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The via Osoppo robbery
In the 1950s there was a whole string of robberies in banks and shops in Milan: many of them were carried out by the infamous banda dovunque (the ubiquitous gang).
On 27 January 1958 a gang of robbers at-tacked a Banca Popolare di Milano security van that was carrying banknotes, shares and banker’s drafts for a total value of half a billion lire. The gang was made up of seven men, including Ugo Ciappina, the brains behind the robbery and a former member of the banda dovunque. The robbery had been planned down to the smallest detail over ten long months. The men, wearing blue overalls, balaclavas and leather gloves, arrived in several vehicles – a Fiat 1400, a Leoncino lorry, a grey van, and an Alfa Romeo Giulietta sprint. Although they had decided against using weapons, they were carrying a machine gun and pistols.
At 9.30 am the security van entered Via Osoppo, on its way to the bank in Via Rubens. The Fiat 1400 (with two gang members inside) pulled out in front of the van and faked an accident, crashing into the wall of a house. The driver of the security van stopped to find out what had happened, but when he was about to drive off the Leoncino pulled up and blocked the road, and a man in overalls and a balaclava got out. Meanwhile, the grey van arrived from the other direction and pulled up behind, another of the robbers got out and struck one of the two guards in the security van on the head with a hammer. Four other members of the gang seized the driver and the other guard, while the rest unloaded the boxes full of banknotes and shares. Not far away was the Giulietta sprint, one man at the wheel and another keeping the crowd back with a machine gun.
The boxes were loaded into the van in a matter of seconds, and at 9.32 am the robbers abandoned the Fiat 1400 and the Leoncino and made their getaway in the lorry and the Giulietta sprint.
They stopped in a garage in nearby Via Plinio and divided up the cash, 114 million lire, leaving everything else behind.
The investigations carried out by the Chief of the Milan Flying Squad, Paolo Zamparelli, soon put him onto the trail of Ciappina, while the rest of the gang were caught after being watched and shadowed by the police. All those arrested confessed to having taken part in the robbery.
