Mauro De Mauro
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Mauro De Mauro (Foggia, September 6, 1921 – disappeared, Palermo, September 16, 1970) was an Italian journalist, murdered by the Mafia following his investigations on the death of Enrico Mattei and on the Golpe Borghese.
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[edit] Fascist past
In 1943–44, in nazifascist occupied Rome, Mauro De Mauro was vice chief of Police under the Commander Caruso, informant of the SS Captain Erich Priebke and of the Colonel Herbert Kappler; he was also a member of the Koch Band, a special unit of the Home Security in the Repubblica Sociale Italiana.[1]
He volunteered to join the Decima MAS, a brutal anti-partisan force under the command of prince Junio Valerio Borghese. De Mauro was arrested during the liberation days in Milan in April 1945. Accused af having participated in the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, he was absolved by the court in 1948. He named his daughters, Junia and Valeria, after the "Black Prince".[2]
[edit] In Sicily
De Mauro moved to Palermo under an assumed name, started working for local papers such as Il Tempo di Sicilia, Il Mattino di Sicilia and started working for L'Ora in 1959, demonstrating excellent skills as an investigative reporter in particular on issue related to the Sicilian Mafia. L'Ora was a Communist paper, and other journalists scratched their heads about De Mauro's presence on it: he had been a supporter of Benito Mussolini during the latter's inglorious last stand. Rumour had it that his nose had been broken by Partisans.[3]
[edit] Investigations and disappearance
In 1962 he investigated the mysterious death of the ENI President Enrico Mattei and in September 1970 he was again investigating the case, upon request of the movie director Francesco Rosi for his movie Il caso Mattei, which would be released in 1972.
De Mauro was kidnapped on the evening of September 16, 1970, while going back home. His body was never found again. De Mauro was well aware that he had got hold of the story of a lifetime. To colleagues at L'Ora he said, “I have a scoop that is going to shake Italy.”[4][3]
According to the Mafia pentito Francesco Di Carlo, De Mauro was killed because he had learned that one of his childhood friends, Prince Junio Valerio Borghese, was planning a coup d'etat (the so-called Golpe Borghese) with like-minded army officers determined to halt what they saw as Italy's drift to the left.[5][4][3]
On September 20, 2007, police in Catanzaro, Calabria, acting on a tip-off, dug up the remains from a grave belonging to Mafioso Salvatore Belvedere, to see if it is not in fact the corpse of De Mauro.[6] The remains of 5 unknown people have been found, and transferred to a forensic institute for further analysis.[7] DNA studies have found that the unidentified body is not that of De Mauro. DNA from the body was compared with that of De Mauro's two surviving closest relatives, his daughter Franca and his brother Tullio De Mauro, Italy's leading authority on linguistics.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ (Italian) Documenti statunitensi e italiani sulla Banda Giuliano, la Decima Mas e il Neofascismo in Sicilia
- ^ (Italian) Mauro De Mauro
- ^ a b c Revealed: how story of Mafia plot to launch coup cost reporter his life, The Independent on Sunday, June 19, 2005
- ^ a b (Italian) De Mauro ucciso per uno scoop: scoprì il patto tra boss e golpisti, La Repubblica, June 18, 2005
- ^ (Italian) "De Mauro venne ucciso perché sapeva del golpe", La Repubblica, January 26, 2001
- ^ "Mafioso body linked to De Mauro case to be exhumed Sunday", ANSA, 2007-09-20.
- ^ "Mafia: De Mauro, nuovi scavi nel cimitero", ANSA, 2007-09-24.
- ^ Calabria body not De Mauro's, EuroNews 24, March 12, 2008
[edit] External links
- (Italian) Caso De Mauro, un mistero lungo trentasei anni, Ordine dei Giornalisti di Sicilia, February 15, 2006
- (Italian) Mauro De Mauro, Ordine dei Giornalisti della Lombardia
