December 16, Brescia
Bianca Daller Gritti, 61 years old, retired teacher

The bomb was detonated a few moments before 7pm: the device was a slow fuse, made inside a pressure cooker which was stuffed with 800 grams of ammonium nitrate, an explosive used for mines. The explosion sent shrapnel up to 50 meters away: at least 10 people were injured, while Professor Daller Gritti, 61 years old, a German teacher, died instantly. In memory of her, in 2007, a plaque was placed: “Innocent victim of a barbaric attack”.

The Carabinieri Lai and Delli Bovi were alerted to a “smoking bag” abandoned on the corner of Via Turati and immediately intervened to remove the curious: with a metal rod the young Lai (he was just 30 years old) managed to move the device of a few meters, certainly limiting the damage of the furious explosion.

In June 1983 the Assize Court of Appeal issued a sentence condemning the perpetrators of the attack, recognizing the terrorist-political motive of the act. Among the condemned were Giuseppe Piccini. Piccini had declared that he had received instructions for the bomb to be placed in a busy area with the aim of terrorizing the city but he subsequently retracted his statements, also denying the political nature of the gesture. The bomb was supposed to attract the attention of the police, favoring the robbery of a goldsmith’s shop, which however did not take place.

Piccini was a sadly famous name in Brescia.

Sentenced to 30 years for the killing in collaboration with Tebaldo Martinengo on the night of 15 to 16 March 1967 of the philatelist Giambattista Zani and locked up in the Pianosa prison, he managed to escape on 25 July 1974 in a dinghy with two fellow prisoners. After having carried out two bank robberies in Castenedolo and Bagnolo Mella, he was recaptured in Lomazzo (Como) on 25 September. Locked up in Porto Azzurro on 11 September 1976 he managed to saw off the bars of a window of the printing house and escaped again by getting on the ferry to Piombino like a normal tourist. After the attack on 16 December 1976 carried out with Italo Dorini, in the following months he carried out robberies in banks in Ponte Taro (Parma), Ghedi and Rezzato and in a jewelry shop in Salò. On the morning of 18 February 1977 he was involved with Dorini in the killing of the Carabinieri officer from Carpenedolo Lorenzo Forleo. Arrested on the night between 25 and 26 April 1977 in a hotel in Parma, he attempted other escapes in the following months, which however failed.

From
Bresciatoday
La bomba di Piazza Arnaldo: in memoria di Bianca Gritti Daller, 44 anni dopo

Insights
Profilbaru.com
Bomba di Piazzale Arnaldo – Profilbaru.Com
Enciclopedia Bresciana
PICCINI Giuseppe – Enciclopedia Bresciana