The businessman who defied the Italian Mafia
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 6 September 2019
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1991, Palermo businessman Libero Grassi published an open letter in Sicily’s main newspaper denouncing the Mafia for constantly demanding extortion payments. Grassi was hailed as a hero, but his public refusal to pay was intolerable to the Mafia and a few months later he was executed in person by one of Cosa Nostra’s top bosses. Libero Grassi’s defiance is credited with inspiring a new grass-roots movement among businesses in Sicily that stands up to the Mafia. Simon Watts talks to his daughter, Alice Grassi.
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Transcript
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| 0:30.9 | Hello Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of the BBC World Service |
| 0:38.7 | history program Witness History with me Simon Watts. Today I'm bringing you the story of an Italian |
| 0:45.5 | businessman who stood up to the mafia in its traditional stronghold of Sicily. |
| 0:50.5 | Libro Grass's campaign later inspired a movement against organized crime on the island. |
| 1:00.3 | In August 1991, one of the most powerful crime families in Sicily, the Madonilla gang, sent a driver to follow Librau Grasy. |
| 1:10.0 | The Pédina for a week |
| 1:15.0 | him for controlling his |
| 1:13.9 | his post- protection. When we were sure that he always left his home alone, Salvino Madonea decided to kill him. |
| 1:28.0 | The driver, Marco Favalloro, later turned informant. |
| 1:32.0 | This is the evidence he gave against Salvino Madonilla. |
| 1:35.6 | Madonilla, my dear point to me to meet him near a newsstand in the centre of town. He then told me to drive his car and we |
| 1:45.1 | pulled up alongside Libero Grasse's vehicle. Madonair told me to keep the engine running and |
| 1:50.9 | the right-hand door open. When the target left the building, Madonilla got out |
| 1:56.1 | of the car with a gun hidden in the newspaper, went up to him and fired all the |
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