1975

June 5, Arzello di Melazzo (Al)
Giovanni d’Alfonso, 45 years old, Appuntato dei Carabinieri

It is June 5, 1975. A patrol of carabinieri composed of Lieutenant Umberto Rocca, Marshal Rosario Cattafi and the pinned Giovanni D’Alfonso and Pietro Barberis is scouring the hills of Arzello, a few kilometers from Acqui Terme. This is the epilogue of the investigations taken following the kidnapping of Vittorio Vallarino Gancia, son of the owner of the well-known wine house, by the Red Brigades. This is the dynamic of what happened. “Arrived in the town of Arzello of the municipality of Melazzo (10 km from Acqui), at 11.30 Rocca arrived with his men at the Spiotta farmhouse, which has been reported for several months as an occasional meeting place for suspicious people. The officer was checking the interior of some cars parked in front of the farmhouse, when Barberis reported to him that he had heard voices and noises coming from the farmhouse itself. Rocca approached the door, noting the presence of some individuals inside. He ordered the car to be placed on the road to block traffic, but secluded with respect to any pulls from doors and windows; D’Alfonso chose a position between the sheds, ready to intervene; Barberis asked for reinforcements from the operations center via radio and set out to check the back of the farmhouse. Lieutenant Rocca, with Cattafi, carried out a quick inspection, to then check from a corner of the building two sides of it, and ordered Cattafi (who had already knocked on the door) to put himself at the end of a masonry house in front of the farmhouse. Upstairs a woman looked out for a moment. Cattafi, out loud, invited Dr. Caruso (the name that resulted from the nameplate at the door) several times to go outside. A man opened the door inviting the soldiers to enter, then (before closing the door) he threw a bomb, which he hit Rocca in full, slicing his left arm and injuring his left eye. Cattafi was hit by numerous splinters on the right side of his body, but fired repeated blows against the windows and the door. When he noticed the serious wounds of Officer Rocca, although seriously wounded himself, he lifted him by weight and sheltered him, dragging him for 100 meters of steep and rough ground to the provincial road. He stopped a passing car and asked the driver to take Rocca to the hospital in Acqui. In the meantime, another patrol was coming: refusing to be rescued, he invited his comrades to join the farmhouse with him. From the farmhouse, after throwing another bomb, a man and a woman headed for the sheds came out. D’Alfonso advanced to block them with the fire of the gun, but was centered by a burst to the head, chest and abdomen. Despite the shots he received, he shot an entire magazine in turn, perhaps injuring the woman who got into a car twice. However, the road was blocked by the carabinieri’s car, where Barberis had promptly sheltered. The two cars, after a rear-end collision, went off the road. Barberis fired again. The man came out of his car saying, ‘We are wounded, we give up.’ Barberis stopped shooting, invited the two to raise their hands and go to a clearing. But after a few steps the man, shielding himself from the woman, took a bomb out of the jacket and threw it towards Barberis who, with great readiness, swing forward and managed to shoot, hitting the woman to death despite the fact that the bomb had exploded a few meters away. The surviving terrorist dived into the bush and Barberis, taking a magazine from D’Alfonso, chased him in vain. He went back to assist D’Alfonso wounded on the ground. After a few minutes, three colleagues arrived with the car radio. Deputy Brigadier Frati, who commanded the group, before inspecting the farmhouse, threw a tear gas candle. From a small compartment on the ground floor, cries of help were heard. It was Gancia, kidnapped the day before. The woman killed was Margherita Cagol (known by the battle name of “Mara”), wife of Renato Curcio. The clash was resolved in a genuine carnage: Rocca was mutilated, D’Alfonso died shortly after. Cattafi was found by journalists as he was about to return home with numerous splinters in his body. He showed them the perforated uniform: ‘I could drain the pasta,’ he said, ‘but I have to admit that, anyway, I was fine with it.’

The dopped Giovanni D’Alfonso dies after a few days of agony, on June 11, 1975. He is awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor ‘to memory’ and the Gold Medal for Victim of Terrorism.