Giovanni Trimboli

[John Gannon]

Hi all - I am an author/writer/researcher from Liverpool UK. My current project requires information regarding an Italian photographer, Giovanni Trimboli. His early work largely concerned work for Norwegian company GRAKO - photographing Scandinavian motifs for postcards. Would anybody know of Trimboli and his work? If you have anything that you consider relative to Trimboli can you please contact me.

Warmest

John Gannon

[David Morgan]

Monica,

There was a court case between his common-law Norwegian wife and Trimboli in Italy. It details how he said his income was about 100,000 per year. She said he was buying expensive artwork and he had a home in Rho, possibly Sweden, Venice (for Matilde) and Norway (I assuming - but perhaps he stayed in hotels). The police files on Trimboli and the Isdal Woman case are available but they are in Norwegian. I used Yandex and translate to read them. Those detail how he was lying to the police initially and that eventually, he told them he took Loretta Junkin in his car to Copenhagen where she stayed with the Bergstrom family - at least overnight and then she sent them a postcard. But in a recent contact by a Norwegian investigator, Bergstrom said she never received a postcard from Loretta. Bergstrom had been his wife so she may/may not have had reasons to be angry with him or perhaps she simply forgot about it.

I spent a Summer trying to determine where he was between November and December 1970. It is likely he was in Rho but as he made frequent trips to Norway it cannot be proven he stayed there the entire time. His Norwegian wife could have given him an alibi but for some reason it was always left in doubt where he was in November 1970. In the book by Dennis Zacher Aske he details the movement of 'an Italian photographer' and trying to link him to the murder of the Isdal woman. The only woman we have evidence of him being with a woman in hotels for an extended period was Loretta Junkin and her family said she was not missing in 1971. His wife Matilde Valentini was refusing to give him a divorce in 1970. She was the only woman he had a reason to be angry with apart from his Norwegian wife who was trying to gain possession of her child through the courts. 

All the known children of Trimboli were financially looked after so they all have fond memories of their father. Some have pictures with him on their FB accounts.   

[David Morgan]

The dates that are missing for the movement of  Giovanni Trimboli in 1970 are between the 12th of October and the end of November 1970. He was back in Milan in December 1970. His postcard photo archive with the family in Italy could help resolve who the Chinese girl Loretta Junkin from South Africa was he gave a lift to in his car and whether she is still alive to ask what happened to her after the 12th of October 1970. The photo of her in Oppdal in front of a statue would prevent a lot of damage to his reputation and help eliminate a lot of wasteful research.

David.

Monica said:

You are just making up stories! Outrageous 

[Monica]

You are just making up stories! Outrageous 

[David Morgan]

I think the view of Trimboli not being a renowned photographer is not accurate. He had a postcard business. He had multiple homes. He was also linked to Charles Schulz (Peanuts) where he had some exclusive distribution deal in Italy. So he seems to have grown a business very rapidly. He travelled a lot and had a lot of contacts. Evidence of his photographs on postcards are evident in any search for "Postcard Trimboli". He may have then used his connections to be involved in property or other deals to make even more money. It is always 'who you know'. His own former wife said he bought antiquities in Egypt and smuggled them out. Perhaps that was how he funded his postcard business when it started in the 60s selling them to wealthy people. He also had dealings with the Norwegian tourist board and SAS airlines. Trimboli's 2nd wife seemed to suggest in 1971 Matilde was linked to Argentina. Perhaps that was where Matilde met Trimboli.

Roderick Repton said:

I am not the author of that article i have tried to speak to the author but no response. I am a researcher trying to trace Matilde 

[Roderick Repton]

I am not the author of that article i have tried to speak to the author but no response. I am a researcher trying to trace Matilde 

[Monica]

I think you have wrong information about people/places and histories. Also there are statements about mafia and other outrageous propositions I need to know what’s the reason of your enquiry. M.

Roderick Repton said:

Monica, Thanks for your reply, I am looking for information on Matilde TRIMBOLI, your aunt who married Giovanni in London in 1961.Have you any details of her please

[Roderick Repton]

Monica, Thanks for your reply, I am looking for information on Matilde TRIMBOLI, your aunt who married Giovanni in London in 1961.Have you any details of her please

[Monica]

Hi Giovanni Trimboli is my uncle. What sort of information are you looking for?

[Roderick Repton]

Roderick Repton said:

Santino,We have a lot to discuss could you e mail me on [e-mail] please sorry about the delay but only just picked up your message Rod Repton/John Gannon

Santino Pani said:

Hi, I made a deep research about this Italian photographer, and I have lots of information, such as where he was born, Milazzo, in Sicily, from a photographers' family. He died in Italy after a car accident in 1994. He was a Cadillac's enthusiast, and very likely to use to drive at high speed, as a few years before he was involved in another car accident, where another man died, always in Italy.
About his career as photographer there is not much to say, as if you conduct a deep research, you can easily notice that he mostly took pictures of landscapes and aircrafts in many parts of the world, which he sold through his GRAKO company.
To be note, GRAKO is not a photography agency, but the one he owned, which at a point in his life, he registered it in Montecarlo, where he was registered as permanent resident, very likely for financial matters.
I don't know if it is possible to get more information, as conducting a deep research on him, his name barely emerges, and it is only linked to a mystery case of a dead woman in Bergen, in November 1970, in what is called "The Isdal Woman".
Her identity and all the circumstances of her death have never been found.
What is known is that she was burnt alive to death, her fingerprints have been sanded off, and any labels on the remains of her clothes have been ripped off.
Trimboli seems to have been the only person who could had helped to identify the woman, as whilst she had a very strange behaviour on hotels, he is the only known person to have met her some months earlier her death, but the police officers who conducted the investigation dismissed him as not related to her death.
The woman, most likely was a spy, but still is not known, if she was, who she was working for.
On the research on Trimboli, the information I gained, are through newspapers archives that are not available online, and the first is related to an accident in Emilia Romagna, North Italy, and the other, which talks about his fatal accident in Sicily. The article explains also his personal life, and as photographer, he is dubbed by the columnist as "The Hollywood photographer's", or, in Italian "Il fotografo delle dive". What is strange is that nothing appears about this side of his work, as none of his pictures of divas' are available, at least on the web.
I managed to find some of his relatives, who claimed he was used to live between Italy and the US, (the contact I have is self an Italo-American guy, which I cannot name for ethical reasons), and he was surely a very lively person, who loved women, and Cadillac cars. From what I discovered, he had a very large family, as he had affairs with many women, between Italy, Norway, Sweden, England and the US, and from whose he had several children, all of them naturalised as sons. One of them lives in the North Norway. When he died he left an economic empire to his children, and this seems to be another big piece of the puzzle.
The fact that his work as photographer did not emerge in the history of photography suggested me that it was, especially between the 60's and 80's, probably a cover-up of some other activities, but as it is only a suggestion and still I don't have proof of that, although it suggested me it could be the same as that of the Isdal woman in Bergen, Norway, and I cannot confirm it.
What is strange is, in the case of the Isdal woman, is that he was contacted by the Norwegian police short after their finding of her death but they dismissed him as not relevant for the inquiry, which instead seems to be a very important piece of that puzzle. So, why?

What I am wondering, about your research, is if you are interested on him as his photography works, or rather regarding the link of this mysterious death. In any case, you could contact the British National Archives in Kew Garden (but on the website it does not show anything about him, whilst there is something linked to the woman's location, Bergen, same year).
If you have any further questions, please contact me privately. (I have some other information, which I cannot publish, both because I am still conducting a research on this story, and because the story, and the name of this photographer could be linked to something very dangerous, and the relatives whose I have a contact told me expressly to keep his family away from this research).
One thing you could know is that the only journalist who wrote about him is also one of those who was gambized (gambizzato, meaning "shot on legs" by criminal organizations because of his writings about Mafia).

[Roderick Repton]

Santino,We have a lot to discuss could you e mail me on [e-mail] please sorry about the delay but only just picked up your message Rod Repton/John Gannon

Santino Pani said:

Hi, I made a deep research about this Italian photographer, and I have lots of information, such as where he was born, Milazzo, in Sicily, from a photographers' family. He died in Italy after a car accident in 1994. He was a Cadillac's enthusiast, and very likely to use to drive at high speed, as a few years before he was involved in another car accident, where another man died, always in Italy.
About his career as photographer there is not much to say, as if you conduct a deep research, you can easily notice that he mostly took pictures of landscapes and aircrafts in many parts of the world, which he sold through his GRAKO company.
To be note, GRAKO is not a photography agency, but the one he owned, which at a point in his life, he registered it in Montecarlo, where he was registered as permanent resident, very likely for financial matters.
I don't know if it is possible to get more information, as conducting a deep research on him, his name barely emerges, and it is only linked to a mystery case of a dead woman in Bergen, in November 1970, in what is called "The Isdal Woman".
Her identity and all the circumstances of her death have never been found.
What is known is that she was burnt alive to death, her fingerprints have been sanded off, and any labels on the remains of her clothes have been ripped off.
Trimboli seems to have been the only person who could had helped to identify the woman, as whilst she had a very strange behaviour on hotels, he is the only known person to have met her some months earlier her death, but the police officers who conducted the investigation dismissed him as not related to her death.
The woman, most likely was a spy, but still is not known, if she was, who she was working for.
On the research on Trimboli, the information I gained, are through newspapers archives that are not available online, and the first is related to an accident in Emilia Romagna, North Italy, and the other, which talks about his fatal accident in Sicily. The article explains also his personal life, and as photographer, he is dubbed by the columnist as "The Hollywood photographer's", or, in Italian "Il fotografo delle dive". What is strange is that nothing appears about this side of his work, as none of his pictures of divas' are available, at least on the web.
I managed to find some of his relatives, who claimed he was used to live between Italy and the US, (the contact I have is self an Italo-American guy, which I cannot name for ethical reasons), and he was surely a very lively person, who loved women, and Cadillac cars. From what I discovered, he had a very large family, as he had affairs with many women, between Italy, Norway, Sweden, England and the US, and from whose he had several children, all of them naturalised as sons. One of them lives in the North Norway. When he died he left an economic empire to his children, and this seems to be another big piece of the puzzle.
The fact that his work as photographer did not emerge in the history of photography suggested me that it was, especially between the 60's and 80's, probably a cover-up of some other activities, but as it is only a suggestion and still I don't have proof of that, although it suggested me it could be the same as that of the Isdal woman in Bergen, Norway, and I cannot confirm it.
What is strange is, in the case of the Isdal woman, is that he was contacted by the Norwegian police short after their finding of her death but they dismissed him as not relevant for the inquiry, which instead seems to be a very important piece of that puzzle. So, why?

What I am wondering, about your research, is if you are interested on him as his photography works, or rather regarding the link of this mysterious death. In any case, you could contact the British National Archives in Kew Garden (but on the website it does not show anything about him, whilst there is something linked to the woman's location, Bergen, same year).
If you have any further questions, please contact me privately. (I have some other information, which I cannot publish, both because I am still conducting a research on this story, and because the story, and the name of this photographer could be linked to something very dangerous, and the relatives whose I have a contact told me expressly to keep his family away from this research).
One thing you could know is that the only journalist who wrote about him is also one of those who was gambized (gambizzato, meaning "shot on legs" by criminal organizations because of his writings about Mafia).