Mauro De Mauro

Mauro De Mauro (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmauro de ˈmauro]; 6 September 1921 – disappeared 16 September 1970) was an Italian investigative journalist. Originally a supporter of Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime, De Mauro eventually became a journalist with the left-leaning newspaper L'Ora in Palermo. He disappeared in September 1970 and his body has never been found. The disappearance and probable death of the "inconvenient journalist" (giornalista scomodo) – as he became known as a result of his investigative reporting – remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in modern Italian history.

Several explanations for De Mauro's disappearance are current. One is related to the death of Enrico Mattei, the president of Italy's state-owned oil and gas conglomerate ENI. Another is that De Mauro had discovered a drug trafficking network between Sicily and the United States. A third explanation links his disappearance with the Golpe Borghese, a 1970 foiled right-wing coup d'état. De Mauro was apparently convinced that he had got hold of a story of a lifetime and had told colleagues at L'Ora, "I have a scoop that is going to shake Italy."