1975

May 25, Milan
Alberto Brasili, 26 years old, working student

In 1975 the clashes between elements of the extreme right and the extreme left in Milan created a widespread climate of mutual distrust and violence, intriveled by the killings of Sergio Ramelli (assaulted on March 13 and died on April 29), Claudio Varalli (killed on April 16) and Giannino Zibecch] (killed on April 17). On the evening of Sunday, May 25, 1975, Brasili is walking downtown with his girlfriend, Lucia Corna, a few years younger than him; he wears an eskimo, jeans, wears a beard and long hair and for those years this is enough to identify him as a left-wing militant and in addition the eskimo is almost a uniform for the protagonists of the youth protest.

At 22.30 the two pass in via Mascagni on the corner with Piazza San Babila, where Brasili notices an electoral sticker of the MSI attached to a light pole and detaches it and this gesture attracts the attention of five young right-wing extremists, Antonio Bega, Pietro Croce, Giorgio Nicolosi, Enrico Caruso and Giovanni Sciavicco, who at that moment are leaving a bar in Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Piazza San Babila is a place frequented by neo-fascist exponents and nearby there is also a headquarters of the MSI; the run-ups of young people on the right are frequent in the area, so much so that the term sanbabilino was used as a synonym for neo-fascist.

The five, convinced that they are facing a communist, begin to stalk the two to punish them with the gesture. Brasili and Corna do not realize they are being stalked.

The amburgling snaps in front of the provincial headquarters of the National Association of Partisans of Italy:

“I heard them coming when they were behind us – Lucia then said – and I saw the blades of the knives shimmering. One of the five grabbed me and started hitting me while the others were raging at Alberto.”
(Lucia Corna)

The two are stabbed repeatedly. Brasili is reached by five breakers, one of which will be fatal to him by reaching his heart while the girl, shot twice in the left hemthorax, escapes death only because the blade misses the heart by a few centimeters; the boy will die shortly after his arrival at the Fatebenefratelli hospital.

From this story, director Carlo Lizzani took his cue for the film ‘San Babila ore 20’.