Há várias
teorias acerca os motivos da recusa do governo italiano em negociar a libertação de Aldo Moro com os sequestradores e sobre os interesses envolvidos no seu sequestro e morte. Segundo o
historiador Sergio Flamigni, as Brigadas Vermelhas foram usadas pela
Gladio, rede dirigida pela
NATO, de modo a justificar a manutenção da
estratégia da tensão. O
filósofo Antonio Negri chegou a ser preso, acusado de ser o inspirador da ação das Brigadas Vermelhas e do
assassinato de Aldo Moro.
During this period, Moro wrote several letters to the leaders of the Christian Democrats and to
Pope Paul VI (who later personally officiated in Moro's
Funeral Mass). Those letters, at times very critical of Andreotti, were kept secret for more than a decade, and published only in the early 1990s. In his letters, Moro said that the state's primary objective should be saving lives, and that the government should comply with his kidnappers' demands. Most of the Christian Democrat leaders argued that the letters did not express Moro's genuine wishes, claiming they were written under duress, and thus refused all negotiation. This was in stark contrast to the requests of Moro's family. In his appeal to the terrorists, Pope Paul asked them to release Moro "without conditions".
It has been conjectured that Moro used these letters to send cryptic messages to his family and colleagues. Doubts have been advanced about the completeness of these letters;
Carabinieri General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa (later killed by the
Mafia) found copies of the letters in a house that terrorists used in
Milan, and for some reason this was not publicly known until many years later.
When the Red Brigades decided to kill Moro, they placed him in a car and told him to cover himself with a blanket saying that they were going to transport him to another location. After Moro was covered, they shot ten
rounds into him, killing him: according to the official reconstruction after a series of trials, the killer was
Mario Moretti. Moro's body was left in the trunk of a red
Renault 4 in
Via Michelangelo Caetani. Despite the common interpretation, the location was not midway between the national seats of DC and of the
Italian Communist Party (PCI) in Rome (in this case to symbolize the end of the
Historic Compromise, the alliance between DC and PCI sought by Moro), but towards the
Tiber River, near the
Ghetto.
After the recovery of Moro's body, the
Minister of the Interior Francesco Cossiga resigned, gaining trust from the Communist party, which would later make him
President of the Italian Republic.