Libero Grassi

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Libera Grassi (c1924 - August 29, 1991) was a businessman from Palermo, Sicily, who was killed by the Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their demands for extortion, known as “pizzo” in Sicilian.

He ran a small store in Palermo and was married with a son and daughter. Like many shopkeepers in the city, he was soon subjected to demands to pay "pizzo" or face the consequences.

A form of protection racket, the "pizzo" demands are made by the Mafia to local businesses and the refusal to pay up can mean vandalism or arson attacks on the place of business or even physical harm - up to murder - if demands are not met. The reputation of the Mafia is often enough to make people pay up immediately.

In late 1990, Grassi began to refuse to pay up, as an estimated 50% of Palermo businesses did. Furthermore he went very public about his refusal, co-operating with the police and eventually giving interviews to newspapers and even appearing on a television chatshow, yet refusing police protection. Eight Mafiosi were arrested and charged with extortion on the basis of evidence he gave to police.

In his interviews, he not only denounced the Mafia but also the way many of his fellow businessmen seemed to shun him, and how even customers began to cease to frequent his store in fear of being caught in the wrath of the Mafia who Grassi was provoking with his stance against them. Grassi stated in an interview:

"My colleagues have begun to attack me, saying that one should not wash dirty clothes in public. But in the meatime they continue to put up with it; because I know that they all pay. In my opinion, being intimidated and being collusive is the same thing."

Grassi eventually had his shop broken into in early 1991 and the exact amount of money that had been demanded of him was stolen. An unsuccessful arson attack on his shop soon followed.

On August 29, 1991, less than a year after taking his stance against the Mafia, 67-year-old Grassi was gunned down in the streets of Palermo.

Although it took sometime, his killers, Mafiosi brothers Francesco and Salvino Madonia, were eventually bought to justice. A large trial in October 2006 saw thirty mobsters convicted of sixty murders dating back a quarter-of-a-century, with the Madonia brothers convicted of Grassi's slaying [1]

It was also in 2006, not long after Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano was arrested, that a hundred shopkeepers in Palermo publicly declared their refusal to pay extortion to the Mafia, with Grassi's widow, son and daughter in attendance at public rallies denouncing the Mafia. [2]