Michele Pantaleone (30 November 1911 – 12 February 2002) 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. Pantaleone was born in Villalba, a village in a poor region of Sicily, where most people lived of subsistence agriculture, which was also the home town of the prominent Mafia boss Calogero Vizzini. Pantaleone came from a relatively well off family and was trained as a land surveyor. Initially a leading member of the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano, PSI) in Villalba he later switched to the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI). Opposing Don Calò 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. (Vizzini’s brothers, Giovanni and Giuseppe, both became priests). His house was opposite of that of Vizzini on the other side of the main square of Villalba. Vizzini once in vain proposed Pantaleone to marry his niece Raimunda. Pantaleone declined. He knew all too well what dangerous obligations that would involve. In 1944, after the Allied occupation of Sicily, Pantaleone, heading a peasant cooperative, and Vizzini disputed the lease of the large estate Miccichè. Pantaleone used his leverage in the left wing press and his contacts with left wing political parties. In return Vizzini arranged for vandalizing the crops on Pantaleone family’s land. There was even a failed attempt on Pantaleone’s life. He was the vice-mayor of Villalba, while Vizzini was mayor. Both were appointed by the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories. The Villalba attack The socialist Pantaleone organised an election rally of the Blocco del popolo (The Popular Front) in Sicily in Villalba on 16 September 1944, inviting the Palermo-based communist leader Girolamo Li Causi. The communists, worried that Pantaleone would lead them in trouble, contacted Vizzini who assured them there would be no trouble as long as they did not touch on local issues. Li Causi spoke to the landless labourers and denounced the unjust exploitation by the Mafia. But when Li Causi started to talk about how the peasants were being deceived by ‘a powerful leaseholder’ – a thinly disguised reference to Vizzini – the Mafia boss hurled: It’s a lie. Pandemonium broke out and the rally ended in a shoot out which left