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Sicily, travelling with his friends from Corleone, protected by mafiosi who knew him as Liggio’s man. In Cinisi he was the guest of the boss, don Tano Badalamenti, who had taken in many fugitives over the years, including Liggio. Giovanni Impastato grew up in Cinisi in an embattled family: his father was a mafioso, and his brother was thrown out of the house, and subsequently murdered, as a result of his outspoken campaign against the Mafia. As a boy, Giovanniwould go with his father to take food and run errands for Liggio. He recalls Provenzano’s arrival created quite a stir. ‘People were fascinated by him’, he says. ‘Here was this young Corleonese who they believed was unjustly persecuted by the law; he was seen as a courageous outlaw on the run. It wouldn’t be hard to be drawn to a mafioso like him; he had charisma, a certain fascination.’
    Saveria found herself irresistibly attracted to the outlaw, who was always well dressed but never showy, and seemed much older than her. He came from outside Cinisi and had seen something of the world. She had cousins who had been forced to give up their
fidanzati
because they came from the next village. She wanted more than Cinisi had to offer. According to his reputation, this bold young man was not afraid of anything, and yet he seemed the quiet type. He was drawn to her direct, unaffected manner, her intelligence and resourcefulness. She seemed to understand that he didn’t want to talk all the time, that he liked solitude and needed time to think. She didn’t ask him questions or demand that he visit her constantly. At last he had found a woman who seemed implicitly to understand his life. He courted her in secret, but before long their relationship attracted attention.
    Giovanni Impastato, who has carried on his brother’s anti-Mafia campaign, remembers the Palazzolo family, not wealthy nor explicitly connected to the Mafia, but moving in the right circles: ‘Saveria would have understood what kind of man he was’, he says. ‘You can see what those men are like. Women like my poor mother still believed the Mafia was a force for good. Saveria’s family will not have done badly through that connection.
    ‘They lived in that semi-legal environment; the father didn’t have an active role in the Mafia, but they were very close to [Gaetano] Badalamenti’s family. Anyone with ambition had aspirations to be part of that world – it was the dominant culture. If you could worm your way into Mafia circles, you would never lack for anything.’
    If his courtship of Saveria was initially approved, Provenzano’s precarious situation made it difficult for them to marry. It would be hard to find a priest willing to risk prosecution for aiding and abetting a fugitive. And Saveria’s family did not want her to leave Cinisi. So thecouple, no longer in the first flush of youth, were
fidanzati
for a few years, during which time he would disappear for weeks on end, and she never knew whether she would see him alive again. But she always had the sense not to ask him what he had been doing.
    She wasn’t seen much around town; since everyone knew each other’s business, she took care to avoid the hairdressers and the shops where women exchanged news. He wasn’t the jealous type, but the last thing she wanted was for Binnu to hear anything about her from gossips.
    At last he asked Saveria to run away with him. This was customary practice in those parts when a formal marriage was impossible because the families disapproved, or the couple were too young, or because there wasn’t money for a big church wedding. Often a family member would secretly lend them a room to help out. Once they had spent a night together, the family might bewail their dishonour, but the couple were officially engaged. Saveria and Bernardo stayed with one of her cousins. By now everyone knew they were living together as an unmarried couple.
    ‘It was a scandal’, the local priest recalled in an