Nicholas Green, his sister, Eleanor Green, and their parents, Margaret and Reginald Green, were having a holiday in Calabria Southern Italy. On the night of September 29, 1994 his parents were driving on the A3 motorway between Salerno and Reggio Calabria.[1][3] They stopped at an Autogrill, where two men started following their car believing they were jewellers. The men pulled alongside the Greens' vehicle and shouted something in Italian, which the Greens did not understand. Reginald Green accelerated, at which point the men fired shots into the rear of the car. He accelerated a second time, and once again the men shot into the back of the car. After the pursuers gave up Reginald stopped the car, and at this point he and Margaret realised that Nicholas had been shot in the head.[3] They drove directly to the nearest town, but the hospital was not equipped to deal with Nicholas' injuries. The police took the family to Villa San Giovanni, where they transferred to a ferry which brought them across the Strait of Messina to the port of Messina. From there, the police took them to a specialist head injuries unit at a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead the next day.[4]
Reg and Maggie Green, who lived in Bodega Bay at the time, donated their son’s organs. The gifts benefited seven Italians, including four teenagers. Italians responded overwhelmingly to the Greens’ generosity; even the president and the prime minster paid their respects. Maria Pia Pedala, who received Nicholas’s liver, later named a son after him.
A memorial bell tower (The Children's Bell Tower) has been built in Bodega Bay in memory of Nicholas Green and all the children, using more than 140 bells sent to the Greens from individuals, families, schools, and churches all over Italy. The monument, set in Bodega Bay, where Nicholas and his family lived, has become a place of pilgrimage as well as a tourist attraction. The central bell, donated by the Marinelli Foundry, that has been making bells for the Papacy for more than 1000 years, was blessed by Pope John Paul II. It has the names of the seven recipients of Nicholas' organs inscribed on it. The monument is a work of San Francisco's sculptor Bruce Hasson.