Mario Francese
Mario Francese | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 6, 1925 Siracusa, Italy |
| Died | January 26, 1979 Palermo, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | Investigative journalism |
Mario Francese (February 6, 1925 – January 26, 1979) was an Italian police reporter of the Giornale di Sicilia. The first journalist to expose the role of Toto Riina within the Sicilian Mafia, he was killed on the evening of January 26, 1979. After 22 years, in 2001, those who had decided to eliminate him were convicted: Riina, Bernardo Provenzano, Leoluca Bagarella, Giuseppe Calò, Nenè Geraci, Giuseppe Farinella and Michele Greco; the whole leading Commission of Cosa Nostra.
Biography
Born in Syracuse, Sicily, he moved to Palermo to finish school. In the 1950s Francese got his first job as a journalist at the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA). Thanks to his journalistic talent, he was noticed and appreciated but not rewarded. Shortly afterwards, he was hired by the newspaper La Sicilia in Catania as a correspondent with the task of writing about crime and judicial affairs. As he was looking to improve his financial situation, in 1957 he accepted a job as head of the press office at the regional administration of Sicily.[1]
Thanks to his improved financial situation, he decided to marry Maria Sagona in 1958. Soon, however, he resigned from his second job at ANSA and started to collaborate with the Giornale di Sicilia, the main newspaper of Palermo. He was appointed to cover judicial affairs and thanks to his talent became one of the best experts on the Mafia. After some time, however, he was forced to make a choice between his job at the Sicilian regional administration and the one at the Giornale di Sicilia. In 1968, he chose to become a professional journalist.[1]
Since then he began to take care of all legal proceedings, from the Ciaculli massacre to the murder of Carabinieri Colonel Giuseppe Russo. He was the only journalist to interview Ninetta Bagarella, the wife of Salvatore Riina.[2] By digging in the intrigues connected with the construction of the Garcia dam, he also was the first to understand the strategic evolution and the new interests of the Mafia of Corleone.
He was shot five times and killed on the evening of January 26, 1979, in front of his house in Palermo by Leoluca Bagarella, the brother-in-law of Riina.[1][3] The murder of Francese was soon forgotten and the investigation closed.
The trial
The investigation on the murder was reopened years later, at the insistence of the family, particularly of his son, Giuseppe. The sentence of the first instance came in 2001, condemning to 30 years Riina, Francesco Madonia, Nenè Geraci, Giuseppe Farinella, Michele Greco, Leoluca Bagarella (the actual killer) and Giuseppe Calò. Bernardo Provenzano was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In his motivation of the sentence, the judge described Francese's skills: "An extraordinary capacity to make connections between the most significant news events, interpret them with courageous intelligence, and thus to draw a reconstruction of exceptional clarity and credibility on the evolutionary lines of Cosa Nostra, in a historical phase in which - in addition to the emergence of insightful and widespread mafia infiltration in the world of procurement and economics - Cosa Nostra's strategy of attacking the State institutions began to take shape. A subversive strategy that had made a quality leap just with the elimination of one of the most lucid minds of Sicilian journalism, a professional stranger to any form of packaging, free of any complacency towards the cliques colluded with the Mafia and able to provide the public with important tools for the analysis of the changes taking place within Cosa Nostra."[1]
In December 2003, the Italian Supreme Court absolved Pippo Calò, Nenè Geraci and Giuseppe Farinella "for not having committed the crime" and confirmed the sentence of 30 years of prison for Totò Riina, Leoluca Bagarella, Raffaele Ganci, Francesco Madonia and Michele Greco. The conviction of Bernardo Provenzano was also confirmed.
Giuseppe, the son of Mario Francese, after having fought so much for the truth about the murder of his father, committed suicide shortly after the public announcement of condemnation of the murderers.
Awards
In 1996 the Mario Francese Award was created to honor his memory.
In 2001, Francesca Barra honored the memory of the two journalists (Mario Francese and his son Giuseppe) by publishing a book, "The fourth commandment" (with publisher Rizzoli).
A square in Corleone, was named after the name of Mario and Giuseppe. The Italian Union reporters commemorated the journalist with the inauguration of a green area named after him in Viale Campania, an imortant avenue in Palermo, in the presence of family members.
References
- ^ a b c d Template:It icon Mario Francese, quando una biro fa più paura di una pistola, Antimafia Duemila, January 26, 2014
- ^ Siebert, Secrets of Life and Death, p. 162
- ^ Follain, The Last Godfathers, p. 112
- Follain, John (2009). The Last Godfathers: Inside the Mafia's Most Infamous Family, New York: Thomas Dunne Books
- Siebert, Renate (1996). Secrets of Life and Death: Women and the Mafia, London: Verso, ISBN 1-85984-023-X