Giuseppe Fava also known as Pippo, was an Sicilian

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 writer, investigative journalist, playwright and Antimafia activist who was killed by the Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

. He was the founder of the I Siciliani monthly magazine. His motto in life was: "is there any use in living if you don't have the courage to fight?"

Journalist

Born at Palazzolo Acreide, Fava studied law but became a professional journalist in 1952. He became the editor in chief of Espresso Sera daily newspaper in Catania

Catania

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

 — the main city on Sicily's east coast — and in 1980 of Il Giornale del Sud, where he formed a team of young journalist that turned the paper into an independent, investigative journal. At the time not much was known about the owners but it became clear that some of them had connections with the Mafia. Fava was fired.

I Siciliani

In 1983 Fava and his team of independent journalists founded the progressive monthly magazine I Siciliani ("The Sicilians"). The magazine denounced the connections between Mafia, politics and business in Catania. Fava also became part of the movement against the deployment of Ground Launched Cruise Missiles

Cruise missile

A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...

 (GLCM) by the United States at Comiso

Comiso

Comiso is an Italian municipality in the Province of Ragusa in Sicily.-Geography:Comiso consists of three boroughs: Comiso, Pedalino, and Quaglio. It lies some 22 km west of Ragusa in the South of Sicily...

 Air Base in June 1983.

However, it were the investigations into Cosa Nostra and its tentacles in politics and business — in particular those of Sicily's biggest Catania-based construction firms, owned by the four famous Cavalieri del Lavoro, Carmelo Costanzo, Francesco Finocchiaro, Mario Rendo and Gaetano Graci (one of the owners of the newspaper that had sacked Fava) — that would determine Fava's fate. Graci went on regular hunting parties with Nitto Santapaola, the undisputed Mafia boss of Catania

Catania

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

, who was on the payroll of Costanzo as well. In the first edition of I Siciliani Fava published an article "I quattro cavalieri dell'apocalisse mafiosa" ("The four horsemen of the Mafia apocalypse"), exposing the corruption and political influence peddling by the four Knights that tied together the local Mafia, high finance and political figures.

Killed by the Mafia

On January 5, 1984, Pippo Fava was killed while he was waiting to pick up his granddaughter, who was rehearsing a part in a theatre comedy. The week before he had been a guest on Enzo Biagi

Enzo Biagi

Enzo Biagi was an Italian journalist and writer.-Biography:Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. Active in journalism for six decades and author of some eighty books, Biagi won numerous awards, among which the 1979 Saint Vincent prize and the...

's national TV show on Retequattro where he denounced the sway the Mafia held in parliament.

In 1994, Maurizio Avola, a nephew of Santapaola, confessed the killing of Fava, and became a pentito

Pentito

Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...

. He also confessed some 70 other murders. Avola said that his uncle Nitto Santapaola had ordered the killing of the journalist, as a favour for the cavalieri. In 1998, Santapaola and Aldo Ercolano were convicted for ordering the killing of Giuseppe Fava. In 2001 the Court of Appeal in Catania confirmed the life sentences of Santapaola and Ercolano and the actual killer Maurizio Avola, but acquitted Marcello D'Agata, Vincenzo Santapaola and Franco Giammuso who allegedly had assisted the murderer. Avola was sentenced to six years and six months. In 2003, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences of Santapaola, Ercolano and Avola.

His son Claudio Fava

Claudio Fava

Giovanni Claudio Fava is an Italian politician .He is currently the Coordinator of the National Secretariat of Sinistra Ecologia Libertà .He was until 2009 Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Islands with the Democratic Left , part of the Socialist Group and is vice-chair of the...

 is a Member of the European Parliament

Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

 for the Italian Islands with the Democrats of the Left

Democrats of the Left

The Democrats of the Left was a social-democratic Italian political party and part of the Olive Tree electoral coalition, which merged with a number of centrist and leftist groups to form the Democratic Party on 14 October 2007...

 (DS).

The volumes Process to Sicily and The Sicilians, of 1970 and 1978, collect Giuseppe Fava’s most meaningful journalistic inquiries. Among his novels there are Gente di rispetto (1975), Prima che vi uccidano (1977), Passione di Michele (1980).

External links

I Siciliani Dossier Pippo Fava Alcune cronache su un caso di mafia, press reactions about Fava's murder, I Siciliani, April 1984 Cinque Gennaio by Riccardo Orioles, Girodivite, April 5, 2006 Giuseppe "Pippo" Fava by Sebastiano Gulisano, Polizia e Democrazia (2002) Fondazione Giuseppe Fava Quello che mi e' rimasto di mio padre, by Claudio Fava

Claudio Fava

Giovanni Claudio Fava is an Italian politician .He is currently the Coordinator of the National Secretariat of Sinistra Ecologia Libertà .He was until 2009 Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Islands with the Democratic Left , part of the Socialist Group and is vice-chair of the...

, article on the occasion of the 25th memorial of the killing.