1982
July 15, Naples
Antonio Ammaturo, 57 years old, Head of the Mobile Squad
Pasquale Paola, 32 years old, State Police Officer
Antonio Ammaturo, after earning a law degree, won a competition to join the Italian judiciary. However, his interests were oriented toward the State Police, where he joined as an officer in 1955. After attending the Higher Police School, he was assigned to the Bolzano police headquarters and later to Avellino, where he arrested the killer of a carabiniere, and to Benevento and Potenza, where he distinguished himself in operations against the prostitution racket. In 1973 alone, he was promoted three times, reaching the rank of first director of the mobile squad, then vice commissioner, and assistant vice commissioner, with transfers to Frosinone and then Naples, in commissariats: Vomero, Fuorigrotta, Torre del Greco, Capri, and Torre Annunziata. He also served at the Giugliano in Campania police station, but after arresting local Camorra boss Alfredo Maisto, he was transferred to Calabria. In Gioia Tauro, he arrested six fugitives in one night. In Siderno, he seized a large shipment of cigarettes hidden in a cemetery. His commitment and skills were recognized. In Ottaviano, he arrested Roberto Cutolo, son of Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo, during a meeting of Camorristi at the local Medici Castle.
He was killed by the Red Brigades in Naples, near his home in Piazza Nicola Amore, on July 15, 1982, together with officer Pasquale Paola. That day, he had just left his home to go to the police headquarters in a service car driven by Pasquale Paola when two men got out of a car and opened fire, killing them both. The attackers were members of the Red Brigades. The executioners were brigatists Vincenzo Stoccoro, Emilio Manna, Stefano Scarabello, Vittorio Bolognesi, and Marina Sarnelli, who were later sentenced to life imprisonment.
The masterminds behind the murder have never been clearly identified. The assassination is linked to intrigues surrounding the kidnapping and mysterious release of politician Ciro Cirillo by the Red Brigades, a release involving Raffaele Cutolo, secret services, and political figures.
According to evidence in the investigation by Judge Carlo Alemi, Cutolo had requested the “annihilation of cops in the territory” as part of the negotiations for Cirillo’s release. This is supported by statements from brigatist Riccardo Buzzatti. There were two motives for targeting Ammaturo: to halt his investigations into the collusion between the Christian Democrats and the Camorra, and retaliation for arrests made (notably the September 1981 blitz that captured Roberto Cutolo, the boss’s son). The Camorra informant Giovanni Pandico confirmed Cutolo’s intentions, describing a mutually beneficial relationship between criminal organizations and the Red Brigades:
“In January/February 1982, there was a meeting… one evening during this period… Cutolo came in furious and said that among the attacks to be claimed… there should also be the one on Vice Commissioner Antonio Ammaturo. (…) I must add that when Cutolo spoke to me about his decision to kill Ammaturo, he also said that the operation should appear externally as an agreement between the NCO and the Red Brigades, to demonstrate to the central brigatists the existing agreement in Naples with local brigatists. Cutolo had also decided that if the brigatists were not immediately identified, the NCO would claim responsibility for the murder.”