''Lupara bianca'' (; "white ''

lupara Lupara () is an Italian word used to refer to a sawed-off shotgun of the break-open type. It is traditionally associated with Cosa Nostra, the Italian organized crime group dominant in Sicily for their use of it in vendettas, defense — such a ...

''") is a journalistic term for a

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

murder done in such a way that the victim's body is never found. Typical ways to carry out a lupara bianca include burying a victim in the open countryside or in remote places where it would be difficult to find it, or burying the victim in the concrete found in construction sites, or dissolving the body in acid and throwing the remains in the sea: this latter method was widely used by the Corleonesi faction during the Second Mafia War. Other methods included dissolving a body in a wet

lye A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. "Lye" most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but historically has been u ...

pit, feeding remains to hogs, or pitching the victim (dead or alive) into a steel mill's molten metal. The lupara bianca prevents the family of the victim from holding a proper funeral, and it also destroys evidence that might point to the killers' identities. The term comes from the ''

'', a weapon typically associated with the Sicilian Mafia.

Real-life incidents

It is speculated

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...

, bootlegger

Rocco Perri Rocco Perri (; born Rocco Perre; December 30, 1887 – disappeared April 23, 1944) was an Italian-born organized crime figure in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was one of the most prominent Prohibition-era crime figures in Canada, and was someti ...

was murdered by being fitted with cement shoes and thrown into

Hamilton Harbour Hamilton Harbour, formerly known as Burlington Bay, lies on the western tip of Lake Ontario, bounded on the northwest by the City of Burlington, on the south by the City of Hamilton, and on the east by Hamilton Beach (south of the Burlington ...

when he disappeared on April 23, 1944. Sicilian Mafia member Santino Di Matteo's son Giuseppe's body was dissolved in acid in 1996, after 779 days of being held hostage."Uccisero il piccolo Giuseppe Di Matteo"
La Repubblica, January 16, 2012La madre del bimbo sciolto nell'acido: «Giuseppe ha vinto, la mafia ha perso»
Corriere della Sera, November 10, 2008 Italian investigative 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 ...

was kidnapped on the evening of 16 September 1970, while coming back home from work, in the via delle Magnolie in Palermo. Thousands of police and ''carabinieri'' with helicopters and dogs combed Sicily in vain in search of the reporter.Investigator of the Mafia Is Kidnapped on Sicily
The New York Times, September 22, 1970 De Mauro's body has never been found.Woodhull & Snyder,
Journalists in peril
', p. 101 On July 28, 1980,

John Favara John Favara (March 4, 1929 – disappeared July 28, 1980, later declared dead in 1983) was the backyard neighbor of Gambino crime family captain and later boss John Gotti, in Howard Beach, New York, United States, who disappeared on July 28, ...

was abducted and disappeared after he accidentally ran over and killed mobster John Gotti's middle son, 12-year-old Frank Gotti, while he rode a family friend's

minibike A minibike is a two-wheeled, motorized, off-highway recreational vehicle popularized in the 1960s and 1970s, but available continuously from a wide variety of manufacturers since 1959. Their off-highway nature and (in many countries) typically enti ...

several months earlier. There were several witnesses to the abduction and accounts ranged from him being beaten with a baseball bat, shot with a silenced

.22 caliber .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm). Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO. .22 inch is also a popular ...

pistol, or both. Accounts differed on what was done with Favara's body. One account said that while Favara was alive, he was

dismembered Dismemberment is the act of cutting, ripping, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise disconnecting the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with ...

with a chainsaw, stuffed into a barrel filled with concrete and dumped in the ocean, or buried somewhere on the lot of a chop shop. In January 2009,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

federal court papers filed by federal prosecutors contained allegations that mob

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may ...

Charles Carneglia Charles Carneglia (born 1946) is an American mobster in the Gambino crime family. Carneglia was born in Queens in 1946. Charles Carneglia and his brother John owned a junkyard in the East New York section of Brooklyn that was reportedly used for ...

killed Favara and disposed of his body in acid. On 11 September 1982, Sicilian Mafia member

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 ...

's two sons, Benedetto and Antonio, from his first wife, disappeared, never to be found again, which later prompted his collaboration with Italian authorities.

References

{{Reflist Journalism terminology History of the Sicilian Mafia Murder Organized crime terminology Italian words and phrases

Real-life incidents

See also

References