A series of meetings between

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 ...

and

American Mafia The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its membe ...

members were allegedly held at the

Grand Hotel et des Palmes The Grand Hotel et des Palmes is a historic hotel in Palermo, Sicily, on the central Via Roma. The building was built on the initiative of the Ingham-Whitaker family in 1874 and used as a private residence. The house was connected by a secret ...

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 ...

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

, between October 12–16, 1957. Also called the 1957 Palermo Mafia summit, the summit discussed the international illegal

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

trade in the

French Connection The French Connection was a scheme through which heroin was smuggled from Indochina through Turkey to France and then to the United States and Canada, sometimes through Cuba. The operation started in the 1930s, reached its peak in the 1960s, and ...

. The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

believed it was this meeting that established the

Bonanno crime family The Bonanno 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, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the A ...

in the heroin trade.Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 44-45

Origins of reputed purpose

This "heroin summit" was described by journalist

Claire Sterling Claire Sterling ( née Neikind; October 21, 1919 – June 17, 1995) was an American author and journalist whose work focused on crime, political assassination, and terrorism. Her theories on Soviet bloc involvement in international terrorism and t ...

: "Although there is no firsthand evidence of what went on at the four-day summit itself, what followed over the next thirty years has made the substance clear. Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are persuaded by now that the American delegation asked the Sicilians to take over the import and distribution of heroin in the United States, and the Sicilians agreed."Sterling, ''Octopus'', p. 85 However, she fails to back this claim with solid evidence. Sterling even has the dates of the alleged meeting wrong. At the time, although the Sicilian Mafia was involved to some extent in the heroin business all through the 1950s and 1960s, it never had anything more than a secondary role in the world drugs system. According to the

McClellan Hearings The Valachi hearings, also known as the McClellan hearings, investigated organized crime activities across the United States. The hearings were initiated by Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan in 1963. Named after the major government witness agains ...

, Sicily was no more than a staging-post in the shipment of French-produced heroin to the USA. Until the 1970s, Sicilian mafiosi were prevented from acquiring any

oligopoly An oligopoly (from Greek ὀλίγος, ''oligos'' "few" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a market structure in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of large sellers or producers. Oligopolies often result from ...

on the heroin market because they were not competitive in comparison with other European criminal groups, in particular the

by Corsican groups in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

.Arlacchi, ''Mafia Business'', p. 203, quoting: US Senate, ''Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics'', Report of the Committee on Government Operations, Washington DC, 1965 The first mention of the "summit" in the United States was during the

on October 10–16, 1963. Among the American mafiosi present were

Joe Bonanno Joseph Charles Bonanno (born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno; ; January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002), sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family, which he ran from 1931 to 1968. Bonanno was born i ...

, his underbosses and advisors

Carmine Galante Carmine Galante (; February 21, 1910 – July 12, 1979) was an American mobster. Galante was rarely seen without a cigar hanging from is mouth, leading to the nickname "The Cigar" and "Lilo" (a Sicilian term for cigar). Galante had a long career ...

, John Bonventre and Frank Garofalo, as well as

Lucky Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumenta ...

Santo Sorge Santo Sorge (Mussomeli, January 11, 1908 – New York, May, 1972) was a Sicilian Mafioso living in the United States. His exact role has never been very clear; he was one of the great 'unknowns' of the Sicilian and American Mafia. He was one of t ...

, John Di Bella,

Vito Vitale Salvatore "Vito" Vitale (; born June 20, 1959 in Partinico), also known as ''Fardazza'', is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. For a while he was considered the heir of Totò Riina and was closely connected to Leoluca Bagarella.

and Gaspare Magaddino. While among the Sicilian side there were Salvatore "Little Bird" Greco and his cousin Salvatore Greco, also known as "l'ingegnere" or "Totò il lungo",

Giuseppe Genco Russo Giuseppe Genco Russo (26 January 1893 – 18 March 1976) was an Italian mafioso, the boss of Mussomeli in the Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. Genco Russo, also known as "Zi Peppi Jencu", was an uncouth, sly, semi-literate thug with excell ...

, Vincenzo Rimi and Filippo Rimi,

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 ...

Gaetano Badalamenti Gaetano Badalamenti (; 14 September 1923 – 29 April 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ''Don Tano'' Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s. In 198 ...

, Totò Minore,

Rosario Mancino Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...

Calcedonio Di Pisa Calcedonio Di Pisa (; 11 October 1931 – 26 December 1962), also known as Doruccio, was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Noce neighbourhood in Palermo and sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission, the ...

Cesare Manzella Cesare Manzella (; December 18, 1897 – April 26, 1963) was a traditional Mafia capo, who sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission. He was the head of the Mafia family in Cinisi, a small seaside town near the Punta Raisi Airport. As the airport ...

, Gioacchino Pennino and

Tommaso Buscetta Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was an Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization. Buscetta participated i ...

.Sterling, ''Octopus'', p. 83

No first-hand accounts

There are no first-hand accounts of the meeting, except for the version of Mafia

turncoat A turncoat is a person who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party. In political and social history, this is distinct from being a traitor, as the ...

, who denied a summit ever took place at all. According to Buscetta, Bonanno did stay at the Grand Hotel des Palmes and received many guests all the time, but there was no summit as such.Arlacchi, ''Addio Cosa nostra'', p. 60-63 In his memoirs,

mentions his trip to Palermo, but says nothing about a summit.See Bonanno's autobiography ''A Man of Honour'' (1983) According to Buscetta a gathering took place in a private room at the Spanò seafood restaurant on the evening of October 12, 1957, where Bonanno was fêted as the guest of honour by his old friend

. Among the other guests were Bonanno’s underboss

, the brothers Salvatore and Angelo La Barbera, Salvatore "Little Bird" Greco,

, Gioacchino Pennino,

Filippo Filippo is an Italian male given name, which is the equivalent of the English name Philip, from the Greek ''Philippos'', meaning "amante dei cavalli".''Behind the Name''"Given Name Philip" Retrieved on 23 January 2016. The female variant is Filip ...

and Vincenzo Rimi, and

. According to Buscetta, it was at this dinner that Bonanno suggested to form a

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 ...

to avoid violent disputes, following the example of the American Mafia that had formed their Commission in the 1930s. The Italian police had been following Luciano and in so doing found out about the meetings. They observed the gatherings. However, the report was buried in some filing cabinet in Palermo. A copy was sent to the

Federal Bureau of Narcotics The Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury, established in the Department of the Treasury by an act of June 14, 1930, consolidating the functions of the Federal Narcotics Control Board a ...

in Washington. Only eight years later the report was used to indict the participants and some of their associates in Palermo.Police in Sicily Say U. S. Mafia Attended '57 Parley
The New York Times, January 2, 1968

Trial against participants

In August 1965, the Palermo public prosecutors indicted 17 main participants associated with the Sicilian and American Mafia by judge Aldo Vigneri for criminal conspiracy and narcotics and currency rackets that allegedly started with the 1957 Palermo summit.Italy Seizes 10 in the Mafia Linked With Gang in US
The New York Times, August 3, 1965 Among the indicted were Bonanno, Bonventre, Galante, Sorge, Magaddino, John Priziola, Raffaele Quasarano, Frank Coppola and

Joe Adonis Joseph Anthony Doto (born Giuseppe Antonio Doto, ; November 22, 1902 – November 26, 1971), known as Joe Adonis, was an Italian-American mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families in New Yo ...

. The Court of Palermo dismissed the charges in June 1968 because of lack of evidence.Cosa Nostra Men Cleared In Sicily; 7 From U.S. Are Among 17 Acquitted in Rackets Case
The New York Times, June 26, 1968 What can be said about the events in October 1957 in Palermo is that the gatherings reforged the links between the most Sicilian of the American

Five Families The Five Families refers to five major New York City organized crime families of the Italian American Mafia formed in 1931 by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the Castellammarese War. Maranzano reorganized the Italian American gangs ...

, the

Bonanno Crime Family The Bonanno 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, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the A ...

, and the most American of the Sicilian Mafia families. It was not a conference between "the"

and "the"

American Cosa Nostra The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its memb ...

as such.Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', p. 295-96 Heroin trafficking between these two groups might have been discussed, but there certainly was not a general agreement on the heroin trade between "the" Sicilian Mafia and "the" American Cosa Nostra. The important result of 1957 Palermo gatherings was that the Sicilian Mafia composed its first

and appointed "Little Bird" Greco as its first "primus inter pares".Gambetta, ''The Sicilian Mafia'', p. 110-12

References

* Arlacchi, Pino (1994). ''Addio Cosa nostra: La vita di Tommaso Buscetta'', Milan: Rizzoli *Arlacchi, Pino (1988). ''Mafia Business. The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism'', Oxford: Oxford University Press *Bonanno, Joseph & Sergio Lalli (1983). ''A Man of Honour. The Autobiography of a Godfather'', London: André Deutsch Ltd. *Dickie, John (2004). ''Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia'', London: Coronet *Gambetta, Diego (1993).''The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection'', London: Harvard University Press, *Shawcross, Tim & Martin Young (1987). ''Men Of Honour: The Confessions of Tommaso Buscetta'', Collins *Sterling, Claire (1990). ''Octopus. How the long reach of the Sicilian Mafia controls the global narcotics trade'', New York: Simon & Schuster, {{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Hotel des Palmes Mafia meeting 1957 History of the Sicilian Mafia Organized crime events in Italy Mafia meetings 1957 in Italy History of Palermo 1957 conferences 1957 crimes in Italy