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Lieut. Icardi, after the war, finished law school at the University of Pittsburgh, went to Peru for further legal study, several months ago returned to the U.S., and was working for Pan-American Grace Airways in New York when the case broke last week. After the three confessions naming him had been made, he was never officially questioned about the case. In the past year, stories of how Holohan died appeared in the Italian press, and there were a few very incomplete hints in the U.S. press. But the details might never have been told if True magazine had not got on the scent, pulled the story together. Last week, when an advance copy of True reached Washington, the Defense Department dashed into print with a story it could bottle up no longer. The Rochester police then made public LoDolce's year-old confession. Last week he partially repudiated the confession, saying that it was "incomplete" and adding, "The facts will prove that I am completely innocent." Icardi coolly stuck to his original story. Said he: "Major Holohan disappeared ... I am the victim of enemies in Italy . . . The whole 'cloak & dagger' story is untrue."
Manini and Tozzini are awaiting trial in Italy, and last week the Italian government considered asking that LoDolce and Icardi be extradited from the U.S. to be tried with them.
Whereupon Icardi made a point which, whether he is guilty or innocent, has considerable force. Said he: "It is unthinkable that an American espionage agent should be brought to trial by the very enemy against which he fought." Icardi said that he would fight extradition, but was ready and eager to stand trial in a U.S. court. He even offered to go back into the Army to make that possible. The Government, however, still said that no U.S. court could try him, even if he went back into the Army.
There this week, as Bill Holohan's body came home for burial, stood the strange case of the missing major.
* The names are spelled differently because of a mixup in school records.