Giuseppe Graviano (; September 30, 1963) is an Italian mafioso from the

Brancaccio Brancaccio is a neighbourhood in the municipality of Palermo, Sicily, in Italy. It is a semi-traditional area of the working class. It was important in the history of the Cosa Nostra. Antimafia priest Pino Puglisi Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi (, ; ...

quarter 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 also was one the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life sentences. He and his three brothers became members of 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 ...

for the

Ciaculli Ciaculli is an outlying suburb of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. It counts less than 9500 residents. Ciaculli is close to the suburb of Croceverde. Ciaculli has been important within the history of the Cosa Nostra. The best known Mafia family is the Gre ...

mandamento Mandamento may refer to: * Mandamento (administrative district) * Mandamento (Sicilian Mafia) See also * Capomandamento Within Cosa Nostra a mandamento is traditionally a district of three geographically contiguous Mafia cosche (families contr ...

, substituting

Giuseppe Lucchese Giuseppe Lucchese (; born September 2, 1959), known as ''Occhi di ghiaccio'' (Eyes of ice), is a member of the Sicilian Mafia from the Brancaccio neighbourhood in Palermo. He was one of the favourite hitmen of the Corleonesi, headed by Totò Rii ...

who was in prison.Ordinanza di custodia cautelare in carcere
, Tribunale di Caltanissetta, Ufficio del giudice per le indagini preliminari, April 11, 1994

Mafia bomb attacks in 1992-1993

Graviano was among Mafia bosses linked with the murders of the Antimafia judges

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 ...

in the

Capaci bombing The Capaci bombing ( it, Strage di Capaci) was a terror attack by the Sicilian Mafia that took place on 23 May 1992 on Highway A29, close to the junction of Capaci, Sicily. It killed magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo ...

and

Paolo Borsellino Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; scn, Pàulu Borsellino; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 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 t ...

in the

Via D'Amelio bombing The via D'Amelio bombing ( it, Strage di via D'Amelio) was a terrorist attack by the Sicilian Mafia, which took place in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, on 19 July 1992. It killed Paolo Borsellino, the anti-mafia Italian magistrate, and five members of ...

, as well as the attempted murder of Commissioner Rino Germana. After the arrest of Mafia boss

Totò 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 ...

in January 1993, the remaining bosses, among them Giuseppe Graviano,

Matteo Messina Denaro Matteo Messina Denaro (; born 26 April 1962), also known as ''Diabolik'', is a Sicilian Mafia boss. He got his nickname from the Italian comic book character of the same name. He is considered to be one of the new leaders of Cosa Nostra after t ...

Giovanni Brusca Giovanni Brusca (; born 20 February 1957) is an Italian mobster and former member of the Corleonesi clan of the Sicilian Mafia. He had a major role in the 1992 murders of Antimafia Commission prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and businessman Ignazio ...

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 ...

, Antonino Gioè and

Gioacchino La Barbera Gioacchino La Barbera (born November 1959 in Altofonte) is a member of the Mafia who became a pentito. He was one of the key witnesses in the trial against the killers of Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone. La Barbera was born in Altofonte, in the ...

came together a few times (often in the Santa Flavia area in Bagheria, on an estate owned by the mafioso Leonardo Greco). They decided on a strategy to force the Italian state to retreat. That resulted in a series of bomb attacks in 1993 in the Via dei Georgofili 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 ...

, in Via Palestro 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 in 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 damage to centres of cultural heritage such as the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

Gallery. The Graviano brothers, including the eldest one Benedetto Graviano were seen as the organizers of the operation, in particular to select the men who would carry out the bombings. Giuseppe and Filippo Graviano each received a life sentence for the bombings.

Murder of Antimafia priest and arrest

Giuseppe and Filippo Graviano ordered the murder of the Antimafia priest

Pino Puglisi Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi (, ; 15 September 1937 – 15 September 1993) was a Roman Catholic priest in the rough Palermo neighbourhood of Brancaccio. He openly challenged the Mafia who controlled the neighbourhood, and was killed by them on hi ...

on 15 September 1993. Puglisi was the pastor of San Gaetano’s Parish in the rough Palermo neighborhood of Brancaccio, and spoke out against the Mafia.Ecco i killer di Don Puglisi
La Repubblica, June 23, 1994 One of the hitmen who killed Puglisi, Salvatore Grigoli, later confessed and revealed the priest’s last words as his killers approached: "I've been expecting you."Memory of anti-Mafia priest pervades summit
National Catholic Reporter, September 13, 2002 Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano were arrested in

on 27 January 1994, and have been in prison since. They were convicted for the Mafia bombings in Florence and Rome in 1993 and ordering the killing of

, receiving life sentences.Omicidio Puglisi ergastolo ai Graviano
La Repubblica, 20 February 2001 The two jailed brothers managed to impregnate their wives despite harsh regulations forbidding conjugal visits. Investigators realised the two men had fathered children while behind bars when their wives came to visit with babies. They believe that the two men used couriers to smuggle out their sperm.

Sister takes over

With the two brothers serving their sentences, control of the Graviano-clan passed to their sister, Nunzia Graviano, known as ''picciridda'' (the baby), reinvesting the family's financial assets and modernising its business. "She is the alter ego of her brothers in their territory and capable of managing a vast fortune," according to the prosecution. She may be the first woman to have acted as "regent" for a leading Mafia family. She reportedly followed the

stock market A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange, as ...

on teletext and was an avid reader of the financial daily

Il Sole 24 Ore ''Il Sole 24 Ore'' () is an Italian national daily business newspaper owned by Confindustria, the Italian employers' federation. History and profile ''Il Sole 24 Ore'' was first published on 9 November 1965 as a merger between ''Il Sole'' ("the ...

. Much of the Gravianos' wealth was invested in Italian blue-chip companies. She was also laundering some of the money abroad through a financial consultancy in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. Nunzia Graviano was arrested in July 1999 in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

(France).

Brancaccio command

The third brother Benedetto Graviano, who has served a five-year sentence for Mafia conspiracy, has been arrested in July 2004 for cocaine trafficking. He allegedly financed 18 kilograms of cocaine in a joint venture with a

'Ndrangheta The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a prominent Italian Mafia-type organized crime syndicate and secret society, criminal society based in the peninsular and mountainous region of Calabria and dating back to the late 18th century. It is considered one of ...

clan. The cocaine was distributed among the jet set in Palermo. After his release for insufficient evidence, he was arrested again in February 2005. Benedetto Graviano had taken over the command in the Brancaccio area after the arrest of regent

Giuseppe Guttadauro Giuseppe Guttadauro (born August 18, 1948 in Bagheria, Palermo province of Italy) is an Italian Mafia boss and a high-profile surgeon from the Rocella neighbourhood in Palermo. Born in Bagheria, he became the regent of the Brancaccio mandament ...

. The Mafia family of Santa Maria di Gesù had tried to take over the Brancaccio area, but Cosa Nostra’s boss

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 ...

decided to re-instate the Gravianos. Giuseppe Graviano recently gained an academic degree in mathematics and his brother Filippo in economics.Mafia killers arm themselves with degrees
The Times, January 21, 2008

Links with Berlusconi

According to the

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 ...

Antonino Giuffrè Antonino "Nino" Giuffrè (; born 21 July 1945) is an Italian mafioso from Caccamo in the Province of Palermo, Sicily. He became one of the most important Mafia turncoats after his arrest in April 2002. Giuffrè was known in Mafia circles as (" ...

the Graviano brothers were the intermediaries between Cosa Nostra and prime minister

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...

. Cosa Nostra decided to back Berlusconi's

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

party from its foundation in 1993, in exchange for help in resolving the mafia's judicial problems. The mafia turned to Forza Italia when its traditional contacts in the discredited

Christian Democrat Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

party proved unable to protect its members from the rigours of the law. According to Giuffrè, the Gravianos dealt directly with Berlusconi through the businessman

Gianni Letta Gianni Letta (born 15 April 1935) is an Italian journalist and politician. He is a close advisor of Silvio Berlusconi and a member of the advisory board of Goldman Sachs International. Biography After graduating in law, he started working as a ...

, in September or October 1993. The alleged pact fell apart in 2002. Cosa Nostra had achieved nothing. There were no revisions of Mafia trials, no changes in the law of asset seizures and no changes in the harsh

article 41-bis prison regime In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act, also known as carcere duro ("hard prison regime"), is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations. Currently ...

Assertions of Gaspare Spatuzza

One of Graviano's subordinates

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 ...

, who turned pentito in 2008, has confirmed Giuffrè statements. Spatuzza testified that Graviano had told him in 1994 that future prime minister

was bargaining with the Mafia, concerning a political-electoral agreement between Cosa Nostra and Berlusconi’s party

. Spatuzza said Graviano disclosed the information to him during a conversation in a bar Graviano owned in the upscale Via Veneto district of the Italian capital Rome. Berlusconi’s right-hand man

Marcello Dell'Utri Marcello Dell'Utri (born 11 September 1941) is a former Italian politician and senior advisor to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Formerly Senator in the Italian Senate.

was the intermediary, according to Spatuzza. Dell'Utri has dismissed Spatuzza's allegations as "nonsense".Lawyer rejects turncoat's claims linking Berlusconi to mafia
Adnkronos International, October 23, 2009 On 4 December 2009, Spatuzza repeated his accusations in court at the appeal hearing against Dell’Utri, sentenced to 9 years in 2004, for collusion with the Mafia. He testified: "Graviano told me the name of Berlusconi and said that thanks to him and the man from our home town

n apparent reference to Dell' Utri N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...

we have the country in our hands." Dell'Utri told the court that neither he nor Berlusconi had Mafia connections.Berlusconi 'cut deal with Mafia', court told
, The Independent, December 5, 2009 On 11 December 2009, Filippo Graviano denied the assertions of Spatuzza before the court of Palermo. He said that he never had met Dell'Utri directly or indirectly.
La Repubblica, December 11, 2009Italian Mafia boss Graviano denies Berlusconi link
BBC News, December 11, 2009 In 2012, Giuseppe Graviano was one of five that were sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the murder of Giuseppe Di Matteo.

References

External links

*
Padre Puglisi e Brancaccio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graviano, Giuseppe 1963 births Living people Gangsters from Palermo Italian people convicted of murder Italian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Italian crime bosses People convicted of murder by Italy Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Italy Sicilian Mafia Commission Sicilian mafiosi sentenced to life imprisonment