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Giuseppe Dosi is recorded in history as Italy's greatest detective, a master of disguise who went undercover to solve the most intriguing of crimes. Our podcast looks at his life and his adventures in disguise
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Welcome to Detective Diaries, brought to you
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Welcome to another episode of the Detective Diaries
with me, Harry Watts.
Today, I'm in Naples, Italy, and I'm
very thankful to be joined by Nigel Parsons, an experienced
investigator with decades of experience in the field.
So Nigel, what brings you to Naples today?
That's actually quite a hard one to answer
I dont want to be evasive about this, but we are working for a client
And I can't actually talk about it,
but I can talk about anything else.
Well, I can understand the nature of the business.
So tell me then about some history, perhaps, because there's
obviously quite a lot of relateable aspects here,
in Italy.
Oh, now, you're pushing my buttons.
I mean, I have a fascination with history,
and a fascination with detectives and investigators,
but not just detectives and investigators,
but those guys who pioneered things,
those guys who form the basis of what we do today.
I dont know.. talk about Italy.
talk about Italy, Italy's most famous detective,
was a wonderful chap, totally romantic, called Giuseppe
Dosi, and a apologise to anybody Italian,
including a colleague of mine who speaks fluent Italian,
who will probably assassinate my pronunciation.
But Giuseppe Dosi is deemed to be Italy's greatest
detective.
He was born in 1891, and after an aborted career
on stage became a detective.
Dosi was celebrated as a master of disguise, which
just conjures up all those romantic images.
In his course of his work, he changed his dress, his voice,
his mannerisms, and even his gender on occasions,
to infiltrate criminal gangs.
I mean, some of his famous impersonations
were as a priest, as a German doctor,
as a (truly) Galician banker, and most famously,
and this is something I love as a Czech World War I,
World War I veteran with a limp.
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There must be a multitude of disguises from what I've understood.
But can you tell me more about the war veteran,
the Czech World veteran, disguise?
Yeah, but before getting to that,
Dosi, his skills became known as, again,
apologies from my pronunciation, but a 'Fregolismo
Detectivistico' after the actor
Leopoldo Fregoli who was adept at changing
his appearance on stage, often appearing
as multiple characters.
That Czech war veteran disguise.
I mean, it was just incredible.
It's stuff from story books.
He disguised himself as a Czeck World veteran.
bear in mind he's Italian, as a check World veteran, with a limp,
and a limp was a big thing.
It all involved the demise of a chap named Gabriele Denoncio,
who was arrival to Mussolini, bear in mind this was in 1920s,
and the rise of Mussolini's right wing party in Italy.
And Denoncio was one of Mussolini's rivals
to become dictator.
And Mussolini, of course, who later in 1922,
would march into Rome with his black shirts
to become prime minister.
But Denoncio fell from the window.
And died.
Dosi, coming back to our detective, Giuseppe Dosi,
did not believe it was an accident.
And in the course of his investigation,
disguised as this Czech World veteran with a limp,
so nobody knew it was him.
He discovered that Denoncio was pushed.
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It sounds like the beginnings of the summer blockbuster
hit.
I mean, was there any political intrigue to this at all?
Well, one would think so, but no.
Dosi discovered that Denoncio was pushed by his former mistress.
When it was discovered that the limping Czech World veteran
was an undercover detective, he was called a dirty cop.
Was he really a dirty cop though?
Oh, far from it.
He was a man of absolute integrity.
Mussolini himself saw him as a hero, especially when in 1925,
he foiled an assassination plot on Mussolini himself.
So what actually happened to Dosi after that?
He fell from growth in 1927, quite a sad demise,
and very, very much connected with the political turmoil
of the 1920s and Italy and establishment of Mussolini.
You know Mussolini who had praised him just a couple of years
earlier stabbed him in the back, metaphorically.
There were series of dreadful child rapes and murders in Rome.
The authorities who were getting pressure
because Mussolini's party was all involved in pushing
the sense of justice and reducing crime
and the massive things that went on in Italy at that time.
Mussolini's party were pushing the authorities.
So the authorities, police authorities,
they just set this chap up.
Girolimoni, his name was.
He was not guilty, but suddenly, after,
I think it was seven-child murders and rapes.
Girolimoni was arrested and absolutely pilloried,
pilloried, by the press.
Dosi got this into his head, investigated very quietly
because he was told he couldn't do, proved him innocent,
and exposed, massive corruption within the police forces.
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In response, because politically, this was not the thing to do,
Dosi himself was arrested, he was jailed,
and then he was sent to a psychiatric hospital
where he spent the next 17 months.
So he's had this career being as a professional detective,
a pioneer of multiple disguises,
and then has this fall of grace.
I mean, what happens to him in this (warden) in his later life?
He slipped into a demise, and then the years went by,
Mussolini rose to power of course, as we all know.
Italy fell under fascist rule, and then the Allies
liberated Rome, liberated Paris,
in 1943 with horrendous stuff going on there.
I mean Naples, that we're sitting on was bombed to hell.
In 1944, with the Allies in occupation,
they appointed Dosi as a special investigator.
And after that in 1946, he'd rejoined the police,
and this time as director at the Central Office
of International Police.
His reputation, his integrity, were things
that were lauded by the Allies,
and they could see the whole operation being in safe hands,
given of the massive corruption
that there had been the previous 20 years.
I mean, Dosi retired in 1956, he lived a long life.
He died in 1981, 90 years old,
wrote his memoirs before that.
But yeah, here we are, in Italy.
Amazing.
It sounds like a complete highs and lows there of Dosi's life.
But so thank you for that, Nigel.
That's wonderful.
And hopefully we'll be hearing some more about
potentially famous detectives in other locations.
Thank you for listening.
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Until next time, stay curious and keep seeking the truth.
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