Killing of Giorgio Giammona and Antonio Galatola

Giorgio Agatino Giammona, 25, and Antonio "Toni" Galatola, 15, lived in Giarre, a town in eastern Sicily, where the two were known locally as "i ziti" ("the boyfriends"). Giammona was openly gay; at 16 he had been caught in a car with another young man by a local carabiniere, after which he was denounced and given a derogatory Sicilian nickname referencing his sexuality. Both young men disappeared from their homes in October 1980.

On 31 October 1980, roughly two weeks after they went missing, the decomposed bodies of Giammona and Galatola were found in Giarre. Both had been shot in the head, and they were found hand in hand. Journalists and photographers traveled to Giarre from across Italy to cover the deaths but were met with the town's silence: residents did not want to be associated with the story of a same-sex couple.

Investigators identified a 13-year-old relative of Galatola as a suspect; because of his age he could not be prosecuted. He initially told investigators that the two victims had ordered him to kill them, claiming they had threatened to shoot him if he refused, then recanted two days later, saying he had taken responsibility under pressure from the carabinieri. No culprit was ever conclusively identified. Some assumed the boy had acted at the victims' families' behest, but this was never established.

The killings became a catalyst for organized gay-rights activism in Italy. They led to the founding of an eastern Sicilian chapter of Fuori! (Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano), a gay-rights group originally founded in Turin in 1971. About a month later in Palermo, openly gay former priest Marco Bisceglia, with conscientious objector Nichi Vendola and militants Massimo Milani and Gino Campanella, founded Arcigay, the first section of the ARCI network dedicated to gay culture, which went on to spread across Italy. Soon afterward, the Bologna city council officially recognized the gay association Il Cassero by granting it a venue.

On 9 May 2022, the City of Giarre installed a memorial plaque for Giammona and Galatola at the entrance of the Domenico Cucinotta municipal library. In 2023, the film Fireworks, directed by Giuseppe Fiorello, dramatized the events of the case.