The presentation of the book “The Modica massacre (29 May 1921) will be held on Wednesday 22 May at 6pm, at the “Tante storie” bookshop in via Roma 155 in Ragusa. An unsolved case from a hundred years ago” (Edizioni Sicilia point L). The author Giovanni Criscione (in the photo) will discuss it with Pippo Gurrieri, director of the monthly “Sicilia Libertaria”. The event takes place within the CoLibri Review, organized by the Lib(e)ri Association in Ragusa.
“The Modica massacre” is an investigative book on a dark episode in Italian history: on 29 May 1921, during a protest organized by the Socialist Party, nine workers lost their lives in a clash with fascists and the forces of ‘order. The dynamics of the massacre, the instigators and perpetrators of the crime have remained shrouded in mystery.
The historian, working on judicial documents and unpublished archival sources, reconstructs the procedural history of the massacre, the mysteries and silences that surrounded it, the stories of the victims and other protagonists, in the context of the political struggle of those years.
Furthermore, from his research, the role of the men and apparatus of the State clearly emerges – general inspectors of Public Security of the Ministry of the Interior, prefect, sub-prefect, police forces – who cooperated with the fascists in the previous and subsequent phases of the massacre, covering up the responsibilities, covering up the evidence and steering the trial towards an acquittal outcome.
