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The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro ( it, Rapimento di Aldo Moro), also referred to in Italy as Moro Case ( it, Caso Moro), was a seminal event in Italian political history. On the morning of 16 March 1978, the day on which the new cabinet led by Giulio Andreotti was supposed to have undergone a
confidence Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from a Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having ...
vote in the
Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...
, the car of
Aldo Moro Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy (DC). He served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1 ...
, former prime minister and then president of Christian Democracy (Italian: ''Democrazia Cristiana'', or DC, Italy's relative majority party at the time), was assaulted by a group of far-left
terrorists 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 ...
known as the
Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
(Italian: ''Brigate Rosse'', or BR) in Via Fani in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. Firing automatic weapons, the terrorists killed Moro's bodyguards (two
Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
in Moro's car and three
policemen A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
in the following car) and kidnapped him. On 9 May 1978, Moro's body was found in the trunk of a
Renault 4 The Renault 4, also known as the 4L (pronounced "Quatrelle" in French), is a small economy car produced by the French automaker Renault between 1961 and 1994. Although the Renault 4 was marketed as a short station wagon, its minimal rear overhang ...
in Via Caetani after 54 days of imprisonment, during which Moro was submitted to a political trial by the so-called "people's court" set up by the Brigate Rosse and the Italian government was asked for an exchange of prisoners. Despite the common interpretation, the car location in Via Caetani was not halfway between, but was very close to both, the locations of the national offices of DC and of the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
(PCI) in Rome.


Kidnapping


The assault

The terrorists had prepared the ambush by parking two cars in Via Mario Fani which, once moved, would prevent Moro's cars from escaping. According to the official reconstruction at the subsequent trials, eleven people participated in the assault. However, several doubts have been cast on the terrorists' declarations on which the official accounts were based, and about the exact identity of the ambush team's members. The presence of Moro himself in Via Fani during the ambush has also been questioned after revelations in the 1990s (see Theory of the alternative kidnapping). At 08:45, the Red Brigades members took their positions at the end of Via Fani, a downhill street in the northern quarter of Rome. Four of them (Morucci, Gallinari, Fiore and Bonisoli) were wearing
Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. The ai ...
airline crew uniforms. Since not all team members knew each other, the uniforms were needed to avoid friendly fire. In the upper part of the road, and on the right-hand side,
Mario Moretti Mario Moretti (born 16 January 1946) is an Italian terrorist and convicted murderer. A leading member of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s, he was one of the kidnappers of Aldo Moro, the president of Italy's largest political party ''Democrazi ...
was inside a Fiat 128 with a fake diplomatic license plate.
Alvaro Lojacono Alvaro Lojacono (born 7 May 1955) is an Italian terrorist, currently a Swiss citizen. Biography Lojacono was born in Rome, the son of a member of the Italian Communist Party. He participated in several far-left extra-parliamentary organization ...
and
Alessio Casimirri Alessio Casimirri (born 2 August 1951) is an Italian terrorist, former member of the Red Brigades (BR), currently fugitive. Casimirri was born in Rome. His mother was a Vatican City citizen, and his father had worked for the Vatican newspaper ' ...
were in another Fiat 128 some meters ahead of him. On the opposite side there was a third Fiat 128, with
Barbara Balzerani Barbara Balzerani (born 16 January 1949) is an Italian terrorist. Early life Balzerani was born at Colleferro, in the province of Rome. Career In the 1970s Balzerani became a leader of the Red Brigades (Italian ''Brigate Rosse'', or BR, which sh ...
inside, facing the supposed direction from which Moro would arrive. occupied a fourth car, a
Fiat 132 The Fiat 132 is a large family car produced by the Italian automobile company Fiat from 1972 to 1981. An updated version of the 132, called the Argenta, was produced from 1981 to 1985. Fiat 132 (1972–74) The 132 was introduced as a replacemen ...
, near the crossroads where the street ended. Moro left his house a few minutes before 09:00. He was sitting in a blue
Fiat 130 The Fiat 130 is a large six cylinder executive car produced by Italian car manufacturer Fiat from 1969 to 1977. It was available as a 4-door saloon and as a 2-door coupé. History The saloon was launched at the 39th Geneva Motor Show in March 19 ...
driven by Domenico Ricci. Another
carabiniere The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...
, marshal Oreste Leonardi, sat beside him. Leonardi was the head of the bodyguard team. The Fiat 130 was followed by a white
Alfetta The Alfa Romeo Alfetta (Type 116) is a front-engine, five-passenger sedan and fastback coupé manufactured and marketed by Alfa Romeo from 1972 to 1987 with a production total over 400,000. The Alfetta was noted for the rear position of its ...
with the remaining bodyguards: Francesco Zizzi, Giulio Rivera and Raffaele Iozzino. The ambush began when the two cars entered Via Fani and the terrorists were alerted by a lookout located at the corner with via Trionfale, , who waved a bunch of flowers and then went away on a moped. Moretti's Fiat 128 cut the road in front of Moro's car, which bumped into the rear of Moretti's car and remained blocked between it and the bodyguards' Alfetta. Ricci tried an escape manoeuver, but was thwarted by a Mini Minor casually parked at the crossroad. Moro's cars were finally trapped from behind by Lojacono's 128. At this point four armed terrorists jumped out from the bushes at the sides of the street, firing
machine pistol A machine pistol is an autoloading pistol capable of fully automatic fire. The term can also be used to describe a stockless handgun-style submachine gun. The term is a calque of ''Maschinenpistole'', the German word for submachine guns. Ma ...
s. The judiciary investigations identified them as
Valerio Morucci Valerio Morucci (born 22 July 1949) is an Italian terrorist, who was a member of the Red Brigades and who took part in the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978. Biography Morucci was born in Rome. He took part in the libertarian ...
, ,
Prospero Gallinari Prospero Gallinari (1 January 1951 – 14 January 2013), also known as "Gallo" (i.e. "rooster"), was an Italian terrorist, a member of the Red Brigades (BR) in the 1970s and 1980s. Biography Gallinari was born in Reggio Emilia into a farmi ...
and . The action has shown an analogy to a similar one by the German far-left formation
RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
. One unidentified witness declared that a German voice was heard during the ambush, which led to a presumption of the presence of RAF militiamen in the ambush. 91 bullets were fired of which 45 hit the bodyguards, who were all killed. 49 shots came from a single weapon, a
FNAB-43 The FNAB-43 is an Italian designed and developed submachine gun manufactured from 1943 to 1945. The first prototype was built in 1942 and the ~1,000 built by the FNA-B according to Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons (''Fabbrica Nazionale d'Armi di ...
submachine gun, and 22 from another of the same model. The remaining 20 shots came from other weapons which included a
Beretta M12 The Beretta M12 (Model 12) is a 9×19mm Parabellum caliber submachine gun designed by Beretta. Production started in 1959, the first users were the Italian Carabinieri, Italian State Police and the Guardia di Finanza, though in limited number, ...
. Ricci and Leonardi, who were sitting in the front seat of the first car, were killed first. Moro was immediately kidnapped and forced into the Fiat 132 which was next to his car. At the same time the terrorists shot the other three policemen. The only policeman who was able to shoot back twice was Iozzino, but he was immediately hit in the head by Bonisoli. All the guards died in the action but Francesco Zizzi, who died in the hospital a few hours later. The blue Fiat 132 was found at 09:40 in Via Licinio Calvo with some blood stains inside. The other cars used for the ambush were also found in the following days in the same road (according to the declarations of Red Brigade members, the cars had been left in the road that same day). On 16 March, the escort in Via Fani was not carrying weapons, which were instead kept in the trunks of the cars; Eleonora Chiavarelli (Aldo Moro's wife) said, during the trial, that the weapons were in the trunks because "these people didn't know how to use weapons because they had never had any shooting practice, they were not used to handling them, so the guns were in the trunk. Leonardi always talked about it. "These people shouldn't have weapons they don't know how to use. They should know how to use them. They should carry them properly. Keep them within reach. The radio should be operational, but it doesn't work." For months it had been going on like this. Marshal Leonardi and lance corporal Ricci did not expect an ambush, because their weapons were placed in the bag and one of the two holsters was even in a plastic liner." The last sentence was denied by the widow of Marshal Leonardi, stating that her husband "recently went around armed because he had noticed that a car was following him." The action was claimed by the BR in a phone call to
ANSA Ansa (Latin for "handle") or ANSA may refer to: Organizations * Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, Italian news agency ** Ansa Mediterranean or ANSAmed, section of the above * Applied Neuroscience Society of Australasia * Association of Norw ...
. At 10:00
Pietro Ingrao Pietro Ingrao (30 March 1915 – 27 September 2015) was an Italian politician and journalist who participated in the resistance movement. For many years he was a senior figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI). Political career Ingrao was bo ...
, president of the
Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( it, Camera dei deputati) is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Senate of the Republic). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical funct ...
, stopped the session and announced that Moro had been kidnapped. On the same day Andreotti's government obtained a large majority of votes, including those of his traditional enemies, notably PCI. Before the kidnapping the Communists were supposed to enter the government in a direct role but the emergency changed the situation, resulting in another right-centre cabinet under the firm control of DC.
Enrico Berlinguer Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician, considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which he led as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period in Ital ...
spoke of "an attempt to stop a positive political process", but Lucio Magri, representative of the extreme left PUP, was concerned about the hypocrisy of passing laws limiting personal freedom as a reaction to the massacre, saying that "it would play into the hands of the strategy of subversion". He asked for "self-criticism" from the authorities and for a genuine willingness to tackle problems "that are at the basis of the economic and moral crisis". Mario Ferrandi, a militant of Prima Linea, nicknamed "Coniglio" (''Rabbit''), later said that when the news of the kidnapping and the killing of the bodyguards spread during a workers' demonstration there was a moment of amazement, followed by a moment of euphoria and anxiety because there was a feeling that something would happen so big that things would not be quite the same. He recalled that students present at the event spent the money of ''Cassa del circolo giovanile'' to buy champagne and toast with workers of the canteen.


Motivations

A large amount of literature exists about the reasons for the kidnapping. The Red Brigades chose Moro due to his role as mediator between DC and PCI, the two main parties in Italy at the time, which had both participated in the Fourth Andreotti Cabinet. It was the first time since 1947 that Italian Communists had a government position, even if indirect. The success of the action would thus halt the Communists' rise to Italian state institutions, reassuring the BR as a key point in a future revolutionary war against capitalism. According to others BR aimed to strike at the whole DC who were the main exponent of a regime that, as described in BR's first communiqué after the kidnapping "... had been suppressing the Italian people for years". According to later terrorist declarations, in the months before the kidnapping the Red Brigades had also envisaged the kidnapping of the other DC leader, Giulio Andreotti. This was abandoned once they deemed that Andreotti's police protection was too strong. The immediate consequence of the kidnapping was the exclusion of PCI from any government cabinet in the following years. Although increasingly weakened, DC remained the main government party until 1994 (although in 1981, a non-Christian Democrat, Giovanni Spadolini, became premier in a DC-based alliance— for the first time since the formation of the Italian Republic).


Imprisonment

The exact location of Moro's imprisonment is disputed. The original reconstruction in the trials claimed it to be an apartment in Via Camillo Montalcini 8 in Rome, which had been owned by a Red Brigades member for a few years. Moro would be killed there, in an underground parking garage. Months after the kidnapping the apartment was put under investigation by
UCIGOS The ''Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza'' (NOCS) ( en, Central Security Task Group) is the police tactical unit of the Polizia di Stato, one of Italy's national police forces. It operates under the command of the ''Direzione Centrale della P ...
, the Italian police's central directorate for political crimes, and was thus abandoned by the Red Brigades. Aldo Moro's brother Carlo Alfredo, a judge, writes in his book ''Storia di un delitto annunciato'' that the politician was not detained in Via Montalcini, but in a seaside location. His theory is based on the fact that sand and vegetable remains were found in the car together with Moro's body. Further, Moro's body had a generally good muscular tone and according to Moro's brother this, along with several contradictions in the terrorists' declarations, contravenes the traditional view of the politician closed in a very tight cell with little space to move. More proof was found by geologist David Bressan, who showed that based on certain
microfossils A microfossil is a fossil that is generally between 0.001 mm and 1 mm in size, the visual study of which requires the use of light or electron microscopy. A fossil which can be studied with the naked eye or low-powered magnification, ...
and grains of
igneous rock Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma o ...
found on the victim and car he must have been located on an
artificial Artificiality (the state of being artificial or manmade) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artificiality ...
(as opposed to natural)
river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...
beach near the delta of the river
Tiber The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest List of rivers of Italy, river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where ...
. While the kidnappers later claimed to have tried to mislead the investigators by pouring water and sand onto the victim and into the car, forensic geologists doubt that the killers at the time would have been aware of grains of sand as possible evidence for a crime and would not likely have gone through such effort.


Aldo Moro's letters

During his detention, Moro wrote 86 letters to the main members of Christian Democracy, his family and to
Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...
. Some arrived at their addressees; others that had not been sent were later found in another base of the BR in via Monte Nevoso,
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. In the letters Moro puts forward the possibility of negotiation for his liberation if help from his party's colleagues and of the highest figures of the Republic could be obtained. Some of Moro's letters allegedly contain hidden allusions and hints. In one letter he asks: "Is maybe there, behind keeping it hard against me, an American or German instruction?" Writer
Leonardo Sciascia Leonardo Sciascia (; 8 January 1921 – 20 November 1989) was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician. Some of his works have been made into films, including '' Porte Aperte'' (1990; ''Open Doors''), ''Cadaveri Eccellent ...
suggested that in his letters Moro was including clues about his position, as when he wrote "I am here in full health" to indicate that he was in Rome. In the letter of 8 April, Moro launched a vibrant attack at
Benigno Zaccagnini Benigno Zaccagnini (; 17 April 1912 – 5 November 1989) was an Italian politician and physician. Biography Born in Faenza, he graduated in Pediatrics in 1937. During World War II he acted as partisan, collaborating with Arrigo Boldrini in ...
, national secretary of Christian Democracy, at Francesco Cossiga, then Minister of the Interior, as well as on the whole of his party: "Of course, I cannot prevent myself from underlining the wickedness of all the Christian Democrats who did not agree with my position ..And Zaccagnini? How can he stay tranquil in his position? And Cossiga could not devise any possible defence? My blood will fall over them." Doubts have been cast over the complete publication of Moro's letters. The Carabinieri general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (then coordinator of the fight against terrorism in Italy, later killed by the Mafia) found copies of some previously unknown letters in an apartment used by the terrorists in via Monte Nevoso. For undisclosed reasons the finding was not publicly revealed for years. During the kidnapping the prevalent view was that Moro did not enjoy complete freedom to write. Despite Moro's wife declaring that she recognized his writing style in them, the letters would be considered, if not directly dictated by the terrorists, at least to be inspired or controlled by them. Some experts in an analysis committee formed by Cossiga initially declared that Moro had been subject to brainwashing. Cossiga would later admit that he had partially written the speech held by Giulio Andreotti in which it was said that Moro's letter were to be considered "not morally authentic". Aldo Moro was never tortured by the Red Brigades during the 55 days; in the 1990s, Italian journalist
Indro Montanelli Indro Alessandro Raffaello Schizogene Montanelli (; 22 April 1909 – 22 July 2001) was an Italian journalist, historian and writer. He was one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes according to the International Press Institute. A volunte ...
commented severely on the letters written during the kidnapping, saying that "Everyone in this world has the right to be afraid. But a Statesman (and Moro was the State) can't try to induce the State to a negotiation with terrorists that over all, in the kidnapping of Via Fani, had left on the asphalt five dead between Carabinieri and policemen." Montanelli was also scathingly critical of Moro's widow, Eleonora Chiavarelli, who, in the years after her husband was killed, blamed the Christian Democrats and the Italian political class in general for his fate. In 1982, he wrote:


Communications and negotiations

During the 55 days of Moro's detention, the Red Brigades issued nine "Communications" in which they explained the reasons for the kidnapping. In the Communication No.3: And: The Red Brigades proposed to exchange Moro for imprisoned terrorists (Communication No.8). They later accepted to exchange him for a single terrorist. On 22 April 1978, Pope Paul VI made a public speech and asked BR to return Moro to his family, specifying that such act should also be "without conditions". Moro, who had previously written a letter to the Pope, reacted angrily to the latter point, feeling he had been abandoned by the Vatican. The specified "without conditions" is controversial—according to some sources it was added to Paul VI's letter against his will, and the pope instead wanted to negotiate with the kidnappers. Government members like Cossiga denied this hypothesis. Italian politicians were divided into two factions: one favourable to negotiations which, amongst others, included the secretary of the
Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...
,
Bettino Craxi Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI membe ...
and the others totally negating that possibility, most of the Christian Democracy and Italian Communist Party, including the latter's national secretary
Enrico Berlinguer Enrico Berlinguer (; 25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician, considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which he led as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period in Ital ...
and Republican leader
Ugo La Malfa Ugo La Malfa (16 May 1903 – 26 March 1979) was an Italian politician and an important leader of the Italian Republican Party (''Partito Repubblicano Italiano''; PRI). Early years and anti-fascist resistance La Malfa was born in Palermo, Sic ...
who proposed the death penalty for the terrorists. The second faction alleged that any negotiation would seem a legitimisation of the violence of the terrorists. Further, that solution would not be accepted by the Italian police forces who had seen numerous of their members fall during the war against terrorism in previous years. Writers, including Moro's brother, underlined how the BR's communication lacked any reference to the possible role of the Communist Party in the Italian government. This was in spite of the day chosen for the kidnapping being that in which PCI, for the first time since the early republican years, was going to obtain an active government role in Italy. A letter by Moro to Zaccagnini, in which he was referring to this argument, had to be rewritten by the politician. A second point put forward was the premise that Moro's revelations, from most of the communication during his "political process", would be made public. Unlike other people kidnapped by the BR and subjected to same procedure and, in spite of the unprecedented repetition of the point, in the case of Moro this never happened. Much of the material collected by the terrorists, including Moro's letter and personal notes written during his imprisonment, became public only after the discovery of the base in via Monte Nevoso. The terrorists later declared they had destroyed all the material including that containing references to the
Gladio Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies during ...
undercover organization discovered in 1990.Montanelli, Indro (16 December 1995). "Andreotti e Pecorelli: come un romanzo". ''Corriere della Sera'', p. 41. Journalist
Indro Montanelli Indro Alessandro Raffaello Schizogene Montanelli (; 22 April 1909 – 22 July 2001) was an Italian journalist, historian and writer. He was one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes according to the International Press Institute. A volunte ...
sided in favor of firmness and against the negotiations from the first day and in 2000, responding to a reader on ''Corriere della Sera'', wrote:


Discovery of the body

Communication No.9 stated that: The depositions made to the Italian judges during the trials showed that not all the Red Brigades leaders were for condemning Moro to death. Mario Moretti called Moro's wife by phone, asking her to push the DC leaders for negotiations. Adriana Faranda, a member of BR, mentioned a night meeting held in Milan a few days before the murder of Moro where she and other terrorists, including Valerio Morucci and Franco Bonisoli, dissented although the final decision was taken after voting. On 9 May 1978, after a summary "people's trial", Moro was murdered by Mario Moretti. It was also determined that participated. The body was found that same day in the trunk of a red Renault 4 in via Michelangelo Caetani in the historic centre of Rome. The location was mentioned by journalist
Carmine Pecorelli Carmine "Mino" Pecorelli (; 14 September 1928 – 20 March 1979) was an Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome a year after former prime minister Aldo Moro's 1978 kidnapping and subsequent killing. He was described as a "maverick journalist wit ...
as the residence of opera conductor
Igor Markevitch Igor Borisovich Markevitch (russian: Игорь Борисович Маркевич, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', uk, Ігор Борисович Маркевич, ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 – 7 March 1983) was a Russian- ...
who, according to some theories, was the alleged instigator of the whole kidnapping. According to the terrorist's declarations, made some ten years after the event, Moro was woken up at 06:00 with the excuse that he had to be moved to another secret base. In contradiction to this Bonisoli said that Moro was told that he had been "pardoned" and was going to be freed. The terrorists put him into a wicker basket and brought him to the parking garage of their base in via Montalcini. They put him into the trunk of a red Renault and, after covering him with a red sheet, Moretti shot Moro with a 9 mm
Walther PPK The Walther PP (german: Polizeipistole, or police pistol) series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols, developed by the German arms manufacturer Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen. It features an exposed hammer, a traditional double-a ...
and after the weapon jammed, a 7.65 mm
Škorpion vz. 61 The Škorpion vz. 61 (or Sa vz. 61 Skorpion) is a Czechoslovak machine pistol developed in 1959 by Miroslav Rybář (1924–1970) and produced under the official designation Samopal vzor 61 ("submachine gun model 1961") by the Česká zbrojovk ...
. The bullets perforated Moro's lungs and killed him. The car with his body was taken to via Caetani where it was parked about one hour after the murder. The common interpretation was that the location was midway between the national seats of DC and of the
Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
(PCI) in Rome to symbolize the end of the Historic Compromise, the alliance between DC and PCI which Moro had sought. In fact, the car was found more towards the
Tiber River The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Ri ...
, near the
Ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
. At 12:30, a phone call was made to Francesco Tritto, assistant of Aldo Moro in order to let him announce the location of the body. This fulfilled an ''exliciti'' will communicated by Aldo Moro to his kidnappers. At 13:30, a phone call, attributed to Valerio Morucci, notified the
Prefecture of Police In France, a Prefecture of Police (french: Préfecture de police), headed by the Prefect of Police (''Préfet de police''), is an agency of the Government of France under the administration of the Ministry of the Interior. Part of the National P ...
that the politician's body was in a car in via Caetani. Autoptic examinations made after the discovery assigned the death to around 09:00 and 10:00 of the same day, in contradiction to the terrorist's declarations. Witnesses declared that the car was in the street as early as 08:00 AM, while some witnesses declared that they did not see it before 12:30 AM. Moro was wearing the same grey clothes he had during the kidnapping. The cravat had several blood stains, traces of sand were found in the pockets and socks, and traces of vegetables were also found. Eventually the terrorists declared that they had intentionally added those traces in order to sidetrack the investigators. In the trunk, there were also some of Moro's personal effects, a bracelet and his watch, and some spent cartridges. Moro also had a thigh wound, likely suffered during the initial assault in via Fani.


Subsequent hypotheses, investigations and trials

Despite the long investigations and trials, the exact details of the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro are not known.


Crisis committees

Francesco Cossiga, minister of the interior at the time, formed two "crisis committees" on the very day of the kidnapping of Moro. These were: * a technical-operational-political committee, chaired by Cossiga himself and, in his absence, by undersecretary Nicola Lettieri. Other members included the supreme commanders of the Italian Police Forces, of the Carabinieri, the
Guardia di Finanza The ''Guardia di Finanza'' (G. di F. or GdF) () (English: literal: ''Guard of Finance'', paraphrased: ''Financial Police'' or ''Financial Guard'') is an Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance. ...
, the recently named directors of
SISMI Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...
and
SISDE Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica (Intelligence and Democratic Security Service), was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISDE was replac ...
(respectively, Italy's military and civil intelligence services), the national secretary of CESIS (a secret information agency), the director of UCIGOS and the police prefect of Rome. * an information committee, including members of CESIS, SISDE, SISMI and
SIOS Servizio Informazioni Operative e Situazione (Operative Informations and Situation Service) was an Italian military intelligence and security service serving from 1949 until 1997. Its main duty was safeguarding the internal security of military bas ...
, another military intelligence office. A third unofficial committee was created which never met officially, called the ''comitato di esperti'' ("committee of experts"). Its existence was not disclosed until 1981, by Cossiga himself, in his interrogation by the Italian Parliament's Commission about the Moro affair. He omitted to reveal the decisions and the activities of the committee however. This committee included:
Steve Pieczenik Steve R. Pieczenik () (born December 7, 1943) is a Cuban-American psychiatrist, author, publisher, and conspiracy theorist,. He is a former consultant of the United States Department of State. Pieczenik has made several appearances on InfoWar ...
, a psychologist of the anti-terrorism section of the US State Department, a criminologist Franco Ferracuti,
Stefano Silvestri Stefano is the Italian form of the masculine given name Στέφανος (Stefanos, Stephen). The name is of Greek origin, Στέφανος, meaning a person who made a significant achievement and has been crowned. In Orthodox Christianity the ac ...
, (director of the Istituto per l'Enciclopedia Italiana) and
Giulia Conte Micheli Giulia may refer to: People * Giulia (given name) * Giulia (wrestler) (born 1994), English-born Italian-Japanese professional wrestler Places *Cappella Giulia, a chapel in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome * Friuli-Venezia Giulia, one of the 20 region ...
. Despite these changes, in the months that the kidnapping of Aldo Moro developed and executed, no Secret Service was designed to combat internal subversion. The committees were acting according to old standards: the planning of measures to be taken in case of emergency dating back to the 1950s, and it hadn't been updated even after the alarming growth of terrorism. This was due to the fact that the country had spread an atmosphere of resignation (if not indulgence) to the left-wing terrorism, because in the trials defendants get extenuating circumstances, Prima Linea was considered a simple subversive association (instead of an armed gang) and a part of the judiciary harbored hostility towards the State and was sympathetic to the revolutionary myths; so that the political scientist said that terrorism had become "a historical phenomenon understandable (though not justifiable) in a period of social change thwarted by a corrupt political class".


Terrorists involved in the kidnapping


Involvement of P2, Gladio and of the Italian intelligence services

Several authorities have suggested that
Propaganda 2 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 ...
(P2) was involved in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. Propaganda 2 was a secret masonic lodge involved in numerous financial and political scandals in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s and which featured as its members entrepreneurs, journalists, numerous high exponents of right-wing parties, the Italian police and military forces. Another theory supposes that the
Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
had been infiltrated by the American
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA) or by the Organizzazione Gladio, a paramilitary clandestine network headed by
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
whose main task was to oppose Soviet influence in western Europe. During the days of Moro's imprisonment, journalist
Carmine Pecorelli Carmine "Mino" Pecorelli (; 14 September 1928 – 20 March 1979) was an Italian journalist, shot dead in Rome a year after former prime minister Aldo Moro's 1978 kidnapping and subsequent killing. He was described as a "maverick journalist wit ...
( see also below) wrote, in his magazine '' Osservatorio politico'', an article entitled "''Vergogna, buffoni!''" ("Shame on you, clowns!"): in it he wrote that Giulio Andreotti had met general Dalla Chiesa who told the politician that he knew the location where Moro was kept, but did not obtain the authorization to proceed to free him due to (in Pecorelli's words) a certain "Christ's lodge in paradise". The likely allusion to P2 became clear only after the discovery of a list of the lodge members on 17 March 1981. Members of the lodge occupied important institutional positions and included: Giuseppe Santovito, director of SISMI; prefect Walter Pelosi, director of CESIS; general Giulio Grassini of SISDE; admiral Antonino Geraci, commander of SIOS;
Federico Umberto D'Amato Federico Umberto D'Amato (4 June 1919 – 1 August 1996)Carlo Lucarelli, ''Piazza Fontana'', Turin, Einaudi, 2007. p. 100 was an Italian secret agent, who led the Office for Reserved Affairs of the Ministry of Interior (Italy) from the 1950s til ...
, director of the Office of Reserved Affairs of the Ministry of the Interiors; generals Raffaele Giudice and Donato Lo Prete, respectively commander and chief-of-staff of the
Guardia di Finanza The ''Guardia di Finanza'' (G. di F. or GdF) () (English: literal: ''Guard of Finance'', paraphrased: ''Financial Police'' or ''Financial Guard'') is an Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance. ...
; and Carabinieri general Giuseppe Siracusano, responsible for road blocks in the capital during the investigations of the Moro affair. According to (a professor who took part in the crisis committees) Franco Ferracuti, later discovered to be a member of P2 and who declared that Moro was suffering of the Stockholm syndrome towards his kidnappers, was close to the lodge during the kidnapping days, having been introduced by general Grassini. Licio Gelli declared that the presence of numerous members of P2 in the committees was casual, since numerous personalities were members at the time, and this was simply a statistic reflected by the composition of the committees. According to Gelli, some members of the committees did not know that some of their colleagues were also part of P2. On 16 March 1978, the day of Moro's kidnapping, the most important members of P2 met in the
Hotel Excelsior Hotel Excelsior was a hotel in Berlin, Germany. It occupied number 112/113, Königgrätzer Straße (today's Stresemannstrasse) on Askanischer Platz in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg. It was once one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in ...
in Rome—a few hundred meters from the United States Embassy. While exiting the hotel Gelli declared "the most difficult part is done". It was supposed that his words referred to the abduction of Moro."Le BR e l'omicidio Moro", by Giuseppe dell'Acqua
.
Another debated case was regarding the presence of Camillo Guglielmi, a colonel of
SISMI Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...
's 7th Division which controlled Operation Gladio, in via Stresa near the location of the ambush, and in those exact minutes when the BR kidnapped Moro. His presence was kept secret and was only disclosed in 1990 during the investigation of the Italian Parliament commission on State Massacres. Guglielmi admitted that he was in via Stresa, but only because he had been invited to lunch by a colleague. According to several sources the colleague confirmed that Guglielmi came to his house, but had not been invited. Furthermore, Italians normally have lunch at around 12:30 and Guglielmi's presence at around 09:00 would be not justified. Other sources list Guglielmi as a true member of Gladio, but the officer always firmly denied this accusation. His direct superior, general
Pietro Musumeci Pietro Musumeci (born 18 May 1920) was a general and deputy director of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI. Musumeci was born in Catania on 18 May 1920. A member of ''Propaganda Due'', Musumeci was convicted in 1985, along with other SISMI ...
, was a member of P2 and condemned for sidetracking the investigations on the 1980 Bologna Station bombing. The discovery of the BR refuge in via Gradoli ( see also below) saw the participation of members of both P2 and the police forces of Italy. Lucia Mokbel, an informer of SISDE, had communicated that she had heard
MORSE Morse may refer to: People * Morse (surname) * Morse Goodman (1917-1993), Anglican Bishop of Calgary, Canada * Morse Robb (1902–1992), Canadian inventor and entrepreneur Geography Antarctica * Cape Morse, Wilkes Land * Mount Morse, Churchi ...
messages coming from the flat next to her. It turned out that those noises interpreted as MORSE code were in fact coming from the electric typewriter used by the Terrorists (BR) to type their demand letters. She informed police commissar Elio Coppa, enlisted in the Propaganda Due, but when police agents went to the flat and knocked on the door, strangely they did not attempt to enter it and left the place instead. SISDE had been also informed that a lock-up garage in via Gradoli had an antenna, allegedly used by the terrorist to communicate with the area of Lake Duchessa. However Giulio Grassini, head of SISDE and member of P2, did not take any investigative measures. Investigations made by
DIGOS Digos, officially the City of Digos ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Digos; fil, Lungsod ng Digos), is a 2nd class component city and capital of the province of Davao del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 188,376 people. ...
discovered that several machines used by the terrorists to print their communications from one year before the kidnapping of Moro, which was financed by Moretti, had been previously owned by the Italian state. These included a printer owned by the ''Raggruppamento Unità Speciali dell'Esercito'' and, despite its relatively young age and its high value, had been sold out as a scrap. A photocopier was previously owned by the Ministry of Transportation, acquired in 1969 and later sold to Enrico Triaca, a member of BR. The apartment in via Gradoli ( see below) had been rented by Mario Moretti under the pseudonym of Mario Borghi since 1978. The same building housed several apartments owned by SISDE men and one inhabited by a police confidant. During the days of the kidnapping the palace was inspected by Carabinieri under colonel Varisco, with the exclusion of Moretti's apartment—the official justification was that the Carabinieri were not authorized to enter the apartments if no one was inside. The owner of the apartment, Luciana Bozzi, was later discovered to be a friend of Giuliana Conforto, whose father was named in the Mitrokhin list of the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
. Morucci and Faranda were eventually arrested in her flat. Pecorelli wrote a postcard to Moretti in 1977 from Ascoli Piceno (Moretti was born in the province of Ascoli), addressing it to one "Borghi at via Gradoli", with the message "Greetings, brrrr". In June 2008, the Venezuelan terrorist
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal ( es, link=no, Carlos el Chacal) or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convicted of terrorist crimes, and currently serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murder ...
, best known as "Carlos the Jackal", spoke in an interview released to the Italian press agency ANSA declaring that several men of the SISMI, led by colonel Stefano Giovannone (considered near to Moro) negotiated at the airport in
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
for the liberation of the politician during the night of 8 to 9 May 1978: the agreement would endorse the liberation of several imprisoned members of the BR to the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary so ...
in the territory of an Arabic country. According to Carlos, the agreement, which found the opposition of the SISMI leading figures, failed because news about it leaked to other western secret services who, in turn, informed SISMI. Moro was killed the following day. Carlos stated that the officers involved in the attempt were all expelled from the services, being forced to resign or to go into compulsory retirement on a pension.


Involvement of foreign powers

In 2005, Giovanni Galloni, former national vice-secretary of Christian Democracy, said that during a discussion with Moro about the difficulty to find the Red Brigades' bases Moro told him that he knew of the presence of US and Israeli intelligence agents infiltrated within the BR. However the information obtained was not given to the Italian investigators. He also declared that the reason of the assassination of journalist Carmine Pecorelli was the same information, perhaps coming from the United States. During an interview in front of the Italian parliament commission on terrorism Galloni also stated that, during his trip to the United States in 1976, he had been told that a government like that envisaged by Moro, which would include the Communist presence, would be opposed at "any cost" by the American Republicans. During the 1983 trial against the BR, Moro's widow Eleonora Chiavarelli declared that her husband was unpopular in the United States due to the historic compromise matter, and that he had been repeatedly warned by American politicians to stop disrupting the political situation which had been established in the
Yalta conference The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
(in reference to the possible executive role of the Italian Communist Party). According to her,
Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
was one of the American personalities who menaced Moro in 1974 and 1976. She said that the words to Moro which he repeated to her were: Kissinger denied these accusations. Alberto Franceschini, one of the founders of BR, mentioned the possibility that the Red Brigades had been infiltrated by Israeli agents as early as 1974. He reported a confidence told to him by co-founder Renato Curcio, according to whom Mario Moretti would be an infiltrated agent. Curcio has always denied this reconstruction. Moretti took the reins of the Red Brigades after Franceschini and Curcio were arrested in the mid-1970s, introducing a far stronger militarization of the organization's activities. Moretti, in the Italian RAI TV programme ''
La notte della Repubblica ''La notte della Repubblica'' (''The Night of the Republic'') is a TV programme presented by Sergio Zavoli, broadcast by the Italian public TV channel Rai 2 Rai 2 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned ...
'' denied these accusations, saying that he had never seen an Israeli in his life and that it was wrong to think that the change of RB's strategy depended from the arrest of some militants. He also added:


The false Communication No. 7 and the discovery of the base of via Gradoli

Another controversial event occurred on 18 April 1978 when a false BR's "Communication No. 7" announced the death of Moro and that he had been on the bottom of Lago della Duchessa, a very small mountain lake in the
province of Rieti The Province of Rieti ( it, Provincia di Rieti) is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Rieti. Established in 1927, it has an area of with a total population of 157,887 people as of 2017. There are 73 ''comuni'' i ...
(north of Rome). In response, the Italian police looked in vain for Moro under the iced surface of the lake. The authors of the false communication included
Antonio Chichiarelli Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
, a notorious forger from Rome who was connected to the
Banda della Magliana The Banda della Magliana (, ''Magliana Gang'') is an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of some of its members. The ''Banda dell ...
gang of the city. Chichiarelli would later issue further false communications from the Red Brigades. He was killed in uncertain circumstances in September 1984 when his connection with the false communiqué had been yet entirely clarified. Chichiarelli spoke of the communication to several people, including Luciano Dal Bello, a confidant of the Carabinieri and of SISDE. Del Bello reported the facts but no investigation on Chichiarelli followed. In the same day that the police force found an apartment used as a base by the Red Brigades in Rome, on via Gradoli 96. The discovery was allegedly due to a water leak for which a neighbour had called the firemen. The leak was caused by a tap left open in the apartment's shower in an unusual fashion, i.e. with water directed against the wall. The base was normally used by Mario Moretti but the Italian media reported the discovery immediately and he avoided returning there. As previously mentioned, the palace had been inspected by Carabinieri under colonel Varisco, with the exclusion of Moretti's apartment: the official justification was that the Carabinieri were not authorized to enter the apartments if no one was inside. The owner of the apartment, Luciana Bozzi, was later discovered to be a friend of Giuliana Conforto, whose father was named in the Mitrokhin list of the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
, and in whose apartments Morucci and Faranda were later arrested. The commissar who had led Rome's police forces in the inspection of the building on via Gradoli, Elio Coppa, was eventually promoted to vice-director of SISDE—he later turned out to be a member of P2. The neighbor whose call had led to the inspection, Lucia Mokbel, was officially a university student of Egyptian descent and was later identified as a confidant of SISDE or of the police. Furthermore, the report of the inspection, which was presented at the trial on the Moro affair, was written on a type of paper distributed to the Italian police only in 1981, three years after the events. Before, and after 1978, numerous apartments in the street had been used by Italian secret agents, including a Carabinieri NCO enrolled by SISMI who resided in the building facing that of Moretti and who was from the same birthplace. In the street, there were also firms used by SISMI for its affairs. Moretti's apartment itself had been under observation by UCIGOS for several years previously as it had been frequented also by members of the far-left organizations
Potere Operaio Potere Operaio ("Workers' Power") was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1967 and 1973. (It shouldn't be confused with "Potere Operaio Pisano" which was one of the components of a competing revolutionary group, Lotta Conti ...
and
Autonomia Operaia Autonomia Operaia (Italian: ''Workers' Autonomy'') was an Italian leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It took an important role in the autonomist movement in the 1970s, alongside earlier organisations such as ''Potere Operaio'', ...
. Later it was revealed that the Christian Democracy parliament member Benito Cazora, during the contact he had with the 'ndrangheta (the Calabrian mafia) in the attempt to find Moro's prison, had been warned that the area of via Gradoli was a "hot zone". Cazora had reported this warning to the DC and to the police. Mino Pecorelli, already mentioned for his likely knowledge of the presence of Moretti in via Gradoli, was one of the few journalists to immediately deny the authenticity of "Communication No.7", whereas most authorities had considered it true. Some 30 years after the events Steve Pieczenik, an expert on terrorism of the US State Department, declared in an interview that the decision to issue the false communication was taken during a meeting of the crisis committee, present at which were Francesco Cossiga, members of the Italian intelligence agencies and Franco Ferracuti (as previously mentioned, a member of P2). The alleged goal was to prepare the Italian and European audience for the likely death of Moro in the kidnapping. He however stated that it would be ignored if the communication had been actually issued. See also below It was also supposed that Moro had told his kidnappers of the existence of Operation Gladio, many years before its public revelation in 1990. From this point of view, the false "Communication No.7" was a code message from sectors of the Italian secret agencies that Moro should not return alive from his imprisonment. On 20 April 1978, the Red Brigades issued the true Communication No.7: they attached a photo of Aldo Moro holding a copy of ''
La Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnol ...
'', dated 19 April, showing that the politician was still alive.


The séance

Also connected to via Gradoli is an event which involved
Romano Prodi Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Pr ...
,
Mario Baldassarri Mario Baldassarri (born 10 September 1946) is an Italian economist and politician. He was a senator from 2006 to 2013. Born in Macerata, he was vice-minister of Economy and Finance in Silvio Berlusconi's second and third governments, from 2001 ...
and
Alberto Clò Alberto Clò (born 1947) is an Italian businessman, politician and academic. He served as minister of industry from 1995 to 1996. He was the director of Eni SpA. Early life and education Clò was born in 1947. He holds a political sciences degr ...
. During an alleged
séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...
in which they participated on 2 April 1978, after asking the soul of
Giorgio La Pira Giorgio La Pira, TOSD (Raimondo in religious life; 9 January 1904 – 5 November 1977) was an Italian Catholic politician who served as the Mayor of Florence. He also served as deputy of the Christian Democrats and participated in the assemb ...
about the location of Moro, a Ouija table they were using registered the words
Viterbo Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history ...
,
Bolsena Bolsena is a town and ''comune'' of Italy, in the province of Viterbo in northern Lazio on the eastern shore of Lake Bolsena. It is 10 km (6 mi) north-north west of Montefiascone and 36 km (22 mi) north-west of Viterbo. The a ...
and
Gradoli Gradoli (Central Italian: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region Latium, located about northwest of Rome and about northwest of Viterbo. Gradoli sits on a tuff hill in the Monti Volsini area, a few kilo ...
, three towns north of Rome. The information was trusted and a police group made an armed blitz in the town of Gradoli, 80 km from
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, on the following day, 6 April though Moro was not found. Prodi spoke to the Italian parliament's commission about the case in 1981. In the notes of the Italian parliament commission on terrorism, the séance is described as a fake, used to hide the true source of the information. In 1997, Giulio Andreotti declared that the information came from the Bologna section of
Autonomia Operaia Autonomia Operaia (Italian: ''Workers' Autonomy'') was an Italian leftist movement particularly active from 1976 to 1978. It took an important role in the autonomist movement in the 1970s, alongside earlier organisations such as ''Potere Operaio'', ...
, a far-left organization with some ties with the BR, and that Cossiga also knew the true source. Judge Ferdinando Imposimato considered Andreotti's theory as "possible", but accused him of having kept information that could have been valuable in a trial about Moro's murder. Moro's widow later declared that she had repeatedly informed the police that a via Gradoli existed in Rome, but the investigators did not consider it — some replied to her that the street did not appear in Rome's maps. This is confirmed by other Moro relatives, but strongly denied by Francesco Cossiga. In the 1990s, the séance matter was reopened by the Italian parliament's commission on terrorism. While Prodi (then prime minister) declared that he had no time for an interview, both Baldassarri (senator and vice-minister in two
Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
cabinets) and Clò (minister of Industry in
Lamberto Dini Lamberto Dini CGMG (born 1 March 1931) is an Italian politician and economist. He was the Director General of Bank of Italy from 1979 to 1994, Minister of Treasury from 1994 to 1996, the 51st Prime Minister of Italy from 1995 to 1996, and Forei ...
's cabinet and owner of the house where the séance was performed) responded to the call: they confirmed the circumstances of the séance, and that the word "Gradoli" had appeared in several sessions, even if the participants had changed.


Involvement of the Mafia

In the years following Moro's murder, there have been numerous references to the presence of Calabrian 'ndrangheta at via Fani. In an intercepted phone call between Sereno Freato, then Moro's personal secretary, and Benito Cazora, a DC parliament member who had been given the task to keep contacts with the Calabrian gangs, Freato asks for news about the prison of Moro. The 'ndrangheta was in possession of several photos of the events in via Fani, some of which allegedly portrayed a "man known by them". According to what was reported by Cazora in 1991, some members of the 'ndrangheta, who had been expelled from Calabria, had offered their assistance to the Christian Democracy to discover the location of Moro, in exchange for the possibility to return to their homeland. However, this collaboration never materialized. According to the Sicilian Mafia ''pentito''
Tommaso Buscetta Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was an Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization. Buscetta participated i ...
, several Italian state organizations tried to obtain information about Moro's location from the Mafia, but later
Giuseppe Calò Giuseppe "Pippo" Calò (born 30 September 1931) is an Italian mobster and member of the Sicilian Mafia in Porta Nuova. He was referred to as the "''cassiere di Cosa Nostra''" (Mafia's Cashier) because he was heavily involved in the financial si ...
asked boss
Stefano Bontade Stefano Bontade (23 April 1939 – 23 April 1981) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. His actual surname was Bontate. He was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. He was also known as the ''Principe di Villagrazia'' (Prin ...
to stop the search, since the highest members of DC no longer desired the liberation of their fellow politician. The decision to abandon the search was taken between 9 and 10 April after Moro had revealed to his captors a series of very compromising information about the American CIA and Giulio Andreotti. Other sources report that the Sicilian Mafia changed its mind due to Moro's will to associate the Communist Party with the government. In a deposition made at trial
Raffaele Cutolo Raffaele Cutolo (; 4 November 1941 – 17 February 2021) was an Italian crime boss, leader of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), an organisation he built to renew the Camorra. Cutolo had a variety of nicknames including o Vangelo'' ("the gosp ...
, then leader of the Neapolitan camorra, declared that the
Banda della Magliana The Banda della Magliana (, ''Magliana Gang'') is an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of some of its members. The ''Banda dell ...
asked him if he was interested in the liberation of Moro. Cutolo contacted the Italian secret service who replied to him to stay away from the matter, because had vetoed the intermediation for the salvation of the then president of the DC.
Valerio Morucci Valerio Morucci (born 22 July 1949) is an Italian terrorist, who was a member of the Red Brigades and who took part in the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978. Biography Morucci was born in Rome. He took part in the libertarian ...
has completely discredited this confused story: he showed that the Camorra's militants were apparently "normal people in suits", completely alien environment of the underworld and therefore difficult to identify from the ''Banda della Magliana''. Morucci concluded: "We weren't a gang ... we didn't meet under the street lights ... we didn't do we trade strange ... I don't see how the Banda della Magliana or anyone could identify the Red Brigades".Satta, Vladimiro (2003). ''Odissea nel caso Moro''. Edup. On 15 October 1993, a 'Ndrangheta pentito, , declared that Antonio Nirta, another Calabrian gangster who had been infiltrated in the Red Brigades, took part in the assault in via Fani.''La_storia_siamo_noi'',_show_of_RAI
_Italian_state_network,_episode_"Il_caso_Moro".html" ;"title="RAI">''La storia siamo noi'', show of RAI
Italian state network, episode "Il caso Moro"">RAI">''La storia siamo noi'', show of RAI
Italian state network, episode "Il caso Moro"
Sergio Flamigni, a former communist senator and member of the Italian Parliament commission on the Moro affair, wrote that when he learnt about Morabito's words he remembered about the testimony of Benito Cazora, who had declared that he had been approached by a Calabrian asking him about photos shot in via Fani. According to the 'Ndrangheta
pentito ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
Francesco Fonti, his boss Sebastiano Romeo was involved in attempts to locate the place where Moro was held. Romeo had been asked by unnamed national and Calabrian Christian Democrats such as and to help out.'Io boss, cercai di salvare Moro'
''L’espresso'', September 22, 2009
With the help of
SISMI Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...
and the
Banda della Magliana The Banda della Magliana (, ''Magliana Gang'') is an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of some of its members. The ''Banda dell ...
, Fonti was able to locate the house where Moro was kept. When he reported back, Romeo said that he had done a good job but that important politicians in Rome had changed their minds. Morabito's revelations were not considered supported by adequate evidence.


Role of Carmine Pecorelli

Journalist Carmine "Mino" Pecorelli, who apparently had several informers in the Italian secret services, spoke repeatedly about the kidnapping of Moro in his magazine ''Osservatorio Politico'' (or simply ''OP''). Before the events of via Fani, Pecorelli had already written about the possibility that Moro would be blocked in his attempt to admit the Italian Communist Party into the government. On 15 March 1978, one day before Moro was abducted, ''Osservatorio Politico'' published an article which, citing the anniversary of the killing of
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...
in relation with the upcoming formation of Andreotti's cabinet, mentioned a possible new
Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...
(one of the assassins of Caesar, and a member of his family). Articles written during the politician's imprisonment show that he already knew of the existence of a ''memorial'' (the documents written by Moro in his detention) and of some of the unpublished letters. Pecorelli stated that there were two groups within the Red Brigades, one favourable to the negotiations, and one who wanted to kill Moro in any case. He hinted that the group that had captured Moro in via Fani was not the same that was detaining him, and which had planned the whole move. He wrote: When the terrorist base in via Gradoli was discovered Pecorelli stressed how in the apartment, different from what could be expected, all the proofs of the BR's presence were clearly displayed. Regarding the kidnapping, he wrote that Moro's opening to the Communist Party was not welcome, both by the United States as it would change the political balance of southern Europe, nor by the Soviet Union since this would prove that Communists could reach power democratically, and without being a direct offshoot of any
Communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
. On 20 March 1979, Pecorelli was murdered in front of his house. In 1992, the Mafia ''
pentito ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
'' Tommaso Buscetta revealed that the journalist had been eliminated as "a favor to Andreotti", who was preoccupied about some information about Moro's kidnapping in the possession of Pecorelli. The latter had allegedly received from general Dalla Chiesa (they were both affiliated or near to P2) a copy of a letter by Moro which contained dangerous accusations against Andreotti; the journalist had hinted about them in some previous articles. The unabridged letters were published only in 1991 when, together with others, it was discovered during renovation works in via Nevoso (only a resume of them, the so-called ''Memoriale Moro'', had been previously issued). The fact that Moro's letters were circulating before 1991 is proven by a speech held by
Bettino Craxi Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI membe ...
, leader of the
Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...
(PSI), in which he mentioned a letter which had not been officially published at the time. The fact was considered a subtle menace against Andreotti in the war for the supreme political power waged between PSI and DC at the time. In 1993, historian expressed doubts about what was said by the Mafia ''
pentiti ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
'' because, comparing the two memorials (the "amputee" of 1978 and the "complete" of 1990), noted that Moro's allegations addressed to Andreotti were the same, so Andreotti had no interest to order the murder of Pecorelli, who could not threaten him to publish things already known and publicly available. Andreotti underwent a trial for his role in the assassination of Pecorelli. He was acquitted in the first grade trial (1999), condemned in the second (2002), and finally acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court (2003). Pecorelli, in an article written the very day of his assassination, hinted to the role of opera composer
Igor Markevitch Igor Borisovich Markevitch (russian: Игорь Борисович Маркевич, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', uk, Ігор Борисович Маркевич, ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 – 7 March 1983) was a Russian- ...
(see below) in the kidnapping.


Role of Steve Pieczenik

Steve Pieczenik Steve R. Pieczenik () (born December 7, 1943) is a Cuban-American psychiatrist, author, publisher, and conspiracy theorist,. He is a former consultant of the United States Department of State. Pieczenik has made several appearances on InfoWar ...
was an American negotiatior and expert in terrorism who was sent by the US State Department, at the request of Cossiga, and remained in Italy for three weeks during Moro's detention. He later collaborated with
Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have ...
as a novel and cinematic writer. His presence in Italy as a member of one of the previously mentioned "crisis committees" was revealed only in the early 1990s. Pieczenik had written to a relation in which he spoke about the possible effects of Moro's abduction, the possibility that the Red Brigades had been infiltrated by Italian agents, and also gave advice about how to find the terrorists. Eventually however, Pieczenik declared that this relation was false, since the ideas included were similar to those of the P2-affiliated criminologist Francesco Ferracuti, another member of the secret committee. Pieczenik also stated that he did not release any written document. According to what was revealed by Cossiga and by Pieczenik himself, his initial idea was to show the will to negotiate, with the goal of gaining time and in the hope that the terrorists would make some error from which they could be detected. During later interviews, Pieczenik declared that there were numerous leaks about the discussions made at the committee: Pieczenik also declared that, once returned to the United States, he met an alleged Argentinian secret agent who knew everything that had happened at the Italian crisis committee. Pieczenik explained the leak to Argentina with the presence in the committee of numerous members of the P2 lodge, which had strong ties with the South American country (its founder Licio Gelli had lived for a period there)."I giorni del complotto"
by Robert Katz, ''Panorama'', 13 August 1994.
In a later interview to French journalist Emmanuel Amara, Pieczenik declared: At his arrival in Italy, Pieczenik had been informed by Cossiga and the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
intelligence services that there had been a coup attempt in Italy in previous months, led by right-winged personalities of the intelligence services and of P2. Pieczenik was astonished by the presence of so many fascists in the Italian intelligence services. The Red Brigades had also infiltrated the Italian institutions and obtained information from the children of politicians who were members of left and far-left organizations. With the help of the Vatican intelligence, which he considered superior to the Italian one, he investigated such infiltrations, but no measures were taken. Pieczenik also declared that he participated in the decision to issue the false "Communication No.7", stating that he pushed the BR to kill Moro in order to de-legitimise them, once it was clear that the Italian politicians were not interested in his liberation. According to Pieczenik, the United States did not have a clear image of the situation in Italy, especially for the left and right-wing terrorist groups; he also said that he received no help from CIA or the US embassy in Italy. Pieczenik explained his premature return to the US with the desire to avoid the accusations of American pressure behind the now likely death of Moro. Previously he had instead declared that he had left in order to deprive the decisions taken by the Italian institutions, which he considered inefficient and corrupted, of any US legitimisation.


Role of Igor Markevitch

Russian composer and conductor
Igor Markevitch Igor Borisovich Markevitch (russian: Игорь Борисович Маркевич, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', uk, Ігор Борисович Маркевич, ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 – 7 March 1983) was a Russian- ...
has also been purported to have helped the kidnappers, housing them in his villa at
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
and perhaps preparing the questions made to Moro. His residence in Rome faced via Michelangelo Caetani (Markevitch had married the daughter of the nobleman after whom the street was named), where Moro's body was found after he was killed. A report issued by SISMI in 1980 mentions one "Igor, of the dukes Caetani family", who had a prominent role in the Red Brigades organization. Two agents of SISMI were investigating near Paleazzo Caetani in early May 1978 when Moro had not yet been murdered. They were stopped by an unspecified "superior intervention" (allegedly coming from the agency's director, Giuseppe Santovito, a member of P2). Markevitch has been also identified as the "mysterious intermediary" mentioned by the Red Brigades in their Communication No.4. In the article written the very day in which he was killed, Mino Pecorelli, speaking of the "prison of the people" where Moro was kept, mentioned a palace having a frieze with lions and located in the centre of Rome; and described a duchess who could see the body of Moro from her balcony. The Caetani palace in which Markevitch and his wife lived had a bas-relief of two lions biting two horses.


Alleged presence of a marksman

In the course of Moro's capture, the terrorists fired 93 bullets. These killed all the five members of the escort but left Moro with only a light wound in his thigh. Despite this apparent precision, members of the BR such as
Valerio Morucci Valerio Morucci (born 22 July 1949) is an Italian terrorist, who was a member of the Red Brigades and who took part in the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978. Biography Morucci was born in Rome. He took part in the libertarian ...
declared that they had only a rough shooting training, obtained by firing their weapons in grottoes at night. The position of the bodyguards (two sitting in the front seats of Moro's car, and three in the following one), separated from the politician, likely made it easier for the ambush squad to direct their fire against them and avoid hitting Moro. However, several writers and observers suggested that the ambushers of via Fani included a marksman. Sources such as the magazine ''
l'espresso ''L'Espresso'' () is an Italian weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is '' Panorama''. Since 2022 it has been published by BFC Media. History and profile One of Italy's foremost newsmagazines, ' ...
'' further suppose that he could have been a member of the Italian intelligence service and identify him as Giustino De Vuono, a marksman once part of the
French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...
: according to their reconstruction, the 49 bullets found in the bodies of the bodyguards would come from his weapon. A witness reporting on 19 April 1978 at Rome's Prefecture declared that he had recognized De Vuono driving a green
Austin Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
or
Autobianchi A112 The Autobianchi A112 is a supermini produced by the Italian automaker Autobianchi. It was developed using a shrunken version of the contemporary Fiat 128's platform. The mechanicals of the A112 subsequently underpinned the Fiat 127. It was intr ...
on the location of the massacre. De Vuono, who was affiliated with the 'Ndrangheta (Calabrian mafia), on that day was not in his usual residence in southern
Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
(at the time under the dictatorship of
Alfredo Stroessner Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (; 3 November 1912 – 16 August 2006) was a Paraguayan army officer and politician who served as President of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 to 3 February 1989. Stroessner led a coup d'état on 4 May 1954 with t ...
). Several members of the Red Brigades declared that their weapons were acquired from the Calabrian gangland, amongst others; further, it has been proved that members of DC got in touch with Calabrian gangsters to obtain a help in the liberation of Moro. The identity of the alleged marksman has been also associated to the German terrorist group RAF. Another witness of the events in via Fani declared that some thirty minutes before the ambush, a foreigner with German accent had addressed him, ordering to go away from the area. Since some of the ammunition used for the massacre had been treated with a special preserving paint (which was also found in some secret depots related to the
Gladio Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies during ...
undercover organization), it has been suggested that these would come from some Italian military or paramilitary corps.


Theory of the alternative kidnapping

Journalist Rita di Giovacchino suggests that Moro was not in via Fani during the massacre, but had been taken prisoner by another organization and that the Red Brigades acted only as "front men". This would explain their reticence and the incongruity of their declarations about the whole kidnapping (from the ambush, to the presence of sand on Moro's body). According to her, this would also explain the prophetic remark pronounced by Sereno Freato, first secretary of Aldo Moro, when Carmine Pecorelli (see above) was also found dead: "Investigate on the instigators of Pecorelli's murder, and would find the instigators of Moro's murder". She thus lists as part of the same plot the deaths of Pecorelli, Chichiarelli (who would have been punished for his blackmailing attempts) and of Carabinieri colonel . Allegedly killed by the Red Brigades in 1979, although in circumstances never clear, Antonio Varisco had been at the helm of the investigation on the BR base in via Gradoli; he was also a friend of general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (also murdered for never completely understood reasons), as well as of Pecorelli. The use made by BR of printing machines once owned by the Italian intelligence, according to di Giovacchino, shows that the latter were likely the organization behind all these bloody acts. Mario Moretti declared that he was studying Moro's daily moves since 1976. Every morning, the politician went with his grandson to a church near his house, after which he had a short walk with only one member of the escort. This looked like a more favourable moment to kidnap him, since most of the bodyguards were not present, but was not chosen by the terrorists. On the morning of his abduction, Moro did not bring his grandson with him. After the ambush in via Fani, the terrorists took only the most interesting for them of the five bags that Moro carried with him. Those containing the politician's medicines and his reserved documents. Further, the necessity of inflicting a coup de grâce to any of the bodyguards is in contrast with a hurried attack typical of such acts, and is motivated only by the necessity to eliminate any possible witness that would reveal that Moro was not there. In a letter to his wife, Moro wrote during captivity he asked her to take care of his bags. Since Moro was surely aware that if his bags had been found in the massacre location, they had been taken by the investigators. Also, the absence from his letter of any word about the victims of via Fani has been taken as an element in favour of the theory that Moro was captured while in his Gladio escort (see Involvement of P2, Gladio and of the Italian intelligence services) and not in via Fani and so did not know anything about their assassination.


Doubts about the kidnapping

Numerous unanswered questions surround Moro's kidnapping in via Fani: *Moro's widow, Eleonora Chiavarelli, noted that in Moro's letters, delivered by the terrorists, there is no mention of the killing of his bodyguards: given the character of Aldo Moro, she considered it improbable that he did not write a single word about these victims. *On 1 October 1993, during the fourth trial on the Moro affair, ballistic experts released a report which disputed the version of Valerio Morucci. According to their new report, a second member of the ambush squad fired towards the Fiat 132. *The number of the participants in the ambush (the terrorists initially spoke of nine, later of eleven people) is considered small by other terrorists, such as Red Brigades co-founder Alberto Franceschini. He declared: "For the capture of
Mario Sossi Mario Sossi (6 February 1932 – 6 December 2019) was an Italian magistrate and politician. He was a prosecutor against members of the October 22 Group, and was captured by members of the Red Brigades on 18 April 1974 in Genoa Genoa ( ; it ...
, in 1974, we were twelve. I think that managing a kidnapping such as that of via Fani with 11 is quite risky". *Alessandro Marini, an engineer who passed by via Fani the day of the assault, declared that two people on a
Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...
motorbike shot at him with a firearm. The motorbike preceded Mario Moretti's car. However, members of the Red Brigades always denied the presence of the Honda and did not explain the origin of the shooting against Marini. *An unexplained element is how the terrorists could have planned an ambush in via Fani, since Moro's escort changed their routes daily. However, the terrorists for the occasion had taken measures, such as cutting the tyres of the van of a florist who worked in via Fani (in order to remove a dangerous witness during the ambush), which can be explained only by their having precise knowledge of Moro's route that morning. * SIP, then Italy's national telephone company, was exceedingly inefficient on numerous occasions linked to Moro's detention. In particular, after the assault in via Fani, all the phone communications in the area were inoperative. Other examples included when, on 14 April, journalists of Rome's newspaper '' Il Messaggero'' were waiting for a phone call from the terrorists. The six phone lines in the newspaper's office had been connected to police central but, when the call arrived,
DIGOS Digos, officially the City of Digos ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Digos; fil, Lungsod ng Digos), is a 2nd class component city and capital of the province of Davao del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 188,376 people. ...
reported that all of them had been cut, with the result that the caller could not be identified. On 15 March 1978, the day before the capture of Moro, SIP had been alerted. However, after Moro had been kidnapped, an inspection of the telephone lines in the area of via Fani showed that they were all out of order. This prevented any possible witness contact with the police before the ambush. The commander of DIGOS during the kidnapping days described SIP as "totally un-cooperative", and stated that "in no occasion did they find the origin of the kidnappers' calls", concluding by noting that Michele Principe, then general director of STET, the company that owned SIP, was a member of the P2 lodge.


Other suspicions and controversies

*Chichiarelli, the author of the false "Communication No.7", was related to the ''
Banda della Magliana The Banda della Magliana (, ''Magliana Gang'') is an Italian criminal organization based in Rome. It was founded in 1975. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of some of its members. The ''Banda dell ...
''. Aside from its purely criminal activities this large gang in Rome was related to Sicilian Mafia and has been involved in numerous political and terrorist scandals since the 1970s. Judiciary acts have proved that members of the gang had a role in the assassination of Pecorelli and in the case of
Roberto Calvi Roberto Calvi (13 April 1920 – 17 June 1982) was an Italian banker, dubbed "God's Banker" () by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. He was a native of Milan and was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in ...
(both of which saw the incrimination of Giulio Andreotti), in the financial affairs of the
Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...
(including the kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi), and in the sidetracking of the investigations on massacres such as that of Bologna Station. Judge Ferdinando Imposimato proved that the "Banda della Magliana" had strong ties with
SISMI Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...
(Italy's military intelligence agency), and that the latter inspired the farce of the communication and of the ''Lago della Duchessa''. Finally, the apartment of via Montalcini, in which Moro was allegedly detained by the Red Brigades, was located in the
Magliana The Magliana () is an urban zone of Rome, known as 15E of Municipio XI of Rome. It also the name of a neighborhood or ward of the city. Geographically, it is located on the southwest periphery of Rome, Italy along the Tiber River. The neighborh ...
quarter of southern Rome and a member of the gang owned the building facing that apartment. *Members of Moro's escort, who were not in service on the day of the kidnap, declared in September 1978 that Moro was a habitual person, and that every day he got out from his house exactly at 09:00 AM. However, Moro's widow denied this circumstance during her interview in front of the investigative judges on 23 September 1978. *Francesco Cossiga declared that Moro's confessor, Don
Antonio Mennini Antonio Mennini (born 2 September 1947) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. having been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, he served as the Nuncio to Great Britain from 18 December 2010 until 6 February 2017 when Pope Francis transferred ...
(later
papal nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...
to Great Britain), was allowed to enter in the politician's cell just before his execution. In 2015, Don Mennini has denied this reconstruction.


Political consequences

The kidnapping and murder of Moro drastically changed the politics of Italy. The Historic Compromise between DC and PCI, one of Moro's main goals, was not liked by Italy's main international partners. On 23 March 1976, Aldo Moro, during his tenure as prime minister, took part in the G7 conference in
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
. When he asked his colleagues' opinions about the matter they replied to him that, if it materialized, the presence of the Communists in the executive would cause the loss of international support (including financial ones) for Italy. At the previous general elections, DC had scored a 38%, followed by PCI with 34%. Moro was considered a natural candidate for the next
President of the Italian Republic President most commonly refers to: * President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
, with the ensuing realization of the government alliance between the two parties. His assassination marked the definitive end of the Historic Compromise.Guy Debord, January 1979, Foreword to the fourth Italian edition of ''La società dello spettacolo'' (Vallecchi, Florence, 1979). On 16 March 1978, the very day of the kidnapping of Moro, Andreotti's cabinet obtained the vote of confidence: it was voted for by all the Italian parties, with the exception of the Social Movement, the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
(the first a far right party, the second a centre-right one), the Radical Party and of
Proletarian Democracy Proletarian Democracy ( it, Democrazia Proletaria, DP) was a far-left political party in Italy. History 1970s DP was founded in 1975 as a joint electoral front of the Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP), Workers Vanguard (AO) and the "Workers Movemen ...
(the latter being left/far left formations). The executive was formed exclusively by members from DC and could govern only with the indirect support of PCI (the so-called ''non sfiducia'', non-no confidence). Between 1978 and 1979, Italy was involved with a series of events, after the assassination of Moro; on 15 June, Giovanni Leone resigned from the presidency of the Republic, ending six months before his term as a result of harsh polemics and attacks on his person. A few weeks later,
Sandro Pertini Alessandro "Sandro" Pertini (; 25 September 1896 – 24 February 1990) was an Italian socialist politician who served as the president of Italy from 1978 to 1985. Early life Born in Stella ( Province of Savona) as the son of a wealthy landow ...
was elected with plebiscite vote. In January 1979, Andreotti's cabinet resigned: Pertini entrusted the task to
Ugo La Malfa Ugo La Malfa (16 May 1903 – 26 March 1979) was an Italian politician and an important leader of the Italian Republican Party (''Partito Repubblicano Italiano''; PRI). Early years and anti-fascist resistance La Malfa was born in Palermo, Sic ...
, but the attempt failed and there were new elections. At successive elections, the DC remained stable while the PCI suffered a sharp setback: this result marked the end of the government of national solidarity and the possibility of entry of the Communists in the executive. The party, under the stronger influence of Ciriaco De Mita (from 1982 to 1989), Giulio Andreotti and
Arnaldo Forlani Arnaldo Forlani, (; born 8 December 1925) is an Italian former politician and statesman who served as the 43rd prime minister of Italy from 18 October 1980 to 28 June 1981. He also held the office of deputy prime minister, minister of Foreign A ...
(from 1989), remained a government party until 1994; in the 1992 elections went down for the first time below 30% of the votes due to the Lega Nord's growth in Northern Italy, and following the requests of
Mani pulite ''Mani pulite'' (; Italian language, Italian for "clean hands") was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the so-called "History of the Italian Republic#First ...
scandal (and the ties between the Mafia and Andreotti himself) that also involved the allied parties (in addition to former PCI, renamed
PDS PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to: Arts and media * ''People's Democracy'' (newspaper), weekly organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) * ''The Plain Dealer'', a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper * Post Diaspora, a time frame in the ''Honorverse'' ...
, involved at the local level), continued to lose support. In 1994, the party was disbanded and the DC's last secretary, Mino Martinazzoli, decided to change the name of the party to the Italian People's Party. According to the acts of the Italian Parliament commission on terrorism:


See also

* ''
The Moro Affair ''The Moro Affair'' ( it, Il caso Moro) is a 1986 Italian crime film directed by Giuseppe Ferrara about the kidnapping of Aldo Moro in 1978. Plot Italy, 1978. The days of the imprisonment of Aldo Moro, a Christian Democrat statesman kidnapped ...
'' * Years of Lead *
Terrorism in the European Union history of terrorism in Europe. This has often been linked to nationalist and separatist movements (separating countries), while other acts have been related to politics (including anarchism, far-right and far-left extremism), religious extremis ...


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * *


External links


Interactive website/Blog about the Moro affair

The Moro Affair from A to Z

Gallery of contemporary frontpages and videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moro, Aldo 1970s in Rome 1978 mass shootings in Europe 1978 murders in Italy Kidnapping Communist terrorism Conspiracy theories in Italy Deaths by person in Italy Kidnapping in the 1970s Kidnappings in Italy March 1978 crimes March 1978 events in Europe Mass murder in 1978 20th-century mass murder in Italy Mass shootings in Italy Murder in Rome Red Brigades Terrorist incidents in Italy in 1978 Terrorist incidents in Lazio Years of Lead (Italy)