On this day, 12 December 1947, at 9:15 pm, Italian fascist Italo Toffanello was kidnapped from his home in Milan by members of the Volante Rossa.
On this day, 12 December 1947, at 9:15 pm, Italian fascist Italo Toffanello was kidnapped from his home in Milan by members of the Volante Rossa. Volante Rossa (pictured) was a group of former anti-fascist partisans who, outraged at so many Nazis and war criminals getting an amnesty for their crimes, continued their fight against former fascist officials and Nazi collaborators. Earlier on the evening of December 12, Giulio Paggio, one of the Volante Rossa's leaders, had arrived at the group's headquarters and declared that they were going to "teach a fascist a lesson." After Toffanello was taken from his home, he was put in a van in which there were about 20 members of the Volante Rossa. He was driven around Milan for a few hours before being forced at gunpoint to strip down to his underwear before being dropped off in Piazza del Duomo (Milan's main central square) on a freezing winter night. Toffanello had been a member of the Republican Fascist Party during th...