1. Michele Pantaleone was a respected journalist and expert on the Sicilian Mafia and one of the first to shed light on the links between organized crime and political power.
16 Facts About Michele Pantaleone
1. 2.
Michele Pantaleone came from a relatively well off family and was trained as a land surveyor.
3.
Michele Pantaleone was born in Villalba, into a local family of professionals whose republican traditions opposed the power of Mafia boss Calogero Vizzini, who was a staunch catholic as well.
4.
Michele Pantaleone's house was opposite of that of Vizzini on the other side of the main square of Villalba.
5.
Vizzini once in vain proposed Michele Pantaleone to marry his niece Raimunda.
6.
Michele Pantaleone knew all too well what dangerous obligations that would involve.
7.
In 1944, after the Allied occupation of Sicily, Michele Pantaleone, heading a peasant cooperative, and Vizzini disputed the lease of the large estate Micciche.
8.
Michele Pantaleone used his leverage in the left wing press and his contacts with left wing political parties.
9.
The socialist Michele Pantaleone organised an election rally of the Blocco del popolo in Sicily in Villalba on 16 September 1944, inviting the Palermo-based communist leader Girolamo Li Causi.
10.
Michele Pantaleone would move on to become a prominent Antimafia politician and journalist.
11.
Michele Pantaleone worked for L'Ora an independent left wing newspaper in Palermo close to the PCI.
12.
Michele Pantaleone published several books about the Mafia in the 1960s and acquired a small but dedicated audience.
13.
Michele Pantaleone was one of the first to shed light on the links between Cosa Nostra and the Christian Democrat party.
14.
Michele Pantaleone was sentenced to eight months and ten days in prison and to pay court costs' for aggravated defamation in the press of Mattarella.
15.
Michele Pantaleone is seen as the source of the legend about the role of Lucky Luciano in the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.
16.
When confronted with scepticism about his account by a journalist of La Repubblica in 2000, Michele Pantaleone maintained his version as an eyewitness to the events.