Adriana Faranda (born 7 August 1950) is an Italian former terrorist, who was a member of the

Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( , often abbreviated BR) were an Italian far-left Marxist–Leninist militant group. It was responsible for numerous violent incidents during Italy's Years of Lead, including the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro in 1978, ...

during the kidnapping of Aldo Moro.

Biography

Faranda was born in

Tortorici Tortorici ( Sicilian: ''Turturici'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about east of Palermo and about west of Messina. Located in the Nebrodi regional park, Tortorici borde ...

, in eastern

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. Initially a member of

Potere Operaio Potere Operaio (English: "Workers' Power") was a radical left-wing Italian political group, active between 1967 and 1973. Among the group's leaders were Antonio ('Toni') Negri, Nanni Balestrini, Franco Piperno, Oreste Scalzone and Valerio ...

, in 1973, together with other future members of the Red Brigades (or BR) such as Bruno Seghetti and Valerio Morucci, she founded the extremist group LAP (''Lotta Armata Potere Proletario'', meaning "Armed Struggle - Proletarian Power"). Later she was part of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

"column" of the BR, and became a member of national council of the Red Brigades. In 1978 she took part in the kidnapping of former prime minister

Aldo Moro Aldo Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and prominent member of Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy (DC) and its centre-left wing. He served as prime minister of Italy in five terms from December 1963 ...

. According to her testimony during the ensuing trial, she was, along with Morucci, against the execution of the politician; when the latter was killed, Faranda abandoned the BR, after which she entered other formations connected to far-left leader Franco Piperno. Faranda had been identified as the woman who had bought the fake

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. ...

uniforms used by the ambushers of Moro's escort, and was arrested in Rome in May 1979, together with Morucci, in the house of former

militant Giuliana Conforto (daughter of alleged

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

spy or anti-communist

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

Giorgio Conforto). Due to her "dissociation" from the BR (she admitted her crimes but did not denounce other members), she was released in 1994, before her sentence had expired. Faranda wrote an autobiography in which she described the years she spent in jail. Italian actress Francesca Prandi portrayed Faranda in the 1991

John Frankenheimer John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits are ''Birdman of Alcatraz (film), Birdman of Alcatraz'', ''The Manc ...

film, '' Year of the Gun''.
Italian actress Daniela Marra portrayed Faranda in the 2022

Marco Bellocchio Marco Bellocchio (; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Life and career Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellocchio had a strict Catholic upbringing – his father was a lawyer, his mother a schooltea ...

TV series, ''

Exterior Night ''Exterior Night'' () is a 2022 Italian-language drama film co-written and directed by Marco Bellocchio based on the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro. The film is the second feature by Bellocchio based on the Moro case after ''Good Morning, Ni ...

''.

Biography

References

Further reading