There is/was a lot of exculpatory evidence in the Cipolla Case which includes proof that the woman formerly known as Diane Thompson ... along with her eldest son ... outright lied ... and repeatedly lied. Other sites omit such exculpatory evidence, except for an article by a certain Chicago journalist and maybe two or three other people.
None the less, this case's pertinence shows how deceitful Donald Wuerl was. He showcased the hyper-exaggerations of the Cipolla Case, to divert attention from Wuerl's actual cover-ups. Wuerl was the retaliator, and Wuerl's legacy is a legacy of lies ... along with ruthlessness.
Below is a timeline consensus, from AI
The 1978 Cipolla Case lasted 34 days, and there was NO ARREST. There was only a scheduled PROBABLE CAUSE HEARING, and such hearings were designed to discern if there were cause to file charges in the first place. The August 1978 hearing was cancelled an hour or so before it started. Plus, there were NOT two detectives assigned to the case. There was only one.
The 34 day time span is pivotal to note, because, in 1978, it took approximately 52 days for the results of a seminal fluid test to be issued by any lab. There was NO POSITIVE seminal fluid evidence involved in 1978 Cipolla case. Diane Thompson told author, Randy Engel, that there was. No, there wasn't.
At this point, I'm a gonna add a fourth sample of the many falsehoods in the Cipolla Case. This post originally listed three of them. Number 4 is about Diane Thompson's seminal fluid test claim which was proven to have been a complete lie. It begins here:
Diane Thompson ... through author Randy Engel ... claimed that the police found semen on Tucker's clothes and then promptly took it to a lab, where it was promptly declared Anthony Cipolla's. Promptly would mean 2 or 3 days. The truth about seminal fluid testing, per se, in 1978, goes as follows:
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| In as much, Diane Thompson lied ... yet again. Randy Engel was stupid enough to believe her ... yet again. There was no seminal fluid report. |
Rather, he was summoned to a Probable Cause Hearing in 1978, and at the hearing the magistrate informed Cipolla that the accusing mother dropped the entire case. This meant that no charges came to be filed, in the first place. I already explained the how the procedural rules operate, in this type of case.
All in all, Cipolla was NEVER put on trial for any type of molestation accusation in a secular court or in a Vatican court. The Vatican court case was misrepresented by the proven liar Tim Bendig, when he was interviewed by a certain journalist.
The Vatican case was based on Wuerl dismissing Cipolla from ministry, because Wuerl received From St Luke's Institute, in Maryland, a diagnosis of Depression & Suicidal Tendencies for Cipolla.
Well, another professional institute diagnosed Cipolla as being mentally healthy, during the same time span. And of course, Cipolla had to pay the bill out of his pocket. None the less, Wuerl called the favorable diagnosis "scantily" and rejected it. Wuerl let humanity be deceived that the Vatican Case involved Bendig's accusations against Cipolla. It had nothing to do with that.
The other media reports, even those from the Diocese of Pittsburgh, were filled with SLEIGHT-OF-HAND semantic twists that presented the Cipolla case in a False Light. I've already covered that, too. But, I did so before the friendly availability of the vast AI library came into existence. We now adjourn to the original start of this 2026 post:
For the record, I was NEITHER a follower NOR a fan NOR an admirer of the man formerly known as Father Anthony Cipolla. But, I did meet admirers of him. Plus, I was paid ZERO dollars and ZERO cents, for all of the research that I did ... which I did, at my own expense. Thus, I had and I have no conflict of interest in this case.
It's simply that this case, beginning with a box of documents, fell into my hands. Being that the documentary evidence contradicted all that was claimed by the Wuerl People and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, I automatically had the task of doing extracurricular homework on the case ... at my own uncompensated expense.
This included me consulting with a Chicago journalist, two or three years before I would be temporarily transferred to the Chicago Vicinity. The result of my fact-finding mission created for me the moral obligation to convey the truth on the matter.
As a preview: According to a female writer named Randy Engel, in the Heat of July (1978), the man formerly known as Father Anthony Cipolla was wearing a CASSOCK, while intruding on a single mom who accused Cipolla of molesting a child or two of hers.
Of course, her accusation only came after Cipolla ... an assistant pastor at the time .. denied her request to have his parish pay her monthly rent. This is before Cipolla started his Padre Pio prayer group. None the less, cassocks are for cold-weather months, and are NOT typically worn in July, in case you didn't know.
BTW, I asked a few former followers of Anthony Cipolla if anyone of them ever saw Cipolla dressed in a cassock. The answer was always. "No." So stated for the record.
Meanwhile, Randy Engel also asserted that Cipolla appeared, while Young Tucker was diligently doing his homework at a kitchen table. This was during the HEART OF SUMMER VACATION, when school had been out for over 7 weeks ... and while there were still five or so weeks of Summer Vacation remaining, before the ringing of the first school bell of 1978.
Plus, according to the same Randy Engel, the father of one of the two sons of Cipolla's accuser underwent a severe special forces training accident, during 1965, at a military base in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This was said to be the cause that left the accuser of Cipolla to fend for herself as a single mother, in the era of food stamps, welfare checks, and federally funded HUD housing.
Responses to Engel's Assertions go as follows:
That South Carolina military base CLOSED IN 1946, one year after the end of WWII. There was no Vietnam-era training there. The place was a tourist sight in 1965. No guns are allowed to be fired anywhere near a tourist sight in the USA.
Even the 1950's special forces training center in Camp Mackall, in North Carolina, was NOT in operation in the 1960s. Thus, you can be assured that Randy Engel's Special Forces Accident Segment was a definitive lie.
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Now, concerning the claim that Young Tucker was doing homework on July 30th, 1978, a person set on defending Randy Engel's 2016 defamatory writing would respond, by claiming that Young Tucker was probably doing Summer School homework. Well, that conjecture is very easy to disprove. Observe:
Firstly, Engel wrote that an unwelcomed visit by Cipolla upon Young Tucker's residence occurred exactly on July 30th, 1978.
Well, according to the Pittsburgh Teachers' Union Contract of the late 1970s, there was to be no summer school occurring in the final week of July. This was done, so that union teachers could get valid vacation time before the start of the "teachers' in-service days" which immediately occurred a few days before the start of the school year.
Moreover, the start of the school year was scheduled to immediately follow Labor Day. Thus, the Teachers' In-Service Days were scheduled for Late August. This is why the union contract made sure that there would be NO SUMMER SCHOOL in the last week of July. In as much, it is 100% certain that the Young Tucker was NOT doing any summer school homework on July 30th, 1978, as Randy Engel claimed.
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Note on Cassocks
A priest is NOT required to wear a cassock, as his everyday attire. Thus, in the heat of July a priest may completely dispense with the cassock, even for mass.
Now, in the 1970s, air conditioning was not as common as it is today. A priest can entirely forgo a cassock in summertime heat. So, don't expect that Cipolla was wearing a cassock in the heat of July.
In as much, Cipolla's accuser apparently told the cassock story to Randy Engel, in synch with whatever that woman's children told Engel, to insert theatrics and dramatics into the tale. That's usually the sign of a liar. And yes, families have been known to concoct falsehoods.
Moreover, the accusing mother could have easily gotten a Restraining Order against Cipolla. She could have simply called the police. But of course, the entire story can be written-off as a deliberate lie, because of the claim that Tucker was doing homework during a time when there was no school.
One more thing: Future money was involved, as in a settlement for a child or two of the accuser of Cipolla. Lies have been known to make a lot of money, especially after the publication of a grand jury inquest, such as the one in 2018 which surveyed six Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. This concludes the preview.
NOTE: The 2018 PA Grand Jury testimony concerning the Cippola Case was NOT dramatically theatric. Meanwhile, the 2016 Randy Engel version of the same Cipolla Case is Paranoid Psychosis.
As an example of a hyped-up tale, Cipolla's accuser originally told the public that Cipolla's followers smashed all the windows of her apartment, along with slitting all the tires on her car. Then, as years progressed, the story was changed to one rock being thrown through one window.
Of course, the tales of a retaliation which didn't occur in the first place defamed Cipolla's followers. Cipolla did NOT run a Padre Pio Prayer Group in 1978. In the 1970s, he was a chaplain of youth organizations, and none of those members ever publicly accused Cipolla of any wrongdoing.
The outrage here is that Cipolla's "Padre Pio Followers" were people who frequently went to Confession, and did something called "the examination of conscience." Such persons are usually shy. In fact, the worst thing they would do to you is . . . shun you. That's it.
Such people, from my personal experience, usually had scrupulous consciences. In as much, each one knew that tossing even one rock through one window is a sin. These were a people who wouldn't slit anyone's tires.
As far as went Cipolla's followers, they were the good, old fashioned Catholics much like those of the 1940s and the 1950s ... and especially the 1962 type of Catholic, when it came to the Rite of Mass.
None the less, the sole detective of the very short-lived 1978 investigation mentioned in his 2018 grand jury testimony why he was lead to believe the damning accusations of a 12 year old boy, in 1978.
The former detective said that he only believed what the 12 year old boy said to him, in 1978, because he was a 12 year old boy. The detective of 1978 didn't think that 12 year old children were capable of lying.
Of course, in subsequent years, court cases showed that 9, 10, 11, and 12 year old students most certainly do lie. This means that you have to test any junior high school student's testimony for cracks & contradictions, just like anyone else's testimony.
None the less, concerning the Probable Cause Hearing which came after the issuing of a Summary Notice, the sole detective's 2018 grand jury testimony of the 1978 case was reportedly this:
[I] didn’t recall seeing Father Cipolla, but I do recall there was – – approximately – – there was five men and it has been a while back.
I don’t know if they were all attorneys or who they belonged to. But one of them approached me and told me that the mother doesn’t want to press charges and they - - to the effect - - they didn’t want to get the priest in any trouble or hurt the priest. Something to that effect.
And I said, ‘Well, what about the boy?’ And I didn’t get an answer. So I kind of asked again. I said, ‘What do we want to do with the boy? He is the one who is the victim here.’
(Note: When a judge would find probable cause for indictment, he/she would do what was known as "issuing process." Then, and only then, does the person end up in handcuffs.
The detective here automatically played jury, declaring Cipolla guilty, because he believed that 12 year old brothers didn't lie. The detective should have simply said, "But, we have probable cause here."
The probable cause was the stethoscope, IF there were no evidence of Cipolla occasionally sending medical supplies to the foreign mission with whom he was once associated. And of course, his association with that mission was as a seminarian seeking to join the foreign-missions religious order.)
Anyway, the 2018 testimony of the sole detective of the 1978 case also included him saying:
And I was kind of ignored, to be honest about it. And the case was dropped, thrown out, whatever you want to call it, and it was nothing that the police – – that we could do because the Magistrate went along with it and dumped the case. So here we are today.
Now, if Cipolla did molest Tucker, it was NOT the way Randy Engel said it was repeatedly done. Such an action would have caused any nine year a lot of physical pain. This is due to the Science of Anatomy. And quite frankly, I do NOT want to get graphic here.
My contention was in the very false claim that there was a massive & conspiratorial retaliation against Diane Thompson in 1978. There was no retaliation, and the 12 year old of 1978 turned out to be an easily proven LIAR in 2016.
Once again, the 1978 detective did NOT test the youth's allegations for contradictions. He immediately believed anything the youth said.
Wasn't Diane Thompson on Welfare? If so, then why did she ask Cipolla to get his pastor to pay her monthly rent?
Was Diane Thompson eligible for a monthly welfare check, a HUD housing voucher, and Medicaid, in 1978? If so, then such a person does NOT instantly move out of an apartment. There's paperwork to be done, for any welfare recipient making a move, concerning a HUD voucher, where the government pays one's rent.
Thompson claimed that she had to flee from Pittsburgh in mid-September, 1978. Perhaps it was because she was overdue on her rent. Yet, in the era of welfare, food stamps, & HUD, why was she in need of asking Cipolla for rent money?
If she were in the danger she claimed she was, in 1978, police would have had due cause to arrest multiple persons, and she would NOT have to flee. After all, Bobby Iannelli and Mike Genovese were arrested in Pittsburgh. The LaRocca Crime family started its decline in the 1980s. Scarfo was out of business in Philly, in the 1980s. Church People, in comparison, are chump change.
By any chance, did she move because she failed to pay her rent for multiple months? Such a thing would NOT be a sudden move. And why wasn't she on a HUD voucher, being that she was an unemployed single mom? Hello?
Was revealed to me
Now, something was revealed to me about Diane Thompson's mindset, during the days when she originally learned that I repeatedly caught her lying ... in the 2010s. She was in utter traumatic distress, because she was in a position to lost a massive settlement, if the authorities of the Pittsburgh Diocese weren't either corrupt or utterly stupid.
She WAS terrified of me and wanted me out of the picture. She even doxed me, enabling some fanatic to find me and take me out of the picture.
The revelation of Diane Thompson came from the mouth of someone in her camp, into my ears. The Diane Thompson People were ... and probably still are ... really, really, REALLY stupid.
This concludes the preliminary note.
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Now, the importance of the female writer, named Randy Engel, is that she used to be the one who edited Anthony Cipolla's Padre Pio Group periodical, called "Thorns & Roses." She knew all about the accusations against Cipolla, but dispelled them ... for years.
As you read her 2016 text, you instantly see that Engel didn't know the first thing about the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure. This is because Engel's narration of this arraignment of Cipolla and that arraignment of Cipolla was NOT the way defendants are processed in Pennsylvania. That, alone, proves the 2016 Engel texts to be fiction.
In addition, Wuerl only hyper-publicized and misrepresented the Cipolla Case as a diversionary tactic which concealed from the public all of Wuerl's cover-ups of priests who actually did get convicted in criminal courts of law ... or who should have been.
Wuerl obstructed justice, and he used the hyped-up version of the Cipolla case in the obstruction thereof. But, in 2018, all came tumbling down for Donald Wuerl. He was found to be the opposite of the super-hero he was made-out to be, by Ann Rodgers-Melnick and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
Back to 2016
Two years or so before Donald Wuerl was revealed to the world as a predictably corrupt modern cleric & an unconscionable liar, an aging Mrs Randy Engel wrote a three-part article which utterly damned the man formerly known as Father Anthony Cipolla. Wuerl was exposed as a malicious power-abuser in 2018.
Concerning Randy Engel's age, she began journalism shortly after her college undergrad graduation which occurred in 1961. Thus, one can assume that Randy was born somewhere in the vicinity of 1940 or so. Therefore, she was in her 70s in 2016. Incidentally, Randy was a grad of the State University of New York at Cortland; SUNY Cortland.
I personally knew Randy. In fact, she, Mike Ference, and I were simultaneously interviewed on some type of internet radio talk show thing, in the early 2010s.
One of the two interviewers turned out to be my long lost cousin ... literally. He was a second-cousin raised somewhere near the Penn State campus. His mom ... a woman I did meet ... had a restaurant near the Nittany Lion stadium. Yes, it was a super coincidence.
Cipolla died the same year as the Engel Text ... from a heart attack
Shortly after Engel published her easily refutable series of False Light Defamation, an emotionally traumatized Anthony Cipolla died of a heart attack. Now, he was a heart patient who had previous heart surgery. Therefore, Engel should have known better.
In fact, she seemed to have seen herself as Cipolla's executioner, in letting him endure untold emotional distress which lead to his 2016 death. That's sick and twisted of her.
Simply because a person speaks or writes with confidence and an assured tone (or rhythm), it doesn't mean that the person is telling the truth. Observe:
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In Part 1, Randy Engel mentioned the existence of a Tommy Thompson, describing him as the second husband of the Diane Thompson.
Engel expressly stated that this Tommy Thompson was severely injured and almost killed in a vehicle accident and explosion, while participating in Special Forces military maneuvers at "the military camp of Spartanburg South Carolina, in 1965." She stated that he was training for a tour of duty in Vietnam.
Engel made this guy sound like the wholesome, All-American hero who would come forth to defend all Americans everywhere from Communist aggression. She also made this man sound like an ever-so harrowed and unfortunate martyr who met a cruel destiny while faithfully training with a Special Forces.
Q: Now, what is wrong with this picture which instantly proves this declarative statement of such patriotic praiseworthiness to be a complete falsehood????
ANS: Ladies & gentlemen, the only military camp in the history of Spartanburg South Carolina was Camp Croft and it was CLOSED in 1946. It terminated all military operations one year after the end of WWII.
Furthermore, Camp Croft was turned into a Historic Site where the public can visit. Now, no American military live-fire maneuvers are ever permitted to be undertaken near civilian venues, including historic sites visited by the public.
Therefore, that allegation in Randy Engel's article is an instantly recognizable falsehood, as are several other ones, thereby making this article a Kangaroo Court disgrace.
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Here is another example of the falsehoods which plague the November 2016 Engel Article, in Parts 1 & 2. In as much, Engel wrote:
Five days later, an unaccompanied Cipolla came to the Thompson home dressed in a black cassock and white collar and stood on the stoop of the open kitchen door. Tucker was at the kitchen table doing his homework when he spotted the priest and shouted "Mom" and ran away. Diana looked up and there was Fr. Cipolla.
Okay, Ladies & Gentlemen, what is completely wrong with this allegation which instantly proves it to be a blatant falsehood??????
Firstly, FIVE DAYS LATER was exactly July 30, 1978, during the heat of summertime, when there is no school. So, why was Tucker doing homework?
ANS: He wasn't. Engel wrote yet another easily provable lie. BTW, priests wore summer clothing in the 1970s. Priests did NOT wear anything close to the cassock mentioned by Engel.
Let us review, for the sake of the criminally stubborn:
Do you see what is blatantly false about Engel's declarative statement that Cipolla appeared at the kitchen door, while Tucker was doing his homework, six weeks into Summer Vacation, where there is no school and therefore no homework ???
There is NO PUBLIC SCHOOL in late July. However, if Diane Thompson was referring to special Holy Communion class, then know that there was NO SUMMER SCHOOL for Catholic CCD instructions, as well. And First Holy Communion is traditionally in the Springtime.
PLUS, PLUS, PLUS, July 25, 1978 was the day when Thompson filed paperwork against Cipolla, accusing him of molestation. THEREFORE, you can be assured that Tucker was NOT studying as a special student for Anthony Cipolla. He was NOT going to go back to Cipolla for any kind of instruction. Thus, Tucker had ZERO REASON for doing any homework on July 30, 1978, be it in the public school sector or the religion school sector.
Why was Randy Engel so incredibly blind to NOT have instantly realized those two blatant falsehoods? And why didn't she fact check the Spartanburg Camp story, in order for her to realize that no one did any maneuvers there since 1946?
