Benedetto Capizzi (Palermo, June 28, 1944) is an Italian
mobster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
and a boss of the
Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily a ...
, from the Villagrazia area in
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
. He was nominated to be the head of the new
Sicilian Mafia Commission
The Sicilian Mafia Commission (Italian: ''Commissione provinciale''), known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Sicilian Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicili ...
On December 16, 2008, Capizzi was among 94 Mafiosi arrested in "Operation Perseus" (Perseo in Italian; after the Greek mythological hero
Perseus
In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus ...
who beheaded
Medusa
In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those ...
). The operation foiled an attempt to reconstitute a new Mafia Commission after the arrests of Mafia bosses
Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano (; 31 January 1933 – 13 July 2016) was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia clan known as the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, and ''de facto'' the boss of bosses (''il c ...
,
Antonio Rotolo
Antonino "Nino" Rotolo (born January 3, 1946) is a Sicilian Mafia boss from the Pagliarelli area in Palermo that traditionally was under the control of the Motisi Mafia family. Rotolo was the underboss of Matteo Motisi, but according to some penti ...
and
Salvatore Lo Piccolo
Salvatore Lo Piccolo (; born 20 July 1942), also known as "the Baron" (), is a Sicilian '' mafioso'' and one of the most powerful bosses of Palermo, Sicily. Lo Piccolo rose through the ranks of the Palermo mafia throughout the 1980s and he becam ...
in 2006 and 2007. The object, as one tapped Mafioso put it, was to "re-establish Cosa Nostra" in the old style, with a single all-powerful boss, a "capo di capi".
Capizzi had been nominated as the possible head of the Commission. Among the other members were other historical Cosa Nostra bosses, such as
Gerlando Alberti
Gerlando Alberti (; September 18, 1927 – February 1, 2012), nicknamed ("the imperturbable one"), Lodato, ''Quindici anni di mafia'', pp. 47-50 was a member of the Sicilian Mafia.Gregorio Agrigento from
San Giuseppe Jato
San Giuseppe Jato ( Sicilian: ''San Giuseppi''; Latin: ''Iaetia'') is a village in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, southern Italy.
The village sits in a hilly region of Palermo's hinterland, from the Sicilian capital.
History
The ...
,
Giovanni Lipari Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...
,
Gaetano Fidanzati
Gaetano Fidanzati (; 6 September 1935 – 5 October 2013) was a Sicilian Mafia boss of the Resuttana '' mandamento'' in Palermo and heavily involved in drug trafficking. He was among the first Mafia bosses to establish a presence in Northern Italy ...
,
Giuseppe Scaduto
Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph,
from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף.
It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it.
The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...
from
Bagheria
Bagheria (; scn, Baarìa ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, Italy, located approximately 10km to the east of the city centre.
Etymology
According to some sources, the name ''Bagheria'' (by way of old Sicil ...
and
Salvatore Lombardo
Salvatore may refer to:
* Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name
* "Salvatore" (song), by Lana Del Rey, 2015
* Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrumental rock band
* '' Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams' ...
, the 87-year-old boss from
Montelepre
Montelepre (; scn, Muncilebbri) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. It is known for having been the native city of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano, of architect Rosario Candela, as well as the ancest ...
. Many of those arrested had recently been released from prison on health grounds, and were serving out their sentences under house arrest.Mafia chiefs seized as they select godfather The Independent, December 17, 2009 La Repubblica, December 16, 2008
When told of the decision to appoint Capizzi, another boss, Gaetano Lo Presti, appointed boss of Porta Nuova area of Palermo in 2007 by Lo Piccolo, challenged the decision, demanding: "Who authorised this?" The implication was that he believed Lo Presti had more claim to the top job than Capizzi. There was also the suggestion of a new round of "Mafia wars" on the streets of Sicily. It was this fear that led police to bring their assault forward and launch an operation that resulted in the 94 arrests. Lo Presti, whose indiscretions on the telephone prompted Italian police to launch the operation, hanged himself in his prison cell, hours after being arrested. The Independent, December 18, 2009
In 2010, after
Gaspare Spatuzza
Gaspare Spatuzza (Palermo, 8 April 1964) is a Sicilian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He was an assassin for the brothers Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano who headed the Mafia family of Brancaccio. After the arrest of the Gravianos ...
became a
pentito
''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
, Capizzi was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his roles in the murder of
Giuseppe Di Matteo
Santino Di Matteo (born 7 December 1954), also known as ''Mezzanasca'', is an Italian former member of the Sicilian Mafia from the town of Altofonte in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
Di Matteo took part in the killing of Antimafia judge ...