1982
January 3, Rovigo
Angelo Furlan, 64 years old, retired
It was on January 3, 1982, when the “years of lead” also disrupted our peaceful city. A wound that is still remembered today. It was 3:45 PM on Sunday afternoon, that January 3, 1982, exactly 40 years ago, when eight people, led by Sergio Segio, leader of Prima Linea, approached Via Mazzini with the intent of blowing up the prison wall to facilitate the escape of some inmates, members of the extreme-left armed organization detained in what was then the city prison.
The commando left the cars, stolen in the previous days and with replaced plates, in Via Gorizia. The plan had been carefully studied, and the prison layout was provided to them from inside by the four inmates who were to escape. The eight commando members positioned themselves at tactical points in the area: Segio and Diego Forastieri at the intersection of Via Mazzini, Via Mure Soccorso, and Via Mure San Giuseppe; Gianluca Frassinetti and Giulia Luisa Borelli at the intersection of Via Mazzini and Via Verdi; Rosario Schettini in the Pasteur gallery; Lucio Di Giacomo near the newsstand between Via Mazzini and Viale Trieste to keep passersby away; Pasquale Avilio between Viale Trieste and Via Tommaseo.
The entire area was thus under surveillance. The blitz was ready to start: from inside the prison, the agreed signal came, that is, the music and singing of the inmates indicating that the yard time was about to end and that soon they would pass near the perimeter wall separating the courtyard from Via Mazzini.
The terrorists, armed with pistols, submachine guns, and rifles, unleashed a hail of bullets: they shot upwards and against the perimeter wall, forcing the prison guards on watch to take cover behind the parapet. Everything happened in a matter of seconds. Massimo Carfora entered the scene driving an A112, parked it close to the prison wall, then lit the fuse of the explosive placed on the seat.
In a few moments, a deafening roar tore through the air. A sort of small earthquake that created a one-and-a-half-meter breach in the wall. Smoke and stone fragments hit buildings along the street within an 80-meter radius. The windows of houses shattered, and seven people sustained non-serious injuries. The telephone and electrical lines went down.
The pieces of the A112 flew away wildly, with the door flying 30 meters away, up to the entrance of the Pasteur gallery, hitting Angelo Furlan, a retiree who had come out to walk his dog. The impact was tremendous; the elderly man died a few moments later. Meanwhile, chaos reigned on Via Mazzini.
Segio crossed the breach in the wall; inside, Susanna Ronconi, Federica Meroni, Marina Premoli, and Loredana Biancamano had already immobilized the prison guards. They escaped. The gunfight continued, with the terrorists firing both at the guards on the wall and at a policeman who had rushed over after hearing the gunshots from the Apollo cinema.
A financial police officer rushed out of a house and tried to counter the escape by firing his service pistol. But visibility was poor due to the explosion’s smoke. Sixty-eight pistol and rifle casings were found on the ground. The eight Prima Linea members and the four escaped inmates fled along Via Gorizia. They reached Via Marin, behind Via Pascoli, a few steps from the ring road, where a white van was waiting for their escape. They jumped in and disappeared. The next day, the prison assault was claimed with a leaflet found in Milan by the “Nucleo Comunisti” in collaboration with the “Comunisti Organizzati per la Liberazione Proletaria” (Colp).
Attempts to help Furlan were futile. Police and carabinieri intervened on the spot. Investigations coordinated by Dario Curtarello began. On January 28, in Rome, Pietro Mutti, a member of Prima Linea, was arrested. He decided to collaborate. In the following months, almost all members of the attack group were arrested.
The trial was held in Rovigo in 1985. It was revealed that the idea of attacking the Rovigo prison originated from Sergio Segio to facilitate Ronconi’s escape. Segio, Forastieri, Schettini, and Carfora belonged to the Nuclei Comunisti, one of the two factions into which Prima Linea had split. The other was Colp, which included Di Giacomo, Borelli, Avilio, and Frassinetti.