Show Notes
Who is Giovanni Di Stefano? That's a question which has been bothering his son Michael for some time!
Across seven episodes, and with the help of producer Calum McCrae, he'll journey into Giovanni's extraordinary life-story, and try to separate the fact from the fiction. Was his dad really a big player in Hollywood, a general in the Serbian Army, a friend of master-criminals and warlords, a football club owner AND a recording artist? And how did he reach such dizzying heights after such humble beginnings?
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Swindler, Saviour, Mobster, Spy? is a What's The Story original podcast series. What's The Story are the leaders in premium true-crime podcasts and audio story-telling.
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More from Swindler. Saviour. Mobster. Spy?
Giovanni’s long battle for freedom looks to be (almost) over! The future looks bright for Michael and his dad. But before then, way before they walk off into the Italian sunset, there are some difficult questions that need answering. Is Michael’s hero really who he says he is?
Why has Giovanni done the things he’s done? His son Michael says it may just be his mile-wide ego. Maybe. That could explain the singing and the football. But the extraordinary heights and powerful circles he infiltrates, the fact he’s now a prisoner… to Michael those things are evidence there is something more secretive and sinister going on. Could he actually be a spy?
It’s the mid 90s and Giovanni is, by now, a budding megalomaniac. He’s becoming a big player on the world stage. All rich and powerful men need a hobby and Giovanni chooses football. But not satisfied with watching on from the terraces, he goes football club shopping, with consistently calamitous results.
In the midst of a bloody and violent war and supposedly on the run from powerful people, Giovanni calls on some unsavoury characters. What was he really doing in wartime Yugoslavia? Rumours circulate as his son, Michael, recalls joining his dad on a shady jaunt to Belgrade at the age of 17.