1983
5 July, Dorgali (NU)
Giovanni Bosco, 60 years old, gas station manager
Giovanni Bosco, a retired Carabinieri officer, managed a gas station. He was killed by members of the Movimento Armato Sardo (MAS) for the testimony he had given years earlier in a criminal trial for a kidnapping for ransom (specifically, the abduction of Pasqualba Rosas). Judicial proceedings later established that Bosco’s murder was part of MAS’s strategy to prevent cooperative behavior during trials from both defendants and ordinary witnesses. Generally, MAS echoed the earlier actions of “Barbagia Rossa” by merging revolutionary goals with local community interests. Besides the murder of Giovanni Bosco, the organization was responsible for other serious criminal acts, including several murders, such as those of Claudio Balia (15 June 1983) and Gonario Sale (20 June 1983).