The Italicus Express massacre ( it, Strage del treno Italicus) was a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

bombing in Italy on a train of the public rail network. During the early hours of 4 August 1974, the bomb attack killed 12 people and wounded 48. Responsibility was claimed by the

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sent ...

terrorist organization

Ordine Nero The Ordine Nero ( it, Black Order) was an Italian terrorist fascist group founded in 1974 following the dissolution of the fascist Ordine Nuovo. Between 1974 and 1978, bombings by ON led to a number of woundings and deaths, having orchestrated s ...

Bombing

The Italicus Express was a night train of the

Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estat ...

on which, during the early hours of 4 August 1974, a bomb exploded, killing 12 people and injuring 48. The train was traveling from Rome to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

; having left

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

about 45 minutes earlier, it was approaching the end of the long San Benedetto Val di Sambro tunnel under the Apennines. The bomb had been placed in the fifth

passenger car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

of the train and exploded at 01:23. Under its own momentum, the train reached the end of the tunnel. The effects of the explosion and subsequent fire would have been even more terrible had the train remained inside the confined space of the tunnel. Former

Prime Minister of Italy The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...

Aldo Moro had been on the train on 3 August but disembarked before the train left Rome.

List of victims

* Elena Donatini * Nicola Buffi * Herbert Kotriner * Nunzio Russo * Maria Santina Carraro * Marco Russo * Tsugufumi Fukuda * Antidio Medaglia * Elena Celli * Raffaella Garosi * Wìlhelmus Jacobus Hanema * Silver Sirotti

Claim of responsibility

The following day, the fascist terrorist group

''(Black Order)'' issued this statement:

We took revenge for Giancarlo Esposti. We wanted to show the nation that we can place a bomb anywhere we want, whenever and however we please. Let us see in autumn; we will drown democracy under a mountain of corpses.

According to Novopress, Giancarlo Esposti was killed on 30 May 1974, two days after the

Piazza della Loggia bombing The Piazza della Loggia bombing was a bombing that took place on the morning of 28 May 1974, in Brescia, Italy during an anti-fascist protest. The terrorist attack killed eight people and wounded 102. The bomb was placed inside a rubbish bin at ...

.
Google translation into English
30 May: Giancarlo Esposti Presente!
/ref>

Investigation

1974 Italicus Express bombing - Memorial 01

Aurelio Fianchini, a leftist militant who had just escaped from prison, told the press that the bomb was placed in the Italicus Express by Mario Tuti's subversive commando unit: Piero Malentacchi (who had planted the explosive at the

Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station Firenze Santa Maria Novella (in English Florence Santa Maria Novella) or Stazione di Santa Maria Novella is a terminus railway station in Florence, Italy. The station is used by 59 million people every year and is one of the busiest in Ital ...

), Luciano Franci and Margherita Luddi. They received the order from the Italian fascist terrorist organizations Fronte Nazionale Rivoluzionario ("revolutionary national front") and Ordine Nuovo. At the time, police and intelligence knew that Tuti was a subversive. A few months after the Italicus bombing, a woman declared to judge Mario Marsili—son-in-law of Licio Gelli of the Masonic lodge

Propaganda Due Propaganda Due (; P2) was a Masonic lodge under the Grand Orient of Italy, founded in 1877. Its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, and it transformed into a criminal, clandestine, anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-leftist, pseudo-Masonic, a ...

—that the author of the massacre was Tuti. Charges were soon filed by the magistrate, but the woman was interned in a mental hospital as a

mythomaniac Pathological lying, also known as ''mythomania'' and ''pseudologia fantastica'', is a chronic behavior in which the person habitually or compulsively lies. These lies often serve no obvious purpose other than to paint oneself as a hero or victi ...

Trials

On 24 January 1975 Mario Tuti escaped from arrest by killing police sergeant Leonardo Falco and corporal Giovanni Ceravolo, and seriously injuring corporal Arturo Rocca. He fled to

Ajaccio Ajaccio (, , ; French: ; it, Aiaccio or ; co, Aiacciu , locally: ; la, Adiacium) is a French commune, prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud, and head office of the ''Collectivité territoriale de Corse'' (capital city of Corsica). ...

, Corsica and then relocated to the

French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

.
Google translation into English
Google Translate
/ref> On 16 May 1975, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment ''in absentia'', which was confirmed on 30 November 1976 in the final sentence. On 27 July, Tuti was arrested by French police after a bloody confrontation in Saint-Raphaël, and was extradited to Italy for trial. Tuti was sentenced to a 20-year prison term for two bomb attacks that had occurred on 31 December 1974 and in January 1975, illegal possession of explosives and firearms and for promoting and organizing the reconstruction of the Fascist Party. Main stages of the Italicus massacre's trial: *20 July 1983: Luciano Franci, Piero Malentacchi, Margherita Luddi and Tuti are acquitted for lack of evidence; Francesco Sgrò (janitor at the University of Rome) is convicted of slander. *18 December 1986: Franci and Tuti are sentenced to life imprisonment; Malentacchi and Luddi are acquitted for lack of evidence; Sgrò is again convicted of slander. *16 December 1987: The Court of Cassation declares the appeal process must be redone. *4 April 1991: Franci and Tuti are acquitted for lack of evidence; Malentacchi and Luddi are acquitted at the request of the public prosecutor. *24 March 1992: The final judgment of the Court of Cassation confirms the acquittals of Franci and Tuti.

References