70`s and 80`s

From the Rise of the Corleonesi to the Antimafia Pool



Review

ƒÞ 1943: Us troops land in Sicily
ƒÞ 1945-6: Separatism/autonomy
ƒÞ 1947: Portella Delle Ginestre
ƒÞ 1948: First National elections: DCI
ƒÞ 50's: Mafia Democristiana, Sack of Palermo, 1956-7 international meetings
ƒÞ 1962-3: I Mafia War
ƒÞ 1963: Ciaculli Bomb
ƒÞ Antimafia
ƒÞ 1969: Bari Trial ¡V all acquitted
ƒÞ 1969: V. le Lazio

1970-1982: Rise of the Corleonesi

ƒÞ Corleone (Verro¡K)
ƒÞ The Sicilian episode of the godfather fiction¡K
ƒÞ Leggio and his right arm Riina
ƒÞ ¡§You could sense death hovering in the air¡K¡¨
ƒÞ the reason of their success killing-executing

Liggio

ƒÞ Born in poverty, dott. Navarra gave him a job at 20 as a guard on an estate

ƒÞ Smuggle, steal, intimidation, extortion

ƒÞ Killed Rizzotto (socialist leader) under order of Navarra: he marched him out of town at gunpoint, made him knee down and he shot him three times in the head at point-blank

ƒÞ 1956: Liggio was ambushed by Navarra¡¦s men that were so scared of him and began to shot when they were to far to kill him (they made him only a graze to his hand) then he

ƒÞ Killed Navarra and another innocent doctor that was with him; later on killed soldiers of Navarra in Corleone and some innocent children.

1958-1963: Faida Liggiani-Navarriani

ƒÞ L¡¦ORA titled an article ¡§Dangerous¡¨ ; bombed
ƒÞ 1963: stop of mafia activities
ƒÞ 1964: arrested
ƒÞ 1969: trial of Bari: Liggio and the other Corleonesi all acquitted (Liggio had just a criminal record for stealing a few shaves of corn, pag. 337)
ƒÞ 1969: rise in mafia activities
ƒÞ The Commissione broke up after the first mafia war was reconstituted with the form of a triumvirate:
Badalamenti
Bontade
Leggio

The new Commission was different from the first one: hierarchy, not anymore a counterweight to the Authority that local family bosses had over individual men of honor. It¡¦s the structure Buscetta reported to the police.

Leggio had extended his influence on Palermo¡Kthat was to be the prize of the Second Mafia War

Leonardo Vitale

ƒÞ Altarello di Baida (descendant of a killer of Palizzolo)
ƒÞ Capodecina
ƒÞ Spiritual crisis + carabinieri
ƒÞ Explained the org of the family and revealed the existence of the Commission
ƒÞ Psychiatric
ƒÞ ¡§I don¡¦t feel to be a man¡¨ , pederast, quit going to Church as protest against God
ƒÞ Career: extortion, killed another mafioso, capodecina
ƒÞ Told the psychiatrics he had found God again
ƒÞ Became even more depressed and unpredictable (to undermine his testimony?)
ƒÞ ¡Ka credible mentally semi-infirm
ƒÞ Killed when getting out a church¡K

Peppino Impastato

70¡¦s difficult years: two days after V.le Lazio P.za Fontana bomb in MIlan

the years of terrorism

Terrorism

ƒÞ RED BRIGADES


Opposing the historical compromise, they killed or gambizzare those politicians or personalities responsible for it (Moro)

ƒÞ NEOFASCISTS

Bombs in public places as strategy of tension + homicides of political rivals and students movements
(p.za Fontana, trains ecc.)

Mafia and the strategy of tension

ƒÞ 1970: attempt of a coup d¡¦etat by the Neofascists (Borghese)
ƒÞ Meetings
ƒÞ ¡Kbetter the game¡K
ƒÞ Italicus 1984: mafia helped
ƒÞ The revision of important trials

Peppino

ƒÞ The same that Moro¡¦s cadaver was killed...
ƒÞ Peppino
ƒÞ Cinisi
ƒÞ Rebel (marxist jergon, Vietnam, nudism, fight against capitalism)
ƒÞ A mafia family (uncle and father)
ƒÞ ¡§What must he have felt¡¨
ƒÞ The Socialist Idea: ¡§Mafia: a mountain of shit¡¨
ƒÞ Banned from home
ƒÞ Campaign against the expropriation of the land to the peasants for a 3rd run-away of the airport of Palermo
ƒÞ Against the Historical compromise
ƒÞ Against nudism and cannabis
ƒÞ RADIO AUT
ƒÞ His father killed, unprotected
ƒÞ Funeral refused to shake hands with the mafiosi
ƒÞ Only his legs, parts of his face and a few fingers were recognizable
ƒÞ ¡§With Peppino¡¦s idea and courage we will carry on¡¨
ƒÞ 1984-1992: investigating magistrates did not find enough evidence for prosecution
ƒÞ 1999: pentiti talked
ƒÞ Dec 2000 a parliamentary commission of inquiry: cover-up
ƒÞ 2002: Badalamenti was given a life-sentence for having ordered his homicide

Pizza Connection

ƒÞ 1969: released but they had lost money
ƒÞ Calderone: suddenly, they all became millionaire
ƒÞ Not all were poor (Grecos, Badalamenti), but the Corleonesi had to turn to kidnapping and tobacco smuggling
ƒÞ Nixon 1969 war on drugs, closure of Corsican-run refineries Marseille
ƒÞ Mafia: Refine, import and distribution
ƒÞ 80% of the drugs in the North-East of the Us came from Sicily
ƒÞ More financial autonomy of the Sicilian mafia
ƒÞ Partners (cross marriages¡K)

Bankers, Masons, Tax Collectors, Mafia: the Vatican Connection

ƒÞ $ from drugs were reinvested in both legal and illegal activities:
SWI
stock exchange market
resorts
Sindona
Sindona¡¦s bankrupt, arrested and killed in prison in the same way than Pisciotta

Michele Sindona

ƒÞ Michele Sindona revealed the American journalist Nick Tosches that the other banks used by the mafia to recycle money were:

¡§In Sicily sometimes the Bank of Sicily. In Milan a small bank in Piazza Mercanti".

Calvi

ƒÞ Cosa Nostra after Sindona¡¦s death entrusted its $ to Calvi, president of the Banco Ambrosiano)
ƒÞ Pecunia non olet
ƒÞ Calvi became associate with the IOR
ƒÞ The Vatican financed with these money Solidarnosc. After the fall of Communism in Poland communist regimes fell in all the other eastern countries
ƒÞ Cosa Nostra killed Calvi

Salvo Cousins

From the mafia family of Salemi (Trapani) Thanks to the support of the DCI in Sicily and the choose of the politicians made by the mafia and the DCI Sicilian leaders, they had control over the tax-collection system in Sicily. Close to Lima.

Mattanza

It was not unannounced. 1978: Di Cristina (he was close to Bontade) from the family of Riesi, in the centre of Sicily) became an informant because he was scared of Liggio that had just kidnapped with Provenzano Eugene-Paul-Getty. He revealed that the org was splitted in two factions (Liggio/Tano) and the tactic of the Corleonesi of looking for alliances with other Sicilian families.

II Mafia War (a coup d¡¦etat by the Corleonesi)

ƒÞ Corleonesi

- military power
- alliances within the
mafia

ƒÞ Bontade, Badalamenti

- $ (drugs)
- alliances outside
the mafia (Italian
politicians, Us families)

Corleonesi

ƒÞ Infiltrating other families and initiating soldiers without informing the Commission
ƒÞ Di Cristina was killed by the Corleonesi in the territory of Passo di Rigano (a sfregio to Inzerillo): control of the Corleonesi on central S.
ƒÞ Kidnapped Vassallo, an enterpreneur close to Bontade and Badalamenti, ransom was invested in researching other alliances
ƒÞ Kidnapped and killed Salvo, Bontade¡¦s father-in-law. Buscetta: signals big as houses¡K
ƒÞ Buscetta released from prison in 1980 stayed for a while in one of the hotel of the Salvos cousins, than he understood the situation and flew to Brazil after he was given a 500.000 $ check. His intention was to never come back.
ƒÞ Badalamenti expelled (even if he was living in the States) and replaced by Michele Greco (the Pope) as boss of the Commission
ƒÞ Pippo Calderone killed and replaced with Santapaola: control of the Corleonesi on Catania
ƒÞ Riina boss of the Corleonesi

Eminent corpses

ƒÞ 1979: new pattern of mafia tactics (>Corleonesi):

ƒÞ Terranova (1979)
ƒÞ Michele Reina (1979)
ƒÞ Boris Giuliano (1979)
ƒÞ Costa (1980)
ƒÞ Mattarella (1980)
ƒÞ Pio Lo Torre (April 1982)
ƒÞ Dalla Chiesa (1982)
ƒÞ Rocco Chinnici (1983)

Dalla Chiesa¡¦s son words:

¡§During the fight against terrorism my father was used to having his back covered, to having all the constitutional political parties behind him ¡V first among them the DC. This time, as soon as he arrived in Palermo, he understood that a part of the DC was not prepared to cover him. More than that it was actively hostile.¡¨

Written in a wall on the scene where Dalla Chiesa was killed:

¡§Here died the hope of all the honest Sicilians¡¨

The ¡§mafia-type association crime¡¨ ¡V 416 bis penal code (1982)

Equivalent of RICO (Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations) measures in US.

1) This law allowed the state to confiscate a mafioso¡¦s ill-gotten gains.

2) For the first time it was possible to arrest whoever was demonstrated to be a member of Cosa Nostra (Pio La Torre¡¦s proposal became law)

The virtuos minority

It was never the State as such to take on the mafia, but a virtuos minority of magistrates and police, supported by a minority of politicians, journalists, administrators and members of the public.

1983

ƒÞ Rocco Chinnici killed

ƒÞ Caponnetto, an old magistrate from Sicily living in Florence applied for Chinnici¡¦s place and founded the:

THE ANTIMAFIA POOL

ƒÞ FALCONE
ƒÞ BORSELLINO
ƒÞ GUARNOTTA
ƒÞ DI LELLO

ƒÞ Working on the same cases + sharing information

ƒÞ ¡Ka new weapon: PENTITI

1984: the Antimafia pool was able to announce its first important pentito: BUSCETTA