2 August 1980 saw the worst terrorist attack in post-war Italian history. A bomb hidden in a suitcase exploded in the waiting room of Bologna Station, causing the partial collapse of the structure. 85 people died & 200 were injured [Thread] >> 1

It is the first Saturday in August & Bologna Centrale Station, an important rail hub, is packed with families from all over Italy catching or changing trains as they set off on their summer holidays. It is 10.25 a.m. & the Ancona-Basel express has just arrived at Platform 1 >> 2

In the busy waiting room, also situated on Platform 1, a suitcase is sitting on a table against a wall separating the waiting room from the snack bar. It contains explosives & has been placed there deliberately as this is a supporting wall & an explosion will cause a collapse>> 3

The blast is tremendous & the effects devastating. Part of the station building housing the waiting room & snack bar collapses. As well as in the building, the blast causes death, injuries & havoc on the train standing at Platform 1 & on the taxi rank in front of the station >> 4

Following the blast, passengers, rail workers, members of the public, help emergency services dig through rubble searching for survivors. Ambulances can't cope with number of casualties, many of whom are taken to hospital in taxis, cars & even on a bus>> 5

Many had terribile injuries, bodies had to be reassembled from the parts found. 85 deaths were ascertained but the body of one victim, Maria Fresu (photo), was never recovered. Initially, it was thought she may have been so close to the bomb that it disintegrated her body >> 6

This theory, however, seems unlikely given the testimony of her friend, Silvana Ancilloti, who was with Maria, another friend, Verdiana Bivona, and Maria's three year old daughter, Angela in the waiting room when the bomb exploded. They were going on holiday in Trentino >> 7

Silvana says that she, Verdiana & Angela were sitting, while Maria was standing facing them. When she came round after the explosion, the bodies of Verdiana & Angela were lying in front of her, but Maria had disappeared >> 8

If one person had survived & two others had died, but with their bodies relatively intact, how could the body of a person just a couple of feet away have disintegrated so completely that nothing was found? >> 9

In December 1980, a flap of facial tissue & scalp, as well as a finger, found under the train on Platform 1, were attributed to Maria Fresu. In October 2019, these were subjected to DNA testing as part of a trial against one of the people accused of the attack (see below) >> 10

DNA tests found the flap of tissue & finger belonged to two different women, neither of whom was Maria Fresu. In 1980, there was no DNA testing & identification procedures were poor by modern standards. Rescue efforts had been chaotic & priority was given to finding survivors>>11

Thus, it seems likely Maria Fresu's body parts ended up in coffins of other victims & the body parts attributed to her belong to other victims. The doubt around this has fed improbable alternative theories to official court findings based on the presence of an "86th victim" >> 12

President Sandro Pertini flew in by helicopter as soon as he heard about the bombing. As he left the hospital, where he had visited the wounded, he burst into tears as he said he had seen two children in intensive care who doctors told him were dying >> 13

Most people immediately attributed the explosion to a terrorist attack, unsurprisingly given the long series of bomb attacks, murders & kidnappings carried out by extreme left- and right-wing groups over the previous decade, the so called "strategia della tensione" >> 14

The aim of this strategy was to induce an atmosphere of fear & instability in the population, such that they would accept the establishment of an authoritarian government, or even a military regime >> 15

To this end, extreme right-wing groups were sometimes aided by state actors, such as deviant elements within the secret services or armed forces, or even mafia groups in the planning & execution of their attacks >> 16

It would require another (very long) thread, which I may do one day, to list all the tragic events of the "strategy of tension" (the expression was first coined by journalist Leslie Finer in an article in 'The Observer' in December 1969) >> 17

The year 1980 had already been a tragic one for Italy & would see further tragic events after Bologna (see my other thread linked below) >> 18 https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1211745613706121216?s=19

In particular, the summer holidays had started with the disaster of the Itavia airliner (which coincidentally took off from Bologna) shot down by a missile near the island of Ustica on a flight to Palermo on 28 June (see thread linked below) >> 19 https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1276998519904251908?s=19

Incredibly (or not, if it was intended to misdirect investigations), the Police and the Prime Minister at the time (Francesco Cossiga, later to become President in 1985) attributed the explosion to a boiler beneath in the basement of the station >> 20

This 'theory' was quickly disproved by the evidence and witness statements but it deflected attention long enough for any perpetrators to leave the city and remove their traces unhindered >> 21

This thread now gors on to deal with investigations, interference from sections of the Italian secret service SISMI & the P2 masonic lodge headed by Licio Gelli, trials & convictions. Thus, it will continue tomorrow. However, before closing for today, I'll just add one thing >>22

Most tourists who arrive in or pass through Bologna Centrale Station nowadays will probably do so in the new underground station for high-speed trains. If, however, you get off or on a train in Bologna try to take a couple of minutes to see two things >> 23

Go outside in the Piazza in front of the station and look at the facade. Up high on the left-hand side is the old-fashioned clock that was damaged & stopped at 10.25 a.m. on 2 August 1980. It was repaired & remounted but will forever show the time of 10.25 >> 24

Then go inside the waiting room and look at the list of names of the 85 people who perished that day and remember, as it says on the memorial, and as I will explain in the continuation of this thread tomorrow, they were the victims of fascist terrorism >> 25

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, two phone calls were received claiming responsibility, one from the Brigate Rosse (BR) and the other from the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR). Both groups then denied having made the calls >> 26

In any case, a claim by BR was not credible, as they never engaged in this type of mass indiscriminate murder, preferring to kill individual judges, politicians or police officers, regarded as symbols of state oppression. A claim by NAR, however, was much more credible >> 27

NAR had already carried out acts of mass murder using explosives. Indeed, just two days before the station attack, Prosecutors'in Bologna had requested the indictment of several neo-fascists accused of planting a bomb on board a train in 1974 >> 28

On that occasion, a bomb exploded on board the 'Italicus' express train on the night between 3 & 4 August 1974, as it came out of a tunnel at San Benedetto Val di Sambro in the Apennine Mountains between Florence & Bologna. 12 people died & 48 were wounded >> 29

All those tried for the bombing of Italicus were found not guilty & nobody has ever been brought to justice for the attack. It was established that neo-fascists were responsible, with support from the P2 masonic lodge, but evidence was insufficient to identify individuals >> 30

Returning to the Bologna station bombing, the initial telephone call claiming responsibility from NAR was traced to an office in Florence used by the Italian secret service SISMI & members of this service would constantly feature in investigations >> 31

In late August, 28 members of various neo-fascist groups were arrested on suspicion of sedition & 'subversion of democratic order', including two of those who would later be convicted for the bombing. However, they were all released in 1981 >> 32

Investigators then received information & evidence of an international plot involving foreign & exiled Italian far right terrorists. This theory was strengthened by a discovery made on board a Taranto-Milan express train on 13 January 1981 >> 33

The discovery was a suitcase holding 6 cans containing explosive of the same type used in Bologna, a machine gun, a hunting rifle & two plane tickets, one Milan to Paris, the other Milan to Munich. The information leading to the finding of the suitcase came from SISMI >> 34

As was later established by the Assize Court in Rome, the whole international theory, including the suitcase, was invented by a deviant group within SISME in order to misdirect inquiries. SISMI was headed by General Giuseppe Santovito (photo), a P2 member, who died in 1984 >> 35

The Court found that the entire story, evidence, sources, documents, had been created by Pietro Musumeci (photo), Deputy Head of SISMI, and two other agents, Francesco Pazienza & Giuseppe Belmonte, with the complicity of General Santovito >> 36

The suitcase had been placed on board the Taranto-Milan train by a Carabiniere and contained material belonging to two far right extremists, Raphael Legrand (French) and Martin Dimitris (German) >> 37

In July 1985, a Rome court sentenced members of the deviant group thus:
Musumeci 9 years;
Pazienza 8 years 6 months;
Belmonte 7 years 8 months.
On appeal, some offences were excluded & sentences reduced:
Musumeci 3 years 11 months;
Pazienza 3 years 2 months;
Belmonte 3 years >>38