Falange Armata
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The Falange Armata (English: Armed Phalanx) was an alleged terrorist organisation that was active in Italy the early 1990s. While the name has been used to claim several murders and bombing attacks its membership or existence are disputed.
The first claim under the name Falange Armata was made with a call to the ANSA switchboard in Bologna on 27 October 1990, concerning the murder of Umberto Mormile, an educator at Opera prison who had been killed on 11 April 1990.[1]
Over the following years anonymous calls supposedly made on behalf of the organisation claimed a wide number of attacks later attributed to the White Uno Gang,[2] Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta,[3] Camorra, and Sacra Corona Unita,[4][5] including the Pilastro killings, the murders of Antonino Scopelliti,[6] Salvo Lima, Giuliano Guazzelli, the Capaci and Via D'Amelio bombings,[7] the derailment of the Lecce-Zurich train near Surbo,[8] and other killings or bombings.[9][10][11] In addition, the name was used to sign death threats against Presidents Francesco Cossiga and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Interior Minister Nicola Mancino, and high-profile prosecutors,[12] journalists, businesspeople and politicians of various parties.
The wide scope of these claims (about 1,200 between 1990 and 1995) led investigators to suggest that the group was fictitious and that it was used to mislead inquiries into organised crime, or possibly that the calls were the work of a compulsive liar.[13]
After thirteen years of inactivity Falange Armata resurfaced in February 2014 in a threatening letter sent to jailed Mafia boss Totò Riina.[13]