On December 15, 1969, journalists, neighbors and policemen crowded into the office of Commissioner Luigi Calabresi. From his window, located on the fourth floor, the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, who was being interrogated that day, had fallen. He was accused of participating days before in a bomb attack in Piazza Fontana in Milan. The agent proved his innocence to the authorities. He had an alibi: he was not at the police station. But it didn’t matter what he said. That day, they swore revenge.
Three years later, on the morning of May 17, 1972, he was shot dead by members of the far-left organization Lotta Continua. His death altered the course of political events and changed the history of the country, which entered one of its darkest periods, the years of lead. One of his sons, the journalist Mario Calabresi, former director of the newspapers La Stampa and La Repubblica, captures the harshness of that time in Coming Out of the Night (Asteroid Books), a book that he dedicates to his father and to the victims of terrorism.
You were familiar with the concept of ‘fake new’ long before you became a journalist.
People say that fake news is internet stuff. I laugh every time I hear that. My father suffered one of the most powerful disinformation campaigns in memory in Italy, which resulted in his death.
At what point did you decide to write this book?
I’ve spent my entire life collecting information about my father’s murder. I didn’t know if he was going to be able to face such a book, because of the pain that comes with it, but I knew that if I ever wrote anything it would be about this. The opportunity arose when an editor from a very important publishing house in Italy, Mondadori, asked me to write a book about my experience as a United States correspondent. I told him no, if I ever wrote a book it would be about my father and the victims of terrorism. They told me that it was okay, that it was fine with them. Then there was no turning back.
Did you ever think of leaving?
My wife was pregnant at the time, and since I was going to become a father shortly, it was the right time to do the math with my own father’s story.
What did they tell you at home?
My wife was the only one who knew about this project. I wrote it when I was in New York and at night in Italy, so she would assure me that no one would interrupt me on the phone. He needed to be alone and completely silent. She didn’t want my mother or my brothers to know what she was doing.
But they should eventually find out…
Yes, but when it was already printed. I went to my mother’s house and gave it to her. I told him that I would have written about the death of my father and the victims of terrorism. She stared at me, very surprised, and she said, okay, I’ll read it and give you my opinion on whether it would change anything. So I told her no, mom, it can’t be changed anymore. In a few days it will be in bookstores. She did not answer. She sat down and began to read it straight through. She read it twice in a row. That day she did not eat and cried a lot.
There aren’t too many victim-focused books out there.
When it was published in Italy, this was the first. Then the rest arrived. It was therapeutic for me but I think also for the rest of Italian society. The book also allowed progress on some pending issues.
Which is it?
Well, for example, putting up a plaque that would identify my father and what had happened. The then President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, ordered it to be placed three months after its publication.
Do you think justice has been done?
Yes. You’re late, but yes. For the family there were two important issues. One was to show the world that my father had no responsibility for the death of the anarchist Pinelli. And the second, to know who killed my father. Both things have been resolved.
Also the pardon for Ovidio Bompressi, one of those involved?
We have never wanted to get involved in the process. Justice is not a private or family matter, but of the State and institutions. Pardons are fair as long as society asks for them. But before this process, it is essential that there be truth, justice and care for the victims. Without that, then the pardon becomes unfair and painful.
Have you seen any of those responsible again after the process?
Some time ago I went looking for Giorgio Pietro Stefani, the organizer of the murder. He escaped to France and has lived there for more than twenty years. I found out that he was dying and before that happened I wanted to solve all my doubts.
Did you solve them?
The truth is that if. He asked me if he came as a son or as a journalist. I told him that as a son, that he was not going to record anything. He just wanted to feel something like peace for once. We met in a hotel and talked for hours.
Despite everything they experienced, their mother always educated them away from hatred.
It is the fundamental lesson that he has given us. Since we were children, he taught us that with hatred and revenge we would not gain anything. What’s more, it would have destroyed our lives. And we were already destroyed enough to add more pain. We prefer to remind you but not all of us can.
¿No?
My mother was pregnant with one of my brothers, so she never met him. The other one, he was one year old and he is unable to remember anything, he was too young. I am lucky that he did, but unfortunately I have only one memory that happened three days before his death. He spent all day playing with me. I am convinced that he knew that sooner rather than later, they would finish him off. Over the years I learned that that day they planned to kill him but thanks to that day of games he had a few extra hours of life.
Can you turn the page?
It is now 51 years since my father was killed and, as I said, it can be done as long as justice is done. My mother, on the other hand, had to follow a different path, that of forgiveness. It is a long task that, in her case, concluded with the delivery of the medal of valor that the then President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, gave her a few years ago. For the first time she felt that the State had not forgotten her or her husband or her.
Can a far-right government relight the fuse?
The political debate has reignited, that is evidence. There are more and more protests in universities and schools, but it does not go beyond that. I want to think that from those harsh times we all learned something. I hope to keep thinking this and not be disappointed.
