The daughter of Mauro De Mauro, an
investigative journalist who disappeared in 1970 and is thought
by many to have been killed by Cosa Nostra because he knew the
truth about the alleged assassination of oil supremo Enrico
Mattei, has contacted police looking into the discovery of a
man's body dating back to the 70s in a cave on Mt Etna.
Franca De Mauro got in touch with the police after reading that
the body had malformations to the mouth and nose, which her
father had due to a WWII wound.
She did not, however, recognise any of the personal items found
with the body, and told police she never remembered her father
carrying a comb such as the one found in the cave.
After Franca De Mauro came forward, prosecutors on Thursday
ordered DNA comparisons to be made.
In January 2014 a Palermo appeals court acquitted the
bloodiest-ever jailed Cosa Nostra boss for the murder of De
Mauro, believed to have been killed because he knew too much
about the Mob assassination of maverick oil chief Mattei.
Riina, who died in jail in 2017, was captured in 1993 and
served life sentences for crimes including the 1992
assassinations of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo
Borsellino.
According to prosecutor Antonio Ingroia, Riina and two other
'cupola' members decided to eliminate the "courageous and
troublesome" journo in September 1970 because he was about to go
public about Mattei's murder eight years earlier, in a 1962
plane crash in northern Italy.
There was also a second reason to get rid of De Mauro,
Ingroia argued.
Thanks to wartime Fascist connections, Ingroia said, the
journalist had uncovered plans to stage a Mafia-backed far-right
coup d'etat in December that year.
"The death sentence on De Mauro was passed because of a
convergence of two elements," Ingroia said.
De Mauro went missing from the street outside his Palermo
home on September 16, 1970, while doing research for Francesco
Rosi's landmark movie, 'Il Caso Mattei' (The Mattei Case).
Italy's best-known Mafia informant, the late Tommaso
Buscetta, claimed the headline-grabbing boss of State fuels
group ENI was killed to stop him treading on the toes of the
so-called Seven Sisters of world oil.
Mattei is known to have angered the world's biggest oil
companies by forging deals in North Africa, Russia and Iran
that aimed to make Italy independent of them.
An investigation into the plane crash concluded it had
been caused by a technical fault but another probe, 30 years
later, said a bomb had exploded on board.
"De Mauro was very busy piecing together the elements of
the plot, and his death stopped it being uncovered" Ingroia told
the court.
"The other 'convergent' element in his death was the fact
that he knew, from its inception, about the subversive project
involving spies, neofascists and Mafia groups" to put together
the so-called 'Borghese Coup', the prosecutor went on.
"From his sources in neofascist circles, from his past in
Prince Junio Valerio Borghese's crack 'X Mas' WWII unit, as well
as from tip-offs from Mafia boss Emanuele D'Agostino, he knew
something was in the offing".
According to Mafia turncoats, the coup was aborted at the
last minute after key establishment figures withdrew their
support.
De Mauro went missing after telling friends he had "news
that (would) shake the world".
This is believed to have been the scoops on Mattei's death
and the Borghese coup plans.
Ingroia has said investigations had unearthed an
"institutional cover-up" in the initial probe into De Mauro's
disappearance.
A probe into these alleged cover-ups is stull under way.
Riina's successor until his arrest in 2006, Bernardo
Provenzano, who died in 2016, was also placed under
investigation in a separate probe into the murder.
De Mauro's body was never found.
Various informants have told police about alleged burial
sites but bodies recovered from them have not matched the
journalist's DNA.
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