Giuseppe Fava

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Giuseppe Pippo Fava

Giuseppe Fava also known as Pippo, (Palazzolo Acreide, September 15, 1925 - Catania, January 5, 1984) was a Sicilian writer, investigative journalist, playwright and Antimafia activist who was killed by the Mafia. His motto in life was: "is there any use in living if you don't have the courage to fight?"

Fava studied law but became a professional journalist in 1952. He became the editor in chief of Espresso Sera daily newspaper in Catania — 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.

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 (GLCM) by the United States at Comiso 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,^[1] 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, 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. ^[2]

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 in Enzo Biagi national TV show on Retequattro where he denounced the sway the Mafia held in parliament.^[3]

In 1994, Maurizio Avola, a nephew of Santapaola, confessed the killing of Fava, and became a pentito. He also confessed some 70 other murders. Avola said that his uncle Nitto Santapaola had ordered the killing of the journalist. 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 the Marcello D'Agata, Vincenzo Santapaola and Franco Giammuso who allegedly had assisted the murderer. Avola was sentenced to six years and six months.

His son Claudio Fava is a Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Islands with the Democrats of the Left (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, Bompiani), "Prima che vi uccidano" (1977, Bompiani), "Passione di Michele" (1980, Cappelli editore).

[edit] References and external links

^ The honorary title Cavaliere del Lavoro (Knight of Labour) was granted by the Italian government as reward for special merit to the Italian economy.
^ (Italian) I quattro cavalieri dell’apocalisse mafiosa, in I Siciliani, January 1983. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are mentioned in the Bible in chapter six of the Book of Revelation. The four horsemen are traditionally named Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death.
^ (Italian) "I mafiosi stanno in Parlamento" (The mafiosi are in parliament), audio-video registration of Fava last interview with Biagio on December 28, 1983.