The massacre occurs a few days after a mysterious attack on a German truck parked at 77 Viale Abruzzi. The attack, in which no German soldiers are killed, does not align, due to the demonstrated ineptitude, with the modus operandi of the 3rd GAP led by Giovanni Pesce. Therefore, it cannot be attributed to the nonetheless reprehensible category of reprisal. The massacre at Piazzale Loreto instead falls within a logic and a heinous design. The slaughter comes at the conclusion of a month during which executions at the hands of the republicans have followed one after the other; on July 15, 1944, three railway workers are shot in Greco, on July 31, 1944, five partisans are executed at Forlanini, on July 21, 1944, five patriots are killed in Robecco and 58 inhabitants are deported, of whom nine will not return from Germany. On August 28, 1944, in Milan, in Via Tibaldi, the mutineers execute another four partisans.