Fiat chief's son found dead under bridge

Edoardo Agnelli 'suffered conflict of family duties and personal interests'

TURIN, Italy -- The only son of Fiat patriarch Giovanni Agnelli has been found dead in the second tragic blow to strike Italy's most prominent family in recent years.

Fiat officials said the body of Edoardo Agnelli, 46, was found by a highway patrol on the bank of the River Stura.

It lay some 250 feet beneath the Fossano motorway viaduct known as the "bridge of suicides."

Agnelli's empty Fiat Croma, its motor still running, was parked on the bridge above, company spokesman Franco Sodano said.

The body was removed for an autopsy after Giovanni Agnelli, 79, joined police officials at the scene. He identified the corpse before it was removed in a chrome coffin. A post mortem was to be carried out in nearby Cuneo.

Italian reporters who went to the scene about 50 miles from Fiat headquarters in Turin said the body suffered trauma to the head and face from an apparent fall.

The Agnelli clan is often described as the equivalent of Italy's royal family. Just three years ago, the powerful family saw another one of its male heirs die young.

Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, Giovanni Agnelli's nephew and heir to the Italian car giant, died in December 1997 at the age of 33 after a dignified, silent battle with stomach cancer.

Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said in a statement he was "deeply moved by the death of Edoardo and the new pain which has afflicted his family."

At Villar Perosa outside Turin, helicopters ferried cousins and other relatives to and from the grounds of the secluded family villa as the mayor declared the local town in mourning.

Unlike his cousin, Edoardo, a graduate in oriental literature and philosophy, never worked at the Turin industrial giant and his death has little impact on Fiat itself.

He led a sheltered life, shunning the limelight surrounding Italy's most powerful family, and spending a lot of time in India and Africa.

Italian media reports said he was detained by police in Kenya 10 years ago for possessing marijuana but was freed without charges.

He had shown little interest in the Turin-based empire founded by his great-grandfather 101 years ago. He said in a January 1998 newspaper interview he had no intention of serving on the Fiat board.

"I've never considered becoming a manager and, if they had asked me to sit on the board, I would have said no, that I'm not suitable," he was quoted as saying.

Agnelli family members generally travel with bodyguards, but Edoardo apparently did not.

Like the Kennedys in the United States, the Agnelli family's doings are widely chronicled in Italy. Giovanni Agnelli is quoted frequently on subjects ranging from business to finance to soccer.

Edoardo pictured with father Giovanni in 1982

Edoardo served briefly on the board of directors of the family-owned soccer team, Juventus.

Edoardo, who was named after a grandfather killed in a 1935 airplane crash, was born in New York, raised among the elite in Turin and studied at Princeton University.

"He was a sensitive soul," said Princeton classmate John Pepper, who described Edoardo as genuinely concerned about humanity.

Never married, Edoardo lived near his parents in the hills outside of Turin. He is survived by his father, sister and mother, Marella.

Fiat recently struck a major alliance with General Motors of the United States, the world's largest carmaker, highlighting the lack of a clear successor to the family empire.

Respected Italian newspaper columnist Piero Ottone, a close friend of the Agnellis, said Edoardo had suffered from the conflict between family duties and his restless soul-searching.

"Edoardo was born into the most enviable of families. But he fought between the desire to continue the family traditions and his own profound cultural interests," he said in a television interview.

"I fear he did not manage to resolve this conflict in his life and this became his tragedy."

Fiat heir diagnosed with stomach tumor
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Fiat

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