Season 3, Ep. 11: In October 1827, in the Tuscan Village of Cortona, Gio Bernardini was born to Luca Bernardini, a local horse
doctor, and Giana Vespucci Bernardini, a teacher and heir to a small fabric fortune. The third of 4 children, Gio
displayed an early curiosity to sillyness and showmanship, and was a big fan of travelling circuses that would come
and go through town.
In May 1840, against the wishes of Father Luca, Giana enrolled young Gio under the apprenticeship of local
magician Phillipe Dianucci. From the beginning, Gio was a natural under Phillipe's tutelage. He particularly
showed an affinity for illusions and disappearances.
In January 1842 at barely 15 years of age Gio left his apprenticeship to practice magic fulltime. His early shows
featured standard card tricks with hints to his bigger tricks to come; viewers' watches, coin purses, and other
trinkets would vanish impressively.
He soon progessed to rabbits in hats, disappearing assistants, and in late August 1843, appeared to make a local
statue in Florence vanish from plain sight. This all led up to October 1843, when the largest gathering of the time,
and a global precurser to the World's Fair, La Festiva de Italia, was to be held in Venice. Bernardini arrived in The
City of Masks on the eve of the fair, sporting a moustache that historians have referred to as a cross between former
Oakland A's pitcher Rollie Fingers and former Detroit Pistons reserve center James Edwards. Leading up to the
festivities, Gio teased his biggest trick to date: he was going to make himself disappear from plain sight, and
reappear moments later as a bengal tiger.
October 13 1843, a Friday no less, Bernardini made his way to a stage in the center of Piazza San Marco, the
principle public center of The Floating City. With no introduction, he snapped his fingers, his assistant Vitoria
threw a large black veil approximating 6'x6' over his head, and Bernardini was never seen again. Anticipating a
bengal that would never appear, the crowd shrieked in horror and confusion as no magician, or tiger for that matter,
would ever appear.
That is, until November 22, 1991 when Giovani Bernard, the son of Haitian-American immigrants, was born in
West Palm Beach, Florida. The former #2 High School running back recruit and All ACC first team member,
Bernard joined the Cincinnati Bengals in 2013. He's been making people disappear ever since.
In the 2014 offseason, Benjarvus Green-Ellis, whom Bernard backed up during his rookie season, had his contract
terminated, and was never seen again. It should be noted that Giovani was 23 at the time, the same age as
Bernardini when he took the stage in Venice 170 years earlier. The Bengals then brought in LSU running back
Jeremy Hill to compete with Gio. However, Hill would only last 3 years with Bernard before he too vanished from
Cincinnati.
His most recent victim may very well be Joseph Tyler Mixon, age 24. Mixon has not been seen on the field since
October 18, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Giovani Johnson Bernard also happened to be in The Railroad City on
that Sunday. He was sporting a moustache reporters called a cross between Tom Selleck and and Vincent Price,
perhaps a spiritual successor to Bernardini's lip blanket from that fateful Friday in Venice. Is magic at play?
Murder? We will have to sit idly by and wait for the magician to approach the stage, snap his fingers, and remove
the veil from our eyes. We are all audience members, and potential victims, of the Cincinnati Magician.
