A Smoking Gun in the Spanish Royal Family

King Juan Carlos I had an astonishingly eventful life and ruled as King of Spain for nearly four decades. But a tragic event when he was a teenager maybe have been the defining incident of his life. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A quick note before our episode begins. This one includes
the death of a child, and so please feel free
to sit this one out if that's a subject you
are particularly sensitive to. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production
of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener
discretion advised. The date was March twenty sixth, nineteen fifty six.

(00:27):
It was Holy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. A
pair of teenage brothers one fourteen one eighteen attended evening
Mass with their family. Once they were back home, the
brothers went off on their own. Not long after, a
shot was heard throughout the family home. Their father ran

(00:49):
to investigate and discovered the younger brother bleeding from a
gunshot wound to the head. He died in his father's arms.
This tragedy was compounded by the fact that the family
at the time was living in exile since their father
was the rightful heir to the Spanish throne. The brother

(01:11):
who lived would eventually go on to be known as
Juan Carlos the First. He was the future King of Spain.
So what happened between those teenage brothers that night in
nineteen fifty six, and what effect did it have on
the almost forty year reign of one of the most

(01:33):
powerful men in the Western world. I'm Danas Schwartz and
this is noble blood. At one point. Juan Carlos the First,
who began his reign as king in nineteen seventy five,
was one of Spain's most popular monarchs, especially beloved for

(01:54):
safeguarding his country's often perilous relationship to democracy. As recently
as two thousand and eight, he was considered the best
regarded leader in the Spanish speaking world, But less than
a decade later he would abdicate in a cloud of controversy.
What went wrong and did what happened decades earlier on

(02:19):
that holy day back in nineteen fifty six play a part.
Juan Carlos the First was born into the Spanish Bourbon
dynasty that descended from the French Bourbont line and had
ruled Spain since the eighteenth century. His birth in January
of nineteen thirty eight came during a tumultuous time in

(02:44):
Spain's history. One Carlos's grandfather, King Alfonso the Thirteenth, had
been forced into exile in nineteen thirty one, with the
second Spanish republic. This was Spain's attempt at a democratic government,
with a majority of citizens voting to reject the monarchy

(03:06):
and embrace more progressive policies. The country then descended into
political chaos, with a rotating group of factions vying for control.
By the time Juan Carlos was born, the Spanish Civil
War was in full swing. Francisco Franco's military coup had

(03:27):
been raging for two years, pitting monarchists, fascists, and the
Catholic Church against loyalists who supported a democratically elected republic.
A year later, the country turned into a full out
fascist dictatorship. In nineteen thirty nine, Franco, backed by Hitler

(03:50):
and Mussolini, won control of the country to the tune
of half a million lives. This was not a great
time to be a member of the nobility in Spain.
As direct descendants of the Spanish royal family, Juan Carlos
and his siblings spent much of their childhoods in exile,

(04:11):
first in Italy and later in Portugal. Their father was
Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, Infante being the title given
at birth to the descendants of current and past Spanish monarchs,
taking the place of the anglophone prince or princess. But

(04:32):
though Infante Juan was next in line for the monarchy,
the son of Spain's last king would never rise above
the rank of count thanks to the political turmoil in
his home country. The Infante's wife was Maria, his third
cousin and a princess in her own right. One Carlos

(04:54):
was the oldest of four children, with two younger sisters
and finally a young youngest boy, his brother Alfonso. The
family bounced around, first to Italy, then Switzerland, and eventually
settling in Portugal by nineteen fifty six. The family's home
base was there via Hialdo, their sprawling estate on the

(05:18):
Portuguese Riviera. It was there that tragedy would strike and
forever alter the course of the future king's life. One
Carlos's younger brother, Alfonso, was born in Rome in nineteen
forty one, as Europe was being torn apart by World

(05:39):
War II. By all accounts, he was a spirited, popular
boy who brought lightness to what could have been a
dreary existence in exile. The two brothers were each other's lifelines.
For Juan Carlos, who was naturally more introspective, Alfonso brought
energy and joy to their displaced existence. The future king

(06:02):
often struggled with loneliness, and Alfonso's presence was one of
the few constants that made their nomadic childhood bearable. When
they were old enough, both brothers were sent to study
in Spain with the express permission of General Franco. The
boys attended a few different private schools, with One Carlos

(06:23):
ending up at the prestigious Zaragoza Military Academy. He was,
by all accounts, a good student with a keen sense
of justice, who refused special treatment and was happy to
leverage his royal cachet to help his buddies meet girls.
While at home, Alfonso was the clear favorite at school,

(06:45):
One Carlos found his own ways to shine. In nineteen
fifty six, fourteen year old Alfonso and eighteen year old
One Carlos were both home at Villa Haralda visiting family
for the Easter holidays. Thursday had started well for Alfonso.
The whole family attended morning Mass and took communion. Then

(07:08):
he participated in the semi finals of a local junior
golf tournament. Alfonso won and was excited to compete in
the finals that Saturday. The evening concluded with evening mass,
then the family retired home for the evening, where the
brothers headed for the house's playroom. That's when tragedy struck.

(07:31):
The details of what happened next have been debated for decades.
Let's start with the official statement issued the next day
by the Spanish embassy in Portugal by the order of
General Franco Quote. While His Highness the Infante Alfonso was
cleaning a revolver last evening with his brother, a shot

(07:54):
was fired, hitting his forehead and killing him in a
few minutes. The accident took place at twenty thirty hours
after the Infante's return from the Monday Thursday religious service,
during which he had received Holy Communion. This version quickly
came under scrutiny. The brothers had both received enough military

(08:18):
training to know how to properly clean a gun. It
seemed odd that either young man would be foolish enough
to clean a weapon without first checking to make sure
it wasn't loaded. Was that really what occurred? Alternate accounts
began to emerge almost immediately. The Italian press reported that

(08:41):
Juan Carlos, not Alfonso, had been holding the weapon when
it fired. It should be noted that at no point
has anyone in the royal family disputed that version of
the story, the one in which Juan Carlos was holding
the gun. Tina Carollo, the family's dressmaker, claimed that the

(09:03):
Countess later told her the true version of what happened
that night. Although the boy's mother never made an official
statement on the tragic events, she allegedly confided in her
dressmaker that Juan Carlos was joking around and pointed the
gun at his little brother. Thinking the gun was empty,

(09:25):
he pulled the trigger. Bernardo Arnosso, a Portuguese friend of
Juan Carlos, reportedly heard a similar confession from Guan Carlos himself,
although in this version the bullet ricocheted off a wall
before striking Alfonso. An entirely different account came from the

(09:46):
boy's sister, Pillar, who told Greek author Helena Mattheopolis a
version that paints the shooting as even more accidental. According
to Pillar, Alfonso had left the playroom briefly to get
them both some snacks. When he returned, with his hands full,
he pushed the door open with his shoulder. The door

(10:09):
struck Juan Carlos's arm just as he was handling the gun,
causing an involuntary trigger pull at the moment Alfonso's head
appeared in the doorway. More recently, another witness has come
forward with his own account. Prince Victor Emanuel of Savoy,

(10:30):
the son of Italy's last king and a childhood friend
of Juan Carlos, shared his version of events in a
twenty twenty three documentary about his own scandal involving the
death of a German teen in nineteen seventy eight. In
the documentary, Victor reveals that he was there with the
brothers in the playroom when Alfonso died. He insisted the

(10:54):
shooting was accidental, but suggested it happened through a closet
rather than in an open room. Given the fact that
Victor wasn't mentioned in any other account and his own
life was riddled with controversies and illegal activities, will take
his addition to the topic with a grain of salt.

(11:17):
What all these accounts share is their agreement on one
crucial point, this was a tragic accident, not an intentional act.
They also agree on what happened immediately afterward. The boy's
father rushed in to find Alfonso bleeding out on the
playroom floor. Despite the Count's best efforts to revive his son,

(11:43):
the boy died in his arms within minutes. In his
grief and rage, the Count reportedly grabbed Juan Carlos and
shouted at him, swear to me that you didn't do
it on purpose. The aftermath was swift and dis There
would be no investigation by Portuguese authorities, no autopsy, and

(12:07):
no formal inquiry into these circumstances. Despite, or perhaps because
of the royal status of those involved, this was very
much a closed door family tragedy. Alfonso was buried quietly
in a nearby cemetery, and shortly after the funeral, the

(12:28):
Count picked up the weapon that had killed his son
and hurled it into the ocean. Juan Carlos was ordered
to return to Spain at once, less than forty eight
hours after his little brother's death, he was already on
his way back to military school. We can't know exactly
what he was thinking as he made his way back

(12:49):
to Zaragoza, but it's clear that the silence that surrounded
this tragedy shaped the man he would become back at
school withdrawn and tormented, but he wouldn't be able to
stay that way forever. Eventually, General Franco came calling for him.

(13:12):
The reign of One Carlos the First was full of
highs and lows. For many years, he was a beloved king,
responsible for bringing Spain back from the dark ages of fascism,
but by the time he abdicated, he was awash in controversy,
with many calling for his removal. In nineteen forty seven,

(13:34):
legislation was passed that both cemented Spain's status as a
monarchy and allowed General Franco to choose his own successor.
In a surprising move, the dictator passed over Juan Carlos's
father in favor of the younger prince. The count was
seen as too liberal, and perhaps Franco assumed a younger

(13:58):
monarch would be easier to control, but One Carlos surprised
them all. Rather than becoming a puppet ruler, he emerged
as a champion of Spain's democracy. After Franco's death in
nineteen seventy five, the young king began reforms to move
the country away from authoritarianism and back towards a constitutional monarchy.

(14:24):
For three decades, he was praised as a transformational figure
who brought Spain back into the European mainstream. But as
time went on, another side of one Carlos began to
emerge and controversy followed. There were whispers about extramarital affairs,

(14:46):
as well as an indulgent lifestyle that seemed increasingly disconnected
from the struggles of ordinary Spaniards. These might have remained
palace gossip except for an incident that just happened to
take place during a spectacular lapse in judgment. In April

(15:08):
twenty twelve, as Spain struggled with disastrously high unemployment rates
nearly fifty percent for young workers, photos emerged of Juan
Carla's on a luxury safari in Botswana. In them, he
stood holding a rifle in front of a dead elephant.

(15:29):
His companion on the trip a woman who was most
certainly not Queen Sophia his wife. The trip might have
remained secret except that the king fell and broke his hip,
requiring a special aircraft to bring him home for medical treatment.

(15:49):
The optics were devastating. The hunting expedition was outrageously expensive,
making it incredibly tone deaf of the king. The Kodos
were striking imagery, highlighting the irresponsibility of royal privilege in
the face of such nationwide hardship, His approval ratings, once

(16:12):
impressively high, began their terminal decline. This scandal opened the
floodgates that had been held back by decades of respectful
media coverage. Suddenly, Spanish journalists were investigating other aspects of
the king's private life. They uncovered an embezzlement scandal involving

(16:34):
his daughter and son in law. More damaging still were
revelations about his relationship with a German businesswoman, as well
as allegations that he'd received massive kickbacks from Saudi Arabia's
high speed rail contracts during the late two thousands. By

(16:55):
twenty fourteen, Juan Carlos could read the writing on the
wall and chose to abdicate in favor of his son Filippe.
His life post monarchy has remained plagued with controversies, but
one early event was never far from his mind. According
to his former mistress, Corina Larson, Alfonso's death continued to

(17:19):
haunt Juan Carlos well into his old age. Larson explained
on a podcast that despite his immense power and wealth,
the former king never got over that Holy Thursday in
nineteen fifty six, she said, I think, deep down in
his soul and in his head, he feels a lot

(17:41):
of guilt. He has nightmares about it. He told me
that his younger brother was the really bright one, the
handsome one, the best golfer, the parent's favorite son. He
felt that his younger brother was really the light that
shone in the family. It didn't matter that one Carlo
had commanded a nation for almost four decades, amassing wealth

(18:05):
and respect that most people could never even dream of.
Part of him apparently always felt like and also ran
the older brother who should have been his family's golden child,
but instead found himself forever chasing the glory of a
dead fourteen year old. Right after the accident, when their

(18:27):
father made Juan Carlos swear he didn't do it on purpose,
what kind of effect might a question like that have
had on a young man during the worst moment of
his life. Perhaps tellingly, it took Juan Carlos thirty six
years to bring his brother's remains back to Spain. Alfonso

(18:51):
was hastily buried at the time back in Portugal, less
than two days after his death, but He wouldn't be
brought back to his home country until Bill nineteen ninety two,
when he was reinterred in the Royal mausoleum at the
Monastery El Escorial outside Madrid. Many speculated that the delay

(19:12):
reflected the king's ongoing sensitivity about the circumstances of his
brother's death. The irony is inescapable. A man who spent
decades successfully avoiding legal consequences could never escape the psychological
consequences of a teenage tragedy. Critics have called him quote

(19:35):
the luckiest man alive for his ability to dodge accountability,
comparing his knack for escapism to none other than Donald Trump's.
But if Juan Carlos's story has taught us anything it's
that luck will only get you so far, and eventually
tragedy catches up with you, one way or another. That's

(20:00):
the story of the tragedy of Juan Carlos and his
brother Alfonso. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break
to hear a little bit more about the metaphorical resonance
of that event. When you think about it, the story

(20:25):
of one Carlos the first can be seen as a
meditation on the different ways types of weapons can destroy
a life. There was the hunting rifle in the Safari
photographs that marked the beginning of the end of his
popular support. There was the metaphorical smoking gun evidence of

(20:46):
financial corruption that drove him into exile. And of course
there's the weapon that cast the longest shadow over his life,
the one that killed Alfonso on that chilly March day
in nineteen fifty six. That gun may have disappeared beneath
the ocean waves, but its impact rippled through the decades,

(21:09):
shaping the character of a king for better or for worse.
Noble Blood is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by
me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick,

(21:34):
Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is
edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producerrima Ill
Kali and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
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(21:55):
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