The mystery of the assassination of Ioan Culianu revealed after 33 years: the robot portrait of the “ghost” in Die and the connection with Iliescu
The documentary about the assassination of Ioan Culianu, the disciple of Mircea Eliade, 33 years ago, is trying to help the discovery of the Die agent from the “Ghost Unity”, whose existence is denied by officials. The film presented the updated robot portrait of the assassin.
The updated robot portrait of the suspect in the case of Culianu's killings. Photo: TVR capture
“The mystery of a crime of books and hundreds of articles. May 21, 1991. Professor Ioan Petru Culianu, the disciple of Mircea Eliade, is assassinated in Chicago, the United States. A murder without assassins! For the first time, after 33 years since the assassination of Ioan Petru Culianu, speaks of his sister, Tereza Culianu Petrescu” This is how the documentary is described “John, how many mornings in your name”, made by Irina Szasz, broadcast on Wednesday, May 21, on TVR1, 33 years after the assassination of Professor Ioan Petru Culianu.
The documentary turns, in the end, into a true denunciation in the hope that, despite the carelessness of the authorities, after 33 years, the criminal of Ioan Petru Culianu will be found.
At the end of the movie is presented a current robot portrait of the criminal who on May 21, 1991, with a 25 -caliber Beretta pistol in Culianu, in the Swift Hall building in Chicago, in the Baia on the third floor, near his office. It was an execution by professionals, without direct witnesses.
The portrait was made through a process of facial aging used by criminals and which can accurately present the way the suspect looks now. For this he appealed to Florin Lăzău, he is the only criminal policeman in Europe attested by the International Association of Criminal Art Identifiers and the only one in Romania specialized in facial aging.
“If you recognize it, you know where to call!”
The criminal used the initial robot portrait used in the FBI investigation. Secretary Gwen Barnes, the only person who seems to have seen the alleged assassin, was called by the FBI to help the robot portrait more than 3 years after the crime. The robot portrait was released after another year.
Documentary filmmakers also have a message for the criminal: “Failed to bring you before justice, but that will happen. The crime that is inscribed in your blood, passed into the blood of your descendants. The descendants of a killer. You know that. They will find out. Are you so sure that no one can touch you? When you are sure everything is sure to be sure nothing is sure. And now let's show you to the world. “
In the film were inserted images with the aging robot portrait displayed in several public places in Bucharest, on several panels.
There is a message for those who will see the documentary:
“The degree of resemblance between the robot portrait and the image created by facial aging is 80%. If you recognize it, you know where to call!”
“Special Unit 0544-R ghosts” and the criminal plan
The documentary brings into question one of the most controversial units of the Romanian secret services, whose existence has not been officially recognized.
The historian Marius Oprea argues, in the documentary, that Nicolae Pleșiță, a former Security general, who led the Directorate of External Information, “He organized this special unit in the spy services, which today is denied by those who led the espionage after 1989, 0544-R, operated by a colonel, Sergiu Nica. Colonel Sergiu Nica after 1989, made a whole memory at the President of Romania at that time, in Ion Iliescu, showing the entire criminal activity, so to speak, of the Security. The man was dying, he had galloping cancer. And, basically, it has been confessed, if you want, in its entirety. The part of his depositions also reached the Military Prosecutor's Office on General Voinea ”.
Military prosecutor Dan Voinea was asked, in the documentary, if he knows something about this department 0544-R.
“Yes, they were called ghosts, the Ghost Service or the Shadow Service. They didn't even know each other. Basically it was a total conspiracy service. Sergiu Nica, I think he also had a lot of consciousness and fear immediately after the days of December 89, which caused him to write, to make a report, I consider a criminal plan because there were various physical elimination procedures, practically, these journalists are identified. But it was his writing.
The prosecutor remembers that he spoke with a member of the family of the former head of the “Shadow Service”, Sergiu Nica, to be convinced that he was really dead. “That if it is about ghosts, they would also get a lot of death certificate and everything.”
To the question “When do you think this department was abolished? ”, General Voinea replied: “Basically I have no way of knowing whether it was abolished or not, if this department is no longer. It is certain that a scandal with clandestine prisons appeared.”
“Two names related to the death of Culianu, Iliescu and Voiculescu”
The Romanian authorities did not collaborate with the FBI investigation for the discovery of Culianu's criminal. The reason? “For fear of security,” says the historian Marius Oprea.
“So, no official voice expressed regret or condolences to the family. Someone did it. From the highest level, the former president of Romania, Ion Iliescu. It was a day of June 14, 1991, 23 days had passed since the assassination of John. The press conference in Cotroceni. “Culianu was a lie, being Eliade's man and, obviously, he deserved his fate, as a destabilizer that was.” This filming no longer exists, but the written press retained the shocking statement ” – is shown in the documentary.
The film also shows that over the years, “Two names were conveyed that it could have a connection with the assassination of Ioan Petru Culianu: Voican Voiculescu and Ion Iliescu.
Ion Iliescu refused to talk to the filmmakers. Gelu Voican Voiculescu claimed that he nor Iliescu had any connection with Culianu's death.
Ioan Petru Culianu was killed in Chicago. Photo: Archive
Why was Culianu killed?
There are several assumptions about the reasons that led to the killing of Culianu. One of these was his close connection with King Mihai and an alleged plan to restore the monarchy.
“In the country, the king was seen as the number one enemy of the neocommunist regime. It was the direct enemy of Iliescu. So it was the number one danger. The king was the heart of the new regime in Bucharest. All the press wanted to. supports the pro-regalistic campaign.”, Said his sister, Tereza Culianu Petrescu, who spoke, for the first time, about what happened.
“They suspected the next thing, that I go to the West, I ally with the Nene, who allies with the King and we come and rub the regime.” – He said, with tears, the writer Dan Petrescu.
“His attacks on the Security, his hard and argued articles throws in true crises of the new politicians.”
Also, another potential reason for his killing were harsh articles against security and threatening that he would reveal the secrets of the 1989 Revolution.
“Ioan Petru Culianu gave us a fabulous work. Read it, discover the man and the work. His courage and curiosity reveal him as a roadblock. A voice, a nonconformist without inhibitions and prejudices. His writings from the 90s and 91 shocked the Romanian world, his elites, his elite. it matters. ” The truth matters, he never forgets. The life and tragic end are a proof that the work of writers, journalists, is dangerous. About a revolution that was a coup made by a gang of conspiracy, John has warned us since 1985. About complications and manipulation, especially about them, wrote Ioan Petru Culianu ” – Describe the documentary narrator.
His articles threw the power of Bucharest into anger.
“John said in the 1990s, that if we put all the pieces together, we will have an earthquake. His attacks on the Security, his hard and argued articles throws them into real anger seizures, some individuals beaten by their own character. And Culianu's courage to say that there is no intellectual elite, Risk, being that, he said, that Romania will fall into a deeper abyss from which it just came out, that we are heading for a catastrophic bankruptcy. concludes the documentary narrator.
Who was Ioan Petru Culianu
Ioan Petru Culianu (1950-1991) was a renowned historian of religions, philosopher, essayist and Romanian writer, known for his research in the field of Gnosticism, Renaissance magic and the history of ideas.
Born in Iași in a family of intellectuals, Culianu studied at the University of Bucharest, obtaining the license in Italian. Subsequently, he obtained two doctorates: the first in Italy, at the University of Cattolia del Sacro Cuore, with the thesis “Gnosticismo is Pensiero Contemporaneo: Hans Jonas” (1975), and the second at the University of Paris – Sorbona, with the thesis “Recherches sur dualisms d'Occident. .
He taught at the University of Groningen (Holland) between 1976 and 1985 and, since 1988, became a professor at Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he collaborated with Mircea Eliade.
Culianu has published significant works such as “Eros and magic in the Renaissance” and “Cult, Magic, Herezii”, in which he explored the relations between religion, magic and science. He was also a co -author of the “Dictionary of religions” with Mircea Eliade.
Influenced by Mircea Eliade, Culianu was a critic of the communist regime in Romania and the new post-revolutionary political class. Between 1989-1991, he published critical articles in the exile press, especially in the “Free World”, and was a vocal opponent of Ion Iliescu's regime.
