1972

October 27, Ragusa
Giovanni Spampinato, 27 years old, journalist

Brilliant and scrupulous reporter Giovanni Spampinato, Ragusa correspondent for the Palermo newspaper l’Ora, had carried out investigations in Ragusa, Syracuse and Catania on the suspected activities of local neo-fascists. On 25 February 1972 in Ragusa, the builder Angelo Tumino was murdered, a friend of Roberto Campria, building contractor and antiques dealer, former municipal councilor of the MSI and linked to far-right circles. Spampinato was involved in this crime from the beginning, ending up on the trail of Roberto Campria, an arms collector and son of the then president of the city court. In the following months Cambria, claiming to be the victim of absurd suspicions, tried to get the journalist to exonerate him. But Giovanni Spampinato continued to write about the atypical nature of the Tumino crime, trafficking in archaeological material, weapons and drugs, the presence of mafiosi and super fugitives. On the evening of October 27, Campria lured Spampinato, who was 26 years old, to the suburbs and killed him with six gunshots. Immediately afterwards he turned himself in, saying that he had acted in a fit of anger because he had been unjustly accused by Spampinato in various articles. The murderer was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but served only 8, in a judicial asylum.