Cirillo was a key figure in the Campanian regional DC hierarchy. He was the right-hand man of Antonio Gava – one of the national leaders of the Doroteo faction of the DC –, responsible for appointments and public works contracts, and someone who knew a great deal about all the ‘behind the scenes’ deals of local Neapolitan politics. As the regional councillor for urban planning, he was in charge of the reconstruction after the 1980 earthquake. Cirillo was, therefore, a natural target for the Neapolitan column of the Red Brigades led by. After two and a half months, the Red Brigades threatened to execute Cirillo unless the Naples city government accepted demands it refused in the past. The Red Brigades demanded that the authorities requisitioned housing for thousands of Naples families left homeless by the earthquake. They also demanded increased benefits for the unemployed. None of the political demands of the Red Brigades were met and in the end they accepted that a ransom was enough to release Cirillo.
Release
Cirillo was released after 89 days on July 25, 1981, against the payment of a ransom of one and a half billion lire, thanks to the decisive intervention of Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo. Publicly the Christian Democrats had refused to negotiate with terrorists, but privately leading politicians such as Antonio Gava and Vincenzo Scotti, and members of the secret services, such as Pietro Musumeci, visited Cutolo in prison and asked him to negotiate with imprisoned members of the Red Brigades. In return, Cutolo allegedly asked for a slackening of police operations against the Camorra, for control over the tendering of building contracts in Campania and for a reduction of his own sentence – as well as new psychiatric test to show that he is not responsible for his actions. Both these last concessions were granted.
Aftermath
The outcome of the Cirillo kidnap stood in sharp contrast to the kidnap of the Italian former Prime MinisterAldo Moro. When Moro was abducted by the Red Brigades in 1978, the Christian Democrats in government immediately took a hardline position: the "State must not bend" on terrorist demands. They refused to negotiate with the Red Brigades, while local Christian Democrats in Campania made every effort and even negotiated with criminals to release Cirillo, a relatively minor politician in comparison with Moro. Cirillo died on 30 July 2017 at age 96.
