1976
08 June, Genova
Francesco Coco, 67, Magistrate Attorney General of the Republic at the Court of Appeal of Genova
Antioco Dejana, 39 years old, pinned by the Carabinieri
Giovanni Saponara, 42 years old, Public Security Brigadier

Francesco Coco, Sardinian of Terralba, is the first magistrate to be killed by the Red Brigades.

At 13.30 on June eight, 1976, Francesco Coco leaves his room on the twelfth floor of the Palace of Justice in Genoa together with his guardianship officer, Giovanni Saponara, 42, to go home. He slips into the blue 132 led by Antioco Dejana, a 42-year-old carabinieri, Sardinian like Coco, who performs that service for the first time. He is a typist-driver of the prosecutor’s office. His driver, prison officer Stefano Agnesetta, the day before asked for a permit that will save his life. They are followed by a Giulia with three police officers. In eight minutes I am at the foot of the Santa Brigida staircase.
Coco and Saponara climb 42 levels. They look like father and son coming back for lunch. They don’t even know that they have three men behind them who shoot him in 24 shots. Saponara doesn’t even have time to get his hands on the gun. At the same moment, not even a hundred meters from the ladder, a man with a Saharan and a bag and a peer dressed in blue approach the 132 and with the Skorpion silenced, cold Dejana. One of those machine guns, two years later, will kill Aldo Moro.
After a few hours the murders are claimed in Savona with a flyer by the self-styled ‘New partisans’ group. On the evening of that same day an anonymous phone call states that the flyer is fake and attributes the authorship of the massacre to the Red Brigades. In the courtroom of the Assize Court of Turin, where the trial against members of the Red Brigades is taking place, one of the defendants reads the message of claim of the triple murder.
The killing of Francesco Coco is closely linked to the story of the kidnapping of the magistrate Mario Sossi and the debate that followed on the opportunity to deal with the Red Brigades who, for the release of Sossi, demanded the release of the detainees of the XXII October group.
On Monday, May 20, 1974, the Court of Appeal of Genoa awaits the Attorney General Coco to give his opinion on the release. Despite being involved in the drama, the Attorney General writes ‘that the judicial bodies do not have powers for fictitious judicial measures in the hope of saving the life’ of Sossi.
The Court of Appeal instead grants provisional release and clearance for eight passports valid for expatriation. The order of the Court specifies that the personal safety and release of Dr. Mario Sossi must be ensured. When, on the same day, the Court of Assizes of Appeal orders the release of detainees, as requested by the BR, Coco files an appeal blocking the procedure and denying the brigadists the implementation of their political blackmail. The decision of the Court of Appeal is subject to the safety of the hostage. Upon release, the Prosecutor’s appeal will be upheld, formally due to some bruises reported by Sossi. Judge Sossi is safe, but Attorney General Francesco Coco becomes the target of brigadier retaliation.