hope you will give this favour
call me observer for obvious reasons
Il-Qahbu sounds interesting, I mean, what with all the kinky stuff going on, what on earth could he have done to deserve that nickname?
call me observer for obvious reasons. I do not want to see my children suffering for a stupid comment
You do realise you could have written a different name right?
Daphne you have balls. All you said is true. It’s a pity that the Maltese forget such horrible times that we passed through under the Labour. Keep it up.
Daphne will you kindly eradicate my name from your blog and whatever is inadvertently connected with it. i do nbot want to be connected with such a person as you
as soon as possible
who will ever believe a frustrated old zitella like Daphne who is not after truth but after sensationalism?. She has never given proof of anything she said. The latin proverb ” Quod gratis asseritur gratis negatur” was invented to flout this obnoxious, abhominable grudge pregnant ogre of the century.
[Daphne – Zitella sabih, ilni mizzewga ghal kwazi tletin sena u bi tletti tfal. Do you actually know what a zitella is? A spinster. Kemm hawn injoranza grassa f’dan il-pajjiz.]
What a prize idiot! What WERE you thinking, ‘degabriele paul’?
Surname First name. Don’t you just hate that? How very backwards, in all senses of the term.
[Daphne – They get that from school roll-call. They don’t realise that it’s done for a reason.]
Dan ir-ritratt fakkarni f’Guze’ Cassar tal-Qrendi (bilqiegheda hdejn Mintoff), li kien imqareb mhux hazin , kien ihobb lis-seftura naqra z-zejjed u kienet fittxitu bil-qorti biex imantnilha lil-bintha!
Kien fuq tieghu il-boy.
Bilhaqq , fid-distrett ta’ Guze’ kien hemm avukat li ried jitla’ floku , u kien hareg ix-xniegha li Guze’ ghal-President…(din smajtha xi erba snin ilu fuq Louis Galea,u Franco ma kienx) , Guze’ minn fuq it-trakk xejjen ix-xniegha minn fuq it-trakk tal-meeting fiz-Zurrieq fil-1981, u l-Avukat Mifsud miskin ma kienx tela’ , mar l-MFA.