Pietro Valpreda
{{short description|Italian anarchist (1932–2002)}}
{{expand Italian|topic=bio|date=January 2021}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
Pietro Valpreda (29 September 1932 – 6 July 2002) was an Italian anarchist, poet, dancer, and novelist. He was sentenced to prison on charges of being responsible for the Piazza Fontana bombing in December 1969. In 1987, he was acquitted by Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation for lack of evidence.
Early life, education, and activism
Valpreda came from a poor working-class family in Milan. After the end of his formal education, he attended dance school. He made his living as a minor dancer on stage. In 1969, he moved to Rome, where he frequented the Bakunin Circle, before founding with several friends the {{ill|22 March Circle|it|Circolo anarchico 22 marzo}}.{{cite web |last=Finzi |first=Paolo |date=2006 |title=Ciao Peder! |url=http://www.socialismolibertario.it/valpreda.htm |access-date=19 April 2024 |website=Rivista Anarchica |language=it}}{{cite episode |title=Piazza Fontana. Una strage di Stato? |url=http://www.lastoriasiamonoi.rai.it/puntata.aspx?id=703 |access-date=19 April 2024 |series=La storia siamo noi |date=2010 |language=it |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100404004502/http://www.lastoriasiamonoi.rai.it/puntata.aspx?id=703 |archive-date=4 April 2010}}
Piazza Fontana bombing and miscarriage of justice
Following the bombing in Piazza Fontana, carried out on 12 December 1969 in the middle of the Hot Autumn, Valpreda was arrested by the police. A taxi driver testified to having seen him on Piazza Fontana a short time before the bombing,{{cite news |last=Bocca |first=Giorgio |date=11 December 2009 |title=Quella sera in piazza Fontana |url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2009/12/11/quella-sera-in-piazza-fontana.html |access-date=19 April 2024 |work=La Repubblica |language=it}} which left 17 dead and 88 injured. His testimony was not considered reliable, even if made in good faith.{{cite book |last1=Cervi |first1=Mario |title=L'Italia degli anni di piombo 1965-1978 |last2=Montanelli |first2=Indro |publisher=Rizzoli |year=1991 |isbn=978-88-1786-677-4 |location=Milan |language=it}} Another anarchist, Giuseppe Pinelli, was also arrested for the bombing, and died after falling from a fourth-floor window a few days later while the police illegally detained him.{{cite news |last=Crainz |first=Guido |date=11 December 2009 |title=Piazza Fontana |url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2009/12/11/piazza-fontana.html |access-date=19 April 2024 |work=La Repubblica |language=it}}
Valpreda's name was splashed across the media as "the monster of Piazza Fontana",{{cite news |last=D'Agostini |first=Paolo |date=12 December 2009 |title=Piazza Fontana il film |url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2009/12/12/piazza-fontana-il-film.html |access-date=19 April 2024 |work=La Repubblica |language=it}} and the television reporter Bruno Vespa claimed that "the guilty man has been found". For three years, he languished in jail, awaiting trial. All over Italy, there were huge pro-Valpreda demonstrations and the trial was moved to the deep south in order to avoid any type of political interference. Valpreda published his prison diaries, entitled It Is Him, which were the words used by the alleged witness, taxi driver Cornelio Rolandi. The criminal trial started at Rome on 23 February 1972;{{cite book |last=Zavoli |first=Sergio |title=La notte della Repubblica |publisher=Nuova Eri |year=1992 |isbn=978-88-0433-909-0 |location=Rome |language=it}} the Italian judiciary took 15 years to exonerate Valpreda, who was acquitted for lack of evidence,{{cite news |last=Coppola |first=Franco |date=28 January 1987 |title=Strage di piazza Fontana. Azzerati 17 anni di indagini |url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1987/01/28/strage-di-piazza-fontana-azzerati-17-anni.html |access-date=19 April 2024 |work=La Repubblica |language=it}} and 29 years to find someone else guilty of the bombing;{{cite news |date=1 July 2001 |title=Tre ergastoli per la strage di piazza Fontana |work=Corriere della Sera |language=it}} Carlo Maria Maggi, Giancarlo Rognoni, and Delfo Zorzi, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, were acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2004 and by the Supreme Court of Cassation in 2005.{{Cite web |date=3 May 2005 |title=Piazza Fontana: misteri, indagini e processi |url=https://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2005/05_Maggio/03/pop_fontana.shtml |access-date=19 April 2024 |website=Corriere della Sera |language=it}} It was later found out that the real culprits of the bombing were other neo-fascists and Ordine Nuovo members. As it later emerged, most probably Valpreda was mistaken for {{ill|Antonio Sottosanti|it}}, a far-right extremist close to the neo-fascist scene who was a lookalike of the anarchist.{{cite news |date=19 June 2000 |title=Sul taxi della strage il sosia di Valpreda |work=Corriere della Sera |language=it}} After his release, Valpreda continued to work as a dancer and opened a bar in Milano. He wrote four books with {{ill|Piero Colaprico|it}}.{{cite news |date=13 October 2008 |title=Colaprico racconta come nasce un noir |url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2008/10/13/colaprico-racconta-come-nasce-un-noir.html |access-date=19 April 2024 |work=La Repubblica |language=it}}
See also
References
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Category:Individualist anarchists
Category:Italian prisoners and detainees