Giuseppe Impastato, called Peppino, was a political activist, journalist And radio conductor Of Cinisi (Palermo), that denounced with great courage the mafia And it was therefore assassinated 47 years ago, on May 9, 1978. Born in 1948, in one family very close to Cosa Nostrasince the teenager Peppino developed left political beliefs and sided against the powerful boss Tano badalamenticlose friend of his father. In 1977 he founded a free radio with some friends, Radio Autthrough which he made fun of the mafia system. The following year he was assassinated by order of badalamenti. Despite the attempts to sidetrack, in the turn of a few years the mafia matrix of the crime has been demonstrated and today Peppino Impastato is considered a Hero of the fight against the mafia. Books, documentaries and different cultural initiatives, including Marco Tullio Giordana’s film “The hundred steps“, they remember his story.
Who was Peppino Impastato
Giuseppe “Peppino” Impastato was a political militant of the new left and a anti -mafia activist. Born a Cinisiin the province of Palermo, the January 5, 1948. In the country there was one of the most powerful gangs in Sicily, headed, since the 1960s, from Gaetano “Tano” Badalamentiand also the family of Impastato was mafia. Father Luigi, very tied to Badalamenti, had taken a few years of confinement for his criminal activities; an uncle, Cesare Manzellahad been the main boss of Cinisi until 1963, when he was killed during the First Mafia war, which took place in the early 1960s. In the Peppino family, only the mother, Felicia Bartolottahe was alien to mafia sympathies, to the point that before getting married, he learned of the mafia filction of the future husband, he had tried without success to avoid marriage.
Peppino did not follow in the footsteps of his father and since he was a teenager developed left ideas and of opposite to the mafia system. The turning point was the killing of Uncle Cesare Manzella, which took place when Peppino was fifteen years old: together with the other massacres of the First Mafia war, the murder revealed to the young impatted the true nature of Cosa Nostra And he pushed him to take a road opposite to that of his father.
The political militancy and radio aut
In 1965 Peppino began political militancy: he founded a newspaper, “The socialist idea “in which he criticized the mafia in no uncertain terms, and He joined the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unita training lined up on far -left positions. His choices caused a hard clash with his father, but Peppino did not abandon political militancy and in the following years he adhered to some of the groups of the New left (The manifesto, Lotta Continua), emerged after the movement of the sixty -eight. He gathered around him a group of friends and in 1976 founded In Cinisi the Association “Music and Culture “which organized Cineforum, concerts and other activities.
The following year, Peppino and his friends founded a free radio: Radio Aut. It was one of many free radio Born in Italy in the late 1970s, after in 1976 the government had liberalized the frequencies.
Radio Aut was based on Terrasinia country close to Cinisi. The most followed transmission was “Crazy wave “in which Peppino told the events of an imaginary city of the Far West, Mafiopoli What was nothing more than his Cinisi, in which characters such as “Tano sitting”, alter ego of Badalamenti, and Geronimo Stefanini, that is the mayor Gero Di Stefano, who controlled the “Mafular” (the town hall) operated. Radio Aut was received only in the Cinisi area, but it became an important voice against the mafia.
Murder and sidetracking
The courageous complaints of the mafia system cost Peppino life: thehomocide It was also caused by the fact that, in the 70s, Badalamenti had become very powerful; had a leading role in the Commission (the “dome“) Who directed Cosa Nostra and managed a vast drug trafficking between Italy and the United States. The boss was More and more annoyed and worried about the complaints of Peppino.
In 1977 Luigi Impastato diedwho was hit by a car: it has never been acclaimed if the investment had been an accident or intentional, because Luigi, while not sharing the choices of his son, wanted to protect him. At the funeral, Peppino blatantly refused to tighten his hand in Badalamenti, arousing a sensation. His fate was now marked.
In 1978 the young activist, regardless of the threats he received, yes he candidate in the municipal elections of Cinisi on the list of proletarian democracy, the party in which the groups of the new left had merged. However, he did not have time to know the result that emerged from the polls: on the night of the May 9, 1978while the election campaign was in progress, it was kidnapped e Assassinated by order of Badalamenti. His body was found at the railway tracks, next to a bomb full of mince: The mafia wanted to believe that the young man had died while he was trying to carry out a dynamite attack.
At the moment, the death of Impastato had very little echobecause it The same day the Aldo Moro’s corpse was foundwhich monopolized the attention of the Italians. In Cinisi, however, Peppino was not forgotten and in the elections, held a few days later, he was elected (The name had not been deployed from the list because it had died when the election campaign had started). The seat obviously went to another person.
The discovery of the truth and the legacy of Peppino Impastato
In the early days after the murder, the staging organized by Badalamenti seemed to be successful and many newspapers claimed that the young man had died while trying to place a bomb on the tracks. However, mother Felicia, brother Giovanni and some friends denounced immediately that The assassination had been carried out by order of Badalamenti. In support of this thesis, the Sicilian documentation centerthe Institute of Studies on Cosa Nostra who is now named after Peppino Impastato. Gradually the Truth came to the surface And in 1984 the Court of Palermo recognized the mafia matrix of the crime: Badalamenti, however, was Sentenced as a principal only in 2002when he had already been in prison in the United States for almost twenty years.
Over the years, Impastato has become a symbol of courage and struggle for legality. Books, documentaries, cultural initiatives of various kinds are dedicated to its history, including a direct film Marco Tullio Giordana, “The hundred steps “ (title that follows the distance that separated Peppino’s house from that of Badalamenti), and a song of Modena City Ramblerswith the same title.
