The "Christmas massacre”: so he was called the bombing of Rapido 904 (who came from Naples and traveled in the direction of Milan), which really happened under the Great Gallery of the Direttissima between Florence and Bologna on December 23, 1984, shortly after 19. They died on that occasion 16 Guests e 267 they were injured. The "bombers" had planned their crime with care and ferocity. The suitcase with the bomb had been placed on a central carriage (the investigations discovered that this had happened during the stop in the Santa Maria Novella station in Florence) and had been detonated, with remote control, while the convoy passed under the tunnel, in order to create more damage and make rescue more difficult. Cell phones didn't exist then and it was also difficult to raise the alarm. Relief came from both Florence and Bologna (later it was found that the convoy was still in Tuscany at the time of the explosion): but it is easy to imagine the dimensions of the tragedy. Everything took place inside a gallery, in the dark, with dead and wounded, to help them it was necessary to enter on foot and accompany them outside where the ambulances had stopped. It was also difficult to reach the place of the massacre, traveling along the snow-covered mountain roads, which were soon blocked by the traffic of those who went to the place. This is how the chronicles remember that tragic night.
"Help had difficulty arriving, given that the explosion had damaged the power line and part of the route was isolated, furthermore the smoke from the explosion blocked access from the southern entrance, where the rescue efforts had initially concentrated, which they took over an hour and a half to arrive. The first service vehicles arrived between 20:30 and 21:00: they didn't know what had happened, they didn't have radio contact with the vehicle involved and they didn't have a radio link with the peripheral operations centers or that of Bologna. The rescuers, once on the spot, spoke of a "strong smell of gunpowder".
“She was employed a diesel-electric locomotive, driven on sight in the tunnel, which was first used to hook up the lead carriages that remained intact, on which the wounded were loaded. Only one doctor had been assigned to the expedition. The use of the diesel engine paid off though the air in the tunnel is unbreathable, so it was necessary to use oxygen cylinders for passengers waiting for help. With the help of the rescue car, the wounded were taken to the station of San Benedetto Val di Sambro (the Italicus massacre had taken place there ten years earlier, ed), followed immediately after by the other unharmed passengers. One of the wounded, a woman, was found in a state of shock in a niche in the tunnel, and was carried by arms up to the Precedenze station (which is located about halfway through the tunnel and is used as a communication post)". The news of the massacre arrived together with the rescuers.
At the time I was secretary general of the CGIL of Emilia Romagna. I was at home during those hours when I received a phone call from Cesare Calvelli, assistant to Ottaviano Del Turco and a great friend of mine (unfortunately who passed away years ago). Upon hearing the news, Calvelli went to the office in the salmon-colored building on Corso Italia to follow up on the situation and immediately thought of warning me. I rushed to the headquarters in via Marconi and got on the phone, to warn my colleagues from CISL and UIL and agree on initiatives, as news of the attack arrived. He called me the regional secretary of the PCI, Luciano Guerzoni (I imagine from Modena, where he lived). I was a socialist, but the communist leaders were correct and when it came to having official relations with the CGIL they turned to me.
After all - if I remember correctly - my communist deputy Alfiero Grandi, who lived in Sasso Marconi, had got into his car to reach the Vernio pass (where the massacre had taken place), but had remained stuck on the road. When the news took shape and the nature of the attack was clear, I had no difficulty reaching an understanding with the secretaries of CISL and UIL and drafting a statement – which they approved when I read it to them over the phone – in which it was promoted a demonstration in the afternoon of the vigil in Bologna. When Guerzoni called me back and I told him of the agreement reached, he announced that he would give up party initiatives and that the PCI would join the union demonstration. My colleagues did not object. When Grandi managed to call me proposing an action by the CGIL, I answered him – with some satisfaction – that I had already taken steps to promote a joint demonstration, also in agreement with the secretary of the PCI. Those were times like this then. I say this with nostalgia.
The writer - after the experience at the national Fiom - had returned to Bologna in 1974, assuming various roles in the regional secretariat (at the time this structure was taking on a definite physiognomy, as a congressional instance). He stayed there for 11 years, the last 5 as general secretary. I therefore looked closely the three attacks who struck (in 1974, in 1980, in 1984) my city. As for the Christmas massacre, the investigations soon turned towards the mafia organizations, as a prelude to the attacks of the early 90s.
The Court of Assizes of Florence, on February 25, 1989, sentenced to life imprisonment Giuseppe Calò, Guido Cercola and other defendants linked to the Camorra clan Misso (Alfonso Galeota, Giulio Pirozzi and Giuseppe Misso, known as «the boss of the Sanità district»), on charges of massacre. Furthermore, he sentenced Franco D'Agostino to 28 years in prison, Schaudinn (a German bomber) to 25 years, and condemned other defendants in the trial for the crime of armed gang.
The second degree was celebrated by the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Florence, presided over by judge Giulio Catelani, with a sentence issued on March 15, 1990. The life sentences for Calò and Cercola were confirmed, while Di Agostino's sentence was reduced from 28 to 24 years. Misso, Pirozzi and Galeota were instead acquitted of the crime of massacre, but convicted of illegal possession of explosives. The German Schaudinn was instead acquitted of the crime of armed gang, but his conviction for massacre was confirmed with a reduced sentence of 22 years. The Cassation annulled the appeal sentence, which however was substantially confirmed in the new second instance judgement. But the story - despite the final judgments - preserves a set of unclear aspects, as happened for many events of the massacres of that troubled period of Italian history.
