Adriana Faranda

Adriana Faranda (born 7 August 1950) is an Italian former terrorist, who was a member of the Red Brigades during the kidnapping of Aldo Moro.

Adriana Faranda

Biography

Faranda was born in Tortorici, in eastern Sicily.

Initially a member of Potere Operaio, 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 "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.^[1][2][3] 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 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 Potere Operaio militant Giuliana Conforto (daughter of alleged KGB spy or anti-communist double agent Giorgio Conforto^[4][5]). 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 film, Year of the Gun.
Italian actress Daniela Marra portrayed Faranda in the 2022 Marco Bellocchio TV series, Exterior Night.

References

1. Pezzan, Jacopo; Brunoro, Giacomo (2015-08-01). Il Caso Moro: Quarant'anni di bugie (in Italian). LA CASE Books. ISBN 978-88-6870-091-1.
2. Giannattasio, Valerio (2019-12-30). "Il caso Moro e il Cile dei militari". Ciencia Nueva. Revista de Historia y Política. 3 (2): 79. doi:10.22517/25392662.22991. ISSN 2539-2662. S2CID 214015287.
3. Cipriani, Gianni (2004). Brigate rosse: la minaccia del nuovo terrorismo (in Italian). Sperling & Kupfer. ISBN 978-88-200-3661-4.
4. Legislature XIII of Italy. "Parliamentary dossier about Giuliana and Giorgio Conforto" (PDF) (in Italian). p. 241. Giuliana Conforto, già militante di Potere operaio e in rapporti di amicizia, oltre che con Lanfranco Pace e Franco Piperno, con la proprietaria del famoso appartamento di Via Gradoli 96, Luciana Bozzi, è - come noto - la figlia di Giorgio Conforto. [...] Giuliana Conforto viene assolta per insufficienza di prove dai reati a lei ascritti, mentre Morucci e Faranda vengono condannati a sette anni di reclusione.
5. Altamura, Marcello; Zanella, Gianluca (June 7, 2022). "Giorgio Conforto, la spia più sfuggente dell'intelligence italiana". Il Giornale (in Italian).

• Faranda, Adriana (2006). Il volo della Farfalla. Rizzoli. ISBN 88-17-01053-7. OCLC 68909727.
• Mazzocchi, Silvana (1994). Nell'anno della Tigre. Storia di Adriana Faranda. Baldini, Castoldi e Dalai. ISBN 88-85989-64-0.
• AA.VV. (a cura di Guido Bertagna, Adolfo Ceretti, Claudia Mazzuccato, Il libro dell'incontro. Vittime e responsabili della lotta armata a confronto, Il Saggiatore, Milano, 2015. ISBN 978-88-428-2145-8