Italicus Express
Encyclopedia
The Italicus Express massacre was a terrorist
bombing in Italy on a train of the Ferrovie dello Stato
(Railways of the State). During the early hours of 4 August 1974, the bomb attack killed 12 people and wounded 48. Responsibility was claimed by the neo-fascist
terrorist organization Ordine Nuovo
.
on which, during the early hours of 4 August 1974, a bomb exploded killing 12 people and injuring 48. The train was travelling from Rome
to Munich
on the Bologna–Florence railway line
. The bomb had been placed in the 5th passenger car of the train and exploded at 1.23 AM. The explosion would have been even stronger if the train had exploded inside San Benedetto Val di Sambro
tunnel. Former Prime Minister of Italy
Aldo Moro
was on the same train on 3 August, but disembarked before the explosion.
issued a statement in these terms:
Giancarlo Esposti was killed on 30 May 1974 according to Novopress
. This was two days after the Piazza della Loggia bombing
.
("revolutionary national front") and Ordine Nuovo
.
At the time, police and intelligence knew that Mario Tuti was a subversive. A few months after the Italicus bombing, a woman denounced to judge Mario Marsili—son-in-law of Licio Gelli
of the Masonic lodge
Propaganda Due
—that the author of the massacre was Mario Tuti. The charge was filed soon by the magistrate and the woman was interned in a mental hospital as a mythomaniac.
in Ajaccio
, Corsica
, and then relocated to the French Riviera
.Google translation into English: Google Translate On 16 May 1975 he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia and confirmed on 30 November 1976 in the final sentence. On 27 July, the terrorist was arrested by French police after a bloody confrontation in Saint-Raphaël
, France
, and extradited to Italy for being tried.
Tuti was sentenced to a 20 years prison term for two bomb attacks which occurred respectively on 31 December 1974 and in January 1975, illegal possession of explosives and firearms, and for promoting and organizing the reconstruction of the Fascist Party. For the Italicus massacre, Tuti was acquitted in the first trial and then sentenced to life imprisonment in the appeal. The Supreme Court of Cassation
nullified the sentence and in the next appeal Tuti was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
bombing in Italy on a train of the Ferrovie dello Stato
Ferrovie dello Stato
Ferrovie dello Stato is a government-owned holding which manage infrastructure and service on the Italian rail network. The subsidiary Trenitalia is the main rail operator in Italy.-Organization:Ferrovie dello Stato subsidiaries are:...
(Railways of the State). During the early hours of 4 August 1974, the bomb attack killed 12 people and wounded 48. Responsibility was claimed by the neo-fascist
Neo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...
terrorist organization Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo , full name Centro Studi Ordine Nuovo, "New Order Scholarship Center") was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and terrorist organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956...
.
Bombing
The Italicus Express was a night train of the Ferrovie dello StatoFerrovie dello Stato
Ferrovie dello Stato is a government-owned holding which manage infrastructure and service on the Italian rail network. The subsidiary Trenitalia is the main rail operator in Italy.-Organization:Ferrovie dello Stato subsidiaries are:...
on which, during the early hours of 4 August 1974, a bomb exploded killing 12 people and injuring 48. The train was travelling from Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
on the Bologna–Florence railway line
Bologna–Florence railway line
The Bologna–Florence railway is one of the major links in the Italian rail network, connecting the railways of the Po Valley with the railways of Tuscany and central Italy under the Apennines. It is also known as the Bologna–Florence Direttissima—"direttissima" is Italian for "most direct". It was...
. The bomb had been placed in the 5th passenger car of the train and exploded at 1.23 AM. The explosion would have been even stronger if the train had exploded inside San Benedetto Val di Sambro
San Benedetto Val di Sambro
San Benedetto Val di Sambro is a comune in the Province of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 35 km southwest of Bologna.-External links:*...
tunnel. Former Prime Minister of Italy
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years....
was on the same train on 3 August, but disembarked before the explosion.
List of victims
- Elena Donatini
- Nicola Buffi
- Herbert Kotriner
- Nunzio Russo
- Maria Santina Carraro
- Marco Russo
- Tsugufumi Fukada
- Antidio Medaglia
- Elena Celli
- Raffaella Garosi
- Wìlbelmus Jacobus Hanema
- Silver Sirotti
Claim of responsibility
The following day, the fascist terrorist group Ordine NuovoOrdine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo , full name Centro Studi Ordine Nuovo, "New Order Scholarship Center") was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and terrorist organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956...
issued a statement in these terms:
"We took revenge for Giancarlo Esposti. We wanted to show the nation that we can place a bomb anywhere we want, whenever and however we please. Let us see in autumn; we will drown democracy under a mountain of dead."
Giancarlo Esposti was killed on 30 May 1974 according to Novopress
Novopress
Novopress is a news site and press agency founded by Fabrice Robert, a leader of the French nationalist organization Bloc Identitaire. It is politically geared towards nationalist, anti-islamist and far right themes....
. This was two days after the Piazza della Loggia bombing
Piazza della Loggia bombing
The Piazza della Loggia bombing was a bombing that took place on the morning of 28 May 1974, in Brescia, Italy during an anti-fascist protest which killed eight people and wounded over 90...
.
Investigation
Aurelio Fianchini, a leftist militant having just escaped from prison, told the press that the bomb was placed in the Italicus Express by Mario Tuti's subversive commando formed by Piero Malentacchi, who effectively placed the explosive in the fifth passenger car of the Italicus Express at the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station, Luciano Franci and Margherita Luddi. They received the order from the Italian fascist terrorist organizations Fronte Nazionale RivoluzionarioFronte Nazionale
Fronte Nazionale is a name that has been used for several Neofascist political parties and movements in Italy.-Junio Valerio Borghese FN:...
("revolutionary national front") and Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo
Ordine Nuovo , full name Centro Studi Ordine Nuovo, "New Order Scholarship Center") was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and terrorist organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956...
.
At the time, police and intelligence knew that Mario Tuti was a subversive. A few months after the Italicus bombing, a woman denounced to judge Mario Marsili—son-in-law of Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli
Licio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...
of the Masonic lodge
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due
Propaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
—that the author of the massacre was Mario Tuti. The charge was filed soon by the magistrate and the woman was interned in a mental hospital as a mythomaniac.
Trials
On 24 January 1975 Mario Tuti escaped from arrest by killing police sergeant Leonardo Falco and corporal Giovanni Ceravolo, and seriously injuring corporal Arturo Rocca. He expatriated to FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in Ajaccio
Ajaccio
Ajaccio , is a commune on the island of Corsica in France. It is the capital and largest city of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....
, Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, and then relocated to the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
.Google translation into English: Google Translate On 16 May 1975 he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia and confirmed on 30 November 1976 in the final sentence. On 27 July, the terrorist was arrested by French police after a bloody confrontation in Saint-Raphaël
Saint-Raphaël, Dordogne
Saint-Raphaël is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-External links:* *...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and extradited to Italy for being tried.
Tuti was sentenced to a 20 years prison term for two bomb attacks which occurred respectively on 31 December 1974 and in January 1975, illegal possession of explosives and firearms, and for promoting and organizing the reconstruction of the Fascist Party. For the Italicus massacre, Tuti was acquitted in the first trial and then sentenced to life imprisonment in the appeal. The Supreme Court of Cassation
Court of Cassation (Italy)
The Supreme Court of Cassation is the major court of last resort in Italy. It has its seat in the Rome Hall of Justice.The Court of Cassation exists also to “ensure the observation and the correct interpretation of law” by ensuring the same application of law in the inferior and appeal courts...
nullified the sentence and in the next appeal Tuti was acquitted for lack of evidence.
See also
- Anni di piombo ("years of lead")
- Giorgio BoccaGiorgio BoccaGiorgio Valentino Bocca is an Italian essayist and journalist, also known for his participation in the World War II partisan movement.- Biography :...
, author of "Gli anni del terrorismo" - Gladio in ItalyGladio in ItalyWhile "stay-behind" anti-communist networks existed in all NATO countries, the Italian branch of Operation Gladio was the first one to be discovered. It was set up under Minister of Defense Paolo Taviani's supervision...
- List of terrorist incidents, 1974
- List of terrorist incidents involving railway systems
- Operation GladioOperation GladioOperation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
- Propaganda DuePropaganda DuePropaganda Due , or P2, was a Masonic lodge operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to 1976 , and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to...
- Piazza della Loggia bombingPiazza della Loggia bombingThe Piazza della Loggia bombing was a bombing that took place on the morning of 28 May 1974, in Brescia, Italy during an anti-fascist protest which killed eight people and wounded over 90...
- Strategy of tensionStrategy of tensionThe strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
- August 1980 Bologna bombing