"[1] Born and raised in Palazzolo Acreide in the province of Siracusa in Sicily, Fava moved to Catania to study law.

[2] He became the editor-in-chief of the Espresso Sera daily newspaper in Catania—the main city on Sicily's east coast—and in 1980, he assumed the same position at Il Giornale del Sud, where he formed a team of young journalists that turned the paper into an independent, investigative journal.

[citation needed] However, it was the investigations into the Cosa Nostra and its tentacles in politics and business, in particular those of Sicily's biggest Catania-based construction firms, owned by the four famous entrepreneurs known as Cavalieri del Lavoro[3]—Carmelo Costanzo, Francesco Finocchiaro, Mario Rendo, and Gaetano Graci (one of the owners of the newspaper that had sacked Fava)—that would determine Fava's fate.

Graci went on regular hunting parties with Nitto Santapaola, the undisputed Mafia boss of Catania, who was on the payroll of Costanzo as well.

[5] The week before, he had been a guest on Enzo Biagi's national TV show on Rete 4, where he denounced the sway the Mafia held in parliament.