A Bullet For A Businessman

Via Thaon De Revel, with its 1960s-style housing projects, is typical of the ugly sprawl that surrounds the medieval center of Palermo. Walking along it, you wouldn't notice the tiny brass sign for Sigma. Tucked behind an apartment block, the Sigma factory churned out $5 million worth of pajamas and boxer shorts last year. And if it weren't for Libero Grassi, Sigma's remarkable boss, the company and its 100 employees would still be just another of those tens of thousands of small businesses that make Italy tick.

In mid-January, a Palermo daily published an open letter from Grassi denouncing the Mafia's attempts to milk Sigma for protection money. Then, Grassi did what few in Sicily ever do: He reported the names of his would-be extortionists to the police, a move that resulted in five arrests last March. By June, after appearing on nationwide TV, Grassi, 67, had become something of a national hero in Italy: a Sicilian businessman who stood up to the Mafia. "A hero is by definition someone who does something extraordinary," says Libero's old friend Gabriele Morello, who runs a local management institute. "The incredible thing is that he became a hero for doing something everyone should do."