He returned to the Transvaal to rejoin the war. In a letter to his mother he even mentions the fact that though everyone may have thought he went back only to fight, his other intention was to 'help find the greatest treasure anyone could imagine'. (Maybe the Kruger Millions). To this end Ricchiardi was even reported by the British Army to having been spotted in the Pretoria Station well after his departure. Cristini fought right up to the end of the war then remained in South Africa for some years ending up by training local athletes, some world famous, such as world class South African runner Jack Donaldson and marathon runner Charles Hefferon, in Cape Town. On his return to Europe became the assistant trainer of Georges Carpentier, the French world boxing-champion in 1912. A man who thrived on wars, he was implicated in the 1908 assassination of King Carlos of Portugal with a group of anarchists in an attempt to overthrow the Braganza Dynasty, which finally occurred in 1910. Arrested, he managed to escape to Spain where he spent several months. From there he moved to France where he joined the French army and was killed in action in the battle of Argonne in 1915.