Kidnapping and Murder of Aldo Moro
On the morning of 16 March 1978, a Red Brigades commando ambushed the motorcade of Aldo Moro, president of the Christian Democracy party and the architect of the 'historic compromise' opening toward parliamentary cooperation with the Italian Communist Party, on Via Fani in Rome. The attackers killed all five of Moro's bodyguards and abducted him, holding him in a Rome apartment for what became known as the '55 days' of the Italian Republic. The Red Brigades demanded the release of imprisoned members in exchange for Moro's life; Italy's government, backed by the major parties including the Communists, adopted a 'firmness' (fermezza) policy refusing any negotiation, despite Moro's own smuggled letters pleading for a prisoner exchange. With no deal reached, the Red Brigades murdered Moro on 9 May 1978, leaving his body in the trunk of a car parked on Via Caetani in central Rome, symbolically equidistant between the Christian Democrat and Communist party headquarters. The killing shocked Italian society and definitively ended the 'historic compromise' strategy Moro had championed, while the state's refusal to negotiate, though controversial, was later credited with denying the Red Brigades the propaganda victory of a successful hostage exchange; a sustained police and judicial campaign, aided by the testimony of captured 'repentant' members, dismantled the group's core leadership over the following decade.
- Year: 1978 CE
- Category: Political
