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77-697: The instigators of the Second Mafia War were the Corleonesi , the Mafia Family from the town of Corleone , although they were helped by a number of other Mafia Families. Hailing from a small rural town, the Corleonesi were often referred to as "the peasants" – i viddani in Sicilian – by other Mafia Families, especially by the powerful urbanized bosses in the capital of Palermo . Things began to change in

154-697: A pentito . The crackdown of the anti-mafia resulted in retaliative bombings and shootings. Carabinieri captains Emanuele Basile , Mario D'Aleo, Giuseppe Bommarito and Pietro Morici, as well as Marshal Giuliano Guazzelli, were either gunned down or blown up. Falcone himself together with his wife and three police escorts were killed in the 1992 Capaci bombing . Two months later, the Via D'Amelio bombing killed another anti-mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino and five policemen. The Circonvallazione massacre also killed three carabinieri escorts, Salvatore Raiti, Silvano Franzolin and Luigi Di Barca. Police Inspector Giovanni Lizzio

231-500: A concerted effort to combat the Mafia and the rising tide of violence, as well as the flow of heroin whose control was behind the war. The war against the Mafia resulted in the Maxi Trial of 1986, whereby hundreds of Mafiosi were convicted of a long litany of crimes. Some of the investigations and crimes had begun in the 1970s but a bulk of the charges related to the Second Mafia War. Many of

308-545: A convicted murderer. Greco died in prison while serving multiple life sentences. His nickname was Il Papa ("The Pope") due to his ability to mediate between different Mafia families. Greco was the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission . Michele Greco was part of the powerful Greco Mafia clan that ruled both in his native Ciaculli and in Croceverde Giardini , two suburbs close to Palermo . He took over

385-745: A fugitive for 23 years. After Riina's capture, a division emerged among the Corleonesi, and a series of bombings occurred by the Corleonesi against several tourist spots on the Italian mainland — the Via dei Georgofili bombing in Florence , Via Palestro massacre in Milan and the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano and Via San Teodoro in Rome , which left 10 people dead and 93 injured as well as severe damage. In total, Riina

462-594: A fugitive, and was finally captured in Milan on 16 May 1974. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975. By the end of the 1970s, his lieutenant Salvatore Riina, who was also a fugitive, was in control of the Corleonesi clan. The Corleonesi's primary rivals were Stefano Bontade , Salvatore Inzerillo and Tano Badalamenti , bosses of various powerful Palermo Mafia families. Between 1981 and 1983, Bontade and Inzerillo, together with many associates and members of both their Mafia and blood families, were killed. There were up to

539-401: A large portion of the water supply. He was financing the digging of his wells with government money. According to the law, landowners were only allowed to have wells for their own private use and all excess water belonged to the public. However, the city of Palermo issued regular contracts to buy water from Greco and other Mafia bosses for a third of the water supply. During the summer, when water

616-497: A letter sent to the press in the summer of 2007, he claimed he was "as innocent as a newborn child." He added that "because of an injustice in the 1980s I have been buried alive and have been in prison for 22 years. The dampness of my cell has destroyed my health and I am truly in a bad way." He remained in prison in Rebibbia , Rome until his death from lung cancer on 13 February 2008. According to historian John Dickie , Greco "was

693-519: A long line of mafiosi. Greco was a powerful mafia boss, descended from a long line of mafiosi, but in the latter part of his criminal career he could be best described as little more than Riina's "puppet boss". According to pentito Tommaso Buscetta , Michele Greco, "given his bland and weak personality, was the perfect person to become head of the Commission so as not to stand in the way of Riina designs ." Buscetta explained that during meetings between

770-497: A misconstrued word, and all of a sudden that silence. Everything would instantly be hushed, uneasy, and you could smell death in the air." "The Corleone bosses were not educated at all, but they were cunning and diabolical", Calderone said about Riina and Provenzano. "They were both clever and ferocious, a rare combination in Cosa Nostra." Calderone described Totò Riina as "unbelievably ignorant, but he had intuition and intelligence and

847-517: A potential threat. It seemed the only way to survive being an ally of Riina was to do exactly as he said. In an interview with Borsellino in 1992, Messina summed this up by stating that the Corleonesi bosses "used us to get rid of the old bosses, then they got rid of all those who raised their heads, like Giuseppe Greco, "the Shoe", Mario Prestifilippo and [Vincenzo] Puccio...all that's left are men without character, who are their puppets." The primary result of

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924-476: A team of up to fifteen gunmen outside Cassarà's home in front of his horrified wife and daughter. The 'Michele Greco + 161' report was just the start of an investigation that was to become the Maxi Trial , where most of the leadership of the Mafia were tried for numberless crimes. On 9 July 1983, Greco was indicted by judge Giovanni Falcone , along with 14 others among which his brother Salvatore Greco , Totò Riina , Bernardo Provenzano and Nitto Santapaola for

1001-422: A thousand killings during this period as Riina and the Corleonesi, together with their allies, wiped out their rivals. By the end of the war, the Corleonesi were effectively ruling the Mafia, and over the next few years Riina increased his influence by eliminating the Corleonesi's allies, such as Filippo Marchese , Giuseppe Greco and Rosario Riccobono . In February 1980, Tommaso Buscetta fled to Brazil to escape

1078-417: Is still usually only as a last resort. The Corleonesi and their allies, however, started a specific campaign of assassination of state figures. Amongst the victims (known as "excellent cadavers") were police chiefs Emanuele Basile and Boris Giuliano , magistrates Rocco Chinnici and Cesare Terranova , and politicians Piersanti Mattarella and Pio La Torre . In one of the most brazen hits conducted by

1155-521: The Corleonesi all along. Riina had used Greco's position on the commission to help banish Gaetano Badalamenti from the Mafia and then, after Riina ordered Bontade's 1981 murder, he had Greco oversee Bontade and Inzerillo 's Mafia clans who were in control of a heroin distribution network in the United States. One of the men who did not attend the fateful meeting at Greco's estate was Salvatore Contorno . He sensed trouble and soon went into hiding when

1232-461: The Holy Friday , just days before his misfortune ." The "misfortune" he referred to was Bontade being machine-gunned in the face. At the end of the trial, on 16 December 1987, Greco, then aged 63, was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life imprisonment . The Maxi Trial was largely undone by notoriously generous appeals, mostly thanks to Corrado Carnevale , who would release Mafiosi on

1309-675: The Italian Communist Party in Sicily, but it had been stalled in parliament for two years. La Torre was murdered on 30 April 1982. In May 1982, the Italian government sent Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa , a general of the Italian Carabinieri , to Sicily with orders to crush the Mafia. However, not long after arriving, on 3 September 1982, he was gunned down in the city centre with his wife, Emanuela Setti Carraro , and his driver bodyguard, Domenico Russo. In response to public disquiet about

1386-626: The Maxi Trial about the "winners" and "losers" of the Second Mafia War, declared: "The winning and losing clans don't exist, because the losers don't exist. The Corleonesi, killed them all." Corleonesi The Corleonesi Mafia clan was a faction within the Corleone family of the Sicilian Mafia , formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio , Salvatore Riina , Bernardo Provenzano , and Leoluca Bagarella . Corleonesi affiliates were not restricted to mafiosi of Corleone . During

1463-574: The Second Mafia War in the early 1980s, the Corleonesi clan opposed the faction of the Palermitans represented, among others, by Gaetano Badalamenti , Stefano Bontate and Salvatore Inzerillo . The victory of the Corleonesi, and in particular the rise of Totò Riina , marked a new era in the history of the Sicilian Mafia. Between 1992 and 1993, the Corleonesi initiated a season of attacks against

1540-522: The mandamento of Croceverde Giardini after his father Giuseppe Greco, "Piddu u tinenti", died. He was a cousin of Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco , the first "secretary" of the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that was formed sometime in 1958. Following the end of the end of the First Mafia War and the Ciaculli massacre , Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco and his allies had to go into hiding, and this allowed

1617-637: The 1960s as the Corleonesi grew in power and prestige under the leadership of the brutal and ambitious Luciano Liggio , who had become the Mafia boss of Corleone via the crude but effective method of simply shooting the old one, Michele Navarra . During the 1970s the Mafia in Sicily resumed its normal illicit business after the Mafia Trials of the 1960s had ended with few convictions. The Corleonesi's primary rivals were Stefano Bontade , Salvatore Inzerillo and Gaetano Badalamenti , bosses of various powerful Palermo Mafia Families. The Sicilian Mafia Commission

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1694-454: The 23 December 1984 Train 904 bombing ; 17 people were killed and 267 wounded. It became known as the "Christmas Massacre" (Strage di Natale) and was initially attributed to political extremists. It was only several years later, when police stumbled on explosives of the same type as used in Train 904 while searching the hideout of Giuseppe Calò , that it became apparent that the Mafia had been behind

1771-584: The Corleonesi but without telling other mafiosi also aided the campaign in that these allies continued to have the misplaced trust of the Corleonesi's enemies. A prime example took place in late May, whereby six members of Bontade and Inzerillo's Mafia Families were invited to a meeting with one of their supposed friends. This 'friend' had, in fact, allied himself with the Corleonesi and the six who went along were vanished among them Emanuele D'Agostino, who sought refuge with one of Bontade's oldest allies, Rosario Riccobono . Riccobono had also secretly allied himself with

1848-623: The Corleonesi faction for example) The pentito (Mafia turncoat) Antonino Calderone provided first-hand accounts of the leaders of the Corleonesi: Luciano Leggio , Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano . About Leggio, Calderone said: "He liked to kill. He had a way of looking at people that could frighten anyone, even us mafiosi. The smallest thing set him off, and then a strange light would appear in his eyes that created silence around him. When you were in his company you had to be careful about how you spoke. The wrong tone of voice,

1925-503: The Corleonesi organized their rise to power: "They took power by slowly, slowly killing everyone ... We were kind of infatuated with them because we thought that getting rid of the old bosses we would become the new bosses. Some people killed their brother, others their cousin and so on, because they thought they would take their places. Instead, slowly, (the Corleonesi) gained control of the whole system ... First they used us to get rid of

2002-444: The Corleonesi throughout the first half of the 1980s, notching up literally hundreds of murders between them, but between 1985 and 1989 they were all murdered on the orders of the Corleonesi bosses, who saw them as having outlived their usefulness and/or perceived them as too ambitious and therefore a threat. Puccio's two brothers, also Mafiosi, were likewise killed. Once again, the authorities were largely unaware of these new events in

2079-431: The Corleonesi were Palermo bosses Giuseppe Calò (boss of Porta Nuova), Filippo Marchese (boss of Corso Dei Mille) and Rosario Riccobono (boss of Partanna Mondello). In 1978, Riina managed to have Badalamenti expelled from the Commission, accused of having organised the assassination of Francesco Madonia (boss of Vallelunga and ally of the Corleonesi) and subsequently exiled from the Mafia and Sicily altogether. His place

2156-456: The Corleonesi, and D'Agostino and his son were likewise eliminated. The only one of the six men to survive was Salvatore Contorno , who subsequently survived a murder attempt and went into hiding before he was caught by the police in March 1982. While on the run, Contorno sent anonymous letters to the police, giving up vital information about the war. This was invaluable to the authorities, who – like

2233-517: The Corleonesi. This individual allegedly helped plan the bombing that would kill Falcone. One mafia expert was surprised that the two groups would cooperate because the American Cosa Nostra was affiliated with the rivals of the Corleonesi. But another expert said the joint effort was understandable. "It may be that the Gambinos at a certain point recognised that the Corleonesi had been victorious in

2310-468: The Cupola, Michele Greco assumed indirect control of Stefano Bontade's Mafia family after his murder. Not long after, Greco invited a number of Bontade's allies for a meeting at his country estate. A couple members of the clan were suspicious and didn't go, between them, Buscetta and Contorno. but several mafiosi had gone and were killed. As it turned out, Michele Greco had been allied with Salvatore Riina and

2387-471: The Grecos from Croceverde Giardini, led by Michele Greco, to become much more important within Cosa Nostra. He and his brother Salvatore "The Senator" Greco operated low profile and were able to enter into relationships with businessmen, politicians, magistrates and law enforcement officials through their membership of Masonic lodges. Salvatore Greco's nickname was "The Senator" for his political connections. He

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2464-456: The Mafia War broke out. He narrowly escaped death during an ambush by a Corleonesi hit squad led by Pino Greco "Scarpuzzedda" and Giuseppe Lucchese . While in hiding from both the authorities and the Corleonesi, Contorno sent anonymous letters to the police, revealing to the authorities information on the Mafia, its members, the various factions and the violent turmoil it was undergoing. Contorno

2541-502: The Mafia, general of the Italian Army Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa , who was serving as Palermo's prefect at that time, was killed together with his wife and police escort Domenico Russo. They were shot upon by motorcycle-riding gunmen carrying AK-47s led by Giuseppe Greco. Nonetheless a team of antimafia prosecutors, including Giovanni Falcone , Paolo Borsellino and Antonino Caponetto, laboured to orchestrate

2618-402: The Second Mafia War was the victory of the Corleonesi and its bosses, Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano . By the mid-1980s they were effectively in charge of much of the Mafia and by the end of the decade, after many of their allies were eliminated or in prison, they effectively had a hegemony over the criminal organization. This was summed up by Salvatore Contorno who, when asked at

2695-569: The assassination of Salvatore Lima (on the grounds that he was an ally of Giulio Andreotti), and Giovanni Falcone. On 23 May 1992, Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three police officers died in the Capaci bombing on highway A29 outside Palermo. Two months later, Borsellino was killed along with five police officers in the entrance to his mother's apartment block by a car bomb in via D'Amelio . Both attacks were ordered by Riina. Ignazio Salvo , who had advised Riina against killing Falcone,

2772-601: The attack. As part of the Maxi Trial, Riina was given two life sentences in absentia . Riina pinned his hopes on the lengthy appeal process that had frequently set convicted mafiosi free, and he suspended the campaign of murders against officials while the cases went to higher courts. When the convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation in January 1992, the council of top bosses headed by Riina reacted by ordering

2849-481: The bosses of Palermo and their men were isolated. On April 23, 1981, Bontade died while he was returning home in his car in Palermo by Giuseppe Greco , a Corleonesi killer, who shot him with an AK-47 assault rifle from a motorbike driven by Giuseppe Lucchese and a few weeks later, on May 11, Inzerillo was killed outside his lover's house by a team of hitmen armed with the same AK-47. Various relatives and associates of

2926-417: The brewing Second Mafia War instigated by Riina. Whereas Riina's predecessors had kept a low profile, leading some in law enforcement to question the very existence of the Mafia, Riina ordered the murders of judges, policemen and prosecutors in an attempt to terrify the authorities. A law to create a new offence of Mafia association and confiscate Mafia assets was introduced by Pio La Torre , secretary of

3003-473: The brewing Second Mafia War instigated by Salvatore Riina . On September 11, 1982, Buscetta's two sons from his first wife, Benedetto and Antonio, disappeared, never to be found again , which prompted his collaboration with Italian authorities. This was followed by the deaths of his brother Vincenzo, son-in-law Giuseppe Genova, brother-in-law Pietro and four of his nephews, Domenico and Benedetto Buscetta, and Orazio and Antonio D 'Amico. The war subsequently led to

3080-610: The closed world of the Mafia until they were confirmed by Francesco Marino Mannoia (brother of Agostino Marino Mannoia) in October 1989. He had been in prison since 1985 for trafficking heroin but had been kept up to date on incidents by Agostino, who visited him regularly. According to Francesco Mannoia, his brother, Vincenzo Puccio and Puccio's two brothers were killed after Riina discovered they had been plotting to overthrow him. Giuseppe Greco and Mario Prestifilippo were apparently slain because they became too ambitious. Mannoia's information

3157-468: The deaths of many of Buscetta's allies, including Stefano Bontade . Buscetta was arrested in São Paulo , Brazil once again on October 23, 1983. He was extradited to Italy on June 28, 1984, where he attempted suicide by ingestion of barbiturates ; when that failed, he decided that he was utterly disillusioned with the Mafia. Buscetta asked to talk to Falcone, and began his life as an informant, referred to as

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3234-420: The defendants, such as Riina and Provenzano, were life convicted in absentia as they were still fugitives at the time of the trial. The trial was significant as several Mafiosi on the losing side of the war, such as Salvatore Contorno and Tommaso Buscetta , who became known as pentiti , took the stand and testified against their former fellow Mafiosi. In February 1980, Buscetta had fled to Brazil to escape

3311-550: The dictatorship of Riina’s faction of the Corleonesi. According to Brusca, Provenzano "sold" Riina in exchange for the valuable archive of compromising material that Riina held in his apartment in Via Bernini 52 in Palermo. Some investigators believed that most of those who carried out murders for Cosa Nostra answered solely to Leoluca Bagarella , and that consequently Bagarella actually wielded more power than Bernardo Provenzano, who

3388-502: The failure to effectively combat the organisation Riina headed, La Torre's law was passed ten days later. On 11 September 1982, Buscetta's two sons from his first wife, Benedetto and Antonio, disappeared, never to be found again , which prompted his collaboration with Italian authorities. This was followed by the deaths of his brother Vincenzo, son-in-law Giuseppe Genova, brother-in-law Pietro and four of his nephews, Domenico and Benedetto Buscetta, and Orazio and Antonio D 'Amico. Buscetta

3465-504: The four of whom had been killed by a car bomb in 1983. Greco gave testimony at the trial where, like his co-defendants, he insisted he was innocent and knew nothing about any Mafia. To illustrate his standing as a supposedly honest citizen, he boasted of all the illustrious people he had entertained at his large estate, including a former chief prosecutor and police chiefs. He also admitted that Stefano Bontade had often hunted on his estate. Greco said that he and Bontade " were together on

3542-554: The heads of various Mafia families, Michele Greco would just nod his head and agree with virtually everything Riina said. Based on Salvatore Contorno's anonymous revelations, police chief Ninni Cassarà drew up a report in July 1982 listing 162 Mafiosi who warranted arrest, and the report was unofficially known as the 'Michele Greco + 161' report, signalling Greco's importance over the other suspects. On 6 August 1985, Ninni Cassarà and one of his bodyguards, Roberto Antiochia , were massacred by

3619-555: The late 1970s. More and more killings took place over the next two years. On November 30, 1982, twelve Mafiosi were murdered in Palermo in twelve separate incidents. The murders extended across the Atlantic , with one of Inzerillo's brothers being found dead in New Jersey after fleeing to the U.S. The dismembered body of one of Badalamenti's nephews turned up in a field in Germany . Amongst

3696-420: The losing clans – had little idea as to what exactly was going on with all the bloodshed. Mafiosi were obviously very secretive normally, and at the time of the Second Mafia War the authorities were at a loss to understand the exact allegiances and motives of the war. For example, when Bontade was murdered, for a short while, the police thought he had been killed as an act of treachery by Inzerillo, until he himself

3773-810: The many hitmen at the disposal of the Corleonesi and their allied clans was Giuseppe Greco from Ciaculli. He was a member of the Ciaculli clan headed by his uncle, Michele "The Pope" Greco , but was primarily at the disposal of Riina. Giuseppe Greco is suspected of killing around eighty people with the AK-47 on behalf of Riina, including Bontade and Inzerillo. He led a "death squad", which included Mario Prestifilippo , Antonino Madonia , Giuseppe Lucchese , Calogero Ganci , Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino , Vincenzo Puccio , Gianbattista Pullarà , Antonino Marchese and Filippo Marchese , boss of Corso Dei Mille, and his nephew, Giuseppe Marchese (the younger brother of Antonino Marchese), who

3850-419: The murder on the prefect of Palermo, General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa on September 3, 1982. Michele Greco was arrested on 20 February 1986, and he joined the hundreds of defendants at the Maxi Trial , which had started just ten-days previously. Greco was charged with ordering 78 murders, including those of the anti-Mafia magistrate Rocco Chinnici , Chinnici's two bodyguards and an innocent bystander,

3927-455: The old bosses, then they got rid of all those who raised their heads, like Pino Greco (aka Scarpuzzedda , Little shoe), Mario Prestifilippo and Vincenzo Puccio ... all that’s left are men without character, who are their puppets." Michele Greco Michele Greco ( Italian: [miˈkɛːle ˈɡrɛːko] ; 12 May 1924 – 13 February 2008) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia and

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4004-400: The overwhelming victors in the war, suffering few casualties themselves. One of the reasons was their natural secrecy. Whilst some Mafiosi lived quite publicly, putting on a persona of respectability, Riina, Provenzano, Leoluca Bagarella and their many killers spent years as fugitives, often rarely seen by fellow Mafiosi, let alone the public. The fact that many bosses aligned themselves with

4081-434: The pair were subsequently killed or vanished without trace, including Inzerillo's teenage son, who was brutally tortured and killed for vowing to avenge his murdered father. On September 29 of the same year, Calogero Pizzuto, another close ally of Bontade and Inzerillo, was shot dead in a crowded bar alongside two innocent bystanders. Badalamenti only managed to survive by fleeing Sicily after the Corleonesi had him expelled in

4158-442: The records. Michele Greco was nominated the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission (Cupola) in 1978, after Gaetano Badalamenti was expelled. Greco gave the commission a façade of neutrality behind which the Corleonesi effectively hid their expansion. In 1981, Mafia bosses Stefano Bontade and Salvatore Inzerillo were murdered within a few weeks of each other in the midst of the Second Mafia War . Through his position within

4235-437: The reins of the Corleonesi. Provenzano had been a fugitive from the law since 1963. Provenzano was finally captured on 11 April 2006, by the Italian police near his home town, Corleone . After the arrest of Provenzano, the power of the Corleonesi was greatly reduced. Corleonesi affiliates were not restricted to mafiosi of Corleone. The Corleone Mafia bosses initiated “men of honour”, not necessarily from Corleone, whose status

4312-602: The slightest of pretexts, much to the frustration of the Maxi Trial's architects, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino . Greco was released on appeal on 27 February 1991, but Giovanni Falcone, who had become head of the Penal Affairs section of the Italian ministry of Justice, issued a decree that ordered the re-incarceration of Greco and other mafiosi. Greco was quickly rearrested in February 1992, and put back behind bars to serve his freshly reinstated life-sentence. In 1995, in

4389-580: The state, followed by the State-Mafia Pact . In February 1971, the Corleonesi clan's first boss, Luciano Leggio , ordered the kidnapping for extortion of Antonino Caruso, son of the industrialist Giacomo Caruso, and also that of the son of the builder Francesco Vassallo in Palermo. Leggio was linked to the murder of the General Attorney of Sicily, Pietro Scaglione , who was shot dead on 5 May 1971 with his police bodyguard Antonino Lo Russo. He became

4466-410: The top tier of Mafia members were complicit in all the organisation's crimes. Buscetta helped judges Falcone and Paolo Borsellino achieve significant success in the fight against organized crime that led to 475 Mafia members indicted, and 338 convicted in the Maxi Trial . In an attempt to divert investigative resources away from Buscetta's key revelations, Riina ordered a terrorist-style atrocity,

4543-448: The trial for the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Russo, Greco was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Bernardo Provenzano , Salvatore Riina , and Leoluca Bagarella . The same year, in the trial for the murders of the commissioners Giuseppe Montana and Antonino Cassarà , he was also sentenced to life imprisonment together with Bernardo Provenzano, Bernardo Brusca, Francesco Madonia and Salvatore Riina. The same year, in

4620-568: The trial for the murders of Piersanti Mattarella , Pio La Torre , Rosario Di Salvo and Michele Reina , in which he was given a further life sentence together with Bernardo Provenzano, Bernardo Brusca, Salvatore Riina, Giuseppe Calò , Francesco Madonia and Nenè Geraci . In 1997, in the trial for the murder of Judge Cesare Terranova , Greco received another life sentence along with Bernardo Provenzano, Bernardo Brusca, Giuseppe Calò, Nenè Geraci, Francesco Madonia and Salvatore Riina. Greco never admitted his crimes nor his position in Cosa Nostra. In

4697-450: The war between rival families in Sicily ... there is nothing unusual in the traffic of personnel and ideas across the Atlantic ... they were cousin organisations," according to John Dickie, professor of Italian studies at University College London and the author of Mafia Republic – Italy’s Criminal Curse . On 15 January 1993, Carabinieri arrested Riina at his villa in Palermo. He had been

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4774-457: Was Riina's formal successor. Provenzano reportedly protested about the terroristic attacks, but Bagarella responded sarcastically, telling Provenzano to wear a sign saying "I don't have anything to do with the massacres". On 24 June 1995, Bagarella was arrested, having been a fugitive for four years. In total, Bagarella was given 13 life sentences plus 106 years and ten months, and solitary confinement for 6 years. Provenzano subsequently took

4851-466: Was also killed in the war. By the end of 1982 the Corleonesi and their allies were all but triumphant, with many of the surviving members of the old clans surrendering and switching their allegiance to the victors. The killing did not end, though. The Corleonesi decided to dispose of key allies, starting with Rosario Riccobono , who was killed along with over twenty of his associates and friends in late 1982, and swiftly followed by Filippo Marchese , who

4928-445: Was arrested in São Paulo , Brazil once again on 23 October 1983, and extradited to Italy on 28 June 1984. Buscetta asked to talk to the anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone , and began his life as an informant, referred to as a pentito . Buscetta was the first high-profile Sicilian Mafiosi to become an informant; he revealed that the Mafia was a single organisation led by a Commission , or Cupola (Dome), thereby establishing that

5005-444: Was arrested on January 15, 1982 at the age of 18 years old. From 1981 to 1984 there were at least 400 Mafia killings in Palermo and as many again across Sicily. In addition there were at least 160 cases of Mafiosi and their associates who vanished, victims of what is known as lupara bianca (Sicilian for "White Shotgun"), whereby the body is completely destroyed or buried so that it is never found. The Corleonesi and their allies were

5082-432: Was confirmed in 1992 by several more pentiti , including Gaspare Mutolo , Giuseppe Marchese , and Leonardo Messina . Unlike the pentiti of the mid-1980s, these men were on the winning side of the Second Mafia War, former allies of the Corleonesi. They all complained of the same thing, that Riina and the other bosses of Corleone abandoned or eliminated their allies once they were of no further use or perceived as

5159-543: Was difficult to fathom and very hard to predict". Riina was soft-spoken, highly persuasive and often highly sentimental. He followed the simple codes of the brutal, ancient world of the Sicilian countryside, where force is the only law and there is no contradiction between personal kindness and extreme ferocity. "His philosophy was that if someone’s finger hurt, it was better to cut off his whole arm just to make sure", Calderone said. Another pentito Leonardo Messina described how

5236-409: Was eventually arrested in 1983 and became an informant the following year, following Tommaso Buscetta 's example. Contorno's revelations in his letters to the police were the first time the authorities had really learned of Michele Greco's high-ranking membership of the Mafia. Previously he had just been regarded as a rather secretive landowner with a suspiciously high-income, although he did come from

5313-406: Was given 26 life sentences, and served his sentence in solitary confinement. Giovanni Brusca – one of Riina's hitmen who personally detonated the bomb that killed Falcone, and became a state witness ( pentito ) after his arrest in 1996 – has offered a controversial version of the capture of Totò Riina : a secret deal between Carabinieri officers, secret agents and Cosa Nostra bosses tired of

5390-549: Was himself murdered on 17 September 1992. The public was outraged, both at the Mafia and also the politicians who they felt had failed adequately to protect Falcone and Borsellino. The Italian government arranged for a massive crackdown against the Mafia in response. News reports in May 2019, indicated that a Cosa Nostra insider revealed that John Gotti of the Gambino crime family had sent one of their explosives experts to Sicily to work with

5467-521: Was kept hidden from the other members of the Corleone cosca and other Mafia families. Members of other Mafia families who sided with Riina and Provenzano were called Corleonesi as well, forming a coalition that dominated the Mafia in the 1980s and 1990s, that can be considered as a kind of parallel Cosa Nostra. ( Giovanni Brusca from the San Giuseppe Jato Mafia family was considered to be part of

5544-422: Was killed. Deliberate disinformation was also employed by the Corleonesi. When Inzerillo died he was wanted for the murder three years previously of Giuseppe Di Cristina , but in fact the Corleonesi had murdered Di Cristina, deliberately doing so on Inzerillo's territory in order to frame him. Whilst the Sicilian Mafia has generally been more inclined to kill authority figures than their American counterparts, this

5621-517: Was particularly scarce and badly needed for irrigation, Greco sold water at exorbitant prices. The perpetual shortage of water was maintained by the Mafia and their friends in the local government. Another money making scheme was collecting subsidies from the European Community for destroying citrus crops he had never grown. The EC, in order to limit production, paid farmers to destroy part of their production. Greco paid EC inspectors to falsify

5698-481: Was re-established in 1970, with Bontade and Badalementi making up two of the three leaders of the Commission. The third was Liggio, although he was represented by Salvatore Riina as Liggio was in hiding on the Italian mainland. When Liggio was captured in 1974 and imprisoned for murder, Riina soon took over as boss of the Corleonesi with Bernardo Provenzano . The Corleonesi began to win over allies amongst other Mafia Families. Amongst those who aligned themselves with

5775-551: Was strangled and dissolved in acid like many of those who had died at his hands. The violence dragged on into the latter half of the 1980s as a result of the Corleonesi's treachery and desire to ensure their hegemony throughout the Mafia. Riccobono and Marchese were already eliminated by the start of 1983. Further murders followed, primarily involving Ciaculli killers Giuseppe Greco , Mario Prestifilippo and Vincenzo Puccio , and Agostino Marino Mannoia , who had switched sides from Bontade's to Riina's. These four men were invaluable to

5852-475: Was taken by Ciaculli Godfather Michele "The Pope" Greco , who was also aligned with Riina. Greco, like Calò, Marchese and Riccobono, kept his alliance secret from the likes of Bontade and Inzerillo. It was also in 1978 that Riina arranged for the murders of Giuseppe Di Cristina and Giuseppe Calderone , bosses of Riesi and Catania respectively. Both men were allies of Bontade and Inzerillo; their successors were allies of Riina, who sponsored them. Gradually,

5929-435: Was the kingmaker of Christian Democrat politicians such as Giovanni Gioia , Vito Ciancimino and Giuseppe Insalaco . Many of those notables were invited by "The Pope" and "The Senator" to wine and dine and take part in hunting parties at his estate La Favarella. The estate was also used as a refuge for mafiosi on the run, and to set up a heroin laboratory. Greco, along with other Mafia families around Palermo , controlled

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