Justice in History

"The Whole State Will Be on Trial": The Aldo Moro Kidnapping

On March 16, 1978, while on his way to pray before going to Parliament, the former prime minister of Italy and leader of the Christian Democratic Party, Aldo Moro, was kidnapped in broad daylight in a Roman suburb. In a carefully planned and brilliantly executed operation, a woman driving a white car backed in front of Moro's official dark blue Fiat and caused an accident. She and her male companion sprang from their car and blasted automatic weapons into the front seat of the Fiat, killing Moro's chauffeur and bodyguard. Moro, who had been quietly reading the morning paper when the attack began, was pulled unhurt from the backseat and hurried away in an escape vehicle. Thus began Aldo Moro's horrible ordeal, and one of the most daring instances of organized terrorist violence in the postwar era.

Taking It Further

• Drake, Richard. The Aldo Moro Murder Case. 1995. Based on the extensive records of two parliamentary inquiries and four sets of criminal trials, this book is the most thorough examination of all the available evidence about the Moro murder.
  
  
• Wagner-Pacifici, Robin Erica. The Moro Morality Play: Terrorism as Social Drama. 1986. This book is less concerned with the evidence of who did what than how the Moro kidnapping constituted one of the most striking social dramas of the twentieth century.
  
  
• http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Moro
  Well-researched entry suggests connections of Moro's murder with such diverse groups as the CIA and Freemasons.
  
  
• http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/17/nov98/drake.htm
  Mythmaking and the Aldo Moro case, A monograph, also by Richard Drake, for the New Criterion.