Placido Rizzotto

Placido Rizzotto (Italian pronunciation: [ˈplaːtʃido ritˈtsɔtto]; 2 January 1914 – 10 March 1948) was an Italian partisan,^[1] socialist peasant and trade union leader from Corleone, who was kidnapped and murdered by Sicilian Mafia boss Luciano Leggio on 10 March 1948. Before he was killed, Rizzotto was engaged in activism with farm laborers, trying to help them take over unfarmed land on large estates in the area.^[2] A 12-year-old shepherd, Giuseppe Letizia, witnessed Rizzotto's murder and was killed the following day with a lethal injection, made by a Mafia doctor named Michele Navarra.^[3] In the 1960s, Leggio was acquitted twice of Rizzotto's murder due to lack of evidence.^[4]

Placido Rizzotto
Born	(1914-01-02)2 January 1914 Corleone, Sicily
Disappeared	10 March 1948 (aged 34)
Died	10 March 1948(1948-03-10) (aged 34) Rocca Busambra, Sicily
Cause of death	Murdered
Body discovered	7 July 2009 Rocca Busambra

Discovery of body and aftermath

Over 60 years after his death, remains were found on 7 July 2009, on a cliff in Rocca Busambra near Corleone, and on 9 March 2012, a DNA test, compared with one extracted from his father Carmelo Rizzotto, long dead and exhumed for this purpose, confirmed the identity of remains as those of Placido Rizzotto following a long and difficult investigation conducted by the State Police at the service of the PS Commissariat of Corleone.^[3][4] On 16 March 2012, the Council of Ministers announced a State Funeral would be held for Rizzotto,^[5] which took place in Corleone on 24 May 2012, attended by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.^[6]

A biopic of Placido Rizzotto was made by Pasquale Scimeca, released in 2000.^[7]

See also

• Il Capo dei Capi
• List of solved missing person cases
• List of victims of the Sicilian Mafia

References

1. "ANPI Voghera | Placido Rizzotto - Il Partigiano che morì di mafia". lombardia.anpi.it. Retrieved 2019-08-09.
2. Cockburn, Alexander; Jeffrey St. Clair (1998). Whiteout, the CIA, drugs and the press. New York: Verso. pp. 137. ISBN 1-85984-258-5.
   - Peter Robb (2007). Midnight in Sicily. Macmillan. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-312-42684-2.
   - Jerry Mangione (1985). A passion for Sicilians: the world around Danilo Dolci. Transaction. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-88738-606-0.
   - Michele Pantaleone (1966). The Mafia and politics, Volume 1966, Part 1. Chatto & Windus. p. 115.
3. Ritrovati i resti di Placido Rizzotto sindacalista ucciso dalla mafia nel '48
4. Identificati dopo 64 anni i resti di Rizzotto il sindacalista che combatteva la mafia di Liggio
5. Claudio Sardo, "Funerali di Stato per Placido Rizzotto", L'Unità, 16 March 2012. Archived from the original 18 March 2012. (in Italian)
6. "Il presidente Napolitano a Corleone per i funerali di Placido Rizzotto", PalermoToday, 22 May 2012
   - ""Un sacrificio che ha dato i suoi frutti" Napolitano ricorda Placido Rizzotto". La Repubblica (in Italian). 24 May 2012. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016.
7. Placido Rizzotto (2000) at IMDB