45 Years On: Ex-Italian Prefect Under House Arrest for Hiding Key Evidence in Mafia Hit on President’s Brother
In a stunning development that’s reopening one of Italy’s most infamous cold cases, authorities have placed a former top cop under house arrest for allegedly sabotaging the investigation into the 1980 Mafia assassination of Piersanti Mattarella. The brother of Italy’s current president, Piersanti was gunned down on his way to church, a bold strike against his anti-corruption push.
Palermo prosecutors dropped the bombshell on Friday, October 24, 2025, notifying Filippo Piritore, a 75-year-old ex-official with the city’s Mobile Squad and later a prefect, that he’s facing charges of depistaggio—basically, throwing sand in the gears of justice. At the heart of it? A simple leather glove, found inside the killers’ getaway car, that Piritore is accused of making vanish forever.
Back in January 1980, Piersanti Mattarella was Sicily’s regional president, just 44 years old and driving his Fiat 132 with his wife and kids toward Sunday mass in Palermo. Two hitmen on a scooter pulled up, fired five shots through the window, and sped off in a waiting Fiat 127. Piersanti, bleeding out in the front seat, told his wife, “I think they’ve killed me.” He died shortly after at the hospital. The attack came amid his aggressive reforms to clean up public contracts riddled with Mafia kickbacks, earning him enemies in organized crime circles.
Fast forward 45 years, and this arrest ties into fresh probes identifying the shooters as Mafia lifers Antonino “Nino” Madonia, 72, and Giuseppe Lucchese, both already behind bars for other hits. But Piritore’s role allegedly went beyond the streets. Investigators say the glove—spotted right after the murder inside the abandoned Fiat 127 used by the killers—could have carried fingerprints or DNA to nail the triggermen.
According to court documents, Piritore scooped up the glove at the recovery site but skipped standard procedure. No cataloging, no seizure log. Instead, he claimed in a 2024 testimony that he passed it around like a hot potato: first to a scientific police agent, then supposedly to prosecutor Pietro Grasso (now a senator), and finally to a lab tech named Lauricella. Prosecutors call that story full of holes—Grasso and the agent deny it, no Lauricella worked there back then, and the glove never resurfaced. They believe Piritore pocketed it early on to shield the Mafia, possibly with ties to figures like Bruno Contrada, the ex-spy convicted of Mafia collusion.
This isn’t just ancient history. The Palermo Anti-Mafia District Prosecutors’ Office, led by Maurizio de Lucia, stressed in their filing that the original probe was “polluted by pieces of institutions.” That’s code for insiders in law enforcement and government who allegedly helped Cosa Nostra dodge the heat. Public reaction has been swift and raw—social media in Italy is buzzing with calls for full transparency, with one viral post from a Palermo activist reading, “If even the cops were in on it, who can we trust?” Anti-Mafia groups like Libera echoed that, praising the move but warning it’s a sign of deeper rot.
For Americans with roots in Italy or just a fascination with mob lore—think The Godfather meets real-life RICO busts—this hits close to home. Italian-American communities in places like New York and Chicago have long grappled with the shadow of La Cosa Nostra’s transatlantic reach. Piersanti’s killing mirrored U.S. efforts in the 1980s to dismantle Mafia families through tough laws and turncoat testimonies. Today, it underscores ongoing U.S.-Italy cooperation on organized crime, from cyber scams to drug routes. If institutional betrayal like this stalls justice abroad, it erodes trust in alliances that keep global security tight. Plus, with Sergio Mattarella still in the Quirinal Palace, this could stir diplomatic ripples, reminding us how family tragedies shape politics across the pond.
The case now hinges on whether more evidence surfaces to link Piritore’s actions to higher-ups. Madonia and Lucchese face formal charges as the material executors, but the depistaggio angle points to a cover-up that let killers walk free for decades. As one retired Sicilian investigator put it off the record to local reporters, “This glove wasn’t just lost—it was buried to protect ghosts.”
Prosecutors vow to keep digging, with the Mattarella murder arrest, Mafia assassination probe, Italian prefect depistaggio scandal, and Piersanti Mattarella cold case revival all fueling renewed scrutiny on Sicily’s dark past.
By Sam Michael
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Piersanti Mattarella murder, Italian Mafia assassination, former prefect arrest, depistaggio scandal, Sicily corruption probe, Cosa Nostra hitmen, Italian anti-Mafia investigation