Angelo La Barbera
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Angelo La Barbera (; July 3, 1924 – October 28, 1975) was a powerful member of the Sicilian
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 ...
. Together with his brother
Salvatore La Barbera Salvatore La Barbera (; April 20, 1922 – January 17, 1963) was a Sicilian mafioso. Together with his brother Angelo La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro. Salvatore La Barbera sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that ...
he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro. Salvatore La Barbera sat on the first
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 ...
that was set up in 1958 as the
capo mandamento Within Cosa Nostra a mandamento is traditionally a district of three geographically contiguous Mafia cosche (families controlling a single land feud, or a city ward) in Sicily. A capomandamento represents the head of a territory, the mandamento, ...
for Mafia families of Borgo Vecchio, Porta Nuova and Palermo Centro.
Gaia Servadio Gaia Cecilia Metella Servadio (13 September 1938 – 20 August 2021) was an Italian writer. Early life and career Servadio was born in Padua, the daughter of industrial chemist Luxardo Servadio and wife Bianca Prinzi. Her father was Jewish and ...
, an English/Italian journalist who wrote a biography on Angelo La Barbera, described him as the symbol of the quick, clever gangster. The new post-war mafioso who in the end became the victim of the many politicians he himself had built. He represented the proletariat who tried to become mafioso, middle class, and ultimately did not succeed.Servadio, ''Mafioso'', p. 182-84


Mafia career

Angelo and Salvatore La Barbera were born in the slums of the neighbourhood of Partanna-Mondello 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 ...
. Their father was an itinerant charcoal burner and vendor. They started with petty larceny and murder and raised themselves to become prominent leaders of a new generation of mafiosi in the 1950s and 1960s who made their fortune in real estate transactions, cigarette smuggling and heroin trafficking. The brothers were bent on transcending the indignities of their poverty. Angelo la Barbera became the protégé of a local Mafia boss, and by 1952 they had organized a building supply company. They then murdered the right-hand man to the contractor Salvatore Moncada, so that they could become the construction entrepreneur’s lieutenants.Schneider & Schneider, ''Reversible Destiny'', p. 62 By 1955 Angelo La Barbera had become the vice-boss and de facto head of the Palermo Centro cosca. One of the La Barbera’s hitmen was
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 ...
, who subsequently became a
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 ...
(collaborating witness) in 1984. Still in his thirties, Angelo la Barbera began acting like a man of affairs, acquiring bulldozers, trucks and other construction equipment as well as apartment buildings. Generous and charming, he assumed the life style of a
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
of the 1930s, with new cars, luxurious clothes and frequent visits to Milan and Rome, where he stayed in the best hotels, surrounded by beautiful women. Buscetta remembers Angelo La Barbera as "arrogant and haughty". The La Barbera brothers together with other upstart Mafia bosses like
Pietro Torretta Pietro Torretta (ca. 1912 – October 3, 1975) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Uditore district in Palermo and one of the protagonists in the First Mafia War. He was initially considered to be the m ...
and their henchmen formed the so-called ‘New Mafia’ which adopted new gangster techniques. Other smaller cosche came to recognize the supremacy of these bosses – a supremacy achieved by sheer violence. Men who were starting their ‘careers’ in their shadow were forming into new generation of mafiosi; they had initiative, and the road to leadership of a
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 ...
had suddenly become quicker and available to those who were fast with their
tommy-gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, Magazine-fed rifle, magazine-fed Selective fire, selective-fire subm ...
s. One of these upstarts was
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 ...
, another was
Gerlando Alberti Gerlando Alberti (; September 18, 1927 – February 1, 2012), nicknamed ("the imperturbable one"), Lodato, ''Quindici anni di mafia'', pp. 47-50 was a member of the Sicilian Mafia.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 (DC -
Democrazia Cristiana Christian Democracy ( it, Democrazia Cristiana, DC) was a Christian democratic political party in Italy. The DC was founded on 15 December 1943 in the Italian Social Republic (Nazi-occupied Italy) as the ideal successor of the Italian People's ...
) – in particular with
Salvo 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'' ...
, the mayor of Palermo from 1958-1963.L' impero siciliano di Salvo Lima & C.
La Repubblica, November 14, 1986
In 1964, during an investigation, Lima had to admit that he knew Angelo La Barbera. According to Buscetta, Lima’s father, Vincenzo Lima, was a "man of honour" of the Palermo Centro Mafia family that was led by the La Barbera brothers.
Sentenza primo grado processo Andreotti di Palermo, 23 ottobre 1999.
Lima's election was supported by the La Barbera clan.Jamieson, ''The Antimafia'', p. 221 Their candidate in the national parliament was
Giovanni Gioia Giovanni Gioia (16 January 1925 – 27 November 1981) was an Italian politician. Biography Giovanni Gioia was grandson of the industrialist Filippo Pecoraino and had kinship relationships with Tagliavia shipowners. Gioia was one of the most infl ...
. Lima’s period as mayor of Palermo was later referred to as the "
Sack of Palermo The Sack of Palermo is the popular term for the construction boom from the 1950s through the mid-1980s in Palermo, Italy, that led to the destruction of the city's green belt and historic villas to make way for characterless and shoddily-constructe ...
" because the construction boom led to the destruction of the city's green belt and villas that gave it architectural grace, to make way for characterless and shoddily constructed apartment blocks. In the meantime Palermo’s historical centre was allowed to crumble. The La Barbera's were connected to the leading construction entrepreneur
Francesco Vassallo Francesco Vassallo a.k.a. don Ciccolo, don Frankie or King Concrete (born c. 1910) was an Italian entrepreneur that associated with Mafia in the 1950s. His son Giuseppe "Pino" Vassallo was kidnapped in 1971. References Further reading * * ...
. In five years, 4,000 building licences were signed, more than half of them in the names of three pensioners who acted as front men and had no connection with construction at all.Servadio, ''Mafioso'', p. 204-06


Heroin trafficking

The La Barbera brothers were present at a series of meetings between top American and Sicilian mafiosi that took place 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 ...
between October 12–16, 1957, in hotel Delle Palme 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 ...
.
Joseph 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 ...
,
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 ...
, John Bonventre, Frank Garofalo,
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 ...
and
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 ...
were among the American mafiosi present, while among the Sicilian side there were
Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco (; 13 January 1923 – 7 March 1978) was a powerful mafioso and boss of the Sicilian Mafia Family in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo famous for its citrus fruit groves, where he was born. His nickname was "Ci ...
and his cousin
Salvatore Greco "The Engineer" Salvatore may refer to: * Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name * "Salvatore" (song), by Lana Del Rey, 2015 * Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrumental rock band * '' Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams' ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
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 ...
. One of the issues at the meetings was the organisation of heroin trafficking to the United States. In 1960 Angelo La Barbera was spotted in
Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
and subsequently expelled from the United States and Canada for allegedly organising trafficking in
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 ...
. According to Buscetta, La Barbera tried to smuggle heroin from Mexico into the US, but was stopped by
Carlo Gambino Carlo Gambino (; August 24, 1902 – October 15, 1976) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Gambino crime family. After the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission o ...
, the boss of the powerful
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 ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, who threatened to kill him if he would proceed.


On the Commission

Salvatore La Barbera became a member of the first
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 ...
when it was set up somewhere in 1958. However, the La Barbera’s soon ran into trouble with the Commission, when the contractor Moncada (formerly La Barbera’s patron) complained before the Commission that the La Barberas overcharged him on building supplies. The Commission decided in Moncada’s favour and ordered Angelo La Barbera to give up the leadership of the Palermo Centro family—which he refused to do. Angelo La Barbera refused to recognize the authority of the Commission over his family altogether.Schneider & Schneider, ''Reversible Destiny'', p. 64


First Mafia War

The La Barbera brothers were the protagonists in a bloody conflict between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s. Known as the
First Mafia War 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 ...
—a second started in the early 1980s—the struggle was about wresting control of Palermo’s rackets in the markets, sale of building-sites, construction and heroin trade to North America from the older Mafia. The conflict erupted over an underweight shipment of heroin.
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 ...
, the Greco cousins from Ciaculli and the La Barbera brothers had financed the shipment. Suspicion fell on
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 ...
, who had collected the heroin for Manzella from the Corsican supplier, Pascal Molinelli, and had organised the transport to Manzella’s partners in New York.Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 57 The case was brought before the Mafia Commission, but disagreement on how to handle it, and old hostility towards the La Barberas, led to a bloody conflict, between clans allied with the Grecos, headed by
Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" Salvatore may refer to: * Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name * "Salvatore" (song), by Lana Del Rey, 2015 * Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrumental rock band * '' Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams' ...
, and clans allied with the La Barberas. What sparked a series of attacks and counter-attacks was the killing of Di Pisa on December 26, 1962. The Grecos suspected Salvatore and Angelo La Barbera of the attack,Schneider & Schneider, ''Reversible Destiny'', p. 65-66Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 103-04 although the one behind it was in fact another mafioso,
Michele Cavataio Michele Cavataio (18 March 1929 – 10 December 1969), also known as ''Il cobra'' (The cobra) was an Italian mobster and powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Acquasanta mandamento in Palermo and was a member of the first S ...
, as he tried to pit the Grecos and La Barberas against one another for his own goals. On January 17, 1963, Salvatore La Barbera disappeared and was never heard of again. Angelo La Barbera also disappeared, but two weeks later he reappeared 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 ...
, in the north of Italy, giving a press conference. The involvement of the media in Mafia affairs was unheard of at the time. Meanwhile La Barbera tried to retaliate, but the rival clans were closing in. On May 25, 1963, he was shot in Milan and severely wounded. He was arrested in the hospital.Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', pp. 311-13 Buscetta admits to having accepted a contract to kill Angelo La Barbera, but claims that someone else carried out the shooting in Milan before he could.Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', pp. 314-15 On June 30, 1963, a car bomb in
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 Grec ...
killed seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The outrage over 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 Salvator ...
changed the Mafia war into a war against the Mafia. It prompted the first concerted anti-Mafia efforts by the state in post-war Italy. 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 ...
was dissolved and of those mafiosi who had escaped arrest many went abroad.Servadio, ''Mafioso'', p. 181.


Trial and death

Angelo La Barbera was charged with seven murders.Italy, Trying 121, Seeks to Smash Mafia
The New York Times, November 17, 1967

The New York Times, November 19, 1967
He was one of the few mafiosi who received a heavy sentence at the
Trial of the 114 The 1960s Sicilian Mafia trials took place at the end of that decade in response to a rise in organized crime violence around the late 1950s and early 1960s. There were three major trials, each featuring multiple defendants, that saw hundreds of al ...
against the Mafia 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 ...
in December 1968. He was sentenced to 22 years, but appealed.73 Mafia Gangsters Given Prison Sentences in Italy
The New York Times, December 24, 1968
In May 1970, a government decree established that defendants whose sentences had not yet become final after they had been held without bail for four to six years had to be released provisionally pending their appeals. La Barbera was one of the benefactors and had to post USD 1,400 bail.
The New York Times, June 11, 1970
Pending the appeal, he was sent into banishment in the North of Italy and later to
Linosa Linosa (; scn, Linusa; ar, نموشة, ''Nammūša'') is one of the Pelagie Islands in the Sicily Channel of the Mediterranean Sea. The island is a part of the Italian comune of Lampedusa e Linosa, part of the province of Agrigento in Sicily, ...
, a remote island off the coast of Sicily. When he was finally locked up in a prison in
Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...
in 1975 three mafiosi stabbed him to death on October 28, 1975.Come i 3 hanno organizzato il loro attacco a La Barbera
La Stampa, October 29, 1975
By then his power and influence had declined sharply. The Mafia family he had led was dissolved. According to newspaper reports the murder was probably ordered by the Greco cousins. Mafia expert and journalist
Michele Pantaleone Michele Pantaleone (30 November 1911 – 12 February 2002) was a respected journalist and expert on the Sicilian Mafia and one of the first to shed light on the links between organized crime and political power. Pantaleone was born in Villal ...
claimed that La Barbera was eliminated because he might have threatened to reveal involvement of politicians with the Mafia.Sarebbe giunto dal Marocco l'ordine di assassinare nel carcere la Barbera
La Stampa, November 1, 1975


Biography

*Servadio, Gaia (1974). ''Angelo La Barbera: the profile of a Mafia boss'', London: Quartet Books, 1974.


References

*Dickie, John (2004).
Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia
', London: Coronet, * Lewis, Norman (1964/2003).
Honoured Society: The Sicilian Mafia Observed
', London: Eland *Servadio, Gaia (1976). ''Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day'', London: Secker & Warburg *Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003).
Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo
', Berkeley: University of California Press *Shawcross, Tim & Martin Young (1987). ''Men Of Honour: The Confessions Of Tommaso Buscetta'', London: Collins *Sterling, Claire (1990). ''Octopus. How the long reach of the Sicilian Mafia controls the global narcotics trade'', New York: Simon & Schuster, * Stille, Alexander (1995). ''Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic'', New York: Vintage {{DEFAULTSORT:La Barbera, Angelo 1924 births 1975 deaths Gangsters from Palermo Sicilian mafiosi Sicilian Mafia Commission Murdered Mafiosi People murdered in Italy Italian people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in Italian detention