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Libero Grassi (; 19 July 1924 – 29 August 1991) was an Italian clothing manufacturer from Palermo, Sicily, who was killed by the Sicilian Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their extortion demands. The businessman wrote an open letter to the local newspaper informing the extortionists that he was no longer willing to pay pizzo, a Sicilian term for protection money. Other business-owners and shopkeepers in Palermo refused to join his public campaign. Grassi was gunned down in the street near his home eight months after writing the letter.
Grassi was born in Catania, was married, and had a son and daughter. Following his death, his family have continued his campaign, lending their support to the Addiopizzo movement that is against pizzo.
The morning after the letter was published, the Mayor of Palermo, the prosecutor, the colonel of the federal police, and the press showed up at his factory to show support. However, even after he got police protection, two strangers appeared who claimed to be health inspectors and threatened the workers once they were inside. Grassi became something of a national hero in Italy, a Sicilian businessman who stood up to the Mafia, after appearing on nationwide TV on 11 April 1991 (at Michele Santoro's Samarcanda on Rai Tre).
However, instead of receiving solidarity from other shopkeepers and businesses for his refusal to pay protection money, he was criticised, gradually isolated, and accused of demolishing the image of the Palermo business world. In his interviews, he denounced the Mafia and also the way that many of his fellow businessmen seemed to shun him, and how even customers ceased to frequent his store in fear of being caught in the wrath of the Mafia whom Grassi was provoking with his stance. Grassi stated in an interview:
On 26 September 1991, TV hosts Santoro and Maurizio Costanzo dedicated a joint five-hour live nationwide television programme to the memory of Grassi in a unique cooperation between the public Rai Tre and the private Canale 5. The first part of the program named "Per Libero Grassi" was televised live by Rai from Teatro Biondo in Palermo hosted by Santoro with a. o. the city's mayor present. After 11 p.m. Canale 5 took over with Costanzo as host and the participation of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone as guest. Rai e Fininvest contro la mafia, La Repubblica, 26 September 1991. The event became coined as the "relay race for Libero Grassi" and was characterized as "one of the most important civil and media events in Italian history."Footage with commentary on the evening in: . Nevertheless, it was not until 2004 that the grassroots movement Addiopizzo finally broke the silence and stimulated public support in the matter.
Grassi's wife, Pina Maisano, and their children, Davide and Alice, tried to keep the family firm going. "I was terrified for their safety so, as the threats continued after Libero's killing, we reluctantly agreed to allow a state holding to run the company with Davide keeping a share," Pina recalled. It eventually went bankrupt.
One hundred shopkeepers in Palermo publicly declared their refusal to pay extortion to the Mafia in 2006, not long after Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano was arrested, with Grassi's widow Pina and children Davide and Alice in attendance at public rallies denouncing the Mafia jointly with the Addiopizzo movement. One Hundred Defiant Shopkeepers Say "We Don’t Pay Protection Money", Corriere della Sera, 5 May 2006
His wife and children put up a placard on the spot where he was killed in the Via Vittorio Alfieri which says:
Every year on 29 August, people gather at the site to commemorate the act of Grassi and protest against extortion.
Since the late 2000s not only Palermo has named a street after Libero Grassi, several other communities have a via (or piazza) Libero Grassi, Alcamo (Trapani) in Sicily, as well as Naples (in Scampia and Sant'Anastasia), Tuscania (Lazio) and in northern Turin (Piemont) or Lombardian Ossona, Osnago, Ornago and Muggiò
Death and aftermath
Grassi eventually had his shop broken into in early 1991 and the exact amount of money that had been demanded of him was stolen. An unsuccessful arson attack on his shop soon followed. The 67-year-old Grassi was gunned down in the Via Vittorio Alfieri in Palermo at 7:30 in the morning on 29 August 1991, less than a year after taking his stance against the Mafia. He was shot in the head three times as he walked from his home to his car. No witnesses came forward. After the killing, 10,000 people took to the streets to protest his murder. Killing in Sicily Sets Off Backlash Against Mob, The New York Times, 12 October 1991.
Killers convicted
It took some time, but killer Mafioso Salvatore "Salvino" Madonia and his father Francesco Madonia, the unquestioned patriarch of the Resuttana Mafia family in Palermo, were eventually brought to justice. According to a Mafia turncoat, Salvatore Madonia personally killed Grassi. 'Così uccidemmo Libero Grassi', La Repubblica, 15 October 1993 A large trial in October 2006 saw thirty mobsters convicted of sixty murders dating back a quarter-of-a-century, with the Madonias convicted of Grassi's slaying.Stille, Excellent Cadavers, p. 346 Morto Madonia, boss di Resuttana, La Repubblica, 14 March 2007
See also
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