Piersanti Mattarella was born on 24 May 1935 in Castelmare del Golfo. He was the elder brother of the current president of the republic. Piersanti Mattarella also held an important political role, in fact after several political positions he became president of the region of Sicily in 1978.
In this period the criminal organization of Cosa Nostra continued to expand becoming very dangerous, killing many men like Peppino Impastato; these episodes did having in Mattarella the need to make a speech against the mafia in Cinisi.
The whole town was surprised by this stance of Mattarella, but all this clamor of Mattarella did not please the Cosa Nostra, in fact on 6 January 1980 a group of hitmen killed Piersanti Mattarella with several gunshots while he was going with his family to Mass.
This murder was a real blow to the state.
At first, everyone believed that the neo-fascists had killed Mattarella but thanks to the work of the magistrate Giovanni Falcone it was discovered that the fascists had acted on the orders of some Cosa Nostra leaders such as Riina, Provenzano, and so on..