The Acca Larentia killings were a series of incidents that occurred in Rome on January 7, 1978. Three members of the Youth Front of the Italian Social Movement, an Italian far right party, were killed along with two others while they were leaving local party headquarters to distribute pamphlets. A third was later shot in the head and died hours later.
Events
Five MSI members were fired upon by a group of five to six assailants armed with automatic weapons. Franco Bigonzetti and Francesco Ciavatta were killed during the incident. Vincenzo Segneri, although wounded in one arm, returned to MSI headquarters along with Maurizio Lupini and Giuseppe D'Audino, both of whom were unharmed. A crowd, composed mainly of MSI activists, gathered on the attack site, and riots erupted which required the intervention of police armed with tear gas. The equipment of RAI journalists on scene were damaged. Later the national secretary of the youth front, Gianfranco Fini, was wounded by a tear gas canister fired by the police. The third victim was killed a few hours later by a gunshot to the head. Carabinieri Captain Edoardo Sivori was suspected of the killing, but was never charged with murder. One of the machine guns used in the assault was found, years later, in an apartment used by the leftist terrorist group, "Brigate Rosse". The killings marked a fracture between the Right and the Institutions within the Party, leading to the formation of a new extremist group called NAR. Francesca Mambro, one of the NAR leaders and daughter of a police officer herself, kept the bloody head of Francesco Recchioni after his death. Singer and songwriterFabrizio Marzi dedicated the song, "Giovinezza", to him in 1979. Recchioni died in hospital two days later.
Further events
On January 10, 1979, riots broke out during commemorations of the killings when a police officer, Alessio Speranza, shot and killed Alberto Giaquinto, then seventeen years old. He was acquitted of all charges. On January 7, 2008, a candlelight vigil was held in honour of the victims and all those killed in the Years of Lead; Attendees marched from Piazza San Giovanni through Tuscolana, to the location of the shooting, Acca Larentia, where the three boys were honoured with Roman salutes. Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno decided to name a Roman road for the three victims, while the previous mayor Walter Veltroni decided to rename a street in honour of Paolo di Nella.
Filmography
, a film by Kaspar Hauser, released in 2008, the documentary relates the massacre and the following attack to "Radio Città Futura", a movement radio based in Rome
