1976

May 28, Sezze Romano (LT)
Luigi Di Rosa, 19 years old, student

28 May 1976. It’s a Friday. The general elections on June 20 are now close. The clash is harsh, the result is considered decisive, almost a new appointment with history, after the success of the PCI at the administrative of the previous year.

In Sezze, a town with an anti-fascist tradition and always administered by the communist left, there is great tension because in the evening there is the rally of Sandro Saccucci, outgoing deputy and re-candidate in the lists of the Social Movement, former parà and fascist, suspected of having participated in 1970 in the attempted coup organized by Junio Valerio Borghese. The choice of Sezze is a provocation. There are well-founded fears of accidents. The commander of the Carabinieri Station asked for reinforcements.

After having rallies in some neighboring countries, around 20:30, over an hour late Saccucci, escorted by several cars, arrives in Sezze and heads to Piazza IV Novembre, in the heart of the historic center. He is accompanied by about 15 people, militants from Rome but also from the area of Latina and its province. Days earlier with some of them, during a dinner, he planned the outing and studied the countermeasures in the face of the predictable hostility of the locals. Pietro Allatta, one of those present at the dinner, showed his gun in defiance to the diners.

The square is manned by the police, committed to keeping the militants of Lotta Continua and the FIGC away and preventing them from coming into contact with the sympathizers of the MSI, few indeed, gathered under the stage. The two groups face each other at a distance: to the cry ‘The black shirts are back in Sezze’ and to the song of Faceta Nera and Divine Rome of the fascists, the others respond with a clenched fist and sing the International and Red Flag. The situation appears to be under control.

Saccucci starts talking. He is surrounded by several comrades armed with sticks and guns. Among them are Pietro Allatta, Gabriele Pirone and Angelo Pistolesi, the driver of Saccucci. The Carabinieri let go, they stay on the sidelines. For about twenty minutes the rally takes place regularly, despite the provocative tones, until Saccucci triggers the spark of the clash, blaming left-wing extremism for the fascist massacres of Milan, Brescia and Italicus and stating verbatim: “We have clean hands”.

The square boils and explodes, the reaction of the left-wing militants, whose ranks have been very thick, is very hard. They fly whistles, choirs and insults. From under the stage of the rally the missini throw stones, bottles and sticks. The others react by doing the same. However, the clash is kept at a distance. The former parà regularly ends the rally and goes off the stage. A missino, present in the square, pulls out the gun and explodes with shots. Saccucci, after a short conciliabolo with his own, advances in a hurry, pulls out the gun and, legs apart and arms outstretched forward, unloads the entire magazine in the direction of the protesters.
Immediately after that, the withdrawal plan is triggered. By order of Saccucci on passenger cars only the drivers go up, the others, weapons in their hand, will proceed on foot flanking them. The procession of men and cars is led by the carabinieri marshal and SID agent Francesco Troccia, originally from Sezze and present at the rally, and goes up to the highest part of the city, proceeding slowly through the narrow and winding alleys to get out of the historic center and earn the road to Latina.
Along the way, some members of the procession blow several gunshots in order to terrorize the unarmed population. Reaching Porta Pascibella, just outside the historic center, the former parà and his parents stop to reorganize. Then they all get in the car and leave again. A few hundred meters further on, in Iron di Cavallo, a large group of militants from Lotta Continua and the FIGC intent on disturbing their escape awaits them. They have stones and sticks. From the car in which Saccucci travels, gunshots start that injure Antonio Spirito, a militant of Lotta Continua, and much more seriously Luigi Di Rosa, who after two hours of agony in the city hospital dies, resulting in vain any attempt to save him. The fascist commando moves away from Sezze, leaving behind a dead and a wounded man.
Sandro Saccucci is re-elected in the elections on June 20. On July 27, 1976, the Chamber of Deputies authorized his arrest with heavy accusations of murder of Luigi Di Rosa, political conspiracy and incitement to armed insurrection for the Borghese coup. The parliamentarian escapes arrest and repairs first in the United Kingdom, then in France, Spain and finally in Argentina, where he survives as a taxi driver.
The judicial process, slow and tortuous, between a thousand quibbles, obstacles and misdirections winds through the three degrees of judgment and ends with the sole conviction of the person who that evening challenged the gun from which the blows that injured Antonio Spirito and killed Luigi Di Rosa started: Pietro Allatta recognized guilty, is sentenced to thirteen years in prison, of which only eight actually served. Sandro Saccucci, convicted at first and second instance for moral concurrence, is acquitted for this charge in the Supreme Court and found guilty only for some minor crimes now prescribed.