Wrongly accused of murder in Iraq, a former Marine looks for redemption on the campaign trail
By Will Rahn
 

 

Ilario Pantano, a former Marine who was wrongly accused of murdering two Iraqis in 2004, is looking to become the first Republican to represent North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District since Reconstruction. 

Pantano has what might be the most unusual resume of any candidate running in 2012. The son of an Italian immigrant, he was raised in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, then a rough-and-tumble neighborhood that lived up to its name. He attended the prestigious Horace Mann prep school on a half-scholarship, and shocked classmates when he left for the Marine Corps after graduation.

“I would venture to say no one has ever enlisted in the Marines in the history of Horace Mann,” one classmate told New York magazine in 2005.

After serving in Operation Desert Storm, Pantano returned to New York and worked as a bartender as he made his way through New York University. He worked for a time at Goldman Sachs, but after his service in the Marines, he found the life of an investment banker boring.

“In 1998, I made a decision to walk away from Goldman and a lifestyle that wasn’t for me,” Pantano told The Daily Caller. “I didn’t want to be trading Enron and AIG. That’s not what I wanted to do with my life.”

Not yet 30 and already financially successful , he left to work for a technology company founded by Horace Mann classmates before launching his own media startup. He became engaged to his girlfriend, Jill, a former model, and prepared to settle down.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/09/wrongly-accused-of-murder-in-iraq-a-former-marine-looks-for-redemption-on-the-campaign-trail/#ixzz1dJUVxUCB