Pietro Scaglione (;

Lercara Friddi Lercara Friddi is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo. Founded in 1595 by local feudataries, it is on the slopes of Madore Hill, between the valleys o ...

, March 2, 1906 – Palermo, May 5, 1971) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

and Chief Prosecutor of Palermo,

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

. He was killed by

the 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 ...

in 1971.

Fighting the Mafia

Scaglione graduated in law at the University of Palermo in 1927. After a career in the judiciary, he became Chief Prosecutor of Palermo in April 1962.Scaglione, un delitto impunito
La Sicilia, July 23, 2006 As such, together with the head of the investigative branch of the prosecution office Cesare Terranova, he was responsible for the repression of the Mafia after the First Mafia war and the

Ciaculli massacre 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 Salvato ...

on June 30, 1963. Their efforts were largely undone by lenient sentences of the court in

Catanzaro Catanzaro (, or ; scn, label= Catanzarese, Catanzaru ; , or , ''Katastaríoi Lokrói''; ; la, Catacium), also known as the "City of the two Seas", is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its p ...

at the so-called Trial of the 114. On May 5, 1971, Scaglione was killed with his driver Antonino Lo Russo, when he returned from his daily visit to the tomb of his wife at the Cappuccini cemetery in Palermo. It was the first time since the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

that the Mafia had murdered an Italian magistrate. The police rounded up 114 Mafiosi who would be tried in the second Trial of the 114.Servadio, ''Mafioso'', p. 230If Surge of Gunfire is a Sign, Sicilian Mafia is in Trouble
The New York Times, May 15, 1973

Murder still unsolved

No one has ever been convicted for the killing of Scaglione and his driver. In January 1991, the suspects

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 ...

, Pietro D’Accardio, Gerlando Alberti and his son, Francesco Russo, Salvatore Riina,

Luciano Leggio Luciano Leggio (; 6 January 1925 – 15 November 1993) was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone. He is universally known with th ...

and

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 ...

were not brought before the court by the prosecution for lack of sufficient proof. During his long career in the judiciary Scaglione was involved in some of the unsolved political mysteries that tainted post-war Italy. He was the last one to have interrogated Gaspare Pisciotta, the right-hand man of the Sicilian

bandit Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an ...

Salvatore Giuliano, held responsible for the Portella della Ginestra massacre on

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Tr ...

1947 to impede the advance of communist and peasant movement. He was also the last one to have seen the 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 ...

, who disappeared in September 1970 following his investigations on the mysterious death of

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. ...

and on the

Golpe Borghese The ''Golpe Borghese'' (English: Borghese Coup) was a failed Italian ''coup d'état'' allegedly planned for the night of 7 or 8 December 1970. It was named after Junio Valerio Borghese, wartime commander of the Decima Flottiglia MAS and a her ...

, a right wing coup attempt. De Mauro was allegedly murdered by the Mafia to cover up these events and possible political connections. Some observers claim Scaglione had been involved to keep these mysteries under wraps. Recent historical research, however, describes Scaglione as an honest judge.

Elena Zagorskaya controversy

Few days after the murder of Pietro Scaglione, an unnamed man told the

Polizia di Stato The ''Polizia di Stato'' (State Police or P.S.) is one of the national police forces of Italy. Alongside the Carabinieri, it is the main police force for providing police duties, primarily to cities and large towns, and with its child agencie ...

in Palermo that he attended the Cappuccini cemetery on the day of Scaglione's assassination and spotted Soviet-Italian singer Elena Zagorskaya, who was earlier investigated by Scaglione for allegedly owing 750,000

French francs The franc (, ; currency sign, sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount ...

to mafia boss

, chatting with someone similar in appearance to Leggio in the cemetery. The claim caused an uproar in Italian society; nonetheless, it has never been proved, and Zagorskaya herself denied attending the Cappuccini cemetery on the day of Scaglione's murder despite being in Palermo on that day in general, as well as denied meeting Leggio or owing him money.

Mafia involvement

Pietro Scaglione - Antonino Lorusso - Lapide Palermo

According to Mafia turncoat (

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 ...

)

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 ...

the murder of Scaglione had three objectives: to remove a troublesome prosecutor, to bring heat on two rival Mafiosi who were being tried by Scaglione and who might be thought culpable, and to create the suspicion that Scaglione had collaborated with the Mafia. Another pentito,

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. ...

, suggested that Scaglione’s assassination was the Mafia’s way of asserting its return to potency after the Catanzaro trial, during which it had been quiet.Schneider & Schneider, ''Reversible Destiny'', p. 100 It is now generally assumed that the killing was ordered by Mafia boss

, head of the Corleonesi, because Scaglione had sent one of Leggio’s sisters into internal banishment from Corleone for aiding and abetting her brother who was a fugitive at the time.Una «vendetta» di Luciano Liggio?
La Sicilia, July 23, 2006 According to Buscetta it was Leggio himself who killed Scaglione with the help of Salvatore Riina.Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 115 Leggio would later be tried twice for killing Scaglione but was acquitted for insufficient evidence.

References

*Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003).
Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo
', Berkeley: University of California Press *Servadio, Gaia (1976). ''Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day'', London: Secker & Warburg *Shawcross, Tim & Martin Young (1987). ''Men Of Honour: The Confessions Of Tommaso Buscetta'', Glasgow: Collins {{DEFAULTSORT:Scaglione, Pietro 1906 births 1971 deaths Antimafia Judges murdered by the Corleonesi People murdered in Italy 20th-century Italian judges

Fighting the Mafia

Murder still unsolved

Elena Zagorskaya controversy

Mafia involvement

See also

References