1980
August 11, Viterbo
Pietro Cuzzoli, 31 years old, marshal of the Carabinieri
Ippolito Cortellessa, 49 years old, marshal of the Carabinieri
“I participated with Bignami, Segio, and a Roman whose name I do not know, in the robbery with the double murder of Pietro Cuzzoli and Ippolito Cortellessa in Viterbo. We ordered them to stop, but they did not surrender.” August 11, 1980. First line shoots and kills two carabinieri. At Ponte di Cetti. In broad daylight, after a robbery at a bank branch in Pilastro, a popular neighborhood in Viterbo where the Communist Party is very strong. Michele Viscardi is speaking. In front of him is the prosecutor Avella of the Bergamo Prosecutor’s Office, the city where Viscardi, a prominent member of Prima Linea, was born in 1956. It is the report in which he dissociates himself from the armed struggle and talks about the operations he took part in. From the murder of Judge Alessandrini to the shootout where Cuzzoli and Cortellessa lost their lives. A document now kept in the archives of the Senate of the Republic in Rome. The interrogation report is from October 19, 1980. A couple of months after the events at Ponte di Cetti.
(…)
August 11, 1980. The robbery is the first stage. “The bank we robbed – Viscardi continues – was personally chosen by us, after a week-long research. In other words, there were no local contacts, so in the evening we regularly returned to Rome by bus. There were no elements, not even for the support of Prima Linea, in Viterbo.”
A story that becomes even richer in details if we consider a text written by another carabiniere, available on the internet. The title: “Ippolito Cortellessa and Giuseppe Cerini. Two vivaresi, two carabinieri.” Cortellessa was from Vivaro Romano in the province of Rome. The publication is from 2010 and the author is Alberto Pulicani, a chief marshal in service at the general command of the Carabinieri. His is also a collection, accompanied by photos of the time and newspaper clippings. “That tragic August 11, 1980 – writes Carabinieri Chief Marshal Pulicani – to obtain financial resources (self-financing), a group of six militants targeted the Pilastro branch of the Banca del Cimino to commit a robbery. Three members of the group entered the bank institute with their faces uncovered, very calmly and with guns in hand; one of them said ‘It’s a robbery, we are professionals, if no one moves, nothing will happen’; they took the money and fled in a Renault, where a fourth accomplice was waiting, at the wheel. All police forces were alerted and the hunt for the robbers began, who at that moment were still unknown whether they were common criminals or terrorists. The Renault used for the escape was abandoned shortly after. The group split up and three of the robbers reached Ponte dei Cetti, a location on the outskirts of Viterbo, on the Via Cassia, to board a Cotral line bus in order to escape the numerous roadblocks set up after the robbery.”
Just before the arrival of the bus heading to Rome, “a patrol of carabinieri arrived, who checked Bignami.” Viscardi is still speaking, and it is still the 1980 interrogation report, two months after the killing of Cuzzoli and Cortellessa.
“Bignami showed the carabinieri “French documents, speaking French and the carabinieri, who in the meantime had stopped the bus, had nothing to object to. ‘Past’ Bignami, we also left the bar heading to the bus: at this point the carabinieri asked us for the documents, as well as to see the contents of the ‘Roman’ bag.” At this point, the scenario changes suddenly. “We took out the guns – Viscardi continues – and we found Segio and the Roman on the carabinieri and I on the other carabinieri (Bignami was practically on the bus).” Four against two. Inside the ‘Roman’ bag there was probably the cash from the bank robbery a few hours earlier at Pilastro. The terrorists immediately aimed their guns at Cuzzoli and Cortellessa, who, from the Bergamo prosecutor’s report, appear to have been unarmed. Initially, it was a real standoff. So much so that a witness to the events of that time, who wants to remain anonymous, recounts that one of the two carabinieri had invited the terrorists to lower their weapons and surrender. “Leave it and lower your weapons,” he said.
Segio, Viscardi and a Roman aimed pistols at Cuzzoli and Cortellessa. In the meantime, Bignami boarded the bus behind them. “We ordered the carabinieri to stop – Viscardi continues the story of August 11 at Ponte di Cetti – they did not surrender. There was a scuffle with the carabiniere, during which a shot was fired and wounded my leg. Then they all fired a bit, and we fled to the farmhouse by seizing the car of a person present. I emphasize that none of the weapons found later in Sorrento were used, or rather I specify that in Viterbo the Beretta 925 found in Sorrento was used (and it is not the one stolen from the carabinieri on that occasion). We then took refuge in the isolated farmhouse, chosen at random, where we first found father, mother and two children and where we then seized twelve, thirteen more people in the house as they arrived at the scene.”
In the network of roadblocks – the story of Marshal Pulicani continues – Ponte dei Cetti is entrusted to the gazzella, the Alfa 1800 of the Mobile Radio Unit, of Ippolito Cortellessa and the brigadier Pietro Cuzzoli; at the request for documents, two terrorists pretend to take them out of their wallets, instead draw their guns and shoot at the two carabinieri, who in the gunfire hit the terrorist Michele Viscardi, but both are fatally wounded. Subsequently, within the organized searches to capture the authors of the criminal act, also the Major Marshal Antonio Rubuano, commander of the Montefiascone station, lost his life in a traffic accident while rushing to check the report of a suspicious individual.