I was only thirteen years old, in July 1976, when these events occurred. Since the very first day, I was immersed in this fantastic tale, I read every newspaper comment about it, even read the book written later by Spaggiari himself. The film is very good, of course, pulled by a convinced Giovanni. But the novel is far better, because it describes in a terrific way, what that journey through sh..., rats, all kinds of excrements, this unbelievable but true dive into the city intestines was. He tells in the book how him and his associates swallowed sh..through mouth and nose, how one vomited and let his companions sneaking behind him swallowing the vomit of the man walking just in front of him. I guess NO film could have told such things with the power of the book, written by the main actor, the man who actually lived this. Those men were not really gangsters for me, but adventurers. The description of the safe deposit room, whilst they cracked the boxes with the cutting torches, is closer to the autobiographic novel than the tunnel and sewers sequences. But those sequences among the city anus were shot in real settings. As long as I will live, I will forever be fascinated by this story. But don't forget that Spaggiari was not a gangster, a thief, yes, but not a real hoodlum. He was first an ex Indochina war soldier, a rough fighter, a former paratrooper, extreme right wing member, a sort of light heart fascist, who also hated Black people, Jews, homosexuals, who was against democracy, communism...But he was a great writer, and also a sort of poet. He was not a ruthless executive like, who was ready to sacrifice men and women for money. He despised money more than anyone else. He only searched adventure here. Only. Most of those men were never arrested, nor identified, except him and maybe a couple of the real gangsters, the safe crackers, but not his mercenaries former combat friends. And I even don't speak of the loot. The most amusing is that, after the robbery, only 317 safe deposit boxes were cracked, out of the 4000 which the safe deposit room contained; so the customers of the bank, who owned a box, did not know if yes or no their belongings had been stolen by the thieves. And they hesitated to declare to the insurances what the deposit boxes contained. They hesitated to declare their jewels, gold, cash and so on...See what I mean? All that stuff which was at first supposed to be hidden from the French IRS, was then about to be declared to the insurance companies. If the safe deposit was cracked and they declare, it was OK. But IF this same safe deposit was not, if it stayed intact, and they declare for instance ten kilograms of pure gold to the IRS for nothing... Ha ha ha
Because the bank authorities DID NOT Immediately told the customers which safe was cracked or intact, and those same customers had to declare the most quickly to their insurance so that they can be refunded.
Amusing story for me, but maybe not for them.
And another amusing thing to tell, according to Spaggiari in his book. During the week end, when the whole crew safe cracked, Spaggiari, who owned a photo shop in Nice, had to get out of the bank, out of the safe deposit room, whilst his associates "opened" the safes with cutting torches, and go to his apartment, take a shower, put perfume on his body - don't forget he got out of the sewers - and - guess what - go to his photo shop, meet his customers....before, a few hours later, getting back home, taking a small nap and getting back to the safe deposit room, to continue his harvest, golden harvest....
Authentic. Ha ha ha.
