Gaetano Grado (born in Palermo, 8 March 1943) is an Italian mafioso from

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 ...

. He was a member of the Santa Maria di Gesù family under

Stefano Bontade Stefano Bontade (23 April 1939 – 23 April 1981) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. His actual surname was Bontate. He was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. He was also known as the ''Principe di Villagrazia'' (Prin ...

until his arrest, after which he became a justice collaborator.

Biography

Gaetano Grado and his brother Antonino Grado were among the trusted men of the Mafia faction led by

. Jointly with his brothers Vincenzo, Salvatore, Giacomo and Antonio, started to import

morphine Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...

base from

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in 1975, which was refined into

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 ...

in laboratories run by Santa Maria di Gesù Mafia family on Sicily, and subsequently trafficked into the United States.Calvi, ''L'Europe des Parrains'', pp. 204-07 Gaetano was a feared killer, and once killed a group of teenagers only because they were making noise in a restaurant he was dining and interrupting his meal: two of them were strangled and the remaining three gunned down. For his reputation Grado was among the soldiers of Stefano Bontade, alongside

Emanuele D'Agostino Emanuele is the Italian form of Manuel. People with the name include: * Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia (1915–1944), Italian aviator * Emanuele Basile (1949–1980), captain of Carabinieri * Emanuele Belardi (born 1977), Italian football player * Ema ...

, sent to assassinate the Mafia boss

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 ...

in what later became known as the

Viale Lazio massacre The Viale Lazio massacre on 10 December 1969 was a settling of accounts in the Sicilian Mafia. Mafia boss Michele Cavataio and three men were killed in the Viale Lazio in Palermo, Sicily, by a Mafia hit squad. The bloodbath marked the end of a ' ...

on December 10, 1969.La strage di viale Lazio spiegata dal pentito chiave
LiveSicilia, April 28, 2009 Grado murdered

Giuseppe Graviano Giuseppe Graviano (; September 30, 1963) is an Italian Sicilian Mafia, mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He also was one the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life se ...

's father in 1982 because the Graviano were killing the Contornos and Grados.era indiziato di avere ucciso il padre dei Graviano
L'espresso In the following years, Grado was among the first who became suspicious of the danger of

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 ...

, and recommended to his boss

that Riina be eliminated before he became a serious threat to their organization. Bontade however was not yet convinced of Riina's treachery and ordered Grado to help Riina in his attempts to hide from the state, as he was at the time wanted for murder. When the

Second Mafia War The Second Mafia War was a period of conflict involving the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and involved thousands of homicides. Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the ''Mattanza'' (Italian ...

started, Grado fought the Corleonesi but soon fled for

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

when his boss, Stefano Bontade was murdered. He came back to Sicily when his brother Antonino was killed by the Corleonesi to prevent him from hiding his cousin Contorno, and he murdered several of the Corleonesi's associates such as Salvatore Zarcone and Pietro Messicati, until he was arrested by the Italian police alongside his cousin

Salvatore Contorno Salvatore Contorno (; born 28 May 1946), called Totuccio, is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned into a state witness (''pentito'') against Cosa Nostra in October 1984, following the example of Tommaso Buscetta. He gave detailed acco ...

. While in prison he decided to become an informant for the state (

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 ...

): he admitted all of his crimes, explaining to them in detail and revealing information that was previously unknown to prosecutors, including the dynamics of the Viale Lazio massacre, as Grado was one of the involved hitmen.

References

* Calvi, Fabrizio (1993). ''L'Europe des Parrains: La Mafia à l'assaut de l'Europe'', Paris: Grasset & Fasquelle, {{DEFAULTSORT:Grado, Gaetano Living people Gangsters from Palermo Pentiti Italian exiles 1943 births