1971

September 17, Reggio Calabria
Carmelo Jaconis, 25 years old, bartender

Reggio Calabria is shocked by a new wave of violence: the incidents occurred on the Calopinace bridge, during an (unauthorized) demonstration to commemorate the driver Angelo Campanella, who died a year earlier during the incidents of the “battle” for the capital.

At 7.20pm, a procession moves from the “fishermen” district; near Piazza Garibaldi the demonstrators encountered the “celere” and began to throw stones at it. One hits the director of the Sabatino Flying Squad in the foot (the one who had led the Montalto blitz in 1969), the agents respond with water cannons and the procession disperses.
The spark, however, is enough to dust off old techniques and then the barricades return to the Calopinace bridge and Via Galilei. The clashes begin. At 8.15pm in via Esperia, in the northern area of Reggio, a TNT charge exploded in front of the entrance gate of the Istituto Autonomo Case Popolari. Meanwhile, on Calopinace, the intensity of the clashes rises dangerously. The sounds of gunshots are heard several times.
At 8.45pm a young man falls to the ground near Calopinace.
He is a passer-by, he is 25 years old, his name is Carmine Jaconis, he is from the province of Catanzaro but works in Reggio, he is a counter clerk at the most prestigious bar in the city, the Roof Garden. In his pocket he has the receipt for booking the reception room where he was supposed to celebrate his wedding on October 10th.
A man, who was holding a child by the hand, an officer and a police officer, again according to what the police commissioner declared, rescued Carmelo Jaconis, who immediately appeared in serious condition.
The young man was placed in a car and transported to the civil hospital; while he was placed on the emergency room bed, he died.
Iaconis was not a guerrilla fighter. He had arrived at the bottom of the course, a few meters from the bridge, to look around. There were about fifteen like him, they wanted to see how the unauthorized procession moving towards the center would end.
The series of accusations was immediate, but the police sent them back to the sender. The Police Commissioner Emilio Santillo says:
The civilian was killed in circumstances that leave no doubt whatsoever: he was on the other side of the bridge where the police units at which the demonstrators fired were located. And precisely the young man was next to a man who was holding a child’s hand, a few steps from Captain Annunziata of the Vibo Valentia speed department and three other officers. The man with the child immediately said that the shots came from the demonstrators.”