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Aldo Semerari (; 8 May 1923 − March or 1 April 1982) was an Italians criminologist, anthropologist and psychiatrist. He was also a noted neo-fascist, who was suspected of complicity in the Bologna massacre.
In 1962, Semerari came to public attention when he was asked to provide a psychiatric analysis of the writer and film-maker Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was then on trial for attempting to steal two thousand Italian lira from a petrol station. In his report, Semerari pronounced Pasolini to be a "sexual deviant" and "instinctive psychopath", whose voyeurism and criminal tendencies were stimulated by his communist affiliations. Semerari considered Pasolini's refusal to acknowledge his deviancy as further evidence of mental instability, declaring that Pasolini was "so deeply abnormal that he accepts his abnormality in full consciousness, to the point of being unable to judge it as such." Psychiatric Notes by the Prof. Aldo Semerari of the University of Rome on the writer Pier Paolo Pasolini, 21 June 1962, quoted in both Barth David Schwartz, Pasolini Requiem (New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, 1995), p. 386; and Jean-Claude Klein, 'Le lynchage d'un pédé', Le Berdache, Issue 6 (December 1979 − January 1980), p. 40. Having neglected to interview Pasolini in person, Semerari did not succeed in getting his evidence accepted by the court, but his report's findings were published before the trial ended and repeated uncritically by sections of the popular press.Schwartz, Pasolini Requiem, p. 386. The controversial nature of Semerari's evaluation of Pasolini did not dent his status as a leading consultant to the criminal courts in Rome, and throughout the following two decades his psychiatric evaluations continued to influence judicial rulings.
In the 1970s, Semerari was also involved in making films himself, developing a partnership with the director and screenwriter Brunello Rondi. He and Rondi wrote the screenplay for the film Valeria Inside and Outside ( Valeria dentro e fuori, 1972), an explicit account of a young woman's neurotic Freudian fantasies and sexual frustrations, and he received a further screenwriting credit for Rondi's sexploitation film Sex Life in a Women's Prison ( Prigione di donne, 1974).Roberto Curti, 'Rediscovering Brunello Rondi', Offscreen, Volume 15, Issue 12 (December 2011). Retrieved 22 June 2021.
As John Dickie explains, Semerari's main significance lay in his position at the intersection of subversive political activity and organised crime.John Dickie, Mafia Brotherhoods: Camorra, Mafia, 'ndrangheta: the Rise of the Honoured Societies (London: Sceptre, 2012), p. 444. He was convinced that establishing partnerships with criminal gangs would accelerate the strategia della tensione (literally, the "strategy of tension"), the process by which "revolutionary" activity would exacerbate public discontent and bring about the fall of the democratic state, and to this end he had by the late 1970s cultivated close ties with the recently established Roman criminal syndicate, the Banda della Magliana, whose meetings were often organised by him at his summer villa in Rieti. Carlo Lucarelli, Storie di bande criminali, di mafie e di persone oneste: dai Misteri d'Italia di Blu notte (Turin: Einaudi, 2008), p. 143. Alongside the former Italian Social Movement ( Movimento Sociale Italiano; MSI) parliamentarian Fabio De Felice and history teacher Paolo Signorelli, Semerari also hosted a number of seminars with various far-right militants at around this time, which Jeffrey Bale suggests were convened to discuss a "new decentralized and self-financing terrorist strategy", modelled on the activities of the Red Brigades, that could "consolidate the remnants of various extremist groups" in the face of official state crackdowns and the flight of several neo-fascist leaders to "safer havens abroad".Jeffrey Bale, 'The "Black" Terrorist International: Neo-Fascist Paramilitary Networks and the "Strategy of Tension" in Italy, 1968–1974', Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley (1994), p. 427. Bale notes that the seminars' participants frequently disagreed about which was the best route to achieve their goals, with Semerari and De Felice emerging as the leaders of a "traditionalist" faction that eschewed direct revolutionary action in favour of constructing a logistical base that would bring together like-minded militant groups and individuals.Bale, '"Black" Terrorist International', p. 428.
In exchange for financial support for his organisation, Semerari helped the members of various criminal organisations evade imprisonment when they were arrested, devising strategies for coping with police interrogation and writing reports that sought to establish either innocence or lack of culpability, which were usually supported by a fraudulent diagnosis of mental infirmity.Pino Arlacchi refers to a diagnosis nefariously used by Semerari known as Ganser syndrome, defined as an illness found in people who have become so accustomed to feigning madness that they end up really going mad. See Pino Arlacchi, Mafia Business: the Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (London: Verso, 1986), p. 147. In addition to the Banda della Magliana, Semerari made similar deals with both Raffaele Cutolo New Organised Camorra ( Nuova Camorra Organizzata; NCO) and one of Cutulo's main rivals, the Nuova Famiglia ( Nuova Famiglia; NF) headed by Carmine Alfieri. 'Il boss Ammaturo confessa: 40 avvisi', Corriere della Sera, 24 May 1994. {subscription required}. Franco Ferraresi later concluded that Semerari's efforts in keeping criminals away from severe punishment bore fruit, as his diagnoses were "critical in obtaining lenient terms for many of them."Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy, p. 175.
In August 1980, Semerari was one of a trio of neo-fascist pedagogues − the other two were Signorelli and Claudio Mutti − arrested on suspicion of being involved in the bombing of Bologna Centrale railway station earlier that month, which claimed the lives of 85 people and wounded over 200 more. Semerari was, according to The Observer, held by the police at his home in Rieti and taken to a top-security prison for further interrogation. Pino Rauti, a leading figure on the neo-fascist right and a friend of Signorelli, announced in a press statement that the accusations regarding the culpability of Semerari and the other detainees were "fabricated by members of the Italian secret services to discredit the political right."Henry Tanner, 'In Italy, Rightists Join Leftists in the Reign of Terror', New York Times, 23 September 1980, A3. Semerari remained in prison for a further seven months on charges of subversive association and forming armed groups, until he was freed in April 1981 due to a lack of evidence.'Bombing Suspect Freed', Guardian, 11 April 1981, p. 6. During captivity he suffered (in the words of Ferraresi) a "psychological breakdown", which ensured that he remained a patient at the San Camillo hospital in Rome and (later) at his own clinic, the Villa Mafalda, even after being formally released from court supervision.Ferraresi, Threats to Democracy, p. 175, note 39. Luigi Cipriani, The Ustica-Libya case, 1990 (excerpts). fondazionecipriani.it. Retrieved 28 June 2022. Franco Coppola, 'Camorra o servizi segreti? Il caso Semerari a un bivio', La Repubblica, 24 May 1985. Retrieved 28 June 2022. A La Repubblica article, published in 1985, alleged that Semerari − who had been assaulted while in prison − lived in fear from this point onwards, as he believed that his erstwhile 'comrades' suspected him of having named those responsible for the Bologna bombing in order to secure an early release, and were planning on killing him in revenge. Franco Coppola, 'Cutolo, Cirillo, Sismi il 'Giallo' Semerari e' un intrigo di stato', La Repubblica, 21 May 1985. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
The circumstances surrounding Semerari's murder were the subject of intense speculation for years afterwards. In March 1985, during an investigation by the Public Prosecutor of Bologna into the 1980 railway station bombing, a former SISMI official named Demetrio Cogliandro (latterly head of counter-intelligence operations and known by the codename "Capemuorto" Marco Ansaldo and Yasemin Taksin, Uccidete il Papa (Milan: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 2013).) claimed that Semerari had sought help from the security services the day before he was kidnapped.Information supplied by Cogliandro during this investigation was later included as contextual evidence by magistrate Rosario Priore in his report on the 1980 Ustica massacre, published in 1999. See Procedimento Penale Nr. 527/84 A G.I., (v. esame Cogliandro Demetrio, PM di Bologna, 06.03.85), Volume 17, Capo 5 (Il contesto), Titolo 1 (1999), p. 4793. stragi80.it. Retrieved 28 June 2022. In his deposition, given in the prosecutor's office, Cogliandro recalled that:
Cogliandro told the prosecutor that he had then contacted Giuseppe Santovito, the recently retired director of SISMI (and a member of P2), to report this information. Santovito, he said, listened to the details "without surprise" and told him: "I'll take care of it, keep the news to yourself." Contemporary press reports alighted on this revelation, with some openly suggesting that SISMI could have been involved in Semerari's death. However, despite the corroboration of Cogliandro's allegations by Era himself during the investigation, no evidence subsequently emerged to prove them beyond doubt.Cogliandro wrote to the Bolognese prosecutor soon afterwards claiming that he had been mistaken and could not have contacted Santovito, given that the latter was by this time no longer the head of SISMI, but he returned to his original version of events years later while giving evidence during the Ustica massacre enquiry. See Procedimento Penale Nr. 527/84 A G.I., Volume 17, Capo 5 (Il contesto), Titolo 1, p. 4793.
In fact, Semerari was murdered on the orders of Ammaturo, an associate of Carmine Alfieri's NF, who desired revenge after discovering that his enemy, Raffaele Cutolo, had also availed himself of Semerari's services whilst in prison. Both Ammaturo and his lover, Pupetta Maresca, were later arrested and charged with Semerari's murder, although the former managed to escape justice by fleeing to Africa and then to South America. Maresca, having remained in Italy to face the charges, would serve four years in prison before she and Ammaturo were acquitted on appeal in 1989 due to a lack of evidence. Although Maresca continued to deny any role in the murder, Ammaturo subsequently confessed to his involvement when he decided to become a pentito (state witness or "supergrass") in June 1993.Felia Skyle Allum, 'The Neapolitan Camorra: Crime and politics in post-war Naples (1950–92)', Ph.D. thesis, Brunel University (2000), p. 149. In May 2010, after being released and provided with a new identity in exchange for his testimony, he admitted to personally beheading Semerari in an interview with La Repubblica. "I cut off Semerari's head", Ammaturo stated, "... because he had committed himself to us in the New Family, to follow Mafia, and he was well paid by me personally, but Cutolo had someone killed in the security chambers of the courthouse and Semerari gave him a false report to have him acquitted... He was a traitor, whoever makes a deal and doesn't keep it is a traitor." Elio Scribani, 'Tagliai io la testa a Semerari; aveva tradito un nostro accordo', La Repubblica, 25 May 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
Semerari's assistant was Fiorella Carrara, who was found dead from gunshot wounds in her apartment in Rome soon after Semerari's body was discovered. Although police investigators declared her death a suicide there have since been rumours of foul play, as her house was burgled and searched by persons unknown shortly afterwards. 'Una Coppia Nell' Italia Delle Trame', La Repubblica, 17 November 1990. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
Semerari was married to Elda Colasanti, who survived him. His son is the psychiatrist Antonio Semerari.
Personal life
In addition to his collection of Fascist memorabilia, Semerari was also renowned for his love of fine wine and classical music.Peter Nichols, 'Investigators believe they hold Bologna bomber', Times, 1 September 1980, p. 5. He bred Dobermann dogs, reportedly communicating to them only in German.De Rosa, La mente nera, p. 82.
Sources: books, journal articles and theses
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