Sbirro morto eroe by Maurizio Lorenzi - A review

Roughly translated as ‘Dead hero cop’, ‘Sbirro morto eroe’ by Maurizio Lorenzi (MaLo) takes a deep dive into the trial documents, and public opinion of the deaths of the police officers Luigi D’Andrea and Renato Barborini at the hands of Milanese gangster Renato Vallanzasca and members of his gang.

Opening with a fictionalised account of the last thoughts of D’Andrea, I found the depiction of his thought processes quite moving in places and well very well (and respectfully) presented. Delivered no doubt by someone who had felt the same anxiety and concern when going out and stopping a vehicle, Lorenzi captures the frantic thoughts flitting between comprehension of what happened, the immediate loss of family, and the failing of the body.

Moving on to the reports, the criminal Vallanzasca, who had previously enjoyed a certain level of celebrity status and public support, although waning, had made his escape but I enjoyed reading both the informant report to the Rome flying squad and the subsequent detail stating that the gangster had been shot in the bum. Vallanzasca would later try to pass this off as incidental and unrelated, but ballistics reports suggested otherwise.

Through official reports, testimonies, not to mention confliction statements of the gang, Lorenzi charts the downfall of ‘la banda Vallanzasca” and the justice for D’Andrea and Barborini. He also goes further by including and detailing the press reports and opinion.

Overall, this book is a fascinating read and details the hard work the investigators had to put in to identify, find and capture and then prosecute in the name of justice.

As ‘fans’ of the fictional media put out during or set in the ‘Years of lead’, it is very easy to forget the real impact it had on people’s lives, and in particular those who walked the thin line between life and death by serving society as law enforcement.