The murder of Lorenzo Cutugno was committed in Turin, Italy on 11 April 1978. The victim was a member of the Polizia Penitenziaria assigned to the Turin prisons, who was ambushed by the Red Brigades during the period known as the Years of Lead.

History

Commemorative plaque of the ambush in the Lungo Dora Napoli area, in Turin.

On the morning of 11 April 1978, Cutugno was leaving the building where he lived at Lungo Dora Napoli 60 to go to work. As Cutugno emerged from the elevator, two Red Brigades members, Cristoforo Piancone and Nadia Ponti, repeatedly shot him in the legs with the aim of kneecapping him. Although already wounded, Cutugno dragged himself out of the entrance hall and shot the two fleeing terrorists, managing to hit both. Patrizio Peci, a Red Brigades terrorist who turned informant, would later write that Cutugno initially shot only Piancone, his male assailant, and not Ponti, a woman, seriously wounding Piancone. However, when Ponti prepared to shoot Cutugno again, Cutugno and Ponti fired at the same time, with Cutugno wounding Ponti in the arm and thigh. A third terrorist who was waiting in a stolen car, Vincenzo Acella, intervened and shot the wounded policeman from behind in the heart and head.[1] Peci wrote of Cutugno's actions before his death, "I must say that that Cutugno has shown that he has two big balls like this".[2]

Cristoforo Piancone, left in a hospital emergency room by his comrades, was arrested and convicted of six murders and two attempted murders. He was the first Red Brigades member of those who were carrying out an extensive terror campaign in Turin to be identified and arrested.[1][3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 De Blasis, Giovanni Battista (11 April 2021). "In memoria dell'Agente di Custodia Lorenzo Cutugno, ucciso dalle brigate rosse l'11 aprile 1978" [In memory of Custody Agent Lorenzo Cutugno, killed by the Red Brigades on 11 April 1978]. Polizia Penitenziaria (in Italian). Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  2. ↑ Peci, Patrizio (1984). Io l'infame [I the infamous] (in Italian). Mondadori. Devo dire che quel Cutugno ha dimostrato di avere due palle grosse così, cited in De Blasis.
  3. ↑ "Lorenzo Cutugno". Associazione Italiana Vittime del Terrorismo AIVITER (in Italian). Retrieved 5 September 2021.


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