1980
November 12, Milan
Renato Briano, 47 years old, executive at Ercole Marelli in Milan
The murder of Renato Briano was committed in Milan on November 12, 1980 by two terrorists belonging to a commando of the Milanese column of the Red Brigades. The victim was an industrial manager, director of personnel at Ercole Marelli in Sesto San Giovanni, and was killed while on his way to work.
(…)
Between the end of 1979 and the beginning of 1980, the terrorist organization of the Red Brigades had suffered severe blows due to the arrests of its members, partly due to the collaboration of repentant terrorists, and internal disputes that caused rifts among the groups. The “Milanese column Walter Alasia” had become independent and tended to continue its campaign of violent struggle with targeted killings, often targeting executives of companies where workers’ struggle was strong. In October 1980, the “March of the 40,000” in Turin marked a defeat for the three major trade union confederations, generating feelings of frustration and revenge in some extremist factions linked to workers’ struggles. Ercole Marelli, a historic and important factory in the Milan industrial belt, was near its closure and liquidation, thus with an extremely tense internal relationship situation and with the head of personnel personally involved in union negotiations. An agreement had just been reached between the company management and the union, an agreement contested by the most extremist positions.
Briano, personnel manager at Ercole Marelli, was followed in the Milan metro and, while inside a carriage of line one, heading towards Sesto Marelli station, was hit at 8:20 am by two point-blank shots from a 7.65 caliber pistol to the head; he died on the spot among the passengers of the train. The murderers, after declaring themselves to be part of the Red Brigades and holding the passengers at bay with their weapons, got off at Gorla station and easily disappeared.
The crime was claimed by the Red Brigades with a phone call to ANSA at 10:00 am on the same morning and then to Radio Popolare.
The killing had immediate repercussions and parliamentary inquiries, also caused by the particular audacity of the murder, not following the usual ambush techniques in a secluded or sparsely populated place, but in the midst of a crowd of commuting workers; the killers, two young men apparently aged around 25, acted boldly with their faces uncovered.
Eighteen days later, on November 29, the Brigatist column would kill again, targeting another executive of a factory in the same Milan area, Manfredo Mazzanti, who was technical director at the Falck steelworks.