Leonardo "Buio" Notte (14 June 1954-) was an Italian advertising agent and political consultant. He worked for Silvio Berlusconi's company Publitalia '80 before assisting Berlusconi in his entry into politics in the 1990s, but his involvement with crime led to his shooting by his ex-wife in 1993.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Notte in 1977
Leonardo Notte was born in Bologna, Italy in 1954, the illegitimate son of Italian Communist Party journalist Alberto Muratori, and the adoptive son of local communist leader Ottavio Notte. During the late 1970s, while studiyng philosophy, he was involved in the Autonomia Operaia leftist student movement, and he became known for his passionate speeches while serving as one of its leaders. In 1977, he took part in the occupation of Bologna University, and he was involved in various other demonstrations, all while rejecting Massimo D'Alema's requests for him to join the Italian Communist Party. One afternoon that year, one of his friends was killed when his friend group was attacked by neo-fascists, and he was arrested for attempted murder after trying to kill one of the fascists with a pistol given to him by friend (and future Democratic Party of the Left deputy Beppe Scherini). Muratori blackmailed the judge into overturning Notte's sentence, but the policeman who arrested Notte lied to him, telling him that only he could save Notte from imprisonment; in exchange for Notte's freedom, Notte was forced to distribute heroin to his fellow student activists. He was forced to leave Bologna after his lover died of a heroin overdose, and he decided to reinvent himself.
Tangentopoli[]
By 1992, Notte was a successful advertising agent for Publitalia 80, and he was a member of the high society of Milan. Publitalia's president Marcello Dell'Utri assigned Notte the task of finding a moderate politican who could oppose the left in the wake of the Tangentopoli scandal, and Notte supported Silvio Berlusconi's entry into politics. Later, policeman Rocco Venturi threatened to blackmail Notte over the death of his lover several years before, and secretly planned to report Notte's bribe to him to his superior, Antonio di Pietro, to ensure that Notte was imprisoned and prevented from telling anyone about the bribe. Notte initially attempted to take money from Dell'Utri's account to pay for the blackmail, but later changed his mind, and instead killed Venturi at a construction site and destroyed the incriminating evidence. Dell'Utri nevertheless discovered Notte's attempt to embezzle money, and had him fired.
Rise and fall[]
Notte continued his comeback, however, and he was a close collaborator of Berlusconi by 1993. Notte even blackmailed his biological father, now a Democratic Party of the Left politician, into no longer publicly criticizing Berlusconi, as Notte discovered Muratori's role in political corruption from the event that occurred 16 years earlier. Notte was later arrested by the late Venturi's partner Luca Pastore after Venturi's body was found, and he was charged with murder. While in prison, Notte taught Italian to foreign prisoners, and Sicilian Mafia boss Luigi Brancato later contacted him and offered to release him from prison if he would eliminate fellow prisoner Antonino Del Re, who threatened to expose Mafia secrets. Notte had one of his foreign students murder Del Re, and Brancato sprung Notte from prison, framing another person for Venturi's murder.
Notte after being shot
Upon his release, however, Notte's reputation was tainted, and Berlusconi decided not to nominate him as a political candidate, instead offering to keep him as a counselor. Notte, whose pride was injured, decided to abandon Berlusconi and join the Democratic Party of the Left, but he later decided to reveal the PDS' involvement in the Tangentopoli scandal in order to facilitate Berlusconi's victory. On 19 December 1993, headed to the Jolly Hotel in Milan to deliver the news to Berlusconi, but he was instead shot below the heart by his ex-wife Arianna, who was convinced of his guilt.