Francesco Marino Mannoia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Francesco Marino Mannoia (born March 5, 1951) is a former member of the Sicilian

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

who became a pentito

Pentito

Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...

(government witness) in 1989. His nickname was Mozzarella. He is considered to be one of the most reliable government witnesses against the Mafia. Antimafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone

Giovanni Falcone

Giovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...

, who was to first to interrogate him, recalled Marino Mannoia as an intelligent and reliable witness.

Criminal career

He was raised in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

, the capital of Sicily, and joined the Santa Maria di Gesù Mafia Family, headed by Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo...

. He was highly sought after by all Mafia families for his skills in chemistry to be used to refine heroin for the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino ring. Marino Mannoia recalled having refined at least 1000 kilograms of heroin for Bontade. He had learned how to refine heroin of Antonino Vernengo, alias ‘u dutturi’ (the doctor) who was the first to set up a refinery in 1977. He was also suspected of being involved in at least seventeen homicide

Homicide

Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...

s.

During the Second Mafia War

Second Mafia War

The Second Mafia War was a conflict within the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place in the early 1980s. As with any criminal organization, the history of the Sicilian Mafia is replete with conflicts and power struggles, and the violence that results from them, but these are generally localised and...

of the early 1980s his boss, Stefano Bontade, was murdered along with hundreds of associates. Mannoia only survived because he was in prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

at the time for drug trafficking. He escaped from prison in 1983 with the help of his younger brother, a hitman

Hitman

A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...

named Agostino Marino Mannoia. They met with Corleonesi

Corleonesi

The Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca...

boss Salvatore Riina

Salvatore Riina

Salvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...

to establish their position in the dramatically altered landscape of the Sicilian Mafia and were both allowed to live and work under the auspices of the Corleonesi boss. Francesco Marino Mannoia became a major refiner of heroin for the Corleonesi.

In 1986 he was recaptured and returned to prison. On 20 April 1989, his brother Agostino Marino Mannoia - then aged twenty-three - vanished and was never seen again. His bloodstained car was found later that day. Francesco Mannoia realised his brother had been killed. As it turned out, both Mannoia brothers had been plotting along with Vincenzo Puccio

Vincenzo Puccio

Vincenzo Puccio was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was from Palermo and joined the Ciaculli Mafia family sometime in the late 1970s, although like many other members of that particular family he operated a great deal under the orders of the Corleonesi.- Criminal career :He was arrested...

to overthrow Salvatore Riina as the boss of the Sicilian Mafia. Somehow word had gotten out and Agostino Marino Mannoia was the first of the conspirators against Riina who would die. Puccio and his brothers followed soon afterwards.

Government Witness

In the fall of 1989 Marino Mannoia’s mistress contacted the police’s Antimafia unit in Rome, indicating the mafioso was ready to talk. After negotiations over security Marino Mannoia and magistrate

Magistrate

A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...

Giovanni Falcone

started a series of testimonies on October 8, 1989. He followed in the footsteps of Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta

Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the first important one breaking omertà...

and Salvatore Contorno

Salvatore Contorno

Salvatore "Totuccio" Contorno is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned into a state witness against Cosa Nostra in October 1984, following the example of Tommaso Buscetta. He gave detailed accounts of the inner-workings of the Sicilian Mafia...

in becoming an informant. Falcone recalled Marino Mannoia as an intelligent and reliable witness.

His collaboration was important because he was the first pentito

Pentito

that came out of the winning faction of the Second Mafia War

Second Mafia War

. He was able to update the authorities on the activities within Cosa Nostra throughout the 1980s, including the fates of Filippo Marchese

Filippo Marchese

Filippo Marchese was a leading figure in the Sicilian Mafia and a hitman suspected of dozens of homicides. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Corso Dei Mille neighbourhood in Palermo....

and Giuseppe Greco

Giuseppe Greco

Giuseppe "Pino" Greco was a hitman and high-ranking member of the Sicilian Mafia. A number of sources refer to him exclusively as Pino Greco although Giuseppe was his Christian name; "Pino" is a frequent abbreviation of the name Giuseppe.One of the most prolific killers in criminal history, he...

. Not long after he began to talk to the authorities Mannoia's mother, aunt and one of his sisters were murdered in their Bagheria

Bagheria

Bagheria is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy.-Etymology:According to some sources, the name Bagheria originates from the Phoenician term Bayharia meaning "land that descends toward the sea." Other sources claim that it derives from the Arabic Bāb al-Gerib, or "windy...

home as revenge, it being a common tactic by the Mafia to kill the relatives of the pentiti to discourage others from similar cooperation with authorities.

Marino Mannoia was admitted into the Witness Protection Program in the United States (Italy had no such programme at the time). In the US, he testified against the Sicilian faction of the Gambino

Gambino

Gambino is an Italian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:*Carlo Gambino, New York mobster and former boss of the family that takes his name; Gambino crime family*Emanuel Gambino, New York mobster and nephew of Carlo Gambino...

Family, the so-called Cherry Hill Gambinos, John

John Gambino

John Gambino , is an American mobster. He became a made member of the Gambino crime family in 1975 and a capodecina or captain, and head of the crime family's Sicilian faction, appointed by family boss John Gotti in 1986, according to Mafia turncoat Sammy Gravano.-Transatlantic Mafia clan:Together...

, Rosario

Rosario Gambino

Rosario "Sal" Gambino is an Italian mobster in the Gambino crime family. He became nationally known when he and his brothers set up a multimillion dollar heroin cartel during the 1970s and 1980s...

and Joe Gambino. He had met with John Gambino

John Gambino

personally, who had inspected the quality of the heroin Marino Mannoia was refining in Palermo.

Testimonies

Marino Mannoia disclosed that Roberto Calvi

Roberto Calvi

Roberto Calvi was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press because of his close association with the Holy See. A native of Milan, Calvi was Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals...

—God's banker of the Banco Ambrosiano

Banco Ambrosiano

Banco Ambrosiano was an Italian bank which collapsed in 1982. At the centre of the bank's failure was its chairman, Roberto Calvi and his membership in the illegal Masonic Lodge Propaganda Due...

and the Vatican

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

—had been killed by the Mafia because he had lost Cosa Nostra's criminal proceeds when the Banco Ambrosiano collapsed. According to Mannoia the killer was Francesco Di Carlo

Francesco Di Carlo

Francesco Di Carlo is a member of the Mafia who turned state witness in 1996...

, a mafioso living in London at the time, and the order to kill Calvi had come from Mafia boss Giuseppe Calò

Giuseppe Calò

Giuseppe 'Pippo' Calò is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was referred to as the "Mafia's Cashier" because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering....

and Licio Gelli

Licio Gelli

Licio Gelli is an Italian financier, chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due...

. When Di Carlo became an informer in June 1996, he denied that he was the killer, but admitted that he had been approached by Calò to do the job.

Marino Mannoia testified that his former boss Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo...

had close relations with Sicilian politicians, in particular with Salvo Lima—Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...

’s man in Sicily. In April 1993—after the killing of Lima and the judges Giovanni Falcone

Giovanni Falcone

and Paolo Borsellino

Paolo Borsellino

Paolo Borsellino was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo, less than two months after his fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone had been assassinated....

– he gave evidence against former Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

Giulio Andreotti

who was accused of Mafia association. He claimed Andreotti had met with Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo...

in the 1970s.

Marino Mannoia provided the first eyewitness account tying Andreotti directly to bosses of the Mafia. He described a high-level meeting in 1980 with Salvatore Inzerillo

Salvatore Inzerillo

Salvatore Inzerillo was an Italian criminal, a member of the Sicilian Mafia, also known as Totuccio . He rose to be a powerful boss of Palermo's Passo di Rigano family...

and Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade

Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo...

at which Andreotti allegedly arrived with Lima in a bulletproof Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...

belonging to the Salvo cousins

Antonio Salvo

Antonio Nino Salvo and his cousin Ignazio Salvo were two wealthy businessmen from the town of Salemi in the province of Trapani. They had strong political connections with the Christian Democrat party , in particular with the former mayor of Palermo, Salvo Lima, and Giulio Andreotti...

. Andreotti had come to protest the killing by the Mafia of Piersanti Mattarella

Piersanti Mattarella

Piersanti Mattarella was an Italian politician. He was assassinated by the Mafia while he held the position of President of the Regional Government of Sicily.-Background and early career:...

in January 1980.

He also testified about the murder of journalist Mauro De Mauro

Mauro De Mauro

Mauro De Mauro was an Italian journalist. He disappeared in September 1970 and his body has not yet been found. His disappearance and probable death remains one of the unsolved mysteries in Italian history.Several explanations for his disappearance are current...

. The investiagtive reporter had been kidnapped and killed by the Mafia in 1970. Marino Mannoia had been ordered by Bontade in 1977 or 1978 to dig up several bodies including the one of De Mauro and dissolve them in acid.

Marino Mannoia admitted he had been one of the men who had stolen the Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence

Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence

The Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence is a painting from 1609 by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio .It was stolen on October 16, 1969 from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily....

, a painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio that has never been seen since it was stolen in 1969 (the artwork was believed, at one point, to have been in the hands of the late Mafia boss Rosario Riccobono

Rosario Riccobono

Rosario Riccobono was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of Partanna Mondello, a suburb of Palermo, his native city...

Witness Protection Program

He lived in an undisclosed location with a new identity in the FBI Witness Protection Program, having been granted American citizenship after testifying against a number of Sicilian Mafiosi at work in the US. It was claimed, and not denied, that Marino Mannoia received US$ 600 000 when he gave evidence against Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti

in the spring of 1993. At the time he was living at liberty in the US on US$3000 per month plus his father’s pension, all paid from Italy.

He served a cumulative 17 year jail sentence in Italy and the U.S. which he finished in February 2010. In June 2011, after 16 years under protection by the US Marshall Service, he returned to Italy. Forced to not have an own identity and live in uncomfortable conditions, he considered the conditions of life in the United States unacceptable to him and especially his family. His wife and two children could not adapt to life in the United States. His monthly allowance in Italy was cut back to mere 1,000 euros a month.

Marino Mannoia was desillusioned by the little reward and support he received from the Italian government in relation to the sacrifice he made and family members that had been killed. "I am disappointed, embittered, after everything I have done for the fight against the Mafia since 1989," he said. He attempted a suicide by taking a cocktail of pharmaceuticals in July 2011, but was saved by his wife who got him to the hospital in time.

Quotes

"Many believe that you enter Cosa Nostra for money. This is only part of the truth. Do you know why I entered Cosa Nostra? Because before in Palermo I was Mr. Nobody. Afterward, wherever I went, heads lowered. And this for me was worth any price."

External links

Biographies of Mafia bosses

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