A Netflix documentary talks about Emanuele Di Giorgi, a victim of the 1988 Gladbeck hostage crisis.
He was an Italian who was living with his immigrant parents.
In August 1988, one of the two abductors of the Gladbeck hostage crisis Dieter Degowski shot him to death. ARD had broadcasted a dramatized version of the incident, Gladbeck, in March 2018.
Besides that, the Australian crime podcast Casefile (March 2021) and a Netflix documentary Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis (June 2022) covered the details of the incident that lasted for 54 hours.
What Happened To Emanuele Di Giorgi?
Emanuele Di Giorgi lost his life in the 1988 Gladbeck hostage crisis.
On 16 August, two armed and hooded men with a prior criminal history, Dieter Degowski & Hans-Jürgen Rösner, raided a branch of the Deutsche Bank in Gladbeck, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany.
After noticing a police car, the offenders took two clerks hostage (who made it out alive) and demanded car & ransom money. The authorities gave them 300,000 DM and a white Audi 100.
The next day the abductors hijacked a public-transit bus with 32 passengers at 7:00 pm in the district of Huckelriede, Bremen.
Two police officers arrested Marion Löblich, the girlfriend of Hans-Jürgen. The criminals demanded an exchange and threatened to kill a hostage every five minutes.
Police were about to release Marion but arrived late due to a broken handcuff key and poor communication. The abductors shot 14-year-old Emanuele in the head, who bled to death.
They were on the run through Germany and the Netherlands, which became a media circus. And on 18 August, the police ended it all on the A3 motorway. Three people lost their lives – two teenage hostages and a policeman in a vehicle crash.
Where Is Emanuele Di Giorgi’s Sister Now?
According to witnesses, Emanuele Di Giorgi protected his then nine-year-old sister, Tatiana, when Degowski shot him.
An ambulance arrived twenty minutes later and took the Italian teenager to the hospital, where he died after two hours. The kid’s burial took place in Surbo, Italy, where 25 thousand people followed the ritual.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2018, Emanuele’s sister said she never stopped hearing her brothers’ whispers, “Don’t be scared, I’ll protect you.” She was sitting in her brother’s lap when Rösner and Degowski hijacked the bus.
As for where Tatiana is now, she probably lives in Italy. The website, Gladbeck, states that the entire Di Giorgi family returned to their home nation.
The Whereabouts Of Emanuele Di Giorgi’s Family
Emanuele Di Giorgi’s family never recovered from his murder.
Moreover, they were horrified to hear the discharge of Dieter Degowski, one of the perpetrators, in 2018. In August, the regional court in Arnsberg had announced his release on conditional parole after three decades in prison.
On 22 March 1991, the regional superior court of Essen pronounced Rösner and Degowski guilty and sentenced them to life in prison. Likewise, Löblich received nine years.
Emanuele’s brother, Fabio, lamented how his family would suffer for a lifetime while the criminal roams free. In a 2018 interview, he mentioned his dream – sitting on the bus, the gunshot comes, and he wakes up.