Accidental Death of an Anarchist is the story of anarchist railway man Giuseppi Pinelli. On December 12, 1969 a bomb went off in the Agricultural Bank in Milan killing 17 people and wounding 100. Immediately after the bombing fascists of the Italian Social Movement (MSI) distributed leaflets denouncing the 'red terror' and police in Milan went into action, sweeping up a number of socialist, communist and anarchist activists in the city. One of these was Pinelli, well known as a pacifist opposed to individual acts of violence. After four days of interrogation in police headquarters Pinelli 'fell' out of a fourth floor and died. Police claimed that the death was an 'accident'.
These events sent a shock wave throughout Italy. There were demonstrations, articles in the press, inquires, etc. In 1971, the policemen in charge of the investigation, Calabresi, was charged with manslaughter. Calabresi, in turn, launched a lawsuit against Lotta Continua, the newspaper who had exposed many of the inconstancies in the police version of events. These came to an end in May on 1972 when Calabresi was assassinated in front of his house by 'unknown assailants.' Ten years later in Catanzaro, three fascists were convicted of the Milan bombings. One of them, Giannettini turned out to be a paid informer for the Italian police. Dario Fo, one of Italy's best known playwrights used these events as inspiration for this controversial play.

?Dario Fo's popular 1970 drama is revived Friday in an adaptation by the equally notable dramatist Richard Nelson. The dark comedy is based on the arrest and subsequent death of Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist railwayman. Pinelli was arrested in 1969 after a bomb exploded in a Milan bank and, following four days of police questioning, "fell" out of a fourth-floor window, a death labeled an accident by the authorities. Nobel laureate Fo feels otherwise.?Lawrence Bommer, Chicago Tribune May 25, 2001