Salvatore Riina (; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called Totò (
sicilian diminutive
A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
of Salvatore), was an Italian
mobster
A gangster (informally gangsta) 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 ...
and chief of the
Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...
, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of
Antimafia Commission prosecutors
Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
and
Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of ...
, resulting in widespread public outcry, legal change and a major crackdown by the authorities. He was also known by the nicknames ''la belva'' ("the beast") and ''il
capo dei capi'' (Sicilian: ''
'u capu di 'i capi'', "the boss of bosses").
Riina succeeded
Luciano Leggio as head of the
Corleonesi
The Corleonesi Mafia clan was a faction within the Corleone family of the Sicilian Mafia, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio, Salvatore Riina, Bernardo Provenzano, and Leoluca Bagarella.
Corleonesi affiliates wer ...
criminal organisation in the mid-1970s and achieved dominance through a campaign of violence, which caused police to target his rivals. Riina had been a fugitive since the late 1960s after he was indicted on a murder charge. He was less vulnerable to law enforcement's reaction to his methods, as the policing removed many of the established chiefs who had traditionally sought influence through
bribery
Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...
. In violation of established Mafia codes, Riina advocated the killing of women and children and killed innocent members of the public solely to distract law enforcement agencies.
Hitman
Giovanni Brusca estimated he murdered between 100 and 200 people on behalf of Riina. Although this
scorched-earth
A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy of destroying everything that allows an enemy military force to be able to fight a war, including the deprivation and destruction of water, food, humans, animals, plants and any kind of tools and i ...
policy neutralized any internal threat to Riina's position, he increasingly showed a lack of his earlier guile by bringing his organisation into open confrontation with the state. As part of the
Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial () was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 (the first day of the Corte d'Assise) to 30 January 1992 (the final day of the Supreme Court of Cassati ...
of 1986, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment ''
in absentia
''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the f ...
'' for Mafia association and multiple murders. After 23 years of living as a fugitive, he was captured in 1993, provoking a series of indiscriminate bombings of art galleries and churches by his organisation. His lack of repentance subjected him to the stringent
Article 41-bis prison regime
In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act, also known as carcere duro ("hard prison regime"), is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations and impose ...
until his death on 17 November 2017.
Early life and career
Riina was born on 16 November 1930, and raised in a poverty-stricken countryside house in
Corleone
Corleone (; or ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily.
Many Sicilian Mafia, Mafia bosses both in Sicily and the United States have come from the town of Corleone, inclu ...
, in the then-
province of Palermo. In September 1943, his father Giovanni found an unexploded American bomb and attempted to open it to sell the powder and metal, but in doing so, set it off, killing himself and Riina's seven-year-old brother Francesco, while injuring his other brother Gaetano. At the age of 19, Riina was sentenced to a 12-year prison sentence for having killed Domenico Di Matteo with a handgun in a fight; he was released in 1956.
The head of the
Mafia family in Corleone was
Michele Navarra until 6 August 1958, when he was shot dead by a trio of gunmen with submachine guns on the orders of
Luciano Leggio, a ruthless 33-year-old Mafioso, who subsequently became the new
boss. Together with Riina,
Calogero Bagarella and
Bernardo Provenzano (who were the three gunmen in Navarra's slaying), Leggio began to increase the power of the
Corleonesi
The Corleonesi Mafia clan was a faction within the Corleone family of the Sicilian Mafia, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio, Salvatore Riina, Bernardo Provenzano, and Leoluca Bagarella.
Corleonesi affiliates wer ...
.
In the early 1960s, Leggio, Riina and Provenzano, who had spent the previous few years hunting down and killing dozens of Navarra's surviving supporters, were forced to go into hiding due to arrest warrants. Riina and Leggio were arrested and
tried in 1969 for murders carried out earlier that decade. They were acquitted because of intimidation of the
jurors and witnesses. Riina went into hiding later that year after he was indicted on a further murder charge and was to remain a fugitive for the next 23 years.
[
On 16 May 1974, Leggio was captured and imprisoned for the 1958 murder of Navarra. Although Leggio retained some influence from behind bars, Riina was now the effective head of the Corleonesi. He also had close relations with the ]'Ndrangheta
The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...
, the Mafia-type association in Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
. His ''compare d'anello'' (a kind of best man and trusted friend, typical of the Southern Italian tradition) at his wedding in 1974 was Domenico Tripodo, a powerful 'Ndrangheta boss and prolific cigarette smuggler.[E ora la 'ndrangheta supera cosa nostra: Intervista a Enzo Ciconte]
, Polizia e democrazia, November–December 2007
The Corleonesi's primary rivals were Stefano Bontade, Salvatore Inzerillo and Tano Badalamenti, bosses of various powerful Palermo Mafia families. Bontade and Inzerillo's assassinations in 1981 by Riina's Corleonesi instigated a period of up to a thousand murders known as the Second Mafia War. By the end of the war, the Corleonesi were effectively ruling the Mafia, and over the next few years Riina increased his influence by eliminating the Corleonesi's allies, such as Filippo Marchese, Giuseppe Greco and Rosario Riccobono. In January 1981, Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was a high-ranking 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 p ...
fled to Brazil to escape the brewing Second Mafia War.
Mafia leadership
Allegations of political influence
Prior to Riina's faction becoming the dominant force on the island, the Sicilian Mafia were based in Palermo, where they controlled large numbers of votes, enabling mutually beneficial relationships with local political figures such as mayors of Palermo Vito Ciancimino
Vito Alfio Ciancimino (; 2 April 1924 – 19 November 2002) was an Politics of Italy, Italian politician close to the Mafia leadership who became known for enriching himself and his associates by corruptly granting planning permission. An abra ...
and Salvatore Lima. Ciancimino, who was born in Corleone
Corleone (; or ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily.
Many Sicilian Mafia, Mafia bosses both in Sicily and the United States have come from the town of Corleone, inclu ...
, corruptly allowed untrammelled property development on the well-known valley known as the "Golden Bowl" ('' Conca d'Oro''), amassing a vast fortune in the process. Lima granted a valuable monopoly concession on tax collection to Mafia businessman Ignazio Salvo, and was instrumental in Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
-based Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti ( ; ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and wikt:statesman, statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992), and was leader of th ...
becoming a force in national politics. In his turn, Salvo acted as financier to Andreotti.
These connections caused some to suspect that Riina had forged similar links with Andreotti, although the courts acquitted Andreotti of associations with the Mafia after 1980. Baldassare Di Maggio alleged that Riina met with the then Prime Minister Andreotti at Salvo's home in 1987 and greeted him with a "kiss of honour".[Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 392][Le dichiarazioni di Baldassare Di Maggio]
in Sentenza Andreotti Andreotti dismissed the charges against him as "lies and slander … the kiss of Riina, mafia summits … scenes out of a comic horror film".[ Veteran journalist Indro Montanelli doubted the claim, saying Andreotti "doesn't even kiss his own children".][, ''Time'', 3 June 1996] Di Maggio's credibility had been shaken in the closing weeks of the Andreotti trial, when he admitted killing a man while under state protection.
Appellate court judges rejected Di Maggio's testimony.[, ''The Independent'', 26 July 2003]
Strategy of violence
Whereas his predecessors had kept a low profile, leading some in law enforcement to question the very existence of the Mafia, Riina ordered the murders of judges, policemen and prosecutors in an attempt to terrify the authorities. A law to create a new offence of Mafia association and confiscate Mafia assets was introduced by Pio La Torre, secretary of the Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
in Sicily, but it had been stalled in parliament for two years. La Torre was murdered on 30 April 1982. In May 1982, the Italian government sent Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, a general of the Italian Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...
, to Sicily with orders to crush the Mafia. However, not long after arriving, on the evening of 3 September 1982, he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in the city centre with his wife, Emanuela Setti Carraro, and his police escort, Domenico Russo. In response to public disquiet about the failure to effectively combat the organisation Riina headed, La Torre's law was passed ten days later.[Inside The Mafia](_blank)
, National Geographic Channel, June 2005. On 11 September 1982, Buscetta's two sons from his first wife, Benedetto and Antonio, disappeared, never to be found again, which prompted his collaboration with Italian authorities. This was followed by the deaths of his brother Vincenzo, son-in-law Giuseppe Genova, brother-in-law Pietro and four of his nephews, Domenico and Benedetto Buscetta, and Orazio and Antonio D'Amico. Buscetta was arrested in São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
, Brazil once again on 23 October 1983, and extradited to Italy on 15 July 1984. Buscetta asked to talk to the anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
, and began his life as an informant, referred to as 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 ...
''.
Christmas Massacre
Buscetta was the first high-profile Sicilian Mafioso to become an informant; he revealed that the Mafia was a single organisation led by a Commission
In-Commission or commissioning may refer to:
Business and contracting
* Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered
** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...
, or ''Cupola'' (Dome), thereby establishing that the top tier of Mafia members were complicit in all the organisation's crimes. Buscetta helped judges Falcone and Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of ...
achieve significant success in the fight against organized crime
Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...
that led to 475 Mafia members indicted, and 338 convicted in the Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial () was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 (the first day of the Corte d'Assise) to 30 January 1992 (the final day of the Supreme Court of Cassati ...
.
In an attempt to divert investigative resources away from Buscetta's key revelations, Riina ordered a terrorist-style atrocity in the form of the 23 December 1984 Train 904 bombing; 17 people were killed and 267 wounded in the Apennine Base Tunnel. It became known as the "Christmas Massacre" (''Strage di Natale'') and was initially attributed to political extremists. It was only several years later, when police stumbled on explosives of the same type as used in Train 904 while searching the hideout of Giuseppe Calò, that it became apparent that the Mafia had been behind the attack.[Rapido 904: "Un intreccio tra mafia, camorra e politica"]
, ''Il Fatto Quotidiano'', 27 April 2011
Assassination of Falcone and Borsellino
As part of the Maxi Trial, Riina was given two life sentences
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...
''in absentia''.[ Riina pinned his prospects on the lengthy appeal process that had frequently set convicted mafiosi free, and he suspended the campaign of murders against officials while the cases went to higher courts. When the convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court of Cassation On 30 January 1992,][Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and the Procura of Palermo]
, Peter Schneider & Jane Schneider, May 2002, essay is based on excerpts from Chapter Six of Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider, Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia and the Struggle for Palermo, Berkeley: U. of California Press the council of top bosses headed by Riina reacted by ordering the assassination of Salvatore Lima (on the grounds that he was an ally of Giulio Andreotti), and Giovanni Falcone.
On 23 May 1992, Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three police officers died in the Capaci bombing on highway A29 outside Palermo. Two months later, Borsellino was killed along with five police officers in the entrance to his mother's apartment block by a car bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roug ...
in via D'Amelio. Both attacks were ordered by Riina. Ignazio Salvo, who had advised Riina against killing Falcone, was himself murdered on 17 September 1992. The public was outraged, both at the Mafia and also the politicians who they felt had failed to adequately protect Falcone and Borsellino. The Italian government arranged for a massive crackdown against the Mafia in response.
Riina was given a life sentence for each of Falcone's and Borsellino's murders, in 1997 and 1999 respectively.
Claims of negotiations with the government
Giovanni Brusca later claimed that Riina had told him that after the assassination of Falcone, Riina had been in negotiations with the government. Former interior minister Nicola Mancino
Nicola Mancino (born 15 October 1931) is an Italian politician who served as president of the Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senate of the Republic from 1996 to 2001. He was also president of Campania's regional parliament from 1965 to 1971, g ...
said this was not true. In July 2012, Mancino was ordered to stand trial on charges of withholding evidence about alleged 1992 talks between the Italian state and the Mafia.[Italy: Ex-interior minister implicated in mafia negotiations]
, AND Kronos International, 25 July 2012 Some prosecutors have theorized that Borsellino's murder was connected to the alleged negotiations. In 1992, Carabinieri Colonel Mario Mori met with Vito Ciancimino
Vito Alfio Ciancimino (; 2 April 1924 – 19 November 2002) was an Politics of Italy, Italian politician close to the Mafia leadership who became known for enriching himself and his associates by corruptly granting planning permission. An abra ...
, who was close to Riina's lieutenant Bernardo Provenzano. Mori was later investigated on suspicion of posing a danger to the state after it was alleged he had taken a list of Riina's demands that Ciancimino had passed on. Mori maintained his contacts with Ciancimino were aimed at combating the Mafia and catching Riina, and there had been no list. Mori also said Ciancimino had disclosed little beyond implicitly admitting he knew Mafia members, and that key meetings were after Borsellino's death.
Capture
Riina reprimanded Balduccio Di Maggio, an ambitious mafioso who had left his wife and children for a mistress, telling him he would never be made a full boss. Knowing Riina would order the death of subordinates whom he considered unreliable, Di Maggio fled Sicily in 1992 and collaborated with the Carabinieri police after he was arrested on 8 January 1993 in Novara
Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...
. On 11 January Di Maggio returned to Sicily under the custody of the Carabinieri operative squad because he could recognize Riina despite having been a fugitive since 1969. On 12 January, Di Maggio recognized a complex of villas located in via Bernini 54 in Palermo, where they assumed Riina lived. On 14 January, the Carabinieri special operational squad, led by Captain Sergio De Caprio (nicknamed "capitano ultimo"), began the surveillance activity around the complex of villas in via Bernini, aboard a white mimetized van (nicknamed "balena"), the same evening De Caprio showed to Di Maggio the surveillance tape of that day, from which he recognized Riina's wife, Ninetta Bagarella, exiting with her children in a Volkswagen Golf
The Volkswagen Golf () is a compact car/ small family car ( C-segment) produced by the German automotive manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across eight generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplate ...
driven by a bodyguard. On the morning of 15 January 1993, at 8:55 am, Di Maggio, recognized Salvatore Riina exiting the housing complex in a grey Citroën Zx
The Citroën ZX is a Compact car, small family car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1991 and 1998.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the ZX was Citroën's entry in the class traditionally dominated in Europe by the Ford Escort ( ...
, driven by his driver, Salvatore Biondino. After that, De Caprio and his men followed the car, blocked it at a roundabout in viale della Regione Siciliana, and arrested Riina and Biondino.
Terror attacks
After Riina's capture, numerous terror attacks were ordered as a warning to its members to not turn state's witness
In law, a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or claim to know.
A witness might be compelled to provide testimony in court, before a grand jur ...
, and in response to the overruling of the Article 41-bis prison regime
In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act, also known as carcere duro ("hard prison regime"), is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations and impose ...
.[The Olive Tree of Peace: The massacre in via dei Georgofili]
, The Florentine, 24 May 2012) On 14 May 1993, television host Maurizio Costanzo
Maurizio Costanzo (28 August 1938 – 24 February 2023) was an Italian television host, journalist, screenwriter, and film director.
Biography
Costanzo began his career as a journalist, first as a contributing writer to '' Paese Sera'' and the ...
, who had expressed delight at the arrest of Riina, was almost killed by a bomb as he drove down a Rome street; 23 people were injured. The explosion was part of a series. Less than a fortnight later, on 27 May, a bomb under the Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
Torre dei Pulci killed five people: Fabrizio Nencini and his wife Angelamaria; their daughters, nine-year-old Nadia and two-month-old Caterina; and Dario Capolicchio, aged 20. Thirty-three people were injured.[ Attacks on art galleries and churches left ten dead and many injured, causing outrage among Italians. Some investigators believed that most of those who carried out murders for Cosa Nostra answered solely to Leoluca Bagarella, and that consequently Bagarella actually wielded more power than Bernardo Provenzano, who was Riina's formal successor. Provenzano reportedly protested about the terroristic attacks, but Bagarella responded sarcastically, telling Provenzano to wear a sign saying "I don't have anything to do with the massacres".
]
Further controversies
Giovanni Brusca—one of Riina's hitmen who detonated the bomb that killed Falcone, and later became an informant after his 1996 arrest—has offered a controversial version of the capture of Riina: a secret deal between Carabinieri officers, secret agents and Cosa Nostra bosses tired of the dictatorship of the Corleonesi. According to Brusca, Provenzano sold Riina in exchange for the valuable archive of compromising material that Riina held in his house in Via Bernini 54, in Palermo.[Schneider & Schneider, ''Reversible Destiny'', p. 156][Lodato, ''Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone'', pp. 135–37]
The Carabinieri's ROS (''Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale
The Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale (ROS), or Special Operations Group, is part of the Italian Carabinieri.
History
Founded on 3 December 1990 to coordinate investigative activities against organized crime, it is now the main investigative arm ...
'') persuaded the Palermo Public Prosecutor's Office not to immediately search Riina's house, and then abandoned surveillance of the house after six hours leaving it unprotected. The house was only raided 18 days later but it had been completely emptied. According to the Carabinieri commanders, the house was abandoned because they did not consider it to be important, and they never told the prosecutor to be willing to maintain the surveillance during the following days.
This version of Riina's arrest has been denied by Carabinieri commander, general (at the time deputy head of the ROS). Mori confirmed that channels of communication were opened with Cosa Nostra through Vito Ciancimino
Vito Alfio Ciancimino (; 2 April 1924 – 19 November 2002) was an Politics of Italy, Italian politician close to the Mafia leadership who became known for enriching himself and his associates by corruptly granting planning permission. An abra ...
– a former mayor of Palermo convicted for Mafia association – who was close to the Corleonesi. To sound out the willingness of Mafiosi to talk, Ciancimino contacted Riina's private doctor, . When Ciancimino was informed that the goal was to arrest Riina, he seemed unwilling to continue. At this point, the arrest and cooperation of Balduccio Di Maggio led to the arrest of Riina. In 2006, the Palermo Court acquitted Mario Mori and Captain "Ultimo" () – the man who arrested Riina – of the charge of consciously aiding and abetting the Mafia.
According to an FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
memo revealed in 2007, leaders of the Five Families
The Five Families refer to five American Mafia, Italian American Mafia Crime family, crime families that operate in New York City. In 1931, the five families were Organized crime, organized by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the C ...
voted in late 1986 on whether to issue a contract for the death of then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...
. Heads of the Lucchese, Bonanno, and Genovese families rejected the idea, though Colombo
Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...
and Gambino leaders, Carmine Persico and John Gotti
John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 ( , ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American '' mafioso'' and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambin ...
, encouraged assassination. In 2014, it was revealed by former Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...
member and informant, Rosario Naimo, that Riina had ordered a murder contract on Giuliani during the mid-1980s. Riina allegedly was suspicious of Giuliani's efforts to prosecute the American Mafia and was worried that he might have spoken with Italian anti-mafia prosecutors and politicians, including Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
and Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of ...
, who were both murdered in 1992 in separate car bombings. According to Giuliani, the Sicilian Mafia offered $800,000 for his death during his first year as mayor of New York in 1994.
In November 2009, – the son of Vito Ciancimino – said that Provenzano betrayed the whereabouts of Riina. Police sent maps of Palermo to Vito Ciancimino. One of these was delivered to Provenzano, then a Mafia fugitive. Ciancimino said the map was returned by Provenzano, who indicated the precise location of Riina's hiding place.[Boss Riina 'betrayed' by Provenzano]
, ANSA, 5 November 2009[Italy: Top Mafia fugitive 'betrayed' by boss]
, Adnkronos International, 5 November 2009
Prison
Riina was held in a maximum-security prison in Parma
Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...
with limited contact with the outside world in order to prevent him from running his organization from behind bars. Assets were confiscated from Riina, and his vast mansion was also acquired by the anti-Mafia mayor of Corleone in 1997. The mansion was subsequently converted into a police office and opened in 2015. In total, Riina was given 26 life sentences, and served his sentence in solitary confinement.
In mid-March 2003, he underwent surgery for heart problems and in May of the same year he was admitted to a hospital in Ascoli Piceno
Ascoli Piceno (; ; ) is a (municipality) and capital of the province of Ascoli Piceno, in the Italy, Italian region of Marche.
Geography
The town lies at the confluence of the Tronto, River Tronto and the small Castellano (river), River Castell ...
due to a heart attack. Later that September, he was again hospitalized for heart problems.[ In 2006, he was transferred to the Opera prison in Milan and, again due to heart problems, was admitted to the San Paolo hospital in Milan. On 4 March 2014, he was hospitalized again. On 31 August 2014, newspapers reported that in November of the previous year, Riina was also threatening against Luigi Ciotti.
In 2017, Riina's lawyers applied to the Bologna Surveillance Court for the deferral of the sentence to ]house arrest
House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...
, submitting the precarious state of health of Riina as a reason. On 19 July, the Tribunal denied this request.
List of trials
* In 1987, in the Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial () was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 (the first day of the Corte d'Assise) to 30 January 1992 (the final day of the Supreme Court of Cassati ...
, Riina was sentenced ''in absentia
''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the f ...
'' to life imprisonment together with Bernardo Provenzano and 17 other mob bosses.
* In 1992, he was sentenced ''in absentia
''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the f ...
'' to life imprisonment together with Francesco Madonia, for the murder of police captain Emanuele Basile.
* In 1993, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the 1989 murders of the boss Vincenzo Puccio and his brother Pietro.
* In 1994, he was sentenced to another life sentence for the murder of Pietro Buscetta, brother-in-law of pentito Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was a high-ranking 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 p ...
.
* In 1995, he was sentenced to another life sentence for the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Russo, together with Bernardo Provenzano, Michele Greco
Michele Greco (; 12 May 1924 – 13 February 2008) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia and a convicted murderer. Greco died in prison while serving multiple life sentences. His nickname was ''Il Papa'' ("The Pope") due to his ability to mediate b ...
and Leoluca Bagarella.
*The same year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of commissioners Giuseppe Montana and Ninni Cassarà
Antonino "Ninni" Cassarà (; May 7, 1947 – August 6, 1985) was an Italian policeman killed by Cosa Nostra.
Life
Born in Palermo on May 7, 1947, he was Commissioner in Reggio Calabria and then in Trapani, where he learned about Giovanni ...
, together with Michele Greco, Bernardo Brusca, Francesco Madonia and Bernardo Provenzano.[
* The same year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of ]Piersanti Mattarella
Piersanti Mattarella (; 24 May 1935 – 6 January 1980) was an Italian politician who was Assassination, assassinated by Sicilian Mafia, the Mafia while he held the position of Politics of Sicily, President of the Regional Government of Sicily. A ...
, Pio La Torre, Rosario di Salvo and Michele Reina, together with Michele Greco, Bernardo Brusca, Bernardo Provenzano, Giuseppe Calò, Francesco Madonia and Nenè Geraci.[
* In 1995, in the trial for the murder of General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, Boris Giuliano, and Paolo Giaccone, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Bernardo Provenzano, Giuseppe Calò, Bernardo Brusca, Francesco Madonia, Nenè Geraci and Francesco Spadaro.
* In 1996, he was again sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Judge Antonino Scopelliti together with the bosses Giuseppe Calò, Francesco Madonia, Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino, Giuseppe Lucchese, Bernardo Brusca, Salvatore Montalto, Salvatore Buscemi, Nenè Geraci and Pietro Aglieri.][
* In 1997, in the trial for the Capaci bombing in which the judge ]Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
, his wife Francesca Morvillo and their escort of Antonio Montinaro, Vito Schifani and Rocco Di Cillo, lost their lives, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment together with the bosses Bernardo Provenzano, Pietro Aglieri, Bernardo Brusca, Giuseppe Calò, Raffaele Ganci, Nenè Geraci, Benedetto Spera, Nitto Santapaola, Salvatore Montalto, Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano (; 30 September 1963) is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He also was one of the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life sentences. He ...
and Matteo Motisi.[
*The same year, in the trial for the murder of Judge Cesare Terranova, Riina received another life sentence along with Michele Greco, Bernardo Brusca, Giuseppe Calò, Nenè Geraci, Francesco Madonia and Bernardo Provenzano.][Ecco chi uccise Terranova]
, Corriere della Sera, 4 June 1997
* In 1998, he was sentenced to life imprisonment together with the boss Mariano Agate for the murder of judge Giangiacomo Ciaccio Montalto.
* The same year, in the trial for the murder of the politician Salvo Lima, he was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Francesco Madonia, Bernardo Brusca, Giuseppe Calò, Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano (; 30 September 1963) is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He also was one of the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life sentences. He ...
, Pietro Aglieri, Salvatore Montalto, Giuseppe Montalto, Salvatore Buscemi, Nenè Geraci, Raffaele Ganci, Giuseppe Farinella, Benedetto Spera, Antonino Giuffrè
Antonino "Nino" Giuffrè (; born 21 July 1945) is an Italian former mafioso who later became a justice collaborator. The head of the mandamento of Caccamo, he was the second-highest ranked member of Cosa Nostra. He became one of the most importa ...
, Salvatore Biondino, Michelangelo La Barbera, Simone Scalici, while Salvatore Cancemi and Giovanni Brusca were sentenced to 18 years in prison and the collaborators of Justice Francesco Onorato and Giovan Battista Ferrante (who confessed to the crime) were sentenced to 13 years as material perpetrators of the ambush. In 2003, the Cassation annulled the sentence to life imprisonment for Pietro Aglieri, Giuseppe Farinella, Giuseppe Graviano and Benedetto Spera.
* In 1999, he was sentenced to life imprisonment as principal for the Via D'Amelio massacre, in which the judge Paolo Borsellino and five of his escorts lost their lives (Emanuela Loi, Agostino Catalano, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina and Claudio Traina), together with Pietro Aglieri, Salvatore Biondino, Carlo Greco, Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano (; 30 September 1963) is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He also was one of the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life sentences. He ...
, Gaetano Scotto and Francesco Tagliavia were sentenced to life imprisonment.
* In 2000, he was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano (; 30 September 1963) is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He also was one of the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life sentences. He ...
, Leoluca Bagarella and Bernardo Provenzano for the 1993 bombings including Via dei Georgofili, in Florence.
* In 2002, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of judge Alberto Giacomelli.
* The same year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of judge Rocco Chinnici together with the bosses Bernardo Provenzano, Raffaele Ganci, Antonino Madonia, Salvatore Buscemi, Nenè Geraci, Giuseppe Calò, Francesco Madonia, Salvatore and Giuseppe Montalto, Stefano Ganci and Vincenzo Galatolo.
* The same year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Vincenzo Virga for the Pizzolungo massacre, in which Barbara Rizzo and her six-year-old twin sons, Salvatore and Giuseppe Asta, died.
* In 2009, he received another life sentence together with Bernardo Provenzano for the Viale Lazio massacre and the death of Michele Cavataio.
* In 2010, he was given another life sentence, together with Giuseppe Madonia, Gaetano Leonardo and Giacomo Sollami, for the murder of Giovanni Mungiovino, a politician who opposed the Corleonesi mafia, killed in 1983, Giuseppe Cammarata, killed in 1989, and Salvatore Saitta, killed in 1992.
* The same year he was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Bernando Provenzano and Giuseppe Calò over the San Giovanni Gemini massacre during the Second Mafia War, when gunmen acting on Riina's orders killed the Mafia boss Gigino Pizzuto as well as two innocent bystanders, Michele Ciminnisi and Vincenzo Romano.
* In 2012, he was given another life sentence for the 1992 murder of Alfio Trovato in Milan.
Marriage and family
Salvatore Riina married (sister of Calogero and Leoluca Bagarella) in 1974, and they had four children—two sons and two daughters.
His sons, Giovanni and Giuseppe, followed in their father's footsteps and were imprisoned. In November 2001, a court in Palermo sentenced 24-year-old Giovanni to life in prison for four murders. He had been in police custody since 1997.[Mafia suspects held in 'Godfather' town]
, BBC News, 5 June 2002 According to Antonio Ingroia
Antonio Ingroia (born 31 March 1959) is an Italian lawyer, ex magistrate, politician and leader of Civil Revolution, with Luigi de Magistris, the mayor of Naples. Ingroia is also the director of a United Nations investigation against narcotra ...
, one of the prosecutors of the (DDA) of Palermo, Giovanni is among the possible leading figures in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra after the arrest of Provenzano in 2006 and Salvatore Lo Piccolo in 2007, but still too young to be recognized as the leading boss of the organisation.[Lo Piccolo, il fautore della strategia della "rimmersione"]
, Intervista ad Antonio Ingroia, Antimafia Duemila n. 56, Anno VII° Numero 5 – 2007 On 31 December 2004, Riina's youngest son, Giuseppe, one of those taken into custody in June 2002, was sentenced to 14 years for various crimes, including Mafia association, extortion and money laundering
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
. He was found to have established Mafia-controlled companies to hide money from protection rackets, drug-trafficking and tenders for public building contracts on the island.
In 2006, the council of Corleone created T-shirts reading ''I love Corleone'' in an attempt to dissociate the town from its infamous Mafiosi, but a brother-in-law of one of Riina's daughters began an attempt to sue the Corleone mayor by claiming the Riina family owned the copyright to the phrase.
Death
Riina died on 17 November 2017, one day after his 87th birthday, while in a medically induced coma after two operations in the prison unit of the Maggiore Hospital in Parma
Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...
. The specific cause of death was not revealed. At the time of his death, he was still considered to be the head of the Cosa Nostra
The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of local protect ...
according to a magistrate. Riina was refused a public funeral by the church and Archbishop Michele Pennisi; he was privately buried in his hometown of Corleone.[
]
In popular culture
* ''Ultimo'', a 1998 TV miniseries by Stefano Reali, inspired by the 1995 book by Maurizio Torrealta, ''Ultimo – Il capitano che arrestò Totò Riina'' In this film, the character of Salvatore Partanna, Mafia boss inspired by Riina, is played by Victor Cavallo;
* '' Excellent Cadavers'', a 1999 film by Ricky Tognazzi. Riina is played again by Victor Cavallo;
* "Il capo dei capi" directed by Alexis Sweet & Enzo Monteleone . A TV series about Totò Riina: "Corleone" English version with subtitles, with trailer.
* ''L'ultimo dei Corleonesi'', a 2007 TV film, directed by Alberto Negrin
Alberto Negrin (born 2 January 1940) is an Italian film director and screenwriter, known for his historical, nostalgic and political films.
Negrin started his career as a fine art photographer. In 1962 he debuted as an assistant stage director, ...
, where he is played by Marcello Mazzarella
* ''Il Divo
Il Divo (; ) are a multinational classical crossover vocal group. Formed in the United Kingdom in 2003, it is a male quartet that was created and then promoted by British media magnate Simon Cowell for Syco Music, a record label that he had ...
'', a 2008 film by Paolo Sorrentino
Paolo Sorrentino (; ; born 31 May 1970) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and writer. He is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Italian cinema working today. He is known for visually striking and complex dramas and has of ...
where Riina is played by Enzo Rai
* '' The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (film)'', a 2013 film by Pif where Riina is played by Antonio Alveario
* ''Boris Giuliano – Un poliziotto a Palermo'', a 2016 TV miniseries by Ricky Tognazzi where Riina is played by Alfredo Lo Bianco
* '' The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (TV series)'', TV series of 2016 by Luca Ribuoli where Riina is played by Domenico Centamore
* '' The Traitor'', film of 2019 by Marco Bellocchio
Marco Bellocchio (; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Life and career
Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellocchio had a strict Catholic upbringing – his father was a lawyer, his mother a schooltea ...
where Riina is played by Nicola Calì
In 2009, it was reported that Riina and Provenzano had fan clubs set up on their behalf on Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
, including "Totò Riina, the Real Boss of Bosses" and "Fans of Totò Riina, a Misunderstood Man". Rita Borsellino, sister of Sicilian Mafia victim Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of ...
, was one of a number of high-profile Italians who condemned the idolization of Mafiosi, comparing the sites to those "that laud Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
or Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
".
References
Bibliography
*
* Follain, John (2012). ''Vendetta: The Mafia, Judge Falcone and the Quest for Justice'', London: Hodder & Stoughton,
*
* Lodato, Saverio (1999). ''Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone: la confessione di Giovanni Brusca'', Milan: Mondadori
* Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003). ''Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo'', Berkeley: University of California Press
*
*
External links
Lo «sbarco» di Totò Riina a Palermo
, La Sicilia, 23 October 2005
BBC report on Riina's participation in a prison hunger strike
16 July 2002
* , short clip of Riina in court
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riina, Salvatore
1930 births
2017 deaths
20th-century Italian criminals
Capo dei capi
Corleonesi
Fugitives wanted by Italy
Italian crime bosses
Italian people convicted of manslaughter
Italian people convicted of murder
People convicted of murder by Italy
People from Corleone
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Italy
Prisoners who died in Italian detention
Sicilian Mafia Commission
Sicilian mafiosi sentenced to life imprisonment
Italian people convicted of murdering police officers
Attacks during Christmas celebrations
Italian mass murderers
20th-century criminals
21st-century criminals