1982
October 21, Turin
Sebastiano D’Alleo, 27 years old, security guard
Antonio Pedio, 26 years old, security guard
The Robbery at Banco di Napoli in Turin
On the morning of October 21, 1982, a commando composed of five members of the Red Brigades (Clotilde Zucca, Marcello Ghiringhelli, Antonio Chiocchi, Francesco Pagani Cesa, and Teresa Scinica) carried out a self-financing robbery at a branch of the Banco di Napoli, located at Via Domodossola 21 in Turin.
Four robbers, pretending to be customers, entered the bank and, under the pretext of opening an account, managed to speak with the director for a few minutes. After surveying the area, they left the branch, exchanged information with the fifth member acting as an outside lookout, and disarmed the two security guards stationed outside. They then re-entered the bank, bringing the guards with them, and demanded 7 million lire.
At the end of the robbery, the brigadists forced the two Mondialpol security guards, Antonio Pedio (26 years old, from Apulia) and Sebastiano D’Alleo (27 years old), to kneel and executed them with a shot to the back of the head, responding to their pleas with “Bastards, this is a lesson for the slaves of the master,” before fleeing in two cars.
A red banner with the inscription “Red Brigades the Peci campaign continues. Identify and annihilate the agents of the counter-revolution infiltrated into the revolutionary movement. Liquidate the project of dissociation, surrender, and infiltration. Consolidate and expand the system of red power. Build 10-100-1000 O.M.R.” was thrown over their bodies. Alongside their bodies, claim flyers and two copies of a 14-page strategic resolution were found, declaring the ruthless execution as a response by the Turin column of the Red Brigades to the repentance and collaboration of a former terrorist, Natalia Ligas (referred to as an “infamous infiltrator of the Carabinieri”), which had led to arrests and the discovery of Red Brigades hideouts. On October 14, 1982, Ligas, close to the positions of the Red Brigades’ Party of the Guerrilla led by Giovanni Senzani, was arrested at the Porta Nuova station in Turin. The term “Peci campaign” referred to Roberto Peci, kidnapped and killed by the brigadists in retaliation for the confessions to the authorities by his brother Patrizio Peci, one of the most important repentant brigadists.
On October 24, with a phone call to the Turin newspapers Tuttosport and Gazzetta del Popolo, a trash bin containing leaflets similar to those left in the bank after the robbery was indicated. On November 11, a leaflet was received at the Milan offices of L’Espresso, excluding any act of betrayal by Ligas and attributing the robbery to secret services, questioning the law on repentants. On November 12, another leaflet was received at the Milan office of La Repubblica, condemning the “heinous massacre carried out by self-proclaimed members of the OCC (Communist Combat Organizations)” and, indicating Chiocchi and his companions as responsible for the bloodshed, concluded that they should be investigated internally within the organization and “if found guilty, they will be sentenced to death for treason and deviationism.”
This episode, regardless of the veracity of the charges against Ligas (who always denied her role in that chain of law enforcement interventions, and whom an internal brigadist inquiry in prison quickly recognized as not responsible), is therefore part of a reckoning between factions of the terrorist movement and also marked a turning point in the theory and practice of the Red Brigades, summarized in a document elaborated in the Palmi prison and published in January 1983. It declared the revolutionary process that began in 1970 concluded, but did not overcome the need for armed struggle.
The authors of the robbery were captured on the night of November 12, 1982, in Frabosa Soprana, in a house on Via Cantone 15, and in Turin, in an apartment on the second floor of Via Goffredo Casalis 15, in the Cit Turin neighborhood.
Trial
The five brigadists were sentenced to life imprisonment on October 16, 1984, by the Third Court of Assizes of Turin; the same sentence was given to Flavia Nicolotti, who did not participate in the robbery but was deemed guilty and consenting to the planning of the action. Nicolotti was acquitted the following year by the Court of Appeal due to insufficient evidence.
In March 2008, Clotilde Zucca obtained parole, causing strong controversy among the victims’ colleagues and their families.
In 1997, Teresa Scinica participated as an interviewee in the documentary “Women and Men of the Red Brigades,” and she was killed in 2015 in an accident involving her own car, for which the Avezzano prosecutor’s office opened an investigation.