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. He studied law but became a professional journalist in 1952. His motto in life was: "What purpose is living, if you don’t have the courage to fight?" Palazzolo Acreide, a town of Sicily, in the Province_of_Syracuse, 28 m. ... September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Catania is the second largest city of Sicily and is the capital of the province which bears its name. ... January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Mafia, also referred to in Italian as Cosa Nostra (Our Thing or This Thing of Ours), is a secret society formed in the mid-19th century in Sicily. ...

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. Catania is the second largest city of Sicily and is the capital of the province which bears its name. ...

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. A Tomahawk cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile which uses a lifting wing and most often a jet propulsion system to allow sustained flight. ... Comiso is an Italian municipality in the Province of Ragusa in Sicily. ...

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, 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. Catania is the second largest city of Sicily and is the capital of the province which bears its name. ...

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.^[1] In 1998, Santapaola and Aldo Ercolano were convicted for ordering the killing of Giuseppe Fava. January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Enzo Biagi (born August 9, 1920) is a renowned Italian journalist. ...

His son Claudio Fava is a Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Islands with the Democrats of the Left (DS). Claudio Fava Giovanni Claudio Fava (born on 15 April 1957 in Catania on Sicily) is a Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Islands with the Democratici di Sinistra, part of the Socialist Group and is vice-chair of the European Parliaments Committee on Regional... A Member of the European Parliament (English abbreviation MEP)[1] is a member of the European Unions directly-elected legislative body, the European Parliament. ... Elections to the European Parliament were held in Italy on June 13, 2004. ... The Democrats of the Left (Italian: Democratici di Sinistra, often referred to as DS) is the main Italian left-wing political party, part of the Ulivo electoral coalition. ...

References and external links

1. ^ (Italian) "I mafiosi stanno in Parlamento" (The mafiosi are in parliament), audio-video registration of Fava last interview with Biagio on December 28, 1983.

• (Italian) I Siciliani
• (Italian) Dossier Pippo Fava