1978

June 23, Seregno
Roberto Girondi, 17 years old

June 23, 1978.

Seregno, via Ballerini, a few steps from the city center. Suddenly, on the side of the elementary school Umberto Primo, a roar. An explosion, the flames, the screams. And then I smoke, a lot of smoke. A young man is enveloped by flames, while his two companions on the ground complain, struck by the fragments of the metal vessel that contained the explosive. They are loaded and taken to the center of large burns of Niguarda.

Who are the three boys? The most serious is Rossano Barbiere, 15 years old.

The other two are Roberto Cocozza, 17 and Roberto Girondi, 17. They only managed for a moment to say that they had seen a wrapper on the street. Intrigused they had approached. Then the explosion. It is quick to say “we found him on the ground while we were walking.” For the investigators it was immediately clear. “The three boys were preparing an attack. Something had gone wrong and they had blown up.” Public opinion was even tougher with the ‘bombers’ ‘I deserved it’ people thought.

For the investigators, the newspapers, public opinion, the three had placed the bomb. For whole days, the three boys were for all “terrorists blown up while preparing an attack.”

The reason? Unknown. In Seregno, just touched by the crisis, the bad guys were identified immediately. And condemned. Hurriedly. Without appeal. In bars, in neighborhoods, like at the S. Ambrogio, like at the Lazzaretto. A unanimous condemnation. Before, long before a ‘final condemnat’.

Instead, nothing was true. NOTHING. The three had actually found the casing by chance and had blown up. After days of slander against them it was discovered that the investigators were wrong. Someone else had put the explosive at the mayor’s house. All the testimonies confirmed the innocence of the three boys. They had told the truth. They had nothing to do with the attack. They were just victims.

Not only of bomb terrorism, but also of media terrorism.

Public opinion had condemned them. Unfortunately, the story is not over yet. The tragedy is not yet over.

17-year-old Girondi Roberto didn’t make it.

He died from his injuries.