Cesare Mori

Cesare Mori (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃeːzare ˈmɔri, ˈtʃɛː-]; 22 December 1871 – 5 July 1942) was a prefect (prefetto) before and during the Italian Fascism period. He is known in Italy as the "Iron Prefect" (Prefetto di Ferro) because of his iron-fisted campaigns against the Sicilian Mafia in the second half of the 1920s. The 1977 film I Am the Law, directed by Pasquale Squitieri, is about his fight against the Mafia when he was prefect in Sicily. Mori is also known for being the first to ever destroy the influence of the Mafia within Italy. Mori described himself as a Fascist, and wrote strongly of his admiration of the effectiveness of both the National Fascist Party and Benito Mussolini several times in his self authored accounts in Sicily. He said, "What caused the undoubted efforts made in the past to peter out was a feeling of listlessness, in the minds of the people which seemed refractory even to unusual stimulants. It was not a reality, it was not a fact, but a feeling; yet the past was infected and dominated by it until the day when, on the coming of Fascism, the Duce in person broke the evil spell."