11 Facts About Cesare Mori

Cesare Mori is known in Italy as the "Iron Prefect" because of his iron-fisted campaigns against the Sicilian Mafia in the second half of the 1920s.

Cesare Mori was born in Pavia in Lombardy and grew up in an orphanage and was only recognised by his natural parents in October 1879 at the age of seven.

In 1919 Cesare Mori was sent back to Sicily as the head of special forces against brigandage.

Cesare Mori retired with his wife to Florence in 1922, when the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini took over the government after the March on Rome.

Cesare Mori took up his post in Palermo in November 1925 and remained in office until 1929.

Cesare Mori did not just arrest the bandits, but sought to humiliate them as well.

Cesare Mori often found evidence of how the Mafia operated, and seized their property and cattle.

Cesare Mori's inquiries brought evidence of collusion between the Mafia and influential members of the State apparatus and the Fascist party.

Cesare Mori retired to Udine in 1941, and he died in Udine one year later.

At the time and since, the general perception was that Cesare Mori had smashed the Mafia.

The Mafia pentito Antonio Calderone said that Cesare Mori's crackdown had hit the Mafia hard.