PADUA – Three hundred people took part last night in the procession in memory of Mazzola and Giralucci organized by far-right groups in the city. A silent demonstration between Piazza Mazzini and Via Zabarella, where a laurel wreath was then placed and where the Attenti ai camerata accompanied by the Roman greeting repeated twice. On the night between Sunday and Monday some militants took turns in Via Zabarella with candles, while yesterday at 7pm the procession started from Piazza Mazzini and converged on the site of the double murder. Members of both local and national groups marched along via Dante, via Verdi, piazza Insurrezione and the liston. The controls set up by the police were impressive, but no accidents were recorded. This year, however, the Digos of the Police Headquarters did not detect any defacement of the plaque in memory of the two victims in front of the site of the murder, something which instead happened repeatedly in recent years near the anniversary by opposing factions.
The murder of Mazzola and Giralucci
The morning of 17 June 1974, with the murder of Mazzola and Giralucci, was the key moment that established a before and after in the history of the Red Brigades, not only in Padua which was one of the symbolic cities of the Years of Lead , but at a national level. The killing of the two Missini from Padua was in fact the first murder by the terrorist group in the years marked by the strategy of tension. The phases of the double murder were crystallized only many years after the facts, through the testimonies of former Red Brigade members and the confessions of the participants in the crime, and are reported in the sentences issued by the Court of Assizes of Padua in 1990 and by the Court of Assizes of Venice in 1992, which led to the conviction of seven people. The tragedy occurred between 9.30 and 10. That day fifty years ago was also a Monday. The provincial headquarters of the MSI (political party of neo-fascist inspiration) is practically deserted. There are only Giuseppe Mazzola, a 60-year-old retired carabiniere with wife and four children, and Graziano Giralucci, 29 years old, married and father of a little girl, sales agent and former rugby player. Four people enter through the door: Fabrizio Pelli, Roberto Ognibene, Susanna Ronconi and Martino Serafini. They are all armed. Outside, aboard a stolen car, there is Giorgio Semeria. Pelli and Ognibene go up to the second floor and enter the MSI headquarters. They try to immobilize Mazzola and Giralucci and think they have succeeded, so much so that Pelli goes away to try to enter the secretary’s office and steal some documents. Mazzola reacts, grabbing Ognibene’s gun and trying to disarm him, while Giralucci grabs him from behind. A shot goes off, which pierces the ex-carabiniere’s leg. Pelli returns and shoots: a shot to Giralucci’s shoulder, then one to the head of both. Ronconi hears the shots and runs away on foot, the others reach Semeria and flee by car.
The investigations and the claim
The double crime was discovered shortly afterwards, but the identity of the killers remained a mystery for over ten years. A turning point came on 18 June: the editorial staff of Il Gazzettino received a phone call which allowed them to find, in a telephone booth in Ponte di Brenta, a flyer with which the Red Brigades claimed responsibility for the murder. Meanwhile, investigations had begun by the Paduan carabinieri, later supported by colleagues led by General Dalla Chiesa, who also went as far as to tighten the handcuffs on Martino Serafini, known as Scherif, an unsuspected restorer from Verona. Fifteen years of investigations, testimonies from former Red Brigade members and admissions revealed that the one in Via Zabarella began as a demonstration action which then resulted in murder. However, the fact that all the participants were armed, the internal split with the attempt to make people believe in a feud between fascists and above all the recognition of the existence of a central executive of the Red Brigades, aware of a «campaign against the fascist branches of the Veneto » by the Venetian column, meant that Renato Curcio, Alberto Franceschini and Mario Moretti, considered the top of the organization and those who had authorized the action, were also condemned. Ognibene, Serafini, Ronconi and Semeria were also convicted, while Pelli died in 1979 of leukemia.
