Poet Assassinated

Astonishing story in the Guardian today about the murder of Sardinian poet, Peppino Marotto.

Described as “a man who helped many and did not have enemies,” we later learn of his “imprisonment in the 1950s for robbery and attempted murder, and his reported ties at the time with a notorious bandit, Pasquale Tandeddu.”

But he began writing in prison and seemed to change his life when he came out, acting as a local peacemaker and union official. He was a communist, believing passionately in equality and justice. Last Saturday, he was shot dead, almost certainly as a result of a vendetta held against him for his crime from over 50 years ago.

Of course, although he was shot in a busy street in broad daylight, no witness has yet come forward.