2003. In April 2002, an Italian court convicted Badalamenti of the 1978 murder of activist radio broadcaster Peppino Impastato and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Impastato used humor and satire as his weapon against the Mafia. In his popular daily radio program Onda pazza (Crazy Wave) he mocked politicians and mafiosi alike. On a daily basis he exposed the crimes and dealings of mafiosi in Mafiopoli (Cinisi) and the activities of Tano Seduto (Sitting Tano), a thinly disguised pseudonym of Don Tano Badalamenti, the capomafia of Cinisi. Death On 29 April 2004, Badalamenti died from heart failure, at the age of 80, at the Devens Federal Medical Center in Ayer, Massachusetts. Ralph Blumenthal, a New York Times reporter, depicted Badalamenti as "a manipulator who would do anything to regain leadership of the Sicilian mob" in his 1988 book, Last Days of the Sicilians. Shana Alexander, portrayed him as "a man of unusual dignity" in her book The Pizza Connection, published the same year. References Bibliography Dickie, John (2004). Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, London: Coronet, Gambetta, Diego (1993). The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection, London: Harvard University Press, Paoli, Letizia (2003). Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style, New York: Oxford University Press Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003). Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo, Berkeley: University of California Press Servadio, Gaia (1976). Mafioso: a History of the Mafia from Its Origins to the Present Day, London: Secker & Warburg Shawcross, Tim & Martin Young (1987). Men of Honour: The Confessions of Tommaso Buscetta, Glasgow: Collins Sterling, Claire (1990). Octopus: How the Long Reach of the Sicilian Mafia Controls the Global Narcotics Trade, New York: Simon & Schuster, Stille, Alexander (1995). Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, New York: Vintage External links 1923 births 2004 deaths Gangsters from the Province of Palermo Sicilian Mafia Commission Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention Sicilian mafiosi Sicilian mafiosi sentenced to life imprisonment Italian drug traffickers Italian people convicted of drug offenses People convicted of murder by Italy Italian exiles Italian expatriates in the United States