Mario Francese

Mario Francese ( ˈmaːrjo franˈtʃeːze , born February 6, 1925 in Syracuse ; died January 26, 1979 in Palermo ) was an Italian journalist from the Giornale di Sicilia . He was the first journalist to reveal the role of Toto Riina and the Corleonesi in the Sicilian Mafia ( Cosa Nostra ). Therefore, he was killed on January 26, 1979. After 22 years, those who had commissioned the murder were convicted in 2001.

Live and act

As a teenager he moved to Palermo to finish school. In the 1950s Francese got his first job as a journalist with the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA). Shortly thereafter, he was hired as a correspondent for the La Sicilia newspaper in Catania , writing on crime and judicial matters. In 1957 he took a position as head of the press office of the regional administration of Sicily to improve his financial situation.

Thanks to his improved financial situation, he decided in 1958 to marry Maria Sagona. He soon resigned from ANSA and began working with the Giornale di Sicilia , Palermo's main newspaper. He was hired to cover crime and justice issues and became one of the anti-mafia top experts. After a while, however, he had to choose between working for the Sicilian regional administration and that of Giornale di Sicilia. In 1968 he decided to become a professional journalist. At the Giornale di Sicilia he was responsible for reporting on criminal offenses, from the Ciaculli massacre to the murder of Colonel Giuseppe Russo, Colonel Carabinieri . By exploring the intrigues associated with the construction of the Garcia Dam , he was also the first to understand the strategic evolution and new interests of the Corleone Mafia and its spread to Palermo. Francese examined the connections between Corleonesi, businessmen and politicians in connection with public contracts. He was the only journalist who interviewed Ninetta Bagarella , the wife of Salvatore Riina.

Assassination and Trial

Francese died from five bullets on the evening of January 26, 1979 in front of his house in Palermo, killed by Leoluca Bagarella , Riina's brother-in-law. The murder of Francese was recorded by the police as a crime in affect, soon forgotten and the investigation closed.

The investigation into the murder was resumed years later at the urging of the family, particularly his son Giuseppe Francese . The first instance took place in 2001 and condemned the entire leading commission of the Cosa Nostra. Salvatore Riina, Francesco Madonia , Nenè Geraci , Giuseppe Farinella , Michele Greco , Leoluca Bagarella (the real murderer) and Giuseppe Calò (Pippo Calò) were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Bernardo Provenzano was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In his grounds for convicting the murderers of Franceses in 2001, 22 years later, the judge described Franceses abilities: “An extraordinary ability to make connections between the most important news events, to interpret them with courageous intelligence and thus to draw a reconstruction of the extraordinary Clarity and credibility with regard to the lines of development of Cosa Nostra, at a historical stage in which - in addition to the emergence of insightful and widespread Mafia infiltration in the world of procurement and the economy - the strategy of Cosa Nostra to attack government institutions, Has taken shape. A subversive strategy that had made a leap in quality with the disappearance of one of the clearest minds in Sicilian journalism, a professional stranger in every form, who has no courtesy whatsoever to the cliques that work with the Mafia and can provide the public with important tools to analyze the changes that are taking place in Cosa Nostra. "

The judgments were upheld on appeal. In December 2003, the Italian Supreme Court released Pippo Calò, Nenè Geraci and Giuseppe Farinella for failure to participate and upheld the 30-year prison sentence for Totò Riina, Leoluca Bagarella, Raffaele Ganci, Francesco Madonia and Michele Greco. Bernardo Provenzano's conviction has also been upheld.

Giuseppe, the son of Mario Francese and like himself a journalist in the Giornale di Sicilia who had fought for the truth about the murder of his father, committed suicide shortly before the murderers were convicted by the appeals court.

Honors

The Mario Francese Prize was launched in 1996 in honor of his memory. In 2001 Francesca Barra honored the memory of the two journalists (Mario Francese and his son Giuseppe) with a book "The fourth commandment" (published by Rizzoli).

A square in Corleone was named after Mario and Giuseppe Francese. The Italian trade union reporters commemorated the journalist with the inauguration of a green space named after him on Viale Campania , an avenue in Palermo, in the presence of family members.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Mario Francese, quando una biro fa più paura di una pistola ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Antimafia Duemila, January 26th, 2014. 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Clare Longrigg: Boss of Bosses. Hachette UK, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84854-245-7 . S. PT62.
3. ^ Renate Siebert: Secrets of Life and Death. Verso, 1996, ISBN 978-1-85984-023-8 . P. 162.
4. ↑ John Follain: The Last Godfathers. Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4299-3541-8 . S. PT123.
5. ^ ^{A b} Fondazione Francese: Biography of Giuseppe Francese . On Archive.org .
6. ^ ^{A b} Fondazione Francese: Biography of Mario Francese . On Archive.org .
7. ^ Corriere della Sera : Suicida il figlio del cronista Francese, vittima di mafia. 4 September 2002.
8. ^ Fondazione Francese: Il quarto comandamento . On Archive.org .