Claudio Volonté

Early life and career Claudio Volonté was born in Turin in 1939, in the days leading up to the Second World War. His father, Mario, was a committed fascist who commanded a unit of the paramilitary Black Brigades (Brigate Nere) at Chivasso during the final months of the Italian Social Republic, while his mother Carolina (née Bianchi) was a scion of the Milanese haute bourgeoisie. In the aftermath of the war, Mario Volonté was sentenced to thirty years in prison upon being found guilty of aiding the military operations of the enemy "by ordering and participating in rounding up elements of the resistance movement in which many murders and robberies were committed". Although excluded from the general amnesty pronounced by the then justice minister, Palmiro Togliatti, he only served eight years of his sentence. By the late 1950s, while living in Trieste and Rome, he was a member of the youth section of the fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). He was also reportedly acquainted with several young neo-fascist ideologues involved in establishing the militant organisation Avanguardia Nazionale, most notably the organisation's leader, Stefano Delle Chiaie.

In February 1965, Camaso was arrested while performing as an SS officer in the controversial Rolf Hochhuth play The Deputy – a production that had already been subject to attempts by the authorities to close it down – and he was subsequently charged with planting a bomb that had damaged a side entrance to the Vatican City. The Baltimore Sun reported that the police based their suspicions of Camaso on his past record and the fact that he sported a beard, which matched the description of one of the perpetrators given by an eyewitness; the newspaper also noted, however, that Camaso had by this time apparently renounced his earlier extreme-right opinions and joined the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP).

Murder of Vincenzo Mazza and suicide In August 1977 Camaso was arrested for stabbing a man to death in a street brawl. Hank Werba, Rome bureau chief for the film industry magazine Variety, reported the situation thus:

The Italian communist daily l'Unità further reported that the incident had occurred on 26 July, not August as the Variety article had suggested, and that Camaso's young daughter Saba had witnessed the attack.

On 16 September 1977, while in police custody, Camaso committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell in Regina Coeli prison.

Filmography