Giorgio Boris Giuliano (; October 22, 1930 – July 21, 1979) was a

police chief The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...

from Palermo,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. He was the head of Palermo's

Flying Squad The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is also known as the Robbery Squad, Specialist Crime Directorate 7, SC&O7 and SO7. It is nicknamed The Sweeney, an abbreviat ...

. He was killed by the Sicilian Mafia while investigating heroin trafficking and money laundering. Not long before his death he had been one of the first Italian policemen to have attended the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

academy at Quantico,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

.Sterling, ''Octopus'', p. 215-16''A Palermitan diary: Twenty years of reporting at the foot of Italy'', by Attilio Bolzoni inIl sacrificio di Boris Giuliano
La Sicilia, July 21, 2013 His son Alessandro became head of the Milan

and arrested old guard Mafioso

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 ...

in 2009; as part of the same operation,

Gianni Nicchi Giovanni "Gianni" Nicchi (; born 16 February 1981 in Turin) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age – he is nicknamed ("the little boy") – he is considered to be one of the leading mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo. He was on ...

was captured in Palermo.Mafia, presi due superlatitanti
La Repubblica, December 5, 2009Don Vito and the Mafia: Living with My Father's Secrets by Massimo Ciancimino, Francesco La Licata, N.S. Thompson () P 316

Early years

Before becoming a police officer he had many other professions: as a dishwasher in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where he learned English, while studying at the university in Messina; as a seller of neckties in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

; as the manager in a factory in Lombardy. As a boy he had lived in the Italian colonies of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, where his father served as an officer at the Italian Navy. In 1963, after entering the police, Giuliano was assigned, at his request, to the Flying Squad of Palermo. These were the years of what was called the

First Mafia War The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvat ...

between the Grecos and the brothers Salvatore and

Angelo La Barbera Angelo La Barbera (; July 3, 1924 – October 28, 1975) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro. Salvatore La Barbera sat on the first Sicilian Mafia C ...

.Biografia di Boris Giuliano
, Antimafia Duemila N°18, December 2001/January 2002 In 1973 he became deputy police chief under

Bruno Contrada Bruno Contrada (born September 2, 1931 in Naples, Italy) is the former police chief of Palermo and deputy director of the civil intelligence service SISDE who was arrested based on revelations of former Sicilian Mafiosi turned pentiti, Gaspare M ...

, who had created the section investigating the Mafia. They were dubbed 'B&B', Bruno and Boris. Together, they radically changed investigating methods: two meetings per day with all the officials to take stock of the ongoing investigations and share information. (Contrada was later arrested and convicted for aiding and abetting the Mafia). Giuliano was involved in the investigation in the disappearance of journalist

Mauro De Mauro Mauro De Mauro (; 6 September 1921 – disappeared 16 September 1970) was an Italian investigative journalist. Originally a supporter of Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime, De Mauro eventually became a journalist with the left-leaning newspap ...

in September 1970.De Mauro ucciso per uno scoop scoprì il patto tra boss e golpisti
La Repubblica, June 18, 2005 He focused on the lead of De Mauro's investigations into the death of ENI president

Enrico Mattei Enrico Mattei (; 29 April 1906 – 27 October 1962) was an Italian public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian petroleum agency Agip, a state enterprise established by the Fascist regime. ...

, prompted by the disappearance a few pages of notes and a tape with the last speech given by Mattei from De Mauro's office.Mauro De Mauro
by Antonella Romano, in: ''Giornata della Memoria dei giornalisti uccisi da mafie e terrorismo'', Rome: Unione Nazionale Cronisti Italiani, 2008, pp. 28-35 The investigations were seriously hampered due to deviations by people within the Italian police forces and secret services. According to Giuliano there was "someone at the ministry in Rome that does not want to go to the bottom of the death of De Mauro." An order to scale down the investigation was issued by the head of the secret service, Vito Miceli, allegedly involved in the

neo-fascist Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration s ...

Borghese coup.Omicidio De Mauro, assolto Totò Riina
La Repubblica, June 10, 2011

Pizza Connection

In 1976 he became the head of Palermo's Flying Squad. During the late 1970s he was investigating drug trafficking by various members of the Sicilian Mafia including the boss

Stefano Bontade Stefano Bontade (23 April 1939 – 23 April 1981) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. His actual surname was Bontate. He was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. He was also known as the ''Principe di Villagrazia'' (Prin ...

, as well as a series of armed robberies linked to ''Corso dei Mille'' boss

Filippo Marchese Filippo Marchese (11 September 1938 in Palermo – September 1982 in Palermo) was a leading figure in the Sicilian Mafia and a hitman suspected of dozens of homicides. Marchese was one of the most feared killers working for mafia boss Vincenzo Chi ...

. Bontade was closely linked to the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino network involved in heroin trafficking since the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s when US and Italian law enforcement were able to significantly reduce the heroin supply of the Sicilian Mafia (the so-called Pizza Connection). The Bontade-Spatola-Inzerillo traffickers supplied the Gambino Family – through John Gambino – in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

with heroin that was refined in laboratories on the island from Turkish morphine base.Sterling, ''Octopus'', p. 199-201 The investigation started when Giuliano found a suitcase at Palermo's

Punta Raisi Airport Falcone Borsellino Airport ( it, link=no, Aeroporto Falcone Borsellino) or simply Palermo Airport, formerly Punta Raisi Airport, is an international airport located at Cinisi, west northwest of Palermo, the capital city of the Italian islan ...

with half a million dollars neatly wrapped in freshly laundered pizza aprons.Italy Awaits Mafia War Of Succession
Chicago Tribune, December 20, 1987 According to

Giovanni Falcone Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...

, the investigating magistrate, the group had made about US$600 million. The proceeds were re-invested in real estate through the banker

Michele Sindona Michele Sindona (; 8 May 1920 – 22 March 1986) was an Italian banker and convicted felon. Known in banking circles as "The Shark", Sindona was a member of Propaganda Due (#0501), a secret lodge of Italian Freemasonry, and had clear connecti ...

. Giuliano discovered cheques and other documents which indicated that Sindona through the Vatican Bank had been recycling the proceeds from heroin sales by the Mafia to his Amincor Bank in Switzerland. He coordinated his investigations with the lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli, appointed as liquidator of Sindona's banks, that had been declared

insolvent In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...

due to mismanagement and fraud, involving losses in foreign currency speculation and poor loan policies.Account Settled
Time magazine, April 7, 1980 Ambrosoli was murdered on July 11, 1979 in

.Sterling, ''Octopus'', p. 194

Killed by the Mafia

Ten days later, on July 21, 1979 Giuliano was shot dead in the Lux Bar in Palermo taking a ''cappuccino'' while waiting for his car to take him to work early in the morning. The material killer was Corleonesi boss

Leoluca Bagarella Leoluca Bagarella (; born 3 February 1942) is an Italian criminal and member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone. Following Salvatore Riina's arrest in early 1993, Bagarella became the head of the stragist strategy faction, ...

.Reputed Head of the Mafia Is Arrested in Palermo Chase
The New York Times, June 26, 1995 Bagarella shot Giuliano in the neck three times and, standing over the body, fired four bullets into Giuliano's back before making his escape.
The Independent, June 26, 1995 Giuliano was investigating Bagarella after he had discovered his hiding place. Bagarella had managed to escape in time, but inside Giuliano discovered weapons, four kilogrammes of heroin and false documents with photographs depicting Bagarella.
, Antimafia Duemila N°14, July–August 2001 Bagarella, who had been arrested in June 1995, received a life sentence for the killing.Primo ergastolo per Bagarella
Corriere della Sera, March 1, 1997 The murder was sanctioned by the

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 ...

; its members Salvatore Riina,

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 capo ...

Michele Greco Michele Greco (; 12 May 1924 – 13 February 2008) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia and 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 be ...

Francesco Madonia Francesco Madonia (March 31, 1924 – March 13, 2007) was the Mafia boss of the San Lorenzo-Pallavicino area in Palermo. In 1978 he became a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission. ''Ciccio'' Madonia became the unquestioned patriarch of the Resu ...

Giuseppe Calò Giuseppe "Pippo" Calò (born 30 September 1931) is an Italian mobster and member of the Sicilian Mafia in Porta Nuova. He was referred to as the "''cassiere di Cosa Nostra''" (Mafia's Cashier) because he was heavily involved in the financial si ...

, Bernardo Brusca,

Nenè Geraci Antonino Geraci (Partinico, January 2, 1917 – Partinico, February 6, 2007), better known as Nenè or ''il vecchio'' (the old one), was the historical boss of Sicilian Mafia, the Mafia in Partinico, in the Metropolitan City of Palermo. Geraci sat ...

and Francesco Spadaro also received a life sentence.Delitto Dalla Chiesa: ottavo ergastolo a Riina
Corriere della Sera, March 18, 1995

In popular culture

A miniseries was made in 2016 called ''Boris Giuliano - Un poliziotto a Palermo'' directed by

Ricky Tognazzi Ricky Tognazzi (born Riccardo Tognazzi; ; 1 May 1955) is an Italian actor and film director. He has appeared in 50 films and television shows since 1963. His film '' The Escort'' was entered into the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. In 1991, he won ...

where Giuliano is played by

Adriano Giannini Adriano Giannini (born 10 May 1971) is an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Giannini was born in Rome to actors Giancarlo Giannini and Livia Giampalmo. He began his career when he was eighteen years old. His most notable role was alo ...

. The Giuliano murder was also represented in Pif's 2016 series '' The Mafia Kills Only in Summer''.

References

*Sterling, Claire (1990). ''Octopus. How the long reach of the Sicilian Mafia controls the global narcotics trade'', New York: Simon & Schuster, * Stille, Alexander (1995). ''Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic'', New York: Vintage * has a chapter on Giulano's murder

External links

Boris Giuliano: "un eroe semplice e allegro"
Obituary on the site of the Italian State Police

by Saverio Lodato, l'Unità, June 25, 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Giuliano, Boris 1930 births 1979 deaths Deaths by firearm in Italy Italian murder victims Italian police officers killed in the line of duty Male murder victims People from Piazza Armerina People murdered by the Corleonesi People murdered in Italy