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The terrorists presumably hoped that in death they would become instant martyrs for their radical cause. Outside Germany, news of their suicides sparked scattered but ugly protests. In the Italian cities of Turin, Bologna and Leghorn, bombs were tossed into showrooms displaying German cars. Two unoccupied German tourist buses were set aflame in Paris. In Rome, police used tear gas to disburse some 800 youths, armed with Molotov cocktails, who were marching toward the German embassy and the Lufthansa ticket office. Leftists also demonstrated in Athens and Vienna; in London, protesters chanted "Murder! Murder!" outside the German embassy.
After the failure of the skyjacking and the suicides of the terrorists, there was little hope that Schleyer would turn up alive. Nevertheless, West German President Walter Scheel took to television to plead with the abductors: "The whole world —East and West—is against you. I appeal to you to set your hostage free." To no avail. Twenty-four hours later, the Liberation, which had been used by Schleyer's kidnapers to convey previous messages, received a telephone call from a terrorist. He identified himself as a member of the Commando Siegfried Hausner of the Red Army Faction—the group taking credit for the abduction. "After 43 days," he said, "we have put an end to the miserable and corrupt existence of Hanns-Martin Schleyer. His death does not measure up to our grief and anger after the slaughter at Mogadishu and Stammheim." The caller then said Schmidt could "take delivery [of Schleyer] in Charles Péguy Street in Mulhouse." which is about ten miles from the German border. There, in the trunk of a green Audi sedan, police found Schleyer's corpse. Medical examination later disclosed that he had been killed shortly after the word was flashed of the Stammheim prison suicides; he had not been tortured before being shot three times.
The murder of Schleyer will unquestionably increase the tension inside West Germany. In Hamburg, West Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt, security was increased around officials. In Bonn, concertinas of barbed wire encircle government buildings, sandbagged gun emplacements protect door ways and guards with submachine guns patrol the grounds. The limousines of government officials speed along city streets tailed by escort autos with automatic weapons poking out from windows. Top-level businessmen constantly vary their daily schedules (making it difficult for terrorists to set traps for them) and are accompanied everywhere by bodyguards. (That did not help Schleyer. His three bodyguards were killed when he was captured.) Even those who are not likely to be targets of terror are affected. Observed a Dortmund barber: "They're going to hit again—somewhere. It's so terrible not to know where and when."