This page serves as a complement to the book Majorana’s Last Secret: The Machine of Rolando Pelizza. On these pages, you will find links to the videos, photographs, and expert analyses cited in the text.

Much of the material produced by Rolando's supporters is published on the website ilsegretodimajorana.it and in Ravelli's books, and it is organized here for quick reference.

If you have already purchased a copy of the book, select the chapter you are reading from the menu found on this page. Otherwise, you can discover what it is about or consult some of the unpublished documents published in the book, which you can find below.

– Lorenzo Paletti

P.S. It is possible that the pages linked to this site may be modified or removed. If you notice something that does not work, please write to me at info@lorenzopaletti.it

“A book that is far more than a simple account: it is an experience with all the allure of the most intricate mysteries and the most incredible tales, full of surprises and twists, yet never losing sight of the responsibility to the truth of the facts”

- Massimo Polidoro

“Lorenzo Paletti had the ill-advised idea of venturing into writing an editorial masterpiece on the Majorana-Pelizza case.”

- Social Media Manager di Rolando Pelizza

DOCUMENTS

In his books 2006: Majorana era Vivo (2006: Majorana Was Alive) (2006) and Zitti Tutti: Parla Ettore Majorana (Silence Everyone: Ettore Majorana Speaks), Alfredo Ravelli (Rolando's cousin and biographer) has published some documents supporting his reconstruction. Here, instead, you will find some excerpts from the statements and unpublished documents that are published and fully contextualized in my book Majorana’s Last Secret: The Machine of Rolando Pelizza.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF MAJORANA AND ROLANDO

Rolando claims that his Machine was conceived by the physicist Ettore Majorana, who disappeared in 1938. To support his thesis, Rolando publishes several photographs purportedly taken of Majorana in 1976, 1986, and 1996, respectively during his 70th, 80th, and 90th birthdays.

To an untrained eye, the person photographed beside Rolando in the 1996 snapshot might not appear to be Ettore Majorana. Besides not resembling the missing physicist, the subject of the photographs published by Rolando seems not to age a day, despite the first and last photographs being taken twenty years apart.

In the photograph depicting them together, taken in 1996, Rolando (on the right) is 58 years old. Majorana, who has just turned 90, appears to be at most thirty years old. In this case, the rejuvenating power of the Machine has nothing to do with it. At that time, Majorana and Rolando would not have perfected it yet. This is demonstrated by a dedication regarding this matter that Majorana leaves precisely on the back of this photograph.

An analysis by engineer Michele Vitiello, requested by Rolando, concludes that the person photographed beside him is most likely the missing physicist. However, a different analysis was conducted by Professor Matteo Borrini of Liverpool John Moores University and presented in 2023 at the annual conference of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. According to Borrini, it is impossible for the person pictured beside Rolando to be Majorana.

Adding to the doubts is a peculiar resemblance. In fact, the subject appearing in Rolando's photographs is incredibly similar to the Spanish actor Pol Nubiala.

According to Rolando's social media manager, the resemblance between the person portrayed by Rolando (Ettore Majorana) and the actor Pol Nubiala is coincidental. Nubiala and Majorana are simply two look-alikes: “Consider that there are as many as seven perfect look-alikes for each of us in the world.”

The scientific source of this claim is unclear. A recent study published in the journal Forensic Science International concluded that the probability of finding a subject with facial characteristics identical to another (who is not their twin) is one in a trillion. Considering that there are “only” eight billion people on our planet, it is almost impossible for an identical twin to exist for us (or for Majorana).

Similar results were highlighted in another article published in 2002 in the journal Cell Reports.

In this overlay, the face of the subject photographed by Rolando (who, according to his reconstruction, would be Ettore Majorana) is compared with that of the Spanish actor Pol Nubiala.

TRANSMUTATION VIDEO

In 1992, Rolando perfected the so-called third phase of the Machine, which would allow the transmutation of any element into another. In a video lasting about two hours, Rolando showcases a collection of 128 gold cubes that he claims to have obtained by transmuting an equal number of foam cubes.

Each of these gold cubes weighs 65kg. The total weight of what Rolando calls “his little treasure” amounts to over 8 tons, concentrated on an area of less than one square meter. How is it possible that the factory floor can support all that weight?

Is it possible that the floor of the facility where Rolando is located can withstand 8 tons distributed over less than one square meter?

The same recording also illustrates the transmutation of a foam cube into gold. After a cut, a close-up shot shows the foam cube placed on the table. The camera remains on this image for several minutes, during which Rolando attempts to activate the Machine. Finally, with a white flash that blinds the camera, the cube transforms

After 13 minutes of unsuccessful attempts, Rolando manages to transmute a foam cube into gold.

Skeptics observe some oddities. For example: Rolando's shadow appears on the wall behind the cube precisely in the moments preceding the transmutation. Additionally, during the transmutation, the volume of the cube decreases. Using the two dots separating the hours from the minutes on the clock in the lower left corner of the frame as a reference, the shrinkage is evident.

Is it possible that the video does not show the transmutation of a cube into gold, but rather a magic trick? During the hour of activity that is not recorded and precedes the transmutation, Rolando might have prepared the scene.

After placing a gold cube on the table, Rolando could have covered it with a foam cube from which he removed the bottom face and all the material inside, transforming it into an empty shell capable of perfectly covering the gold cube.

During the transmutation, the cube shrinks (note the side in relation to the two points on the clock).

During the transmutation, Rolando could have activated a photographic flash positioned outside the frame. By exploiting the sudden light spike that prevents the camera from focusing the image, Rolando could have slid off the foam cube to reveal the gold cube contained within.

When observing the transmutation in slow motion, in the upper part of the frame, it almost appears as if Rolando's hands are sliding off the foam cube.

According to Rolando's social media manager, those are not Rolando's hands but “another distortion or some physical effect explainable by Majorana's physics. […] Anti-atoms tend to aggregate, which is why the beam in annihilations takes on a square shape with sides converging at the center. This could be an effect of that temporary aggregation, or we could say, the reorganization of atoms into a different, more compact form like gold.”

However, to transform carbon atoms (as those that primarily make up polystyrene) into gold atoms (as those of the transmuted cube) is not sufficient to merely reorganize matter: new atoms need to be created. In fact, the polystyrene cube weighs only a few grams, while the gold cube would weigh 65kg.

Slowing down the video, it appears as if Rolando's hands are removing a foam cube from the gold cube underneath.

After completing the transmutation, Rolando widens the shot and moves the cube onto a nearby mechanical scale, where he weighs it. The scale's indicator shows that the cube weighs 65kg. But how can we be certain that the scale's tare is accurate?

A bag of sand or construction lime weighs 25kg. Anyone who has tried to lift one is well aware of how difficult it is to handle. How can Rolando, despite no longer being in the prime of his life, move more than twice that weight—compressed into a small cube—with relative ease?

The suspicion raised by skeptics is that the cube is not actually made of gold but of brass or some other material painted with a golden color.

Would you be able to move a 65kg cube with the ease that Rolando is showing?

In the final part of the video, Rolando also transmutes a cross. In this case, according to skeptics, Rolando would have glued a gold (or brass) cross to the table of his laboratory. In front of the metal cross, Rolando would then place a slightly larger foam cross, thereby covering the brass one.

During the transmutation, Rolando would have activated the flash positioned behind the camera. With the camera once again blinded by the flash, Rolando could have caused the foam cross to fall with a simple puff.

Indeed, in the complete video, a puff is heard precisely during the transmutation.

Listen carefully to the audio in this excerpt: it seems that Rolando blows on the cross right during the transmutation.

ERASMO RECAMI’S OPINION ON THE LETTERS

To support his reconstruction, Ravelli publishes several manuscripts signed by Ettore Majorana, sent to Rolando after his disappearance in 1938. The technical opinions of graphologist Chantal Sala seem to confirm that it is indeed Majorana's handwriting, but not everyone is convinced.

Among the skeptics is Erasmo Recami, a physicist and biographer of Ettore Majorana. According to Rolando's social media manager: “Recami and Rolando Pelizza were great friends; in fact, especially in recent years, he had become so convinced of the authenticity of the evidence presented by Rolando that he wanted to participate, putting his reputation on the line, at the famous Pavia Conference of 2018.”

However, listening to Recami's speech, which lasts just over three minutes, it becomes evident that the physicist limits himself to briefly reconstructing Majorana's academic publications prior to his disappearance, carefully avoiding any support for the reconstruction presented by Rolando and Ravelli.

“I heard that you applauded a video that ended by saying that Rolando and Majorana, if it is true that Majorana is behind Rolando, deserve 100 Nobel Prizes. I am only an expert on the standard Majorana. The classic one: from 1906 to 1938.”
— Erasmo Recami

There is no doubt that Recami had built a friendship with Rolando, but this does not mean that the biographer believed in the authenticity of his letters. The Pavia Conference takes place in 2018. The following year, in 2019, Recami makes these remarks:

“I am very doubtful about the expert analyses. First of all, because—for example—regarding Ettore Majorana’s handwriting, I believe I am the person in the world who knows it best because I started discovering Ettore’s documents in 1969. So I have fifty years of experience with his handwriting. Therefore, I trust my eye more than the graphologists’ analyses. However, regarding the letters that Majorana would have written in recent years, I have many doubts. Because the handwriting, I admit, is his; in fact, it is too similar to the handwriting of the past. But the content is not.”
— Erasmo Recami
““The letters purported to be from Majorana contained the word ‘scienza’ [science] without the ‘i.’ So I pointed it out to him, saying that Ettore would not have made such a mistake even after 30 or 60 years. And then he had those letters corrected. By whom? He says that—being reborn, Ettore Majorana, rejuvenated, now 30 years old—he had them rewritten by himself, maintaining the same handwriting as in the old days.””
— Erasmo Recami

According to Rolando's social media manager, Majorana would have deliberately inserted such errors in the text to encode secret messages in case those letters were intercepted: “The errors found in the letters were part of an encrypted code used between Majorana and Rolando to communicate with each other without being intercepted.”

Even assuming this is true: why would Majorana use such an explicit code? Usually, encrypted messages hidden within other texts are created so that an outsider cannot recognize them. But seeing a distinguished scientist like Majorana writing “scienza” without the “i” would have raised suspicion for anyone trying to infiltrate the communications between Rolando and the missing physicist.

In this regard: even without knowing the code, the text of Majorana’s letters speaks rather explicitly about the Machine and its functions. According to Rolando, Majorana would have faked his own suicide to retire to private life. Between the '70s and '80s, during negotiations with the governments of Italy, the United States, and Belgium, Rolando protects Majorana’s identity by claiming that behind the Machine there is a European group of researchers. Only in 2001 did Majorana grant Rolando permission to speak about their relationship and publish the letters. But if Majorana wanted to remain hidden and feared that someone might get hold of his correspondence, why sign the letters with his own name and not with a pseudonym?

Moreover: why do the letters from Majorana published by Ravelli have the word “scienza” written correctly? Perhaps Majorana produced two versions of each letter: one containing the secret code (with the word “scienza” written without the “i”) that he sent to Rolando, and a second, grammatically correct version published by Ravelli. But a malicious person who managed to obtain both versions of the same letter could compare the differences and deduce Majorana’s scheme for hiding his message.

Considering the genius that distinguished him, it is difficult to believe that Majorana would have risked so much. It is therefore more likely that Ettore wrote only one copy (encoded) of his letters. But then, where do the unencoded letters published by Ravelli come from? Perhaps Majorana wrote those letters precisely in 2001, when he granted Rolando permission to publish his manuscripts. But why would he have to do so?

In any case, in addition to being a biographer of Ettore Majorana, Erasmo Recami was also a physicist and university professor. Alfredo Ravelli claims that Rolando had a rare mathematical ability, but none of the documents he published contain a single formula. Moreover, in two books that Rolando wrote in the '90s with Roberto Guzzo, there are several gross physics errors. Nevertheless, Ravelli recounts that Rolando was a student of Ettore Majorana, one of the most celebrated physicists in history. Recami, who had the opportunity to interact extensively with Rolando, has always expressed his doubts about Rolando’s scientific knowledge in 2019.

“The content of those letters seems to be written by Rolando Pelizza himself.”
— Erasmo Recami
“Regarding quantum usage, Rolando Pelizza has nothing to do with it, as he is extremely ignorant of physics. Especially modern physics.”
— Erasmo Recami

THE CRUDE PHOTOMONTAGE

The photograph, described by Rino Di Stefano as a "crude photomontage," allegedly depicts Rolando next to Majorana in the cloister of a monastery.

Among the photographs depicting Ettore Majorana alongside Rolando, there is one published at the end of a digital booklet distributed through his social media channels. This image is said to have been taken on February 26, 1964, in the cloister of the monastery where the missing physicist allegedly sought refuge after staging his own suicide. Majorana and Rolando, distant and blurred, pose side by side.

On the back of the photograph, Majorana leaves a dedication to Rolando: “Dear Rolando, I extend my best birthday wishes to you. Today marks the end of my teachings; now you are ready to attempt the realization of the Machine. I advise you to exercise caution. You are fully aware of what you are getting into.”

That day, Rolando turned 26 years old. Yet, in the photograph, he appears to be at least 40 years old. Conversely, Ettore should be 57 years old but appears to be at most forty.

Furthermore, Majorana is wearing only a light-colored suit. What is Ettore doing outdoors with a summer jacket in the winter? Among the most well-known images of Majorana, there is one that captures him alongside his father and sisters Maria and Rosina. In that photograph, taken in July 1931, Majorana is wearing the same jacket he has in the photograph published by Rolando.

Did Ettore take that jacket with him when he faked his own suicide? Did he keep it from 1931 to 1964, for 33 years, to wear it again (out of season) in that photograph alongside Rolando?

Upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that the jacket is not the only thing strikingly similar to the 1931 photograph. Ettore is positioned exactly the same way. The collar of his jacket has the same fold. His legs are in the same posture. It doesn't just look like the same suit; it appears to be the exact same subject.

On page 482 of his book Il Caso Majorana-Pelizza (The Majorana-Pelizza Case), journalist Rino Di Stefano describes this image as “a crude photomontage.” But if the Majorana portrayed alongside Rolando was cut out from an original 1931 photograph, then the one published by Rolando and presented as a 1964 photograph would actually be a fake.

And if that photograph is fake, then the dedication written on the back must be fake as well. But then who wrote that dedication? Was it Majorana, who, to help Rolando support his thesis, pretended that the shot actually depicted him in 1964? If that dedication is forged, then all the letters from Majorana to Rolando written in that same unmistakable handwriting could also be fake.

Rolando's social media manager maintains that this image is not a photomontage. In fact: “We have already proven that the photo is authentic, and the suit worn by Majorana, although the same as probably in the photo from that time, shows differences compared to the 1931 photograph. For example, a different tie, the sister’s arm is absent, the pant wrinkles are missing, a different face, and other elements.”

It is very curious that Majorana chose to carry with him, on the night of March when he faked his own suicide, a suit he wore under the hot July sun seven years earlier. It is even more curious that he kept that jacket for 26 years, removing his tailored coat to pose in a photograph that journalist Rino Di Stefano discovered was taken in the cloister of the former convent of the Certosa di Calci.

Although the photomontage is dated 1964, there is no evidence that the photograph is from that time. It is possible that the image was created recently using digital editing techniques. This would explain why Rolando appears much older than the 26 years he turned that day. Whoever created the image might have deliberately modified it, adding differences to make the similarities with the original photograph less obvious.

But let’s also assume that the shot is genuine. If, as the social media manager writes, the face of the person portrayed alongside Rolando in 1964 is “different” from what is seen in the 1931 photograph of Majorana, how can that person be Ettore Majorana?

In this overlay, the jacket of the subject photographed next to Rolando (who, according to his reconstruction, is Ettore Majorana) is compared with the jacket worn by Majorana in a 1931 photograph.

ROLANDO’S PATENTS

On page 40 of his book 2006: Majorana era Vivo (2006: Majorana was Alive), Rolando's cousin and biographer Alfredo Ravelli recounts that — between the '70s and '80s — Rolando was "churning out" patents. Furthermore, on page 105, Ravelli states that Rolando allegedly filed the Machine's patent in Belgium under the name Rematom. Yet, there are no traces of these intellectual properties. Searching the European Patent Office's website for the name Rolando Pelizza or the names of the companies mentioned by Ravelli reveals only four patents.

The first three are registered by Test Uno SpA, based in Chiari (Rolando's hometown), and concern a bathtub on wheels, a synthetic fiber, and an orthopedic torso. The first two patents do not list an inventor's name, while the third (regarding the orthopedic torso) is registered under the name Giorgio Brunelli.

According to Rolando's social media manager, these three patents are not related in any way to Rolando. In fact, he states that the company founded by Rolando would have been called Test Uno Srl and not Test Uno SpA. However, on page 130 of the book 2006: Majorana era Vivo, Alfredo Ravelli writes that Rolando had founded a company called Test Uno SpA.

Moreover, a curious coincidence emerges. The synthetic material patent filed by Test Uno SpA of Chiari (which supposedly has nothing to do with Rolando) was sent to the Italian Patent Office on November 22, 1978. Five months later, on April 25, 1979, the same patent was filed with the German Patent Office. The company filing the patent in Germany is called Test Uno SpA, based in Chiari. Meanwhile, the inventor, who at the time of the application also claims authorship of the Italian patent, is named Rolando Pelizza.

Although the German patent indicates an apparent link between Rolando and the three Italian patents of Test Uno SpA, Rolando's social media manager denies it, downplaying the three inventions: “It is different to say that Rolando patented orthopedic torsos, synthetic fabrics, and hospital bathtubs, while he has done much more important things.”

The social media manager is referring to the fourth patent related to Rolando. The invention described in that document is currently marketed under the FoamFlex200 brand by a company that — with its name — honors Rolando's early entrepreneurial activities. It is Test 1 of Alessandro Taini, based in Brescia. The sponge patent is signed by Giuseppe Peroni and Rolando Pellizza (spelled with a double "l"), but it was filed in 2015.

Where are all the patents that Rolando was "churning out" between the '70s and '80s that Ravelli speaks of? And where is the Machine's patent filed under the name Rematom with the Belgian Patent Office? The only patent from that period clearly signed by Rolando appears to be the one concerning the synthetic fiber.

MASSIMO PUGLIESE’S OPINION OF ROLANDO

Former agent of the Italian secret service and member of the P2 Masonic lodge, Massimo Pugliese stood alongside Rolando during negotiations for the sale of the Machine to the governments of Italy, the United States, and Belgium.

For this reason, aside from Rolando himself, Pugliese is the person best able to describe what happened during those years. In one of his conversations with Antonio Mancini, Pugliese does not hold back in criticizing Rolando:

“Pelizza has fooled and continues to fool everyone. He has carried out endless negotiations, but just as an agreement is about to be reached, he throws everything away and then starts over from scratch. He did the same with the White House envoy, with the honorable Fortuna, with the Belgians. When he’s cornered, he breaks off the relationship and seeks—or invents—a new one. Woe to those who go along with him, who indulge him. He’s a man who has come into contact with people of a very different caliber than his own. The game has worked in his favor up to now, and it’s gone to his head. We absolutely have to change our approach. And there’s no need to do anything complicated: just apply the law. Pelizza fears one thing only: jail.”
— Massimo Pugliese

In his book 2006: Majorana era vivo (2006: Majorana Was Alive), Alfredo Ravelli claims that his cousin Rolando patented the Machine under the name Rematom at the Belgian patent office. However, it appears impossible to find any trace of that patent, either at the Belgian patent office or at the European Patent Office, by searching under Rolando’s name, the name Rematom, or the names of the companies that would supposedly have been involved in selling the Machine in Belgium.

Massimo Pugliese also maintains that patenting the Machine would not have been possible. In fact, publishing the patent would be equivalent to revealing how it is built and how it works:

““The invention in question was not patented because its secrecy would not have been protected.””
— Massimo Pugliese

GIUSEPPE SANTOVIT'O’S DOUBTS

Alfredo Ravelli recounts that Pugliese was in close contact with General Giuseppe Santovito, his superior at the SID (Servizio Informazioni Difesa, the Italian Defense Intelligence Service). According to Ravelli, Santovito and the Italian political sphere showed great interest in Rolando’s Machine. However, Santovito’s testimony during the Armi & Droga (Weapons & Drugs) trial offers a different perspective:

“Pugliese showed me a film with a reproduction of the effects of that device. I was not convinced by it and advised Pugliese to abandon the idea. Later, when I was head of the services, in 1978–79, I was summoned by the Minister for Scientific Research, Vito Scalia. He called me and asked whether I knew anything about that device, and I replied that I was not convinced of the validity of that death ray. The minister asked me to look into the matter further. I got back in touch with Pugliese and had checks carried out by people from the services who confirmed my doubts. No official reports were drawn up, but these findings were communicated to me verbally, and I then relayed them to Minister Scalia, so I considered the matter completely closed.”
— Giuseppe Santovito

HONORABLE FLAMINIO PICCOLI

During negotiations with the Italian government, Rolando comes into contact with the Honorables Piccoli and Fortuna. Even Giulio Andreotti, one of the most powerful men in Italy, hears about the Machine. On page 107 of his book Il Segreto di Majorana: due uomini, una macchina (The Secret of Majorana: Two Men, One Machine), Ravelli writes that Piccoli called it “fantasy,” describing it as “the last dream of man.”

In the 1970s, in order to assess the real functionality of the Machine, the Italian government asks physicist Ezio Clementel of the National Committee for Nuclear Energy to propose tests to be carried out with the Machine. Rolando performs these tests on his own, at Baremone (a location in northern Italy), and films himself with a camera. Ravelli recounts Clementel’s enthusiastic reaction to that footage, but Flaminio Piccoli’s testimony at the Armi & Droga (Weapons & Drugs) trial seems to contradict him.

“In February 1977, Professor Clementel, meeting me, told me that the experiment had not taken place and bitterly stated to me that we were dealing with a deceptive proposal.”
— Hon. Flaminio Piccoli
“I never heard anything else about this matter after Professor Clementel told me in a brief meeting that he was trying to arrange the experiment, which he regarded as the moment of truth, as many doubts had arisen in him.”
— Hon. Flaminio Piccoli

In his book 2006: Majorana era Vivo (2006: Majorana Was Alive), Alfredo Ravelli claims that Rolando and Pugliese never requested any financial advances from the governments they were negotiating with for the sale of the Machine: “Pugliese rightly did not want to ask for any advance, so as to avoid the suspicion that they were organizing a scam, given the strangeness of what they were proposing.”

However, Flaminio Piccoli’s testimony suggests that Rolando and Pugliese actually did request an advance payment from the Italian government.

“When I heard about a request for 50 million, I became even more perplexed, because it obviously had to be a bluff with no basis in seriousness. That is, the impression I had was that in this affair, he intended to obtain the mentioned sum for his own profit. Subsequently, my doubts grew when Professor Clementel, after trying to set the date for the experiment, also shared with me his personal misgivings about the existence and validity of the technology on offer.”
— Hon. Flaminio Piccoli

HONORABLES FORTUNA E ANDREOTTI

The honorable Loris Fortuna also showed interest in Rolando and the invention supposedly devised by Ettore Majorana. According to Ravelli’s account, Fortuna was given the task of drafting a preliminary agreement for the transfer of the Machine.

In his deposition during the Armi & Droga (Weapons & Drugs) trial, Fortuna expresses his own doubts, as well as those of Professor Clementel, regarding the actual functioning of Rolando’s invention:

“Mr. Pugliese also showed me some very confusing projections that allegedly depicted the experiment in progress. Professor Clementel composed a report which he gave to the honorable Piccoli. The honorable Piccoli handed it to me and we talked it through, as it was impossible not to be perplexed by Professor Clementel’s statements. So I met with Pugliese and told him that it made no sense to continue negotiating unless an experiment was carried out in the presence of the scientists trusted by the parties. […] Then, since the experiment was never performed, I told Pugliese to let it go and that I no longer intended to be involved.”
— Hon. Loris Fortuna

When questioned in the context of the Armi & Droga trial, Giulio Andreotti once again underscores the doubts raised by Ezio Clementel of the National Committee for Nuclear Energy:

“The Minister for Scientific Research, Mario Pedini, informed me that he had heard about a scientific discovery. […] At first, Professor Clementel told me he had seen quite impressive film documentation, but later he came back to say that, having requested to examine the Machine in question and to personally witness an experiment, he had encountered strange difficulties, including the Machine’s malfunction. Clementel’s conclusion was that this was not a transparent operation and, therefore, that it was not advisable to continue contacts until any new information might be obtained.”
— Hon. GIulio Andreotti

MAJORANA’S LAST SECRET:
THE MACHINE OF ROLANDO PELIZZA

On a night in 1938, the brilliant physicist Ettore Majorana mysteriously disappears. Twenty years later, an entrepreneur from Brescia, a city in northern Italy, recounts that he met Majorana in a monastery in southern Italy. Hidden among the friars, Majorana has continued his research and designed a Machine capable of annihilating matter, producing infinite energy, transmuting one element into another, and even rejuvenating a living organism.

That entrepreneur is named Rolando Pelizza, and Majorana entrusts him with building this revolutionary new Machine.

It would be an unbelievable story—if it were not for the fact that Rolando possesses all the evidence: letters authenticated by handwriting experts and written by Majorana after 1938, photographs of him standing next to Majorana, videos in which Rolando is seen transforming cubes of foam rubber into gold, and confidential documents from the American embassy that advise keeping an eye on his invention.

Rolando’s name appears in the newspapers on several occasions: in the 1970s, when he becomes the main suspect in the kidnapping of the mother of Alain Elkann, an Italian journalist and writer; or when more than 100 paintings in his possession, valued at billions of lire, are searched by authorities. And yet again, when he becomes the focus of an arms trafficking trial for attempting to sell that Machine to the governments of Italy, the United States, and Belgium.

Lorenzo Paletti investigates the incredible story of Rolando Pelizza and Majorana’s Machine with never-before-published documents that illuminate the darkest corners of this tale, which features scientists, politicians, Freemasons, and secret services.