Michele Pantaleone

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). Provided by Wikipedia