Commonly compared to the legend of Robin Hood, Salvatore Giuliano (1922 – 1950) was a Sicilian peasant famous due to stories pertaining to him helping the poor villagers in his area by taking from the rich. The millennial subjugated social status of his class led him to become a bandit and separatist who has been mythologized during his life and after his death.

As a member of the Sicilian Independentist Movement, Giuliano actively pursued efforts into gaining independence for the island from the Italian government. His story gained attention in the media worldwide, in part due to his handsome looks, including features in Time magazine.

He was born on November 16th 1922 in the western Sicilian mountain village of Montelepre which means "The Mountain of the hare". He was the last of a long line of Sicilian mountain bandits and the last of the "honorable" men. The mountain bandits of Sicily have nothing to do with the city mafiosos. They were a breed unto themselves with a special code of honor and morals. They were truly the friends of the poor and they gave freely of their plunder of the rich to the poor. Turridu (the diminutive of Salvatore) was no different and even today you will find older people in the mountain villages around Palermo who still sing his praises.

Salvatore went to school until the end of primary school at which time he had to go to work, but he didn't stop studying and went to the local priest and the local school teacher to continue his studies on his own. He was a very well read man with a great amount of culture for a Sicilian "campagnolo" and he used his knowledge to help people. Giuliano's life in banditry, like many, came out of necessity.

After his father death, his eldest brother provided wheat for Giuliano's family, but he was called to war. So it was up to Salvatore, just twenty years old at the time, to provide the necessities for his family.

He was inexperienced of the modus operandi used in moving the wheat and so on the 2nd of September 1943, he ran into a patrol of two country wardens and two carabinieri (rural police). His prayers and explanations were of no use. He was accused of smuggling two sacks of wheat of about forty kilos each. They seized his mule and wheat. They wanted to arrest and take him to the "American garrison".

The young Giuliano tried to flee but the soldiers fired six times at him. He was hit twice in his hip. The carabiniero Giuseppe Mancino was ordered to finish him off, if he was still alive. Giuliano, who heard this, leaped forward and wounded him seriously with a pistol which he had kept in his boot. The soldier died of his wounds the following day, while Giuliano regained his full health after a month struggling for his life. He then sought refuge in the hills around Montelepre.

And this is how Turrido became the last mountain bandit of Sicily. In his politics he was anti-communist, anti-Mafioso and one of the leaders of the separatist movement in Sicily. He was vilely murdered in his sleep on the 5th of July 1950 by his own cousin under orders from the Palermo mafia dons.