In September 1944, the U.S. Army's Office of Strategic Services (OSS) dispatched teams of specially trained soldiers into enemy-occupied territory to organize resistance movements.
On September 27, 1944, five American soldiers – mission commander Major William V. Holohan, First Lieutenant Victor Gianinno, First Lieutenant Aldo Icardi, Technical Sergeant Arthur Ciaramicoli, and radio operator Carl LoDolce – and three Italian agents parachuted into northern Italy near Coiromonte, a frazione of Armeno in the province of Novara.
Holohan was entrusted with about $16,000 worth of U.S. dollars, gold Louis d'ors, Swiss francs, and Italian lire to fund mission activities.
Holohan insisted that his men wear their uniforms in accordance with OSS directives to protect against being executed as spies if captured.
[1] On December 6, 1944, the OSS men were holed up in Villa Castelnuovo on Lake Orta when two friendly priests came to warn them to flee.
As the soldiers left in the darkness, gunfire broke out and Holohan, Icardi, LoDolce and Italian agents Gualtiero and Tozzini fired back.
The surviving Chrysler men continued to arrange supply drops to the partisans, and Moscatelli stated later that after Holohan's death, OSS support increased.
In February 1945, Mission Chrysler was ordered to Milan, but its operations changed because of the urban environment, which precluded air drops and hiding in the countryside.
After the war, Holohan's brother, Joseph R. Holahan (his spelling), a stockbroker, sought to learn more about the night at Villa Castelnuovo.
When he questioned ex-partisans Tozzini and Mannini in March 1950, they told a story of Icardi becoming resentful of Holohan's refusal to support the communists and hatching a plot to murder the major.
On August 3, 1950, former Sergeant Carl G. LoDolce gave a statement to Army CID (Criminal Investigative Division) in Rochester, New York.
The judge in Icardi’s case refused the request to extradite him because at the time of the alleged crime, the Italian government did not have control over the area of the offense.
Migliari testified that he and Icardi each invested $75,000 in Italian lire in a toy factory, the money coming from commissions paid by Holohan to get favorable exchange rates on the mission's funds.
When Senator Moscatelli was asked if Icardi was a communist, the former partisan leader said, "How could he be if he is still a member of the United States Intelligence Service?"
[3] Although Icardi and LoDolce were absent, they had a lawyer who told the court that Major Holohan had to be eliminated "as an obstacle in the fight for victory.
On March 26, 1953, a two-man subcommittee, including Chairman W. Sterling Cole, traveled to Pittsburgh and interviewed Icardi, who denied the murder charges.
After Cole stepped down from the witness stand, Williams moved that the case be dismissed because there was no valid legislative purpose in the interrogations of Icardi.
General William "Wild Bill" Donovan who led OSS efforts in World War II commented following the outcome of the Committee's investigation, "If you ask me what kind of soldier Aldo Icardi was, I'd say he was gallant.