Giuseppe Impastato
Encyclopedia
Cinisi
Cinisi is a town and a comune in the province of Palermo in Sicily. As of 2007 it had an estimated population of 12,100.-Geography:The town is part of the Palermo metropolitan area, borders with the municipalities of Carini and Terrasini and count the civil parish of Punta Raisi, seat of Palermo...
, January 5, 1948 – Cinisi, May 9, 1978), was a political activist who opposed 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...
that ordered his murder in 1978.
Childhood
Cinisi
Cinisi is a town and a comune in the province of Palermo in Sicily. As of 2007 it had an estimated population of 12,100.-Geography:The town is part of the Palermo metropolitan area, borders with the municipalities of Carini and Terrasini and count the civil parish of Punta Raisi, seat of Palermo...
in the province of Palermo
Province of Palermo
The Province of Palermo is a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Palermo. The Province of Palermo has 82 comuni , 1,239,272 inhabitants, and is 4,992 km² .-External links:...
, into a Mafia family. His father Luigi Impastato had been sent into internal exile during the fascist era
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
, and was a close friend of Mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Don Tano Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s...
. His father's brother-in-law, Cesare Manzella
Cesare Manzella
Cesare Manzella was a traditional Mafia capo, who sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission. He was the head of the Mafia family in Cinisi, a small seaside town near the Punta Raisi Airport. As the airport was in their territory it was an invaluable asset for the import and export of contraband,...
, was an important mafia boss who was killed in car bomb attack in 1963. As an adolescent, Peppino broke off relations with his father – who kicked him out of the house – and initiated a series of political and cultural Antimafia activities.
According to his younger brother Giovanni Impastato, Peppino's Antimafia activity might have been triggered by the brutal murder of his uncle by marriage, Cesare Manzella
Cesare Manzella
Cesare Manzella was a traditional Mafia capo, who sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission. He was the head of the Mafia family in Cinisi, a small seaside town near the Punta Raisi Airport. As the airport was in their territory it was an invaluable asset for the import and export of contraband,...
, who was blown to pieces by a car bomb in April 1963 when Peppino was fifteen years old. Pieces of his uncle – who was the Mafia boss of Cinisi
Cinisi
Cinisi is a town and a comune in the province of Palermo in Sicily. As of 2007 it had an estimated population of 12,100.-Geography:The town is part of the Palermo metropolitan area, borders with the municipalities of Carini and Terrasini and count the civil parish of Punta Raisi, seat of Palermo...
at the time – were found stuck to lemon trees hundreds of meters from the crater where the car had been. Peppino was traumatized. "Is this really Mafia? If this is Mafia I will fight it for the rest of my life…."
Political activist
In 1965 Peppino Impastato founded the newsletter L'idea socialista and joined the left-wing PSIUPItalian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity
The Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity , was a political party in Italy from 1964 to 1972.-History:...
party (Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity). He took a leading role in the activities of the new revolutionary movements that sprung up in 1968. He led struggles by Cinisi peasants whose land had been expropriated to build the third runway at Palermo's Punta Raisi Airport, as well as disputes involving building workers and the unemployed. In 1975 he set up Music and Culture with other young people in Cinisi. The group organised debates, film, theatre and music shows and started a self-financed radio station named Radio Aut in 1976.
Peppino Impastato used humor and satire as his weapon against the Mafia. In his popular daily radio programme Onda pazza (Crazy Wave) he mocked politicians and mafiosi alike. On a daily basis he exposed the crimes and dealings of mafiosi in Mafiopoli (Cinisi) and the activities of Tano Seduto (Sitting Bully), a thinly disguised pseudonym of Don Tano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Don Tano Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s...
, the capomafia of Cinisi. Nevertheless, it was Peppino Impastato and his friends that were considered to be the real nuisance and 'undesirable elements' by the authorities in town, not the 'respected' men such as Don Tano Badalamenti.
Peppino's brother Giovanni declared before the Italian Antimafia Commission
Antimafia Commission
The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...
: "It seemed that Badalamenti was well liked by the carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
as he was calm, reliable, and always liked a chat. It almost felt like he was doing them a favour in that nothing ever happened in Cinisi, it was a quiet little town. If anything, we were subversives who made nuisances of ourselves. This was what the carabinieri thought. When I had a chance to speak to one of them - something which didn't happen often because I didn't really trust them - I realised that it was a widely held belief that Tano Badalamenti was a gentleman and it was us who were the trouble-makers." [...] "I often used to see them walking arm in arm with Tano Badalamenti and his henchmen. You can't have faith in the institutions when you see the police arm in arm with mafiosi."
Peppino Impastato clearly understood the danger represented by Tano Badalamenti, and Tano Badalamenti clearly understood the danger of Peppino Impastato. Peppino’s struggles were too public and determined for the Mafia to allow his tireless activities to continue. Apparently, his father tried to protect him but he was killed in a car accident in 1977 – which might have been on purpose. Apparently Badalamenti waited to give to order to kill Peppino only after his father had died.
Murder
Proletarian Democracy
Proletarian Democracy was a political party in Italy.-1970s:DP was founded in 1975 as a joint electoral front of the Proletarian Unity Party , Workers Vanguard and the Workers Movement for Socialism...
(Democrazia proletaria). He was killed during the election campaign on the night of May 8–9, by a charge of TNT placed under his body, which had been stretched over the local railway line – a sinister twist of fate to the car-bomb that had killed his uncle and initiated Peppino's revolt against the Mafia. The same day, Christian-Democrat Prime Minister Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years....
's corpse was discovered on via Caetani
Caetani
Caetani, or Gaetani, is the name of an Italian noble family princely family which played a great part in the history of Pisa and of Rome, principally via their close links to the papacy.-Origins:...
in Rome. Two days later voters in Cinisi elected him as a councillor.
Initially press, police and investigative magistrates considered that Peppino Impastato had been a left-wing terrorist that had tried to bomb a railway line, but caused his own death. After the discovery of a letter written by Impastato several months before his death, authorities started talking about suicide. Thanks to the efforts of his brother Giovanni Impastato, his mother Felicia Bartolotta Impastato (who publicly broke relations with their mafia relatives), his fellow activists, and the Centro siciliano di documentazione
Sicilian Center of Documentation
-Center's Mission :Umberto Santino and Anna Puglisi founded the Sicilian Center of in 1977. The Sicilian Center of Documentation was the first study center on the Mafia in Italy, specifically Sicily...
(founded in Palermo in 1977; Giuseppe Impastato's name was added to its masthead in 1980), the Mafia's responsibility for the crime would be identified after a struggle of many years.
Following a statement made by a former member of the Cinisi Mafia, the 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...
Salvatore Palazzolo who had turned state witness, and named Badalamenti as the instigator of the murder, the investigation was formally reopened in June 1996, and in November the following year an arrest warrant was issued for Badalamenti. In 1998 a committee was formed by the Italian Parliament's permanent Antimafia Commission
Antimafia Commission
The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...
to investigate the 'Impastato case'. On December 6, 2000 it issued a report which outlined the responsibilities of State officials in leading the investigations astray. On March 5, 2001 the Court of Assises declared Vito Palazzolo to be guilty of murder, initially handing down a thirty year sentence, however, the Court later overturned his conviction. Gaetano Badalamenti was given a life sentence on April 11, 2002.
Peppino’s mother, Felicia Bartolotta Impastato, reacted to the conviction very dignified: "I never have had any feelings of vendetta. All I have done is call for justice for my son’s death. I have to confess that, after so many years of waiting, I had lost faith – I never thought we would reach this point. Now I feel a great deal of contentment, of satisfaction. I always knew what happened. Badalamenti used to call my husband Luigi to complain about Peppino, and my husband begged him not to kill the boy."
In popular culture
In the 1994 Italian TV series La PiovraLa Piovra
La Piovra is an acclaimed Italian Television drama miniseries about the Mafia.The story was by Sandro Petraglia. The production was designed by Luigi Perelli...
7, the character of Daniele Rannisi, a young man who disavows his family connection to the Mafia and starts a satirical pirate radio show denouncing their activities, was based on Impastato.
In 2000, the movie "I cento passi" was released about the life and death of Giuseppe Impastato. "I cento passi" (one hundred steps) was the distance between the Impastato's house and the house of Tano Badalamenti.
The 2011 album 'La cretina commedia' by Italian "ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
" band "Talco
Talco (band)
Talco is an Italian ska punk and alternative band from Marghera, Venice. Musically the group combines the horns and rhythms of ska-punk with Italian folk music. Their lyrics reflect the band's support for left-wing politics and often include anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist themes...
" contains a song dedicated to Impastato called 'Perduto Maggio'.
External links
Giuseppe Impastato: l'attività, il delitto, l'inchiesta e il depistaggio Centro Siciliano di Documentazione "Giuseppe Impastato"- Sicilian Centre of Documentation Giuseppe Impastato
- I cento passi (The Hundred Steps) movie about the life and death of Giuseppe Impastato. Peppino Impastato Giovanni Impastato: «Antenne, cavi, spinotti: così mio fratello Peppino sfidò don Tano Seduto», Corriere della Sera, March 8, 2007