A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #468 - HISTORY. From the Police Headquarters archives, the truth about the Ragusa massacre (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On April 9, 1921, at 8:00 PM in Piazza Umberto I, the Hon. Vincenzo 
Vacirca, a socialist, speaks from a stage in front of the Chamber of 
Labor. He condemns fascist violence. He expresses his hope that Ragusa 
will be spared the horror of seeing its streets drenched in blood. On 
the other side of the square, fascists led by Filippo Pennavaria and 
Major Salvatore Minardi boo him. From the platform of the Church of San 
Giovanni, some socialists shout "Cowards!" and throw stones. They wound 
two fascists. The others take cover in the Circolo dei Massari. And they 
open fire. A rain of fire rains down on the crowd. Vacirca miraculously 
escapes. Two people remain dead on the ground: Rosario Occhipinti, 24, a 
farmer; Carmelo Vitale, 26, a pickaxe driver. A third, Rosario Gurrieri, 
dies the next day. "From a rifle discharge during a brawl," the death 
certificate reads. Uncertainty remains as to whether he was hit during 
the shootout or in the subsequent clashes. The trial documents mention 
only two deaths. Officially, there were 16 injured. In reality, there 
were many more, around seventy. But they avoided the hospital to avoid 
arrest. The Carabinieri searched the socialist clubs, finding nothing. 
In the premises of the Partito Popolare and the Circolo dei Massari, 
they found Browning pistols and spent shell casings. The investigation 
reached a dead end: a mob crime following the socialist provocation. 
"This episode," Vacirca wrote (Sicilia Socialista, April 11, 1921) 
regarding the stones that wounded the fascists, "is being exploited to 
justify the fascist crime: by saying that the boulder was rolled before 
the shot was fired. This is absolutely false, and no one can assert more 
than I that I was standing there with my eyes fixed on the fascists and 
that I saw the shots begin without a shadow of reason. Witnesses who 
point to the shooters are ignored. No one is charged, except for the 
socialist student Giovanni Lupis, for injuries caused by throwing stones 
from the balustrade. He will be acquitted under amnesty in 1923.

New York, September 1926. A letter from the Bronx arrives at the 
editorial office of "Nuovo Mondo," directed by Vacirca. The author is 
Francesco La Porta, an emigrant from Ragusa, a former miner and 
socialist. He adds two important elements to the reconstruction of the 
tragic events. A few days before the rally, Gabriello Carnazza, 
undersecretary of the Treasury, had visited Ragusa, "as a guest in the 
home of that Jesuit and pimp from Pennavaria." Carnazza had explained 
"what fascism was and what authority the government gave to this gang of 
black-shirted, tricolor-clad assassins." "They took courage on the spot, 
and the Fascist Party gathered, calling for meetings with the signal of 
the bombs they detonated. They discussed, without a doubt, that the 
government authorized them to go against us by giving them weapons and 
even having them protected by the Carabinieri." A few days later, "the 
undersigned, former mayor Emanuele La Carrubba, lawyer S. Lupis, and 
veterinarian Nicola Fumuso went to Modica to invite comrade Vincenzo 
Vacirca to come to Ragusa and offer his word of comfort to the masses 
for his interest in reaching an agreement with the local employers. The 
police delegate, Mr. D'Agato, learning that we were to bring Vacirca to 
the town, came to the mayor's offices where I was, the mayor, and lawyer 
Lupis, as the municipality's representative and secretary of the 
Socialist Section. The official protested, wanting to prevent the 
socialist deputy from coming, and after our insistence, he replied that 
he and the police would be absent and that he would return after the 
deed had taken place to collect the dead, as indeed happened." An 
operational connection therefore emerges between the fascist action and 
the police.

On the evening of the rally, in the Circolo dei Massari, "the entire 
town's thugs and mafia were there, armed with daggers and revolvers, 
protected by a marshal of the Royal Guard and more than 30 militiamen 
armed with muskets. While comrade Vacirca spoke to the crowd, the 
fascists shouted, made noise, and threatened, but the crowd ignored 
them, lest a scuffle break out." The pickaxe operator noticed a gun 
pointed at the speaker, lunged at Vacirca, and knocked him to the 
ground. The gunfire forced him and his comrades to take cover. "Comrade 
Vacirca and I entered the Labor Center, filled with workers and 
children. The square looked like a battlefield. Cries and moans could be 
heard from every side. The wounded were crying for help. Women and 
children were screaming and crying. Two seriously injured men were lying 
on the sidewalk right in front of the Labor Center, begging for help! 
Who could come to their aid? Right in front were the Carabinieri and 
fascists shooting like madmen. Vacirca and I attempted it three or four 
times, but the bullets prevented us from carrying out our risky plan. 
The Carabinieri made way for the fascists to let them do what they 
wanted. After three hours, at 11:30 PM, the magistrate, the clerk of the 
court, and the doctor arrived to certify the death of those poor fathers 
who had left their wives and children in the middle of the street. Among 
the dead was also a war invalid who had given up an eye for the 
greatness of the Fatherland! In the chaos that followed the shooting, 
the socialists mistook the authorities entering the Chamber of Labor for 
fascists, turned off the lights, and attacked them, but then realized 
the mistake and stopped. Once outside, Vacirca immediately lashed out 
with scathing words at the Carabinieri marshal and the police delegate 
for the conduct of their men, and insisted on going to the site where 
the shots that struck the unfortunate workers had been fired. Around a 
hundred revolver cartridge cases were collected there, which he took to 
provide evidence to present to the Chamber of Deputies in their account 
of the incident. The delegate told Vacirca to leave town immediately 
because he could offer no guarantee of his safety should he remain any 
longer.

The New York testimony speaks of premeditation and institutional 
complicity at all levels. The letter is published in full. The newspaper 
clipping is sent to Italy to the lawyer Salvatore Molè, an anti-fascist 
and former mayor of Vittoria. To circumvent censorship, it is addressed 
to a cousin of Vacirca, Ernesto Santonocito, a member of the fascist 
union. The political police intercept the envelope and seize it. 
Santonocito ends up under surveillance, the clipping in the police 
archives. The truth that emerged from America disappears. With the fall 
of fascism, Carmelo Vitale's widow and son demand a new trial. Witnesses 
accuse 64 fascists. The preliminary investigation acquits 52. Twelve end 
up before the special Assize Court convened in Modica. They are: 
Gaudenzio Battaglia, Emanuele Giummarra, Andrea Valle Català, Luigi 
Sulsenti, Emanuele Chiavola, Antonio Arena Antonelli, Salvatore Nifosì, 
Nunzio Marzano, Giuseppe Bertini, Paolo Di Martino, Emanuele Vicari, and 
Salvatore Firrito.

The trial opens on April 24, 1946. The witnesses do not confirm the 
accusations. Charged with perjury, they recant and admit to having tried 
to benefit the defendants. Behind their hesitations, pressure and 
intimidation can be perceived. Even the judge noticed: they seemed to 
act "in concert and as if they had exchanged a password." The verdict 
was delivered on April 30th.

There was confusion in the square. It was evening. Fear altered 
perceptions. It was difficult in those conditions and after so much time 
to identify those responsible and discern the guilt of individuals. 
Presiding Judge Giuseppe Verzi deemed the evidence insufficient and 
acquitted the defendants. Things would have been different, he admitted, 
if there had been proof of a prior agreement among the fascists. Yet the 
evidence was there: La Porta's letter could have opened new horizons, 
forcing an investigation into the prior agreement. But it remained 
buried in the archives. Today, those words are coming to light again. 
And they tell a story of truths emerged and disappeared, of complicit 
silences and justice denied.

Giovanni Criscione

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