Antonino Scopelliti – prosecuting magistrate

Shocking killing of judge remains unpunished

Scopelliti was a highly respected and experienced
prosecutor who had worked on many major cases

The murder of Antonino Scopelliti, a prosecutor in the Italian Supreme Court, is alleged to have been carried out by the ‘Ndrangheta on this day in 1991 in Piale, a frazione of Villa San Giovanni in the region of Calabria.

Scopelliti was thought to have been killed by ’Ndrangheta members who were acting on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia. The 'Ndrangheta is a powerful mafia-type criminal organization, which originated in Calabria in the 19th century. 

The judge was on holiday at the time, visiting his family, when he was ambushed on a road. At the time of his murder, he was preparing to argue the Italian Government’s case against Cosa Nostra - the Sicilian Mafia - in the final appeal in the ‘Maxi Trial’ in the Supreme Court.

It is believed the reason for killing him was to hold up the trial so that the legal terms of detention for the mafia bosses would expire, and they would be freed. The murder has never been solved and therefore no one has been convicted for carrying out the assassination.

Scopelliti was 56 at the time of his death. Born in Campo Calabro, near Reggio Calabria in the south of the region, he had returned to the area where he grew up, to spend his summer holiday away from work. He was killed as he was going home, having enjoyed a day at the seaside.

He had experienced an exceptionally successful career since entering the judiciary at the age of 24, becoming the number one Italian Deputy Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation, which is the highest court of last resort for criminal matters, and is based in Rome.

Giovanni Falcone attended the
funeral held for Scopelliti

Scopelliti had handled major trials, involving mafia and terrorism. He had represented the prosecution in the Aldo Moro case during the first trial, in the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, in the Piazza Fontana massacre, and in the Rapido 904 massacre. 

On the day of his murder, having spent the day at the beach, he was intercepted by his assassins, thought to be two people on a motorcycle, who were stationed by the road along which he was travelling. The ambush occurred at a bend, just before the straight road leading to the town of Campo Calabro. 

The killers shot him with 12-gauge shotguns. Scopelliti was struck by two shots to the head fired in rapid succession and was instantly killed. The car, which went out of control, ended up in an embankment, which is why it was initially thought to have been a road accident. 

When Scopelliti was murdered, he was preparing to reject the appeals filed by the defence lawyers on behalf of the most dangerous mafia members convicted in the first Cosa Nostra maxi-trial. According to 'Ndrangheta informants, it was the Sicilian Mafia that had asked the 'Ndrangheta to kill Scopelliti for them as ‘a favour’.

Two trials for his murder were held at the Court of Reggio Calabria. One was against Salvatore Riina and seven other mafia bosses, and the second was against Bernardo Provenzano and six other bosses. They were all convicted in the first instance, but subsequently acquitted in the Court of Appeal on the grounds of conflicting evidence. 

After years of judicial stalemate, in 2012, during a hearing against the 'Ndrangheta in Reggio Calabria, an informer asserted that the judge's murder was carried out by two men from Reggio Calabria at the request of Cosa Nostra, without, however, naming the alleged killers. 

The murder of Scopelliti has therefore remained unsolved, but the authorities are convinced that he was killed because he was doing his job well and maintaining high standards. He was so well thought of that the judge and prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, who was himself assassinated the following year, attended his funeral to show his respect for him.

Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano was
suspected of involvement in Scopelliti's murder

In 2007, Scopelliti’s daughter, Rosanna, established the Ammazzateci Tutti movement (Kill Us All) in his memory, an anti-mafia social movement against the ‘Ndrangheta. Since then, the national anti-mafia meeting, Legalitàlia, has been held every year in Reggio Calabria, on the anniversary of the judge’s murder, promoted by the Ammazzateci Tutti movement and the Scopelliti Foundation. 

The Puglia branch of Ammazzateci Tutti have organised the naming of a street in Bari after Scopelliti.

A garden in Mucinasso, a hamlet in the municipality of Piacenza, and a square in Casalgrande, both in Emilia-Romagna, have also been named in his memory. 

In 2012, the bunker courtroom in Palmi and a square in Polistena, both in Reggio Calabria, were named after Scopelliti. In 2014, a square in Miglierina, in the province of Catanzaro in Calabria, was named after him during the first Legalitàlia Day. 

Last year, 34 years after Scopelliti’s murder, police returned to the scene of the shooting to look for new evidence, following ballistic investigations that had been carried out on the weapon they believed was used to kill the judge.

Today, on the 35th anniversary of the Judge’s killing, the case remains unsolved, but the investigation is still active and ongoing.

Campo Calabro offers extraordinary
views over the Strait of Messina

Travel tip:

Campo Calabro, where Antonino Scopelliti was born, is a municipality in the province of Reggio Calabria in the region of Calabria, located about 110km (68 miles) southwest of Catanzaro, the regional capital, and about 12km (7 miles) north of Reggio Calabria. A street in Campo Calabro, and one in neighbouring Villa San Giovanni have been named after Antonino Scopelliti. The town, which has a population of roughly 4,450 residents, sits 138m (453ft) above sea level, its position on the hills above the Strait Of Messina offering wide sea views, as well as proximity to the foothills of the Aspromonte massif. The beaches at Villa San Giovanni are less than 3km (1.8 miles) away. There is evidence of a Roman settlement in the area, which had strategic importance in the Byzantine and Norman eras. Campo Calabro maintains strong Calabrian southern dialect traditions, with linguistic traces of Greek and Latin. The town’s patron saint, to whom the parish church is dedicated, is Santa Maria Maddalena, whose feast is celebrated on 22 July each year.

Villa San Giovanni hotels from Expedia

Travel tip: 

Reggio Calabria, the largest city in Calabria although not the regional capital, is located on the "toe" of the Italian peninsula and is separated from the island of Sicily by the Strait of Messina. It is situated on the slopes of the Aspromonte, a long, craggy mountain range that runs up through the centre of the region. Since 2007, the national anti-mafia meeting "Legalitàlia" has been held annually in Reggio Calabria on the anniversary of Scopelliti’s murder, promoted by the Ammazzateci Tutti movement and the Scopelliti Foundation.  The city is also the oldest city in Calabria, the most important in what became known as Magna Graecia - Great Greece - after settlers began to arrive in the eighth century BC.  Much of its heritage was destroyed in the massive earthquake that struck the area in 1908, killing at least 25,000 residents. The rebuilt city, which suffered again at the hands of the Allies in World War Two, is notable for its fine Liberty buildings and its linear plan.  The best of what could be salvaged of the Greek remains after the earthquake can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum of Magna Graecia, housed in Palazzo Piacentini. Reggio Calabria's seafront promenade, Lungomare Falcomatà, is  regarded as one of the most beautiful in Italy.

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More reading:

Giovanni Falcone, the street kid from Palermo who became an anti-Mafia crusader

Paolo Borsellino, the judge who was murdered 57 days after colleague and friend Giovanni Falcone 

Bernardo Provenzano, Mafia boss who evaded police for 43 years

Also on this day:

1173: Work starts the Pisa bell tower that would become world famous

1919: The birth of painter Emilio Vedova

1939: The birth of politician Romano Prodi

1973: The birth of footballer and coach Filippo Inzaghi

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8 August

Ugo Bassi - priest and patriot

Unarmed chaplain was a follower of Garibaldi

Catholic priest Ugo Bassi was executed by firing squad on this day in 1849 in Bologna.  Bassi had been a preacher of eloquent sermons that attracted large crowds and had travelled all over Italy helping the poor, often himself not having enough food to eat.  He was also strongly patriotic and had been a follower of Giuseppe Garibaldi in his fight for a united, independent kingdom of Italy. It was while he was with Garibaldi’s army battling French troops loyal to the Pope in Rome that he was captured and sentenced to death on a false charge of carrying a weapon.  His execution was said to have enraged Liberals all over Europe.  Bassi was born in 1801 in Cento, a small town in the province of Ferrara, in what is now Emilia-Romagna. Although he was baptised as Giuseppe Bassi, he later changed his name to Ugo in honour of the patriotic and revolutionary poet, Ugo Foscolo.  Read more… Read more…

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Danilo Gallinari - basketball player

Giant from Lodi province who played in America’s NBA

Danilo Gallinari, one of only 12 Italian-born athletes to have played in America’s National Basketball Association, was born on this day in 1988 in Sant’Angelo Lodigiani in Lombardy.  Gallinari, who stands 6ft 10ins tall, played for nine NBA teams over a 16-year period before announcing his retirement  He turned out for the New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks.  He had a reputation for quiet leadership and his calmness in putting away three-pointers - field goals scored from outside the three-point arc surrounding the basket - earned him the nickname 'The Silent Sniper'. Although he never won an NBA title, Gallinari earned more than $200 million in the course of his career. Read more…

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Dino De Laurentiis – film producer

Campanian pasta seller helped make Italian cinema famous 

The producer of hundreds of hit films, Agostino ‘Dino’ De Laurentiis was born on this day in 1919 at Torre Annunziata, near Naples in Campania.  He made Italian cinema famous internationally, producing Federico Fellini’s Oscar- winning La strada in 1954 in Rome.  After moving to the US he enjoyed further success with the film Serpico in 1973.  De Laurentiis was the son of a pasta maker for whom he worked as a salesman during his teens.  While selling pasta in Rome in the 1930s he decided on impulse to enrol at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in the city as an actor.  He quickly realised he had more talent for producing and made his first film, L’amore canta - Love Song - in 1941 when he was just 22.  After serving in the army during the Second World War, De Laurentiis became an executive producer at one of Rome’s emerging film companies, Lux.  Read more…

Leo Chiosso – songwriter

Writer of lyrics and scripts was inspired by crime fiction

Prolific songwriter Leo Chiosso was born on this day in 1920 in Chieri, a town to the south of Turin in Piedmont.  He became well known for the songs he wrote in partnership with Fred Buscaglione, a singer and musician, but Chiosso also wrote many scripts for television and cinema.  Chiosso met Buscaglione in 1938 in the nightclubs of Turin, where Buscaglione was a jazz singer. They formed a songwriting duo that produced more than 40 songs.  However, their friendship was interrupted by the Second World War.  Chiosso was taken prisoner and deported to Poland, where he became friends with the writer Giovanni Guareschi, while Buscaglione was sent to a US internment camp in Sardinia.  It was only when Chiosso heard Buscaglione playing in a musical broadcast by the Allied radio station in Cagliari that he knew his friend was alive.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Conte – politician and academic

Lawyer who led Italy despite having no political experience

Former prime minister of Italy Giuseppe Conte was born on this day in 1964 in the town of Volturara Appula in the province of Foggia in Puglia.  Conte served as Italian prime minister between 2018 and 2021, becoming the longest serving independent prime minister in the history of Italy.  He was the fifth technocrat Italian prime minister - defined as being appointed without any previous political experience - and the first from southern Italy since Ciriaco De Mita in 1989.  A law professor for a large part of his career, Conte is often referred to as ‘the people’s lawyer’ (l’avvocato del popolo), as this is how he described himself during his first speech as prime minister. He subsequently became president of the Italian political party, the Five Star Movement (M5S).  Conte’s father, Nicola, was an employee of the local authority, and his mother, Lillina, was a school teacher.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  Via Garibaldi: On the Trail of Italy's Hero, by Jim Holden  

Che Guevara once observed that ‘the only hero the world has ever needed is Giuseppe Garibaldi.’ Italy’s greatest national hero, Garibaldi is the man most responsible for creating the modern, unified country we know today. In Via Garibaldi, Jim Holden tells his incredible story by means of a journey to cities and towns that were central to Garibaldi’s life. The path across Italy follows his actions in chronological order, recounting his immense courage amid bloody battles, his often turbulent private affairs, and the clashes with authority that put him in jail several times.  The story, however, begins in London, to which he travelled 160 years ago and was feted by an astonishing half a million people in the streets around Trafalgar Square. Via Garibaldi is for history lovers, travellers, Italophiles, and anyone who relishes an adventure story. It is also an excellent travel companion for people visiting Italy.

Jim Holden was chief sports writer on the Sunday Express newspaper in the United Kingdom for 20 years. He now lives in Italy, where he is an adjunct professor at the American University of Rome in the Communications and English departments. He continues to contribute a regular column for 'World Soccer' magazine.

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7 August

Alfredo Catalani - composer

Music from Loreley and La Wally lives on 

Opera composer Alfredo Catalani died on this day in 1893 in Milan at the age of just 39.  He is best remembered for his operas, Loreley, written in 1890, and La Wally, written in 1892, which are still to this day passionately admired by music experts.  Catalani was born in Lucca in Tuscany in 1854 and went to train at the Milan Conservatoire.  His work is said to show traces of Wagner and his style sometimes resembled that of Massenet and Puccini but his early operas were not successful.  Loreley premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1890. Later it was performed at Covent Garden in London in 1907 and in Chicago in 1919.  La Wally was first performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1892 to great acclaim.  The opera is best known for its aria, Ebben? Ne andro lontana - Well then, I’ll go far away - sung when Wally decides to leave her home forever.  Read more…

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Giorgetto Giugiaro - automobile designer

Creative genius behind many of the world’s most popular cars

Giorgetto Giugiaro, who has been described as the most influential automotive designer of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1938 in Garessio, a village in Piedmont about 100km (62 miles) south of Turin.  In a career spanning more than half a century, Giugiaro and his companies have designed around 200 different cars, from the high-end luxury of Aston Martin, Ferrari, Maserati and DeLorean to the mass production models of Fiat, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Daewoo and SEAT.  The Volkswagen Golf and the Fiat Panda, two of the most successful popular cars of all time, were Giugiaro’s concepts.  In 1999, a jury of more than 120 journalists from around the world named Giugiaro “Designer of the Century.”  Giugiaro’s father and grandfather both painted in oils and Giugiaro became passionately interested in art. Read more…

Gerry Scotti - television show host

One-time politician who presented Chi vuol essere milionario?

Gerry Scotti, the record-breaking host of Italy’s equivalent of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?  and one of the most familiar faces on Italian television, was born on this day in 1956 in Camporinaldo, an agricultural village in Lombardy.  The presenter, whose career in television began in the 1980s, was also a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies between 1987 and 1992, having won the Lombardy 1 district in the Milan college for Bettino Craxi’s Italian Socialist Party.  But he is best known as the presenter of many shows on Italian television, mainly quiz shows. He fronted Chi vuol essere milionario? when it launched in Italy in 2000 and continued in the role after Italy’s entry into the single currency in 2002 required the show to make a subtle change of name. Originally Chi vuol essere miliardario – billionaire – the title was changed to milionario – millionaire – with a new top prize of 1,000,000 euro replacing the 1,000,000,000 lire of the original. Read more… 

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Vincenzo Scamozzi – architect

Follower of Palladio had his own distinctive style

The architect and writer Vincenzo Scamozzi, whose work in the second half of the 16th century had a profound effect on the landscape of Vicenza and Venice, died on this day in 1616 in Venice. Scamozzi’s influence was later to spread far beyond Italy as a result of his two-volume work, L’idea dell’Architettura Universale - The idea of a universal architecture - which was one of the last Renaissance works about the theory of architecture. Trained by his father, Scamozzi went on to study in Venice and Rome and also travelled in Europe. The classical influence of Andrea Palladio is evident in many of the palaces, villas and churches that Scamozzi designed in Vicenza, Venice and Padua.  His work influenced English neoclassical architects such as Inigo Jones and many others who came after him.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Autumn of Italian Opera: From Verismo to Modernism, 1890-1915, by Alan Mallach 

With the passing of giants such as Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, and with Verdi in decline, Italian opera at the end of the 19th century appeared to be on the wane. Then, suddenly, with the legendary premiere of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana in 1890, Italian opera entered into a period of enormous artistic creativity and commercial success. In The Autumn of Italian Opera, Alan Mallach chronicles the last years of Verdi and Catalani and the emergence of the Giovane Scuola (young school) of Italian composers led by the superstar composers Puccini and Mascagni, and including such lesser-known but important figures as Giordano, Cilèa, and Leoncavallo. Mallach carries their story through to the first World War and a new generation of composers, including Zandonai and Wolf-Ferrari, through the rise of musical modernism in Italy early in the twentieth century. In doing so he offers opera scholars and aficionados a detailed and richly textured perspective on an important but widely misunderstood period in Italian opera. Mallach places the emergence of the Giovane Scuola firmly within the great social and political upheavals of the time, which brought previously unexplored themes and exotic settings into the Opera House. The Autumn of Italian Opera is a landmark and highly readable work of scholarship that sheds light on the last great era of Italian opera.

Alan Mallach is a senior fellow with the Center for Community Progress in Washington, DC, who has worked in, studied and written about cities in the United States and elsewhere for over fifty years. He is an accomplished pianist, and has also published two books about Italian opera, including Pietro Mascagni and His Operas. 

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6 August

Battle of Meloria

Naval loss that sparked decline of Pisa as trading power

The decline of the Republic of Pisa as one of Italy’s major naval and commercial powers began with a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Meloria on this day in 1284.  A fleet of 72 galleys was routed by the forces of the rival Ligurian Sea port of Genoa in a confrontation fought close to the islet of Meloria, about 10km (6 miles) off the coast, near what is now Livorno.  More than 5,000 Pisan crew were killed with 10 galleys sunk and at least 25 captured before other vessels fled the scene and the Genovese claimed victory.  Pisa and Genoa had once been allies, joining forces to drive the Saracens out of Sardinia in the 11th century, but subsequently became fierce rivals for trade, particularly from the eastern Mediterranean and the Byzantine Empire.  The city’s participation in the Crusades secured valuable commercial positions for Pisan traders in Syria, and thereafter Pisa grew in strength to rival Genoa and Venice.  Read more…

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Marisa Merlini - actress

Fifties star who turned down Oscar-winning role

The actress Marisa Merlini, whose 60-year movie career was at its peak in the 1950s and early 1960s, was born in Rome on this day in 1923.  Although she had built a solid reputation in a string of movies as the foil to the comedic genius of Totó, the role with which Merlini is most often associated is the midwife Annarella in Luigi Comencini’s 1953 romantic comedy Pane, amore e fantasia - Bread, Love and Dreams - which presented an idyllic view of Italian rural life.  The movie won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and Merlini’s performance was hailed by both audiences and critics, bringing many offers to play similar characters.  Co-star Vittorio De Sica was impressed with Merlini’s acting skills and when he turned to directing he had her earmarked for the part of Cesira, the widowed shopkeeper in La Ciociara, the 1960 wartime drama based on Alberto Moravia’s novel Two Women.  Read more…

Barbara Strozzi – composer

One of few 17th century women to have her own music published

The talented singer and composer Barbara Strozzi was baptised on this day in 1619 in the Cannaregio district of Venice.  Strozzi had been recognised by the poet and librettist Giulio Strozzi as his adopted daughter. It was thought at the time she was likely to have been an illegitimate daughter he had fathered with his servant, Isabella Garzoni.  Giulio Strozzi encouraged his adopted daughter’s musical talent, even creating an academy where she could perform to an audience. She became one of only a few women in the 17th century to publish her own compositions.  The Academy of the Unknown - Accademia degli Incogniti - was a circle of intellectuals in Venice that met to discuss literature, ethics, aesthetics, religion and the arts. They were supporters of Venetian opera in the late 1630s and 1640s. Giulio Strozzi formed a musical sub-group. Read more…

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Domenico Modugno – singer and songwriter

Artist who gave us a song that conjures up Italy

Domenico Modugno, who was one of the writers of the iconic Italian song, Volare, died on this day in 1994 in Lampedusa, Sicily.  Modugno wrote Volare with Franco Migliacci and performed it in the San Remo music festival in 1958 with Johnny Dorelli.  Sometimes referred to as Nel blu dipinto di blu, the song won San Remo and became a hit all over the world. It was the Italian entry in the 1958 Eurovision song contest. It came only third, yet received two Grammy Awards and sold more than 22 million copies.  Modugno was born in 1928 at Polignano a Mare near Bari in Apulia. After completing his military service he enrolled in drama school and had a number of parts in films while still studying.  The success of Volare proved to be the turning point in his career. He won the San Remo music festival again in 1959 and came second in 1960.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Shortest History of Italy, by Ross King

From Michelangelo to Mussolini, Nero to Meloni, Galileo to Garibaldi, here is the sparkling story of the world’s most influential peninsula.  The calendar, the university, the piano; the Vespa, the pistol and the pizzeria… It’s easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from somewhere sure of its place in the world. Yet these pages reveal a land rife with uncertainty even as its influence spread.  From the rise of the Roman Republic to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, from the glories of Renaissance Florence to the long struggle for unification, from Europe’s first operas to the world’s first ghettos, Ross King nimbly charts the checkered course of Italian history. In the last hundred years, film, fashion and Fiat – once bigger than Volkswagen – emerge from the horrors of fascism and world war. The Shortest History of Italy is a majestic sweep across three millennia of history that not only shaped Europe but the wider world.

Ross King is the author of many bestselling and acclaimed books about Italian history and culture, including The Bookseller of Florence, Brunelleschi’s Dome and Leonardo and the Last Supper. He lives just outside Oxford.

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