Frank Teruggi
Frank Teruggi, Jr. (1949–1973) was an American student, journalist, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World, from Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the victims of General Augusto Pinochet's military shortly after the September 11, 1973 Pinochet coup d'état against Socialist President Salvador Allende. A Chilean court in 2014 found that the United States played a key role in Teruggi's murder. September 11, 1973 On September 11, 1973, the Chilean presidential Palace was bombed, and president Salvador Allende died. A coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet took place in Chile and a military regime was imposed. Teruggi's death, as well as the death of fellow journalist Charles Horman, occurred as a part of the wave of killings, torture and kidnappings that took place as the military regime solidified its control over the government of Chile. Teruggi's death along with Horman's death were the subject of the 1982 Costa-Gavras film Missing. Arrest and death On September 20, 1973, nine days after the coup d'état, Frank Teruggi, in the same way as Charles Horman, was seized by the Chilean military at his home and taken to the National Stadium in Santiago, which had been turned into an ad hoc concentration camp, where prisoners were interrogated and tortured and many were executed. In the film Missing, by Costa-Gavras, Teruggi is depicted as a contributor for a small newspaper and friend of Charles Horman who had spoken with several US operatives that assisted the Chilean military government. The film alleges that Horman's discovery of US complicity in the coup led to his secret arrest, disappearance, and execution. American complicity in the Chilean coup was later confirmed in documents declassified during the Clinton administration. The declassified documents mention Teruggi as one of the Chilean military executions and initially US embassy officials in Santiago released false information that he had returned to the United States. His body was later found in a Chilean morgue among the "unidentified bodies" of the victims of the regime. Book, film, and television depictions of the case The main character of the Missing (1982), directed by Greek filmmaker Costa-Gavras, was Charles Horman, but Teruggi is also depicted and his fate is described in the film by David Hathaway, his roommate who was arrested at the same time Teruggi was. Teruggi was portrayed by actor Joe Regalbuto. When the film was released by Universal Studios, Nathaniel Davis, United States Ambassador to Chile from 1971 to 1973, filed a USD $150 million libel suit against the director and the studio, although he was not named directly in the movie (he had been named in the book). The court eventually dismissed Davis's suit. The film was removed from the market during the lawsuit but re-released upon dismissal of the suit. State Department memo For many years thereafter, the US government steadfastly maintained its ignorance of the killing and torture of Americans in Chile. It was only in October 1999, that President Bill Clinton ordered the release of a document admitting that