Acts of terror as collective violent acts

On March 3, 1972, Idalgo Macchiarini, an executive of a mid-size firm in Milan, was kidnapped by a group of masked persons. He was subjected to an interrogation about the future financial plans of the firm he was employed in, and released after a couple of hours. A black and white photo was shot to document the kidnapping. The photo shows Macchiarini with a tag on which one could read the following words (among others): “Brigate Rosse. Colpiscine uno per educarne cento. [Red Brigades. Strike One to Educate Hundreds.]” This was the first time that the Italian Brigate Rosse had targeted a human person and also the first of a long series of actions that endured throughout the 1970s and 1980s and culminated in the kidnap and then murder of the Italian ex-prime minister, Aldo Moro, in 1978.