Giuseppe "Pino" Pinelli (21 October 1928 – 15 December 1969) was an Italian railroad worker and anarchist, who died while being detained by the Polizia di Stato in 1969. Pinelli was a member of the Milan-based anarchist association named Ponte della Ghisolfa. He was also the secretary of the Italian branch of the Anarchist Black Cross. His death, believed by many to have been caused by members of the police, inspired Nobel Prize laureate Dario Fo to write his famous play titled Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

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Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Giuseppe Pinelli
Pinelli in 1969
Born	(1928-10-21)October 21, 1928 Milan, Italy
Died	December 15, 1969(1969-12-15) (aged 41) Milan, Italy
Cause of death	Defenestration
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Railroad worker
Movement	Anarchism

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Pinelli was born in Milan to Alfredo Pinelli and Rosa Malacarne.^[1] His family was working-class in one of the poorest areas of post-World War I Milan. Although he had to work in many low-income jobs, such as waiter and warehouseman,^[1] in order to make ends meet, he nonetheless found the time to read many books and become politically active throughout his youth.^[1] Among other political activities, he also worked with the anarchist group that published the weekly paper Il Libertario (The Libertarian).^[2]

In 1944, Pinelli was a member of the Italian resistance movement within the Franco Brigade, and worked with a group of anarchist partisans that introduced him to libertarian thought.^[3] In 1954, he found work as a railroad fitter. In 1955, Pinelli married Licia Rognini, whom he had met at an evening class of Esperanto.^[2] During the 1960s, he continued anarchist activism. He organized young anarchists in the Gioventù Libertaria (Libertarian Youth) in 1962.^[1] He helped found the Sacco and Vanzetti Anarchist Association in 1965. He founded the Ponte della Ghisolfa association (named after the nearby bridge) in 1968.^[1]

On 12 December 1969, a bomb exploded at the Piazza Fontana in Milan; it killed 17 people and injured 88.^[5] Pinelli was picked up, along with other anarchists, for questioning regarding the attack.^[2] Just before midnight on 15 December 1969, Pinelli was seen to fall to his death from a fourth-floor window of the Milan police station.^[6] His death was widely believed to have been caused by members of the police.^[7] Three police officers interrogating Pinelli, including Commissioner Luigi Calabresi, were put under investigation in 1971 for his death; legal proceedings concluded it was due to accidental causes,^[8][9] citing active illness.^[10][11][12]

Pinelli's name has since been cleared,^[6] and the far-right Ordine Nuovo was accused of the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing.^[5] In 2001, three neo-fascists were convicted,^[13][14] a sentence that was overturned in March 2004;^[5] a fourth defendant, Carlo Digilio, was a suspected CIA informant who became a witness for the state and received immunity from prosecution.^{[14][nb 1]} Calabresi was later killed by two shots from a revolver outside his home in 1972.^[15] In 1988, former Lotta Continua leader Adriano Sofri was arrested with Ovidio Bompressi and Giorgio Pietrostefani for Calabresi's murder.^[16] The charges against them were based on testimony provided 16 years later by Leonardo Marino, an ex-militant who confessed to the murder of Calabresi under order from Sofri. Claiming his innocence, Sofri was finally convicted after a highly contentious trial in 1997.^[17]

Pinelli's death is the inspiration for Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist, although in the original script his name was not mentioned explicitly.^[2] The political documentary film 12 dicembre (1972) directed by Giovanni Bonfanti about Pinelli's death was based on an idea by Pier Paolo Pasolini and included an interview to Pinelli's mother and wife.^[18] His death inspired the painting Funeral of the Anarchist Pinelli by Italian artist Enrico Baj.^[2] In Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy (2012), Pinelli was portrayed by Pierfrancesco Favino.^[19] Hints of his death are also in the songs "Asilo 'Republic'" (1980) by Vasco Rossi, "Quarant'anni" (1993) by the Modena City Ramblers, and "La ballata del Pinelli" (1969, with various versions), among others.^[20][21]

• Andrea Salsedo
• Pietro Valpreda
• Police brutality
• Strategy of tension