Pippo Micalizio he embodied, if we can say so, “the modern democratic policeman”. There had been, after the war, the military police, with their marshals who knew the way and not rarely led their hands.
The daughter of Pippo Micalizio, the anti-mafia super policeman, who disappeared on the Island of Elba. Find the dead dog, the glasses and the cell phone
The Siulp trade unionist
In the “years of lead” there was a police who, to cover up politics and hierarchical orders, kept silent and kept their heads down. Micalizio had entered service in ’69, the year of the Piazza Fontana massacre (12 December, the Agricultural Bank of Milan, carried out by the neo-fascists and for years falsely attributed to the anarchists), and was a historic trade unionist of the Siulp. That is to say of the largest and strongest police union, the one that actually removed the stars from their uniforms, demilitarized the police, involved simple agents in some decisions, especially on work shifts.
At the immigration office
He did not like the ostentation of power, but inside his offices he made his “hand” felt. In Milan he had started as head of what was called the Immigration Office, the current Foreign Office, and had been there for a long time: also in this case, in years in which immigration came to change the face of the cities, and of Milan above all, had impressed a respect for those he considered future citizens and an iron fist for the too clever. He has repeatedly hit those who favored illegal immigration. In press conferences, eternal cigarette in hand, hoarse voice, imperceptible Sicilian accent, wide elbows on the desk, slightly hunched shoulders, it was necessary to tear the words out of his mouth.
The fight against the northern mafia
It was a surprise to see him succeed the volcanic Achille Serra as head of Mobile, but sitting on one of the most operational armchairs in Milan, on the first floor of the internal building of the police station in via Fatebenefratelli, Micalizio had immediately turned the spotlight on the penetrations of the mafia in the North , on drug trafficking (head of the section was Massimo Mazza, who would also have made a career in anti-terrorism), on what was called petty crime, but it was also the type of street crime that makes citizens’ lives complicated. Clear ideas, always a few words in press conferences, but he had begun to smile more: and he was generous with private speeches, if he understood that the interlocutor was interested in understanding socio-criminal phenomena, for him Milan was one of the capitals of the mafia and what counted in Palermo counted in Milan (and vice versa).
Information on the Cosa Nostra-‘ndrangheta association
One like this, suddenly, left his post for the newborn Dia, anti-mafia investigative directorate. An unprecedented Italian, on the model of the FBI: if the mafia moved throughout the territory, it was good to have investigators who did the same. And it was he, always remaining behind the scenes, who provided the best investigators to work night and day on the massacres of Giovanni Falcone first (23 May 1992) and then Paolo Borsellino (19 July). In March 1994 he wrote an “information”, as some summary documents are called, to establish how the Cosa Nostra, responsible for the Palermo massacres and the bombs in Rome, Florence and Milan of that fatal 1993, had solid links with the ‘Ndrangheta.
The attacks to make 41bis lapse
And he had sensed, also helped by various “repentants”, a link between those attacks to make the very hard prison expire (Article 41 bis), attacks wanted by the bosses of Corleone and the Dome, with other similar actions of the past, when also criminals they had planted bombs on trains. His information suggested not only to look at the “already known”, that is to say the Palermo people, but also the Aspromonte, especially the Platì clans (which in Corsico, near Milan, had and still have some powerful terminals).
The largest investigation against the Platì clans
Platì – it must be remembered – was also a point of reference for the largest investigation carried out in Milan against the ‘Ndrangheta: thanks to the magistrate Alberto Nobilito the policeman Massimo Gallo, at the aforementioned Mazza and at Micalizio, an attack had been launched on the clans dominated by the Papalia thanks to the repentance of Saverio Morabito. Who had contributed heavily with his revelations to reveal not only the organization chart, murders, kidnappings like the sensational one of Cesare Casella (two years, from ’88 to ’90, hostage of the clans), but also the more private habits of sgarristi and santisti. Morabito, a “caliber 9 manager”, is now back in jail and even that season of such penetrating investigations seems distant. The last was signed by Ilda Boccassini, with the Ros, and a direct affiliation oath emerged from the investigative videos.
The ministerial inspector on the G8 tragedy
Micalizio, shortsighted goggles, often square-shaped, light-colored jackets, had quickly become a man whom the police could trust to bring transparency. He was sent, as ministerial inspector, to evaluate the tragedy of the G8 in Genoa (July 2001), with the raid of the policemen at Diaz and the beating of those who slept: a “modus operandi” that, grown up with the idea of the policeman at the side of the citizen, it was repugnant. He had remained in Rome, Dia, Sco (central operational service) and other positions, a career in the offices, silent as always, and as always very efficient, until a tumor killed him in 2005, when he was only 60 years old.