A former Palermo Flying Squad officer was placed under house arrest on Friday on suspicion of obstructing the investigation into the 1980 Mafia assassination of Piersanti Mattarella, then governor of Sicily and brother of Italy’s current president, Sergio Mattarella.
The suspect, Filippo Piritore, 75, was a deputy to Bruno Contrada, the former Palermo Flying Squad chief later convicted of Mafia links. Prosecutors allege Piritore lied about a leather glove left in the Fiat 127 used by the killers, an item that later disappeared from evidence.
According to the Palermo Anti-Mafia Directorate, the probe into Mattarella’s murder was “seriously contaminated and compromised by institutional members” who sought to prevent the killers’ identification. They said crucial evidence was removed, “permanently dispersing its traces.”
Piritore, who later served as police commissioner in Caltanissetta, L’Aquila, and Genoa, and as prefect of Isernia, allegedly provided false statements that misled investigators. The Italian Anti-Mafia Investigation Department (DIA) confirmed that he is under investigation for obstruction of justice.
The glove, reportedly found in the killers’ car on 6 January 1980, was never recovered or analysed. Prosecutors say documentation signed by Piritore claimed it had been delivered to Deputy Prosecutor Pietro Grasso, who led the original investigation. Grasso, however, has stated that he never received or saw the glove.
Chain of custody “full of anomalies”
The Palermo prosecutor’s office described the chain of custody as “full of anomalies,” noting that the glove was inexplicably returned to the car’s owner instead of being examined for forensic evidence. “There is no delivery report or any signed document confirming its handover,” prosecutors said.
Investigators also linked Piritore’s actions to his long-standing friendship with Contrada, who, despite a later acquittal, was found in a final ruling to have maintained confidential ties with Mafia bosses Michele Greco and Totò Riina during the period of the Mattarella assassination.
Wiretaps from September 2024 suggest Piritore was aware he was under scrutiny. “They’re doing something,” he reportedly told his wife, expressing stress over being investigated “after forty-five years.” Prosecutors said his remarks were “incompatible with the behaviour expected of a law enforcement official.”
The murder of Piersanti Mattarella marked a turning point in Italy’s relationship with the Mafia, prompting then–Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to cut his ties with Cosa Nostra, according to a high court ruling.
