Train 904 bombing
Encyclopedia
The Train 904 bombing, also known as the Christmas Massacre, was a terror attack which occurred on December 23, 1984, in the Apennine Base Tunnel
. A bomb on the 904 express train (Rapido 904) from Naples
to Milan
was detonated, killed 17 and wounded 267. The bombing location was near the location of the Italicus Express bombing ten years previously.
The motive behind the bomb attack was to distract Italian security forces from investigating the Sicilian Mafia after the testimony of the Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta
to Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone
had led to a series of arrest warrants in September 1984 that subsequently would lead to the Maxi Trial
against 474 Mafia defendants. Mafia boss Giuseppe Calò
, also known as "Pippo", was convicted for ordering and organising the attack in February 1989. In April 2011 Mafia "boss of bosses" Salvatore Riina
was indicted for ordering the bombing.
, on a long straight stretch with speed limits of up to 160 km/h at the time, and was running at 150 km/h.
The bomb had been placed on a luggage rack whilst the train was in Florence Santa Maria Novella railway station. Unlike train bombings in the previous decades of political turmoil, the bomb was remote controlled and was detonated while the train was well into the tunnel, in order to maximize the damage. The bomb exploded as planned. Its shock wave, reflected by the tunnel sides, blew out all the windows glass and internal doors, throwing shrapnel
-like shards into the compartments. 15 died as a direct consequence of the blast, and two more died later because of their wounds.
The emergency brake was pulled, and the train came to a stop a thousand or so meters from the blast, 8 kilometers from the northern entrance and 10 from the southern. Train conductor Gian Claudio Bianconcini - at his last journey before retiring - was wounded in the nape
of his neck, but managed to reach a service telephone and call for help. Passengers were scared and stranded in the cold Apennines' winter.
Radio communications were difficult, worsened by the lack of a mobile radio link; weather was bad, the train was deep inside the tunnel and a strong smell of black powder impaired breathing. While damage and smoke impaired prompt access from the southern entrance, the wind blowing smoke south was a fortunate, avoiding smoke buildup in the tunnel and leaving the northern entrance - nearest to the emergency response center of Bologna - relatively clear.
A diesel-electric
engine was brought from Bologna
to recover the head section of the damaged train, allowing rescuers to reach the blown-up coach. Coaches of a rescue train were used as ambulances, ferrying the injured and taking them to San Benedetto Val di Sambro
station. Underestimation of the scale of the incident led to only a single doctor being present on the rescue train. 15 ambulances took the critical patients to Bologna
Ospedale Maggiore, with Polizia di Stato
and Carabinieri
escorts.
A special plan, developed in the wake of the many disasters of the previous decade such as the Italicus and Bologna bombing, was activated for the first time and was instrumental in providing a fast response: local police reserved some roads for ambulance routes, while coordination between responders was managed by Bologna Soccorso, a regional emergency management group evolved from the late CePIS (and which would eventually become the core of the national emergency response network).
After unloading its first shipment of injured, the train quickly got back to the tunnel and loaded the uninjured passengers, who were beginning to suffer from the cold wind. However smoke from its diesel engines inadvertently filled the tunnel. Passengers and responders still inside the tunnel had to be provided with oxygen masks. After the train departed, a woman was found in shock into a tunnel cavity, and was taken by foot to the nearby Ca' di Landino station. Snow begun to fall while the last passengers were evacuated.
station, so the inquiry was assigned to Florence prosecutors.
In March 1985, Mafia boss Pippo Calò and Guido Cercola were stopped in Rome and jailed for crimes related to drug trafficking. The hideout of Calò was found on May 11 in a small rural cottage near Poggio San Lorenzo
in Rieti
: searches found a suitcase in the cellar, containing two smaller cases within which there were batteries, a radio receiver, a radio transmitter, antennas, wires, weapons and explosives. This explosive was checked by forensic labs in Rome
and Florence
, and proved to be the same as the one used on Train 904.
On January 9, 1986, prosecutor Pierluigi Vigna charged Calò and Cercola with the massacre
. According to the inquiry, the bombing was intended to distract the state security forces from investigating the Sicilian Mafia after the testimony of the Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta
to investigating Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone
had led to a series of arrest warrants in September 1984 that subsequently would lead to the Maxi Trial
against 474 Mafia defendants.
Cercola was linked to a German, Friedrich Schaudinn, who built electronic devices to be used in bombings. Those devices were found in Pippo Calò's home. Many links were found between Calò, the Camorra
and extreme right-wing neo-Fascist groups. Calò had ties with P2 masonic lodge
and the Banda della Magliana
, and was a well known to many Italian terrorists, including Cristiano and Valerio Fioravanti
, Massimo Carminati and Walter Sordi.
The Florence Criminal Court found Pippo Calò, Cercola and people linked to them (Alfonso Galeota, Giulio Pirozzi and Camorra
boss Giuseppe Misso) guilty on February 25, 1989, sentencing them to life imprisonment for massacre. Franco Di Agostino was sentenced to 28 years, Schaudinn to 25 and other involved in the inquiry received minor sentences. A second grade trial took place on March 15, 1990, in Florence by Giulio Catelani. Calò and Cercola's jail time was confirmed, and Di Agostino was given a life sentence. Misso, Pirozzi and Galeota were discharged in regard to the massacre, but found guilty of possession of explosives. Schaudinn was found not formally linked with Mafia, and his sentence for the massacre was revised to 22 years.
On March 5, 1991, the Corte di Cassazione presided by Corrado Carnevale
unexpectedly voided the sentence. General Prosecutor Antonino Scopelliti was against the ruling, and called for a fair crime prosecution. Carnevale allowed a new trial of the suspects by the Florence court. Calò and Cercola sentences were confirmed, Di Agostino got 24 years, Schaudinn got 22. Misso's sentence was cut to three years; Galeota and Pirozzi sentence to eighteen months, their role in the massacre being deemed as marginal.
The same day, Galeota and Pirozzi, along with latter's wife Rita Casolaro and Misso's wife Assunta Sarno, were returning to Naples when their car was rammed on the A1 motorway near Afragola
/Acerra
exit. Killers sent by the Camorra clans opened fire, killing Galeota and Sarno (executed by a gunshot in the mouth). Giulio Pirozzi and his wife were saved by a police car which fortuitously passed on the opposite lane, causing the killers to flee.
The Corte di Cassazione confirmed the sentences on November 24, 1992, officially recognizing a "coordinated hand by the Mafia" in the disaster. On February 18, 1994, Florence Court discharged MSI
member of Parliament Massimo Abbatangelo from the massacre charge, but deemed him guilty of giving the explosive to Misso in the spring of 1984. Abbatangelo was sentenced to 6 years. Victims' relatives asked for a tougher sentence, but lost the appeal and had to pay for judiciary expenses.
Guido Cercola committed suicide in Sulmona
's penitentiary on January 3, 2005. He strangled himself with shoelaces, and died while being rushed to the hospital.
On April 27, 2011, the Antimafia Office of Naples issued a custody order against Mafia "boss of bosses" Totò Riina, the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission
, considering him the brains behind the massacre. Prosecutors said that the explosive used to carry out Train 904 attack were the same used to kill Antimafia judge Paolo Borsellino
and his escort in via D'Amelio on July 19, 1992.
Apennine Base Tunnel
The Apennine Base Tunnel is a railway tunnel 18.507 km, , long on the Direttissima line connecting Florence and Bologna, in central Italy. The tunnel was opened on 21 April 1934 shortening the rail connection by 35 km compared to the old railway line over the mountain range...
. A bomb on the 904 express train (Rapido 904) from Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
was detonated, killed 17 and wounded 267. The bombing location was near the location of the Italicus Express bombing ten years previously.
The motive behind the bomb attack was to distract Italian security forces from investigating the Sicilian Mafia after the testimony of the Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...
to Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...
had led to a series of arrest warrants in September 1984 that subsequently would lead to the Maxi Trial
Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial that took place in Sicily during the mid-1980s that saw hundreds of defendants on trial convicted for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities, based primarily on testimony given in as evidence from a former boss turned informant...
against 474 Mafia defendants. Mafia boss Giuseppe Calò
Giuseppe Calò
Giuseppe 'Pippo' Calò is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was referred to as the "Mafia's Cashier" because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering....
, also known as "Pippo", was convicted for ordering and organising the attack in February 1989. In April 2011 Mafia "boss of bosses" Salvatore Riina
Salvatore Riina
Salvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...
was indicted for ordering the bombing.
The bombing
On Sunday, December 23, 1984 the Rapido 904 was on regular service between Naples and Milan. It was traveling northbound, overcrowded by 700 holiday passengers coming back home or visiting relatives due to the upcoming Christmas holidays. At 7.08 p.m. a bomb exploded in the ninth car, a 2nd class coach in the middle of the train-set. The train was 8 kilometers into the Apennine Base Tunnel, on the Florence–Rome high-speed railway line near VernioVernio
Vernio is a comune in the Province of Prato in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 30 km northwest of Florence and about 20 km north of Prato....
, on a long straight stretch with speed limits of up to 160 km/h at the time, and was running at 150 km/h.
The bomb had been placed on a luggage rack whilst the train was in Florence Santa Maria Novella railway station. Unlike train bombings in the previous decades of political turmoil, the bomb was remote controlled and was detonated while the train was well into the tunnel, in order to maximize the damage. The bomb exploded as planned. Its shock wave, reflected by the tunnel sides, blew out all the windows glass and internal doors, throwing shrapnel
Shrapnel
Shrapnel shells were anti-personnel artillery munitions which carried a large number of individual bullets close to the target and then ejected them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually. They relied almost entirely on the shell's velocity for...
-like shards into the compartments. 15 died as a direct consequence of the blast, and two more died later because of their wounds.
The emergency brake was pulled, and the train came to a stop a thousand or so meters from the blast, 8 kilometers from the northern entrance and 10 from the southern. Train conductor Gian Claudio Bianconcini - at his last journey before retiring - was wounded in the nape
Nape
The nape is the back of the neck. In technical anatomical/medical terminology, the nape is referred to by the word nucha, which also gives the adjective corresponding to "nape" in English, "nuchal"....
of his neck, but managed to reach a service telephone and call for help. Passengers were scared and stranded in the cold Apennines' winter.
First response
Bianconcini gave first aid to the passengers, while the gallery's neon lights were fading since the explosion had blasted away the overhead wires. Rescuers encountered problems reaching the disaster scene. Rescue vehicles gathered at the southern entrance of the tunnel, but were blocked by thick smoke emerging from it. After an hour and a half the first service vehicles dispatched to the scene could reach the stricken train, without any hint of what happened.Radio communications were difficult, worsened by the lack of a mobile radio link; weather was bad, the train was deep inside the tunnel and a strong smell of black powder impaired breathing. While damage and smoke impaired prompt access from the southern entrance, the wind blowing smoke south was a fortunate, avoiding smoke buildup in the tunnel and leaving the northern entrance - nearest to the emergency response center of Bologna - relatively clear.
A diesel-electric
Diesel-electric
Diesel-electric transmission or diesel-electric powertrain is used by a number of vehicle and ship types for providing locomotion.A diesel-electric transmission system includes a diesel engine connected to an electrical generator, creating electricity that powers electric traction motors...
engine was brought from Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
to recover the head section of the damaged train, allowing rescuers to reach the blown-up coach. Coaches of a rescue train were used as ambulances, ferrying the injured and taking them to 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:*...
station. Underestimation of the scale of the incident led to only a single doctor being present on the rescue train. 15 ambulances took the critical patients to Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
Ospedale Maggiore, with Polizia di Stato
Polizia di Stato
The Polizia di Stato is one of the national police forces of Italy.It is the main police force for providing police duties and it is also responsible for patrolling motorways , railways , airports , customs as well as certain waterways, and assisting the local police...
and Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
escorts.
A special plan, developed in the wake of the many disasters of the previous decade such as the Italicus and Bologna bombing, was activated for the first time and was instrumental in providing a fast response: local police reserved some roads for ambulance routes, while coordination between responders was managed by Bologna Soccorso, a regional emergency management group evolved from the late CePIS (and which would eventually become the core of the national emergency response network).
After unloading its first shipment of injured, the train quickly got back to the tunnel and loaded the uninjured passengers, who were beginning to suffer from the cold wind. However smoke from its diesel engines inadvertently filled the tunnel. Passengers and responders still inside the tunnel had to be provided with oxygen masks. After the train departed, a woman was found in shock into a tunnel cavity, and was taken by foot to the nearby Ca' di Landino station. Snow begun to fall while the last passengers were evacuated.
Inquiry
Within hours after the blast, a number of left and the right wing groups claimed responsibility. Official suspicion centered on neo-Fascist terrorists, since the attack took place on the same railway stretch at which right-wing extremists bombed the Italicus train in 1974, killing twelve and wounding 48. The Public Prosecutor Office promptly began an inquiry. A chemical and ballistic survey was commissioned in order to find the kind of explosive used and the disaster dynamics. A witness was found: he saw two people placing two bags in the 9th car luggage rack in FlorenceFlorence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
station, so the inquiry was assigned to Florence prosecutors.
In March 1985, Mafia boss Pippo Calò and Guido Cercola were stopped in Rome and jailed for crimes related to drug trafficking. The hideout of Calò was found on May 11 in a small rural cottage near Poggio San Lorenzo
Poggio San Lorenzo
Poggio San Lorenzo is a comune in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Latium, located about 50 km northeast of Rome and about 15 km south of Rieti....
in Rieti
Rieti
Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of c. 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti.The town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding a wide plain at the southern edge of an ancient lake. The area is now the fertile basin of the Velino River...
: searches found a suitcase in the cellar, containing two smaller cases within which there were batteries, a radio receiver, a radio transmitter, antennas, wires, weapons and explosives. This explosive was checked by forensic labs in 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...
and Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, and proved to be the same as the one used on Train 904.
On January 9, 1986, prosecutor Pierluigi Vigna charged Calò and Cercola with the massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
. According to the inquiry, the bombing was intended to distract the state security forces from investigating the Sicilian Mafia after the testimony of the Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...
to investigating Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...
had led to a series of arrest warrants in September 1984 that subsequently would lead to the Maxi Trial
Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial that took place in Sicily during the mid-1980s that saw hundreds of defendants on trial convicted for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities, based primarily on testimony given in as evidence from a former boss turned informant...
against 474 Mafia defendants.
Cercola was linked to a German, Friedrich Schaudinn, who built electronic devices to be used in bombings. Those devices were found in Pippo Calò's home. Many links were found between Calò, the Camorra
Camorra
The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
and extreme right-wing neo-Fascist groups. Calò had ties with P2 masonic lodge
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...
and the Banda della Magliana
Banda della Magliana
The Banda della Magliana was an Italian criminal organization based in Rome, particularly active throughout the late 1970s until the early 1990s. Given by the media, the name refers to the original neighborhood, the Magliana, of most of its members....
, and was a well known to many Italian terrorists, including Cristiano and Valerio Fioravanti
Valerio Fioravanti
Giuseppe Valerio Fioravanti is an Italian former child actor and terrorist, founder of the neo-fascist terrorist group Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari....
, Massimo Carminati and Walter Sordi.
The Florence Criminal Court found Pippo Calò, Cercola and people linked to them (Alfonso Galeota, Giulio Pirozzi and Camorra
Camorra
The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
boss Giuseppe Misso) guilty on February 25, 1989, sentencing them to life imprisonment for massacre. Franco Di Agostino was sentenced to 28 years, Schaudinn to 25 and other involved in the inquiry received minor sentences. A second grade trial took place on March 15, 1990, in Florence by Giulio Catelani. Calò and Cercola's jail time was confirmed, and Di Agostino was given a life sentence. Misso, Pirozzi and Galeota were discharged in regard to the massacre, but found guilty of possession of explosives. Schaudinn was found not formally linked with Mafia, and his sentence for the massacre was revised to 22 years.
On March 5, 1991, the Corte di Cassazione presided by Corrado Carnevale
Corrado Carnevale
Corrado Carnevale is an Italian judge, currently member of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation. He became famous because of the large number of Mafia cases overturned in the Appeal Court where he was president, because of his involvement in some of the worst corruption scandals in the history...
unexpectedly voided the sentence. General Prosecutor Antonino Scopelliti was against the ruling, and called for a fair crime prosecution. Carnevale allowed a new trial of the suspects by the Florence court. Calò and Cercola sentences were confirmed, Di Agostino got 24 years, Schaudinn got 22. Misso's sentence was cut to three years; Galeota and Pirozzi sentence to eighteen months, their role in the massacre being deemed as marginal.
The same day, Galeota and Pirozzi, along with latter's wife Rita Casolaro and Misso's wife Assunta Sarno, were returning to Naples when their car was rammed on the A1 motorway near Afragola
Afragola
Afragola is a city and comune in southern Italy. It is in Campania, in the province of Naples, between the territories corresponding to the ancient cities of Acerra and Atella...
/Acerra
Acerra
Acerra is a town and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the Province of Naples, about 20 km northeast of the provincial capital in Naples. It is part of the Agro Acerrano plain.-History:...
exit. Killers sent by the Camorra clans opened fire, killing Galeota and Sarno (executed by a gunshot in the mouth). Giulio Pirozzi and his wife were saved by a police car which fortuitously passed on the opposite lane, causing the killers to flee.
The Corte di Cassazione confirmed the sentences on November 24, 1992, officially recognizing a "coordinated hand by the Mafia" in the disaster. On February 18, 1994, Florence Court discharged MSI
MSI
-Computing:* Windows Installer, an installer system written by Microsoft for Windows platforms * Medium Scale Integration, a generation of integrated circuit chips which contain hundreds of transistors...
member of Parliament Massimo Abbatangelo from the massacre charge, but deemed him guilty of giving the explosive to Misso in the spring of 1984. Abbatangelo was sentenced to 6 years. Victims' relatives asked for a tougher sentence, but lost the appeal and had to pay for judiciary expenses.
Guido Cercola committed suicide in Sulmona
Sulmona
thumb|150px|Celestine V's hermitage and the remains of the Shrine of Hercules Curinus.thumb|150px|Palazzo SS. Annunziata and Museo Civicothumb|150px|Church of SS...
's penitentiary on January 3, 2005. He strangled himself with shoelaces, and died while being rushed to the hospital.
On April 27, 2011, the Antimafia Office of Naples issued a custody order against Mafia "boss of bosses" Totò Riina, the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission
Sicilian Mafia Commission
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra...
, considering him the brains behind the massacre. Prosecutors said that the explosive used to carry out Train 904 attack were the same used to kill Antimafia judge Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Borsellino was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo, less than two months after his fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone had been assassinated....
and his escort in via D'Amelio on July 19, 1992.
Casualty list
- Giovanbattista Altobelli (51)
- Anna Maria Brandi (26)
- Angela Calvanese in De Simone (33)
- Anna De Simone (9)
- Giovanni De Simone (4)
- Nicola De Simone (40)
- Susanna Cavalli (22)
- Lucia Cerrato (66)
- Pier Francesco Leoni (23)
- Luisella Matarazzo (25)
- Carmine Moccia (30)
- Valeria Moratello (22)
- Maria Luigia Morini (45)
- Federica Taglialatela (12)
- Abramo Vastarella (29)
- Gioacchino Taglialatela (50, died for his wounds)
- Giovanni Calabrò (67, died for his wounds)