[2] As children, the Spampinato brothers were influenced by the politics of their father Peppino, who had fought in Yugoslavia and was an active communist.

[4] Giovanni Spampinato took a job at the newspaper L'Ora after graduating with a degree in philosophy from the University of Catania in 1969.

[2] After Angelo Tumino was killed, Spampinato began to investigate the murder and dig deeper into the Sicilian Mafia.

[14] Alberto Spampinato, inspired by his brother's murder, founded Ossigeno per l'informazione Osservatorio (Translated: Oxygen for Information Observatory) that is aligned with Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders and monitors the journalistic environment in Italy and safety and security issues.

[10][15][16] Alberto Spampinato, journalist for the news agency Ansa and co-author of Vite ribelli, describes his brother: "A boy slim, slender, who by his looks seemed mild and harmless.

"[6] A few local newspapers described him as "a torturer," "a communist blinded by class hatred" that had begun to target "that guy from a good family," destroying his life and reputation.