The Piazza Fontana bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88. The same afternoon, another bomb exploded in a bank in Rome, and another was found unexploded in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The attack was carried out by the Third Position, neo-fascist paramilitary terrorist group Ordine Nuovo, and possibly undetermined collaborators.
Giuseppe Umberto "Pino" Rauti was an Italian neo-fascist politician who was a leading figure of the Italian far-right for many years. Involved in active politics since 1948, he was one of founders and for many years the leader of the Italian Social Movement (MSI). He was the main representative of the MSI's radical faction until the party dissolution in 1995.
Stefano Delle Chiaie was an Italian neo-fascist terrorist. He was the founder of Avanguardia Nazionale, a member of Ordine Nuovo, and founder of Lega nazionalpopolare. He went on to become a wanted man worldwide, suspected of involvement in Italy's strategy of tension, but was acquitted. He was a friend of Licio Gelli, grandmaster of P2 masonic lodge. He was suspected of involvement in South America's Operation Condor, but was acquitted. He was known by his nickname "il caccola" as he was just over five feet tall - although he stated that originally, the nickname came from his very young involvement, at age 14, in the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist political party established after the war.
Ordine Nuovo was an Italian far right cultural and extra-parliamentary political and paramilitary organization founded by Pino Rauti in 1956. It had been the most important extra-parliamentary neofascist organization of the post-war Italian republic.
The Bologna massacre was a terrorist bombing of the Bologna Centrale railway station in Bologna, Italy, on the morning of 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded over 200. Several members of the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari were sentenced for the bombing, although the group denied involvement.
The Italicus Express massacre was a terrorist bombing in Italy on a train of the public rail network. On 4 August 1974, the bomb attack killed 12 people and wounded 48. Responsibility was claimed by the neo-fascist terrorist organization Ordine Nero.
The Piazza della Loggia bombing was a bombing that took place on the morning of 28 May 1974, in Brescia, Italy during an anti-fascist protest. The terrorist attack killed eight people and wounded 102. The bomb was placed inside a rubbish bin at the east end of the square. In 2015, a Court of appeal in Milan issued a final life sentence to Ordine Nuovo members Carlo Maria Maggi and Maurizio Tramonte for ordering the bombing, closing one of the longest-running cases on terrorism during Italy's years of lead.
Pietro Valpreda was an Italian anarchist, poet, dancer, and novelist. He was sentenced to prison on charges of being responsible for the Piazza Fontana bombing in December 1969. In 1987, he was acquitted by Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation for lack of evidence.
In Italy, the phrase Years of Lead refers to a period of political violence and social upheaval that lasted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, marked by a wave of both far-left and far-right incidents of political terrorism and violent clashes.
Guido Giannettini was an Italian journalist and far-right activist who also acted as an informer for the Italian intelligence services.
The Train 904 bombing was a terror attack which occurred on 23 December 1984, in the Apennine Base Tunnel. A bomb on the 904 express train from Naples to Milan was detonated, killing 16 and wounding 266. The bombing location was near the location of the Italicus Express bombing ten years previously.
The Acca Larentia killings, also known in Italy as the Acca Larentia massacre, were a double homicide that occurred in Rome on 7 January 1978. The attack was claimed by the self-described Nuclei Armati per il Contropotere Territoriale. Members of militant far-left groups were charged but acquitted, and the culprits were never identified.
Romanzo di una strage is a 2012 Italian historical drama film directed by Marco Tullio Giordana. It is loosely based on the book Il segreto di Piazza Fontana by Paolo Cucchiarelli. The film deals with the reconstruction of the Piazza Fontana bombing that took place in Milan December 12, 1969, and of the tragic events that ensued, from the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, which occurred in mysterious circumstances during an interrogation, to the death of the Commissioner Luigi Calabresi, who had led the investigation.
The National Front was a neo-fascist political party in Italy.
The Ordine Nero was an Italian terrorist fascist group founded in 1974 following the dissolution of the fascist Ordine Nuovo. Between 1974 and 1978, bombings by ON led to a number of woundings and deaths, having orchestrated several deadly bombings and murders including the 1974 Italicus Express Bombing and the 1974 Brescia Bombing.
The Peteano massacre was a neo-fascist terrorist attack which occurred on May 31, 1972 in Peteano, a frazione of Sagrado (Gorizia), Italy. An anonymous call led five carabinieri to check a suspicious car, which turned out to be a car bomb that exploded when the door was opened. Three carabinieri were killed.
Carlo Digilio, also known as Zio Otto, was an Italian terrorist, soldier, and self-styled secret agent. He belonged to the neo-fascist group Ordine Nuovo and later became a collaborator. At the end of the first-degree process, he was convicted for the Piazza Fontana bombing, but the reliefs of law extinguished his guilt. He was also involved in the Piazza della Loggia bombing.
Pierluigi Concutelli, known as The Commander, was an Italian neofascist, terrorist, and bank robber. He styled himself as an "urban guerrilla fighter". He was a member of the far-right organization Ordine Nuovo, and later became the leader of its underground armed unit, Gruppi di Azione Ordinovista.
The Barracks anarchists were a group of five young adults who lost their lives in a car accident on the night of 26 September 1970, while they were on their way to Rome. They intended to deliver to their contacts denunciation material concerning the Gioia Tauro massacre, which took place on 22 July 1970, and the contextual events of the Reggio revolt.
Nazi-Maoism was a political movement and ideology that emerged in Italy around 1968 with the formation of a group known as "Struggle of the People". This group of students from the Sapienza University of Rome took heavy inspiration from the writings and theory of Franco Freda and advocated for a combination of ideas from both the far-left and far-right. According to the Neo-Fascist group "Third Position", Nazi-Maoism had a stance of "neither capitalism nor communism, neither reds nor reactionary". Nazi-Maoists such as Freda wanted to form a "Fascist dictatorship of the proletariat" by using the Maoist guerrilla strategy of people's war to overthrow the government and the bourgeoisie.
