1977

November 16, Turin
Carlo Casalegno, 60, journalist and deputy director of La Stampa

Casalegno was the first victim among members of the ‘fourth power’ by Italian terrorism. Murder that would be repeated in similar ways later, as in the case of Walter Tobagi, reporter of the Corriere della Sera, assassinated on May 28, 1980 by the March XXVIII Brigade in Milan. Already the first warning that political violence was pouring against journalists was seen in June of that year, ’77, when left-wing extremists also shot the director of the newspaper Indro Montanelli in the legs. One of the moments of greatest tension for the history of Italy, squeezed in the grip of the armed struggle. The years of bombs, massacres, kidnappings and murders. But even if exceptional times provide for exceptional solutions, Casalegno has always opposed the introduction of ad hoc laws to combat terrorism.
In 1976 the maxi-trial to the Red Brigades opened in Turin, in the former barracks transformed into a bunker hall of Corso Ferrucci, which saw among its main defendants Renato Curcio. The tension during the trial became very high, leading to the assassination of the lawyer Fulvio Croce, who had taken the ex officio defense of the brigades despite the latter having threatened with death anyone who did so. The process continued with the mass renunciation of the citizens called to compose the popular jury. Six people were needed, no one showed up. In this context, Casalegno with his articles urged everyone not to back down in the face of terrorism, to do their part.
A year later, on November 16, 1977 at 13.55, while he was returning to his house in Corso Re Umberto 54, Casalegno was the victim of an ambush by a group of the Turin section of the Red Brigades, formed by Raffaele Fiore, Patrizio Peci, Piero Panciarelli, Cristoforo Piancone and Vincenzo Acella. The attackers at first perhaps had in mind to replicate the same scheme operated in Milan against Montanelli, but, after a series of postponements and after a discussion internal to the Turin column, the gambization was commuted into a death sentence due to new articles signed by the Turin journalist that criticized the armed struggle. The brigadists had planned to hit Casalegno directly in the hall of the building. Raffaele Fiore had the task of shooting, covered by Piero Panciarelli, while Peci remained to make the pole armed with machine guns. Acella was driving the car prepared for escape.
Casalegno was hit by four blows to the face. Rescued by his wife, the journalist was hospitalized in very serious condition at the Le Molinette hospital. At that juncture in Turin they tried to organize demonstrations of solidarity: the evening following the day of the attack (November 17), there was a popular demonstration of citizens against terrorism in Piazza San Carlo with the participation of a few thousand people.
The deputy director of La Stampa died on November 29, 1977, after 13 days of agony.