1979
July 13, Druento (TO)
Bartolomeo Mana, 34 years old, Municipal Police Officer

It’s July 13, 1979, right in the midst of the “Years of Lead” in Italy. Bartolomeo Mana, 34 years old, is on duty with a colleague in front of the Savings Bank on Via Torino in Druento, a village of almost eight thousand inhabitants on the outskirts of Turin. A quiet morning that quickly turns into terror. Four terrorists assault the bank, wielding weapons, they force the two armed guards and the two policemen, who were unarmed and outside, to enter. Everyone present is ordered to lie on the ground; Bartolomeo is pushed, loses his balance, and hitting his head as he falls. Stunned by the fall, he tries to get up but is shot at point-blank range in the back of the head. The robbers ransack what they can and flee in the yellow Giulietta they arrived in. Police and Carabinieri arrive, Bartolomeo Mana is rushed to the Maria Vittoria Hospital in Turin by ambulance, but he dies shortly after arriving at the Emergency Room. A senseless and unjustified death.
Bartolomeo, “Meo” to his friends, had always lived in Druento. For years he worked for the Province as a road maintenance worker, but due to an accident, he had to change jobs. He followed in his father’s footsteps and took part in the competition for Municipal Police Officer announced by the Municipality, winning it. Ironically, on that tragic, cursed July 13, he was formally notified of his long-awaited official appointment as a “Judicial Police Officer.”
The coffin was displayed on the ground floor of the town hall and watched over by a group of colleagues in uniform. The city declared a day of mourning, and on the day of the funeral, the highest city authorities, regional officials, colleagues from neighboring municipalities, and thousands of people participated tearfully in the funeral procession.
There was no claim of responsibility for the robbery, and it was only a year later, following a large international anti-terrorism operation, that the murderer of Bartolomeo, among others, was arrested. He began to collaborate with investigators, allowing them to discover that the perpetrators of the robbery were members of Prima Linea. The killer of “Meo” (Editor’s note: Roberto Sandalo) was sentenced to 11 years and 7 months, of which he served only two and a half. He changed his identity and continued his criminal activity until he died in prison in 2014.
In 2004, Bartolomeo Mana was awarded the medal for special merits by the Piedmont Region, as he fell in the line of duty.
In 2010, posthumously, he was granted, by decree of the President of the Republic, the honor of being recognized as a victim of terrorism with the assignment of the gold medal.