Thread by @NickWhithorn

Night between 3 & 4 August 1974, at 1.23 a.m., express train 1486 'Italicus' is approaching the end of the 'Grande Galleria dell'Appennino', a railway tunnel almost 16km long in the mountains between Florence & Bologna [Thread] >> 1

Travelling from Rome to Munich, the train is packed with holidaymakers heading for Trentino-Alto Adige and Italian emigrants returning to Germany after spending their summer break with family in Italy >> 2

Just before entering the tunnel the track stops climbing, flattens out & begins to head downhill. Thus, the express was accelerating & close to maximum speed as it neared the exit to the tunnel & the station of San Benedetto Val di Sambro >> 3

Unbeknown to the mostly sleeping passengers, there is a suitcase packed with explosives hidden under a seat in Compartment 1 of Carriage 5. The explosives are connected to an alarm clock, a German made 'Peter', very popular in the 1970s >> 4

The carriage carrying the bomb was added to the train in Florence Santa Maria Novella station. The timer has been set to explode while the train is in the centre of the tunnel but, as it was running 40 minutes late at Florence, it has increased speed, making up a few minutes >> 5

If the bomb exploded in the centre of the tunnel, the effects of the blast would be accentuated and rescue efforts much more complex. What actually happens is bad enough. The explosion occurs just 50 metres before the train exits the tunnel >> 6

The blast blows the roof off Carriage 5, which then comes crashing back down in shards onto the occupants. The train continues running by the force of inertia, coming to a stop in the station of San Benedetto Val di Sambro >> 7

Carriage 5 is now an inferno. The bomb contained thermite, which produces temperatures up to 3000°C when it burns. Two police officers on duty at the station can see the outlines of people moving in the carriage & shout at them to jump out of the windows >> 8

It is here that Silver Sirotti (photo) enters the story. Sirotti is 24 years old and works as a train guard. He is studying engineering at university but works to support his family, as his father has recently died. He is in another carriage when the explosion happens >> 9

The two police officers on the platform are helping passengers who jumped out of the windows ablaze. They see Sirotti grab a fire extinguisher & head to the door of Carriage 5 at the end where the fire is less intense. They shout at him to stop. He ignores them >> 10

They see his figure fight its way through the carriage until, at a certain point, he bends down as if moving some object from the floor. While he is bent over a flash of flame engulfs him >> 11

Silver's brother Franco receives a letter a few years later from a girl called Marisa Russo. She lost her parents & brother on that train but she survived because Silver freed her from the debris & his body, bending over her, protected her from that flash of flame >> 12

Twelve people die in the explosion and forty-eight others are wounded >> 13

The victims are:
Silver Sirotti (24)
Elena Donatini (58)
Nicola Buffi (51)
Herbert Kontriner (35)
Nunzio Russo (49)
Marco Russo (14)
Maria Santina Carraro (47)
Tsugufumi Fukuda (32)
Antidio Medaglia (70)
Elena Celli (67)
Raffaella Garosi (22)
Wilhelmus J. Hanema (20)
>> 14

On 1 August 1980, the day before the Bologna station bombing that kills 85 people, carried out by neo-fascist group NAR (see linked thread), 3 members of another neo-fascist group 'Fronte Nazionale Rivoluzionario' are indicted for the 'Italicus' bomb >> 15

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1422183927847047168?s=19

Mario Tuti is accused of procuring the explosives, Piero Malentacchi (who did his military service with the Engineers) of making the bomb, and Luciano Franci, who works at Santa Maria Novella station, of helping Malentacchi plant the device >> 16

At trial, all 3 are found not guilty on 20 July 1983, due to insufficient evidence. On appeal (in Italy defence & prosecution have automatic right to appeal), on 18 December 1986, Franci & Tuti are convicted & sentenced to life imprisonment, while Malentacchi is acquitted >> 17

On 16 December 1987, the Supreme Court of Cassation orders a new Appeal trial for Franci & Tuti (photo), which ends with their acquittal on 4 April 1991, and this judgment is upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation on 24 March 1992 >> 18

Thus, almost 18 years after the attack, 12 years after the initial indictment and after 5 trials, nobody is found guilty of the attack. That is still the situation today, 47 years later. Nobody else has ever been charged or indicted for involvement in this horrific crime >> 19

A Twitter thread is not really suited to detailing all the attempts at misdirecting the inquiries into this attack, as happened with so many neo-fascist atrocities forming part of the 'strategia della tensione' in the 1970s & 1980s >> 20

These far right groups enjoyed active support from deviant elements of the state, especially the secret services, armed forces, mafia even, and the notorious P2 masonic lodge, headed by Licio Gelli (photo). The Italian Parliamentary Commission that investigated P2 reported: >> 21

"... the Italicus attack can be ascribed to a neo-fascist or neo-Nazi terrorist organisation operating in Tuscany; ... the P2 Lodge instigated bomb attacks and funded far right groups in Tuscany; ... >> 22

"... the P2 Lodge is therefore heavily implicated in the Italicus bomb attack and can even be considered responsible, if not in judicial terms, then in historical-political terms, as the essential financial, organisational and moral background" >> 23

A final mystery concerning the bombing of Italicus. In 2004, Maria Fida Moro, daughter of Italian statesman Aldo Moro, who was Foreign Minister at the time & would become PM for the second time three months later, reveals that her father should have been on board the train >> 24

Maria Fida says Moro boarded the train in Rome to travel to Trentino, where his family was on holiday. However, before departure, officials from his Ministry arrive to say he has to return to his office to sign important documents, which then prove not to be so urgent. // 25