Bernardo Mattarella was born in Castellammare del Golfo, in the province of Trapani in western Sicily as the eldest of seven children in a family of humble origins.

He expressed his concern in an article published in 1944 attacking the leader of the separatists, Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile: "This man speaks of democracy, but he has the grave fault of having gathered and tried to strengthen the most dangerous and oppressing organization which, for long years, has afflicted our land.

[5][6] The Communist minority of the Parliamentary Antimafia Commission described Mattarella as the man "who had striven to absorb Mafia forces into the Christian Democrats so as to use them as an instrument of power.

"[7] He was accused of having approached Calogero Vizzini, supposedly the most influential Mafia boss at the time to abandon the Sicilian separatists and join the Christian Democrats.

The accusation was made by the Italian communists on the basis of an article that Mattarella published on the national Christian democrat newspaper, Il Popolo, on 24 September 1944.

[13][14][15] He was accused of being one of the men behind the Portella della Ginestra massacre, when 11 persons were killed and 33 wounded during May Day celebrations in Sicily on 1 May 1947.

In the Portella della Ginestra massacre trial in 1950–51 in Viterbo, Giuliano's right-hand man Gaspare Pisciotta said: "Those who have made promises to us are called Bernardo Mattarella, Prince Alliata, the monarchist MP Marchesano and also Signor Scelba, Minister for Home Affairs ... it was Marchesano, Prince Alliata and Bernardo Mattarella who ordered the massacre of Portella di Ginestra.

Before the massacre they met Giuliano..." Mattarella, Alliata and Marchesano were declared innocent by the Court of Appeal of Palermo, at a trial which dealt with their alleged role in the event.

[17][18] During the trial, Giuliano's mother and some members of the gang said that Pisciotta's statements were part of a plot designed to put the investigations on the wrong track.

Mattarella's lawsuit for libel allowed Dolci "ampia facoltà di prova", meaning that the defendant would have been declared innocent if he had been able to show that he had offended the plaintiff on the basis of true evidence.

[24][26] On 21 June 1967, the Court of Rome, sentenced that Mattarella offered reliable evidence of his opposition to the Mafia in the entire course of his political career.

The statements collected by the defendants – Dolci and Alasia – were considered nothing more than "deplorable gossip, malicious rumour or even simple lies."

According to the journalist and politician Luigi Barzini, who had been a member of the Antimafia Commission, few of Dolci's charges against Mattarella, most of which were undoubtedly true but not all as decisive as he thought, could be proved in a court of law, as Sicilian witnesses rarely repeat in public what they might have said secretly to a trusted friend.

[29] US gangster Joe Bonanno claimed that Mattarella was among the welcoming party that met him when he landed at Fiumicino airport in Rome in October 1957 for a vacation.

[30][31][32] However, the claim seems to be fictional: it describes Bonanno's trip to Italy in September 1957, in the company of F. Pope, the editor of the newspaper "Il progresso italo americano".

[34][35] In 1996, 25 years after Mattarella died, Francesco Di Carlo, a Mafia pentito, said he had been a "man of honour" – a member of Cosa Nostra.