Dirk Hamer – Crime and Punishment – Part 1
Since my last blog was posted, I came to realize that there was so much more that went on behind the scenes that most GNM followers had no idea about. I have to say, what Dr. Hamer lived through sounds like fiction, but as disturbing as it is, it is all true what he had to endure. I will begin with Dirk Hamer.
It was not only Dr. Hamer that suffered the injustice, his family suffered along with him. It became quite evident in the beginning that he had enemies in high places and the Italian crown prince became one of his greatest enemies.
A personal vendetta
To understand how this all came about we must start at the beginning. As most of you know, Dr. Hamer developed testicular cancer as the result of the death of his son Dirk. However there is so much more involved that needs to be told in order to appreciate how unjustly Dr. Hamer was treated from that moment on. It wasn’t just about the suppression of his discovery, it was also about a personal vendetta.
It was in late summer of 1978 when the shooting of Dr. Hamer’s son Dirk, occurred at the Isle of Cavallo near Corsica. Dirk was on a short sea trip with a group of young people carried by 3 private yachts. The group Dirk was with were on the yacht “Marpagia” which belonged to a high government official and “disappeared” shortly after this tragic event.
On the evening of their scheduled departure from the Isle of Cavallo, there was a storm warning and it was decided to postpone their departure until the next morning.
Everyone, including their chaperones decided to go to a restaurant on shore with the exception of Dirk. He ran out of money and decided to go to sleep early in his cabin.
The Italian crown prince
On shore at the restaurant, one of the chaperones, Dr. Pende noticed that the Italian crown prince, Vittorio Emanuele was also there with his wife and body guards. As a matter of fact he testified later that the prince kept staring disapprovingly at the students who were having a good time.
Strangely, Dr. Pende was known to the prince because his father, also a physician, attended to his father, the deposed King of Italy. Dr. Pende commented that the prince likely thought that the students were having a laugh at the prince’s expense because Dr. Pende knew the family.
The students returned to their respective yachts quite late and Dr. Pende later testified that he noticed the prince and his entourage leave at the same time. He also said that he found it strange that he drove in the same direction as the students because his villa was located in the opposite direction.
Banging on the deck
About 20 minutes after everyone had gone to their cabins, Dr. Pende heard some banging on the deck. He emerged from his cabin and saw that there were some air tanks strewn on the floor of the deck and there was air escaping from their valves which had been opened. He scrambled to close the valves and saw the prince standing in an inflatable boat right next to the yacht. He pointed his gun, which apparently was big enough to “kill an elephant”, at Dr. Pende and yelled, “and this is for trying to steal my yacht” and fired his gun. He also managed to strike Dr. Pende as he tried to escape.
Pende jumped overboard in order to swim to safety and heard someone yell “help me, help me” and when the commotion died down, Dirk was found unconscious from blood loss, mortally wounded in the abdomen and thigh by a bullet.
At that very moment, the prince made his way to shore where his body guards were waiting with their weapons drawn, and his wife was waiting in their Jeep with the headlights on.
Dirk Hamer found wounded
When Dirk Hamer was found wounded, the chaperones were told that the prince would make his helicopter available to get Dirk off to a hospital but after 2 hours it became evident that it wouldn’t show up.
With valuable time lost, Dirk was transported on one of the other yachts, the “Cook”, to the closest hospital which was in Marseille. He arrived clinically dead but was revived. He underwent surgery to amputate his leg and also needed 14 hours of dialysis because his kidneys had failed. He was then airlifted to Heidelberg where 3 months later after 18 surgeries he died in Dr. Hamer’s arms.
During the time Dirk was in the hospital in Heidelberg, Dr. Hamer and his wife were constantly at Dirk’s side until towards the end, when the administrator of the hospital gave orders to no longer allow the Hamer’s to attend to their son.
Speed up the process
Apparently the royal family were updated daily on Dirks “status” and when it was reported that he may not survive, the administrator of the hospital was urged to “speed up the process” by increasing certain medicines Dirk was being given. Dr. Hamer confronted the head of the hospital when they were barred and pleaded that he and his wife remain in vigil for their son.
48 hours before Dirk died, the Italian crown prince left for Mexico on a special diplomatic passport granted by his cousin the King of Belgium, Baudouin, because the prince’s passport had been revoked after the shooting in order to keep him from leaving Cavallo.
However, one year later, the media reported a scandal in the justice system and alleged that “important people have been bought off” because there was no trial in sight holding the prince accountable for the death of Dirk Hamer.