A story full of twists. Made up of escapes, sensational escapes, of accounts with justice that are never completely discounted. The saga of the last Sardinian “balente” seemed to have ended in 2004 with the pardon granted by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, but no.
The first arrest of Graziano Mesina dates back to 1956, when “Grazianeddu” was 14, for abusive carrying of a pistol and insulting a public official. He obtains a judicial pardon and is released, but after a short time he is arrested again and scores the first of the escapes that will make him famous. He is admitted to San Francesco di Nuoro, and from there he climbs over a window sill and descends along a water pipe where he remains hidden for three days.
His escapes will help build the "myth". The first dates back to a few months before that of San Francesco: in 1962, when he launches from a moving train during the transfer from Sassari, he will be captured after a long chase.
Then the escape from the prison of San Sebastiano di Sassari, when together with the former Spanish legionnaire Miguel Atienza he lets himself fall from the walls of the institute. And the one from the Lecce prison in 1976. And again, the love escape from the Porto Azzurro penitentiary (already serving a life sentence) in 1985.
The penultimate of the eleven children of a family of shepherds from Orgosolo, Mesina spent over 40 of his 79 years of life in prison.
In fourth grade, he recounts in his autobiography, he stoned the teacher and had to leave school to go to the countryside as a shepherd servant.
The conflict with the law marked all the stages of his life, numerous public figures have dealt with him. Among the first to fight for pardon was Indro Montanelli, but Giovanni Falcone said no to the then president Cossiga who had expressed a "favorable opinion" for the granting of the benefit to Mesina, who was at liberty at the time supervised.
A partial freedom that lasted less than two years, spent between a few visits to family members in Orgosolo and the Asti countryside, where he lived as the guest of a childhood friend.
