1982
July 16, Lissone
Valerio Renzi, 44 years old, Chief Marshal of the Carabinieri
In the Brianza area, particularly targeted by the Red Brigades at the time, the fight against terrorism was crucial. General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa managed the anti-terrorism group operating there, as Milan and its surroundings had a significant presence of Red Brigades cells.
As was his daily routine, on the morning of July 16, 1982, Renzi drove alone in his service car to the Lissone post office to pick up the mail. As he rounded the corner of the building, he unexpectedly found himself amidst a robbery, an operation that in the terrorist jargon of the time was termed a “proletarian expropriation.” The car was struck by bursts of Kalashnikov fire from multiple points along the street and the building. Renzi managed to open the door, while the shots continued, narrowly missing some unsuspecting passersby. The car, now out of control, continued to move on its own, while a member of the Red Brigades commando killed him with pistol shots. Subsequent investigations revealed the presence of three lookouts, who greeted Renzi with Kalashnikov bursts. The service car was riddled with over 70 bullets.
Immediately after the murder, the brigadists fled in a blue Fiat Ritmo and a Fiat 131, escaping without a trace. The cars were later found abandoned. That same night, a statement from the Walter Alasia Column, a splinter group of the Red Brigades, was sent to various news outlets, stating:
“RED BRIGADES, Walter Alasia column, we claim responsibility for the execution of Marshal Renzi during a proletarian expropriation operation.”
A few days later, while being hunted by the police and Carabinieri, the terrorists planned their next proletarian expropriation in a Milanese ice cream parlor. Three plainclothes policemen entered the establishment by chance and noticed a pistol in a bag on the table where the brigadists were sitting. One of the officers went into the bathroom to load his weapon immediately. The other two approached the terrorists and asked one of them for a gun license. Calmly pretending to search for it, the terrorist drew his pistol and started shooting, while the officer hidden in the bathroom responded immediately, wounding the terrorists and neutralizing them. One of the wounded terrorists managed to escape the establishment, stopped a car, and drove off, but died from blood loss a few blocks away. The others were captured.