A deafening roar shakes Reggio Calabria, on a splendid sunny day: the city trembles as if shaken by an earthquake. At 8.20 in Via Apollo, right in the center, a car stuffed with TNT explodes: it’s there Mercedes 240 Of Gennaro Musella, engineer from Salerno, married and father of four children, who in the 1970s moved his maritime works company, the second in Southern Italy, to Calabria. Only by chance he is not in the company of his nephew Saverio who he usually takes to school every morning. Musella leaves the house, walks a few meters, reaches the car, opens the door and starts the car. His wife just has time to greet him from the balcony and then it’s hell: a very powerful charge of TNT was placed under the driving seat. The pitch darkness, livid flames of fire, the car crumpling in on itself, flying into the air and then returning to the ground in front of shocked passers-by, including many students, who let out heartbreaking screams. Four people are injured, including one eight year old boy. About ten cars parked nearby were damaged, as well as the surrounding buildings. A war scenario: a chasm forms on the asphalt while a column of thick black smoke rises towards the sky. Musella’s body is torn apart by the explosion, her remains are scattered on the asphalt like in a horror film. Just two days later she would have had her birthday 57 years old.
The professional pays with his life for the courage not only of having reported to the judiciary various irregularities in the awarding of the contract for the construction of the tourist port of Bagnarawon by the Costanzo family from Catania, in the odor of the mafia, but also, thanks to his complaints, of having managed to obtain the cancellation of the tender and a new tender in which, however, he did not have time to participate because he was killed before.
The years following the attack are very difficult for the Musella family who asks truth and justice: in 1988 the case was closed against unknown persons despite the agreement between ‘ndrangheta and mafiaamong the bosses Paolo De Stefano and Nitto Santopaola for that contract. Thanks to the constant commitment of his daughter Adriana, who founded the anti-mafia movement “References”, the investigation was reopened in 1993 by the DDA. But it doesn’t lead to any process. In 2008 Gennaro Musella was recognized victim of mafia and it was named after him the street of Reggio Calabria where he died.
