Massimo Carminati

Massimo Carminati (; born 31 May 1958), referred by the press as one of "the kings of Rome", After Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari and Banda della Magliana ceased to exist through arrests and violent death, Carminati managed to emerge as a figure in his own right.

Link to Perugia trial of Andreotti A clandestine weapons store of the Banda della Magliana was kept in the basement of a government building; it was later found to contain grenades stolen by NAR leader Valerio Fioravanti. The NAR had access to the weapon and ammunition, which were likely to have come from the joint arms cache that was used to kill Carmine Pecorelli in 1979. In 1993, contemporaneously with his trial for Mafia association in Palermo, former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, Sicilian mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti and Carminati, were charged with the murder of Pecorelli by prosecutors in Perugia. The case was circumstantial and based on the word of Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta, who had not originally mentioned the allegation about Andreotti when interviewed by Giovanni Falcone. Andreotti was acquitted along with his co-defendants in 1999. The prosecution successfully appealed the acquittal and there was a 2002 retrial, in which inconsistent verdicts saw Carminati and defendants accused of setting up the killing being acquitted, while Andreotti was found guilty of ordering the killing, and sentenced to 24 years in prison. Italians of all political allegiances denounced the conviction. The Italian supreme court finally cleared Andreotti of the murder in 2003. According to his brother, Fioravanti admitted killing Sicilian politician Piersanti Mattarella. Mattarella's death was also asserted to have been linked to former prime minister Giulio Andreotti through the Sicilian Mafia, which allegedly used its contacts with politicians Salvo Lima and the Salvo cousins to complain to Andreotti about the behaviour of Mattarella, according to Mafia turncoat (pentito) Francesco Marino Mannoia. Fioravanti was also accused of killing for Propaganda Due.

Later activities and imprisonment Carminati lost his left eye in a gunfight with border guards in 1981 while attempting to illicitly cross into Switzerland. He was initially acquitted with Andreotti in the killing of Pecorelli, but after a prosecution appeal, they were found guilty at the re-trial stage. In 2003 Italy's highest court definitively acquitted them. He was sentenced to four years in prison for his complicity in a raid on the Banca di Roma strongroom deposit boxes, he was regarded as the mastermind behind the burglary. Police reportedly suspect the deposit boxes contained compromising material that Carminati used to compile dossiers on a number of high officials. In 2012, it was reported his name had come up in a match fixing investigation. On 20 July 2017, Carminati was sentenced to 20 years in prison. On 11 September 2018, on appeal, Carminati was sentenced to 14 years and six months. On 16 June 2020, Carminati was released due to the expiry of his pre-trial detention terms.

In popular culture Carminati is the basis of the character of "Il Nero" in the book Romanzo Criminale, written in 2002 by Giancarlo De Cataldo and referring to the true events of the Banda della Magliana, the Romanzo Criminale film directed by Michele Placido in 2005 based on the same novel, ("Il Nero" is played by Riccardo Scamarcio), as well as the television series directed by Stefano Sollima and Emiliano Coltorti.

He also inspired the character of Samurai in the book Suburra by Giancarlo De Cataldo and Carlo Bonini, from which the 2015 film Suburra by Stefano Sollima was made, in which Samurai is played by Claudio Amendola; the book was also followed by the television series directed by Michele Placido, Andrea Molaioli and Giuseppe Capotondi, in which the character is played by Francesco Acquaroli.