On 12 December 1969 a bomb exploded in the Milan office of the National Agricultural Bank in Piazza Fontana . 17 people died and 88 were wounded . Among those interrogated as suspects was anarchist railway worker Giuseppe Pinelli . On the night of 15 December , Pinelli died from a fall from a fourth floor window of police headquarters . Theories of what caused Pinelli 's fall included murder , suicide , and an accident due to loss of consciousness . On 3 July 1970 judicial authorities closed the case as an " accidental death " . A second inquiry in 1975 confirmed this by ruling Pinelli 's death due to an " active illness " . The 1975 tribunal further found that Calabresi was not in the room at the time of Pinelli 's death . However , elements of the far left did not accept the determination . Despite being exonerated by the institutions of the Italian state , the far-left Lotta Continua accused Calabresi of being responsible for the death of Pinelli . For two years he was the focus of a media campaign , led in part by the weekly '' L'Espresso '' , that held him responsible for Pinelli 's death . Calabresi was shot in the street and murdered in Milan on 17 May 1972 on his way to work . He was deputy leader of the political section of the Milan office of the Italian State Police when he was murdered . The judge of the first trial was the President of criminal court of Milano Carlo Biotti
Piazza Fontana
Piazza Fontana bombing
Luigi Calabresi