Licio Gelli (born in Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy) was a prominent Italian financier, journalist, politician, and entrepreneur with deep ties to fascism and Freemasonry. As a 17-year-old student at a liceo classico, he was expelled from all Italian schools after slapping a teacher. He volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War with fascist brigades under the assumed name Livio Gommina, supporting Franco; his brother Raffaello was killed in the conflict. Returning to Italy, Gelli briefly attended an accountancy school in 1940 and later joined the fascist Italian Social Republic (Salò Republic), the Nazi puppet state, towards the end of World War II. He entered Freemasonry around 1963 and became Grandmaster of Propaganda Due (P2), a secret Masonic lodge embedded in Italy's military, intelligence, political, and financial establishments, joining the lodge in 1966. Gelli was connected by Italian courts to terrorist attacks, including the Bologna massacre (1980), and the Banco Ambrosiano collapse. He faced numerous legal proceedings related to financial scandals, terrorism, and right-wing plots, with allegations linking him to international intrigue, such as a 1986 telegram reportedly predicting the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (though unproven). Arrested in Switzerland in 1982 following the exposure of P2, he escaped prison in 1983, briefly surrendered in 1987, and spent from 1996 until his death under house arrest at his home in Arezzo, Tuscany. He was married to Wanda Vannacci and Gabriela Vasile.