ABSTRACT
Operation Mani pulite began in mid-February 1992, when detectives under the command of assistant DA Antonio Di Pietro arrested Mario Chiesa, the Socialist manager of a Milanese charitable institution, the Pio Albergo Trivulzio (PAT), in the act of taking a 7m lire bribe from the owner of a cleaning company. The Socialist Party (PSI) newspaper — so scrupulous about the necessity for full and frank disclosure of every detail in the case of the Togliatti letter - relegated Chiesa's arrest to the inner pages and mentioned his party affiliation merely in passing. The reign of the Red King was over, though Benvenuto himself would resign within a hundred days, claiming that Craxi and his supporters were sabotaging his attempts to renew the PSI. Though the PSI had been the party with its hands deepest in the marmalade, none of the traditional parties could claim to be clean.
