1982
November 18, Milan
Erminio Carloni, 38 years old, security guard and union representative for Filcams CGIL
At 11:30 on November 18, 1982, Erminio and his colleague Bruno Lombardi were on duty at branch 15 of Banco di Napoli. The two, who were guarding the exterior of the bank, were surprised by two tall and distinguished-looking bandits. One had a trench coat draped over his left arm, hiding something. Erminio noticed this and shouted, “Lombardi, watch out!” Seconds later, a bullet pierced his chest, four shots were fired, and Erminio fell to the ground. Bruno managed to hide behind a car and fired back, wounding one of the bandits. The two criminals had no choice but to flee. They got into a stolen A112 and escaped, but not before one of them pulled out a submachine gun and fired a burst, shattering the tram’s windows. Imagine the screams, the fear of the people present. The robbery was foiled, Bruno was safe but terrified by what had happened. The people on the tram were in shock, as were the passersby who took refuge in nearby doorways. Erminio lay there, motionless on the ground near the tram tracks on Viale Zara, showing no signs of life. He had been fatally shot.
The next day, a claim was made over the phone by the MPRO (Offensive Resistance Proletarian Movement), an alias for the Red Brigades. The message was, “We killed the watchdog Carloni.” It was a crude attempt to mislead, as they provided incorrect information about the weapons used in the attempted robbery. But the connection was clear; the brutality of the attempted robbery indicated it was the work of an armed group, of terrorists.
Some time later, the truth emerged: the robbery had been attempted by a unit of the NAR (Armed Revolutionary Nuclei), a neo-fascist armed group. They needed money, and this was a self-financing robbery attempt. Erminio was killed by Pasquale Belsito, a NAR terrorist who was convicted in absentia, was a fugitive for 20 years, and was arrested in Madrid in 2001. His accomplice was Stefano Soderini.