1977

01 October, Turin
Roberto Crescenzio, 22 years old, working university student

On the morning of October 1, 1977, a demonstration was held in Turin organized by Lotta Continua, the circles of the youth proletariat and Autonomia Operaia, in response to the killing of Walter Rossi (see card), a left-wing militant, which took place the previous day in Rome. The event, which began around 10:30 am after the arrival in Piazza Solferino of the three processions (the first from via Cernaia, the second from via Po and the third from via Nizza), saw the participation of about 3000 people.
The procession headed first towards Corso Francia, where there was the headquarters of the Italian Social Movement, and on the way there were episodes of violence of various kinds: Molotov bombs were thrown towards the headquarters of the CISNAL in via Mercantini; two cars and a tram were set on fire; cubes of porphyry and bolts were thrown towards the police; a jeans shop and the car of the provincial councilor of the MSI Francesco Carlino were assaulted.
After some clashes with the police in Corso Francia, at 11:30 the procession recomposed and headed towards Palazzo Nuovo, where an assembly was scheduled; but arrived in via Po a group of about ten masked militants stormed, around 11:45, a place in the city center, the “Angelo Azzurro”, considered the usual meeting place of elements linked to the extreme right of the city; in reality the place was managed by a left-wing couple, the spouses Luigi De Maria and Maria Benedetta Evangelista, but the voice was born because a boy of the extreme right had celebrated his birthday in the bar Disco. It was not the first time that the bar was assaulted: on April 22, 1977 it had already been set on fire for the first time, albeit with minor consequences, as it was called a lair of fascists and local bourgeois.
Inside there were two occasional patrons, Diego Mainardo, engineering student and worker at Fiat and his friend Roberto Crescenzio, a student worker son of immigrants from Veneto, in addition to the staff of the place (the owner, his wife and a bartender, Bruno Cattin); the communist extremists of the proletarian armed teams threw some Molotov cocktails inside the bar-disco, which was immediately prey to the flames.
Mainardo was dragged out and beaten, while the staff managed to escape from the back; Crescenzio instead sought escape in the toilet and, trapped, when he tried to escape he was severely burned on 90% of the body because the fire had also extended to the carpet. Transformed into a human torch, he managed to reach Via Po, where he was rescued by some passers-by, lying on a chair and admitted to the CTO Hospital.
Death came two days later and Crescenzio was buried in the cemetery of Sassi.
In the building adjacent to the one where the place was located, three people (an elderly woman, her three-year-old nephew and the latter’s babysitter) risked death from asphyxiation due to smoke, and were rescued by firefighters when they were already unconscious.
The arson attack was never claimed by anyone. The fact was generically attributed to militants of Lotta Continua and the circles of the youth proletariat, but for some alleged perpetrators it did not go beyond the accusations of seditious gathering and unauthorized procession. Years later, the repentant terrorist Roberto Sandalo (with two other militants, Roberto Vacca and Daniele Sacco Lanzoni), regarding the events of that day told the authorities some names. Sandalo was not present at the demonstration, unlike Vacca and Sacco Lanzoni, yet his testimony was considered among the evidence against some of the suspects.
During the trial in the Court of Appeal in 1984, a sentence was issued for concurrence in aggravated manslaughter against Stefano Della Casa (manager of Lotta Continua), Angelo Luparia, Alberto Bonvicini, Angelo De Stefano and Francesco D’Ursi with penalties ranging between 3 years and three months and 3 years and 10 months. Peter Freeman was instead acquitted, as was Silvio Viale, now city councilor, accused only of the assault on the MSI section. Viale was the only one of the defendants to apologize to Crescenzio’s mother, Elvira Bacchetto, in an open letter written in 2002: “… It is right to publicly ask for forgiveness from Roberto Crescenzio’s mother. I do it….. for those who can’t do it.’