Pasquale Stochino, the former red primrose of Ogliastra, has died. He was 88 years old. He died of a heart attack while he was at his home in Arzana this afternoon. He was awaiting an operation that he needed to undergo to try to overcome some heart problems.
He had gone into hiding on August 15, 1972, immediately after the Lanusei massacre. That evening, a group of armed and masked criminals broke into the villa of Vincenzo Loddo, 71, a doctor from the center of Ogliastra. They wanted to kidnap his son Andrea who, however, was not at home: the bandits lost their temper and fired. One of the bandits also lost his life, Serafino Chessa, 25, from Orune, perhaps hit by a gunshot fired by his own companions. Four people from Arzana were sentenced to life imprisonment for the massacre: the student Piero Piras, the shepherds Mario Loi and Pietro Mulas. And Pasquale Stochino, who had always declared himself innocent of the disputed facts.
The appellate magistrates recognized an extenuating circumstance and the sentence of life imprisonment was reduced to 30 years. Stochino was arrested by the carabinieri on 26 September 2003 in a blitz from the ground and from the sky in a sheepfold in Cixi Crobene, a town at the foot of the Gennargentu. The carabinieri under the orders of Colonel Salvatore Favarolo captured him.
The military managed to surprise him while he was having lunch with six other people, five fellow villagers and a Romanian. Stochino was lame due to an annoying herniated disc and was unable to escape. The personnel of the Arma put an end to a 31-year long inaction. Pasquale Stochino's funeral will be celebrated on Monday morning.
«The inhabitants of Arzano will remember him for what he left us in his last period of stay in the village», recalls the mayor, Angelo Stochino, «an elderly man who had reintegrated into the community, attentive and caring with children and adults. He took long walks and cultivated the garden. Pasquale Stochino was a mild person, an assiduous visitor to the Church. And this is the memory that leaves us».
