In a final, fatal, protest in the early hours of 19 September 1970, Georgakis set himself ablaze in Matteotti square in Genoa.

He died later that day, an estimated 1,500 people attended his 22 September funeral, with hundreds of anti-junta resistance members leading a demonstration.

He received 5,000 drachmas per month from his father and this, according to friends' testimony, made him feel guilty for the financial burden his family endured so that he could attend a university.

[8] On 26 July 1970, Georgakis gave an anonymous interview to a Genovese magazine, during which he revealed that the military junta's intelligence service had infiltrated the Greek student movement in Italy.

[8] In the interview he denounced the junta and its policies and stated that the intelligence service created the National League of Greek students in Italy and established offices in major university cities.

While in the third year of his studies and having passed the exams of the second semester Georgakis found himself in the difficult position of having his military exemption rescinded by the junta as well as his monthly stipend that he received from his family.

[8] Once he made the decision to sacrifice his life, Georgakis filled a canister with gasoline, wrote a letter to his father and gave his fiancée Rosanna his windbreaker telling her to keep it because he would not need it any longer.

According to eyewitness accounts by street cleaners working around the Palazzo Ducale there was a sudden bright flash of light in the area at around 3:00 am.

[10] According to an account by his father who went to Italy after the events, Georgakis's body was completely carbonised from the waist down up to a depth of at least three centimetres in his flesh.

επείγον, 20 Σεπτεμβρίου 1970) and could adversely affect Greek tourism while at the same time it raised concerns that Georgakis's grave would be used for anti-junta propaganda and "anti-nation pilgrimage" and "political exploitation".

Gianni Serra was the director and the film was a coproduction by RAI and CTC at a total cost of 80 million Italian lire.

[7] On 22 September 1970 Melina Merkouri led a demonstration of hundreds of flag and banner-waving Italian and Greek anti-junta resistance members during the funeral procession of Georgakis in Italy.

In the afternoon of the same day a demonstration of about a thousand was held which was organised by leftist parties shouting "anti-Hellenic" and anti-American slogans according to the ambassador.

In the press conference which followed the demonstrations Melina Merkouri was scheduled to talk but instead Ioannis Leloudas from Paris and Chistos Stremmenos attended, the latter bearing a message from Andreas Papandreou.

[7] On 18 January 1971, a secret operation was undertaken by the junta to finally bury Georgakis's remains in the municipal cemetery of Corfu city.

Κώστας Γεωργάκης – αυτοπυρπολούμενος στην πλατεία της Τζένοβα Living cross burning and a cry urbi et orbi otherworldly: – Freedom to Greece.

[16] In Matteotti square where he died, a plaque stands with the inscription in Italian: La Grecia Libera lo ricorderà per sempre (Free Greece will remember him forever).

La Grecia Libera lo ricorderà per semprewhich translates in English: To the young Greek Konstantin Georgakis who sacrificed his 22 years for the Freedom and Democracy of his country.

[17] Georgakis' words were cited as an indication that his strong identification as a free individual gave him the reason to end his life.