Cirillo kidnap

On April 27, 1981, the Red Brigades kidnapped the 60-year-old Christian Democrat (DC) politician Ciro Cirillo and killed his two-man escort in the garage of his Naples apartment building. At the time Cirillo directed reconstruction efforts in Campania devastated by the earthquake in the Irpinia region on November 23, 1980. He was released after a controversial deal with the Camorra.

Cirillo was a key figure in the Campanian regional DC hierarchy. He was the right-hand man of Antonio Gava – one of the national leaders of the Doroteo faction of the DC –, responsible for appointments and public works contracts, and someone who knew a great deal about all the ‘behind the scenes’ deals of local Neapolitan politics. As the regional councillor for urban planning, he was in charge of the reconstruction after the 1980 earthquake. Cirillo was, therefore, a natural target for the Neapolitan column of the Red Brigades led by Giovanni Senzani ().

After two and a half months, the Red Brigades threatened to execute Cirillo unless the Naples city government accepted demands it refused in the past. The Red Brigades demanded that the authorities requisitioned housing for thousands of Naples families left homeless by the earthquake. They also demanded increased benefits for the unemployed. None of the political demands of the Red Brigades were met and in the end they accepted that a ransom was enough to release Cirillo.

Cirillo was released after 89 days on July 25, 1981, against the payment of a ransom of one and a half billion lire, thanks to the decisive intervention of Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo. Publicly the Christian Democrats had refused to negotiate with terrorists, but privately leading politicians such as Antonio Gava and Vincenzo Scotti, and members of the secret services, such as Pietro Musumeci, visited Cutolo in prison and asked him to negotiate with imprisoned members of the Red Brigades.

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Wikipedia