Corleonesi Mafia
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Corleonesi Mafia clan was a faction within the
Corleone Corleone (; scn, Cunigghiuni or ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily. Several Mafia bosses have come from Corleone, including Tommy Gagliano, Gaetano Reina, Jack Dragn ...
family 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 ...
, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio,
Salvatore Riina Salvatore Riina (; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called (, Totò being the diminutive of Salvatore), was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s ...
, Bernardo Provenzano, and
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, opp ...
. Corleonesi affiliates were not restricted to mafiosi of
Corleone Corleone (; scn, Cunigghiuni or ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily. Several Mafia bosses have come from Corleone, including Tommy Gagliano, Gaetano Reina, Jack Dragn ...
. During the
Second Mafia War The Second Mafia War was a period of conflict involving the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and involved thousands of homicides. Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the ''Mattanza'' (Italian ...
in the early 1980s, the Corleonesi clan opposed the faction of the Palermitans represented, among others, by Gaetano Badalamenti,
Stefano Bontate 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'' (Pr ...
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 the state, followed by the State-Mafia Pact.


History


Beginnings

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 Pietro Scaglione (; Lercara Friddi, March 2, 1906 – Palermo, May 5, 1971) was an Italian magistrate and Chief Prosecutor of Palermo, Sicily. He was killed by the Mafia in 1971. Fighting the Mafia Scaglione graduated in law at the University o ...
, who was shot dead on 5 May 1971 with his police bodyguard Antonino Lo Russo.http://archiviopiolatorre.camera.it/img-repo/DOCUMENTAZIONE/Antimafia/04_rel_02.pdf He became a fugitive, and was finally captured in Milan on 16 May 1974. He was sentenced to
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
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 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 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 ...
, Giuseppe Greco and
Rosario Riccobono Rosario Riccobono (February 10, 1929 in Palermo – November 30, 1982 in Palermo) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of Partanna Mondello, a suburb of Palermo, his native city. In 1974 he became a member of the Sicilian Mafia ...
. In February 1980, Tommaso Buscetta fled to Brazil to escape the brewing
Second Mafia War The Second Mafia War was a period of conflict involving the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and involved thousands of homicides. Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the ''Mattanza'' (Italian ...
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 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 Emanuela Setti Carraro (; 9 October 1950 in Borgosesia – 3 September 1982 in Palermo) was an Italian nurse, and wife of General Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa. Less than two months after the marriage, she was the victim of a Sicilian Mafia AK- ...
, and his driver bodyguard, Domenico Russo. In response to public disquiet about the failure to effectively combat the organisation Riina headed, La Torre's law was passed ten days later.Inside The Mafia
, National Geographic Channel, June 2005.
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 was arrested in
Sao Paulo SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...
, 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 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 Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
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, 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 the attack.Rapido 904: "Un intreccio tra mafia, camorra e politica"
''Il Fatto Quotidiano'', 27 April 2011
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 A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...
in January 1992,Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and the Procura of Palermo
, Peter Schneider & Jane Schneider, May 2002, essay is based on excerpts from Chapter Six of Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider, Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia and the Struggle for Palermo, Berkeley: U. of California Press
the council of top bosses headed by Riina reacted by ordering the assassination of
Salvatore Lima Salvatore Achille Ettore Lima (; 23 January 1928 – 12 March 1992) was an Italian politician from Sicily who was associated with, and murdered by, the Sicilian Mafia. He is often just referred to as Salvo Lima. According to the ''pentito'' ...
(on the grounds that he was an ally of Giulio Andreotti), and Giovanni Falcone.


Bombings of 1992–93

On 23 May 1992, Falcone, his wife
Francesca Morvillo Francesca Laura Morvillo (; 14 December 1945 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian magistrate, wife of Giovanni Falcone and victim of the Sicilian Mafia. On May 23, 1992, she and her husband were killed in a Capaci bombing. Biography Born in Paler ...
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 A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
in via D'Amelio. Both attacks were ordered by Riina.
Ignazio Salvo Ignazio () is a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include: Arts *Ignazio Collino (1736–1793), Italian sculptor *Ignazio Fresu (born 1957), Italian sculptor *Ignazio Gardella (1905–1999), Italian architect and designer ...
, who had advised Riina against killing Falcone, 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 John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 (, ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American gangster and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss ...
of the
Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...
had sent one of their explosives experts to Sicily to work with 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 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''.


Decline

On 15 January 1993, Carabinieri arrested Riina at his villa in Palermo. He had been a fugitive for 23 years.Italy Arrests Sicilian Mafia's Top Leader
The New York Times, 16 January 1993
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 The via dei Georgofili bombing (Italian: ''Strage di via dei Georgofili'') was a terrorist attack carried out by the Sicilian Mafia in the very early morning on 27 May 1993 outside the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. The via dei Georgofili bombing was ...
in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
,
Via Palestro massacre The Via Palestro massacre (Italian: ''Strage di Via Palestro'') was a terrorist attack carried out by Cosa Nostra in Milan on the evening of 27 July 1993. The explosion of a car bomb in Via Palestro, near the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, resulted in ...
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 ...
and the ''Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano'' and ''Via San Teodoro'' in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
, which left 10 people dead and 93 injured as well as severe damage. In total, Riina 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 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. Lodato, ''Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone'', p. 135-37 Some investigators believed that most of those who carried out murders for Cosa Nostra answered solely to
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, opp ...
, and that consequently Bagarella actually wielded more power than Bernardo Provenzano, who 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 June 24, 1995, Bagarella was arrested, having been a fugitive for four years.Reputed Head of the Mafia Is Arrested in Palermo Chase
The New York Times, June 26, 1995
In total, Bagarella was given 13 life sentences plus 106 years and ten months, and solitary confinement for 6 years. Provenzano subsequently took 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 Corleone (; scn, Cunigghiuni or ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily. Several Mafia bosses have come from Corleone, including Tommy Gagliano, Gaetano Reina, Jack Dragn ...
. After the arrest of Provenzano, the power of the Corleonesi was decimated.


Affiliation and power of the Corleonesi

Corleonesi affiliates were not restricted to mafiosi of Corleone. The Corleone Mafia bosses initiated “men of honour”, not necessarily from Corleone, whose status was kept hidden from the other members of the Corleone
cosca A ''cosca'' (; pl. ''cosche'' in Italian and ''coschi'' in Sicilian), in Sicily, is a clan or Sicilian Mafia crime family led by a capo. The equivalent in the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria is the ndrina''. Etymology A ''cosca'' is the crown of s ...
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 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 ...
Mafia family was considered to be part of the Corleonesi faction for example) Paoli, ''Mafia Brotherhoods'', p. 117-19. The pentito (Mafia turncoat)
Antonino Calderone Antonino Calderone (October 24, 1935January 10, 2013) was a Sicilian Mafioso who turned state witness (''pentito'') in 1987 after his arrest in 1986. Antonino was born in Catania, the brother of Giuseppe Calderone, the boss of the local Mafia. ...
provided first-hand accounts of the leaders of the Corleonesi: Luciano Leggio, Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. About Leggio, Calderone said: "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 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.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 230-31. Another pentito
Leonardo Messina Leonardo "Narduzzo" Messina (born San Cataldo, September 22, 1955) is a Sicilian former mafioso who became a government informant or "pentito" in 1992. His testimony led to the arrest of over 200 mafiosi during the so-called "Operation Leopard" ( ...
described how the Corleonesi organized their rise to power:


References


Notes


Bibliography

*Dickie, John (2004). ''Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia'', London: Coronet, *Jamieson, Alison (2000), ''The Antimafia. Italy’s Fight Against Organized Crime'', London: MacMillan Press * Lodato, Saverio (1999). ''Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone: la confessione di Giovanni Brusca'', Milan: Mondadori *Paoli, Letizia (2003). ''Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style'', Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press * Stille, Alexander (1995). ''Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic'', New York: Vintage {{Mafia 1970s establishments in Italy 2006 disestablishments in Italy Terrorism in Italy