Giusy Vitale
Encyclopedia
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...
bosses Leonardo, Michele and Vito Vitale
Vito Vitale
Salvatore "Vito" Vitale also known as Fardazza is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. For a while he was considered the heir of Totò Riina and was closely connected to Leoluca Bagarella.-Mafia career:...
from Partinico
Partinico
Partinico is a town and comune in the province of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy...
(Sicily). Giusy took over the command over the clan when her brothers were in prison or fugitives, despite the formal Mafia rule that excludes the participation of women in the criminal organisation. As such she was considered a new breed of 'bosses in skirts'. Later she became a pentita
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...
, a state witness breaking the "omertà
Omertà
Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honour and a common definition is the "code of silence". It is common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations defined as Mafia such as the Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, and...
," or code of silence, testifying against her own family.
Mafia heritage
She was raised in a traditional Mafia family in Partinico, some 40 kilometres from PalermoPalermo
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 Vitale clan had taken over the Partinico mandamento
Mandamento
Historically a mandamento was the part of Italian territory under the jurisdiction of a "pretore" which is a kind of magistrate. These divisions were abolished in 1923....
from Nenè Geraci
Nenè Geraci
Antonio Geraci , better known as Nenè or il vecchio , is the historical boss of the Mafia in Partinico, in the province of Palermo. Geraci sat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission since the mid 1970s and belonged to the hard line faction allied with the Corleonesi of Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano...
in 1991-92. At the age of six she started to visit prison regularly when her brother Leonardo was jailed. "Life for me was with my brothers," she told a court after she became a state witness. "It was impossible to have any relationship with people of my own age. I had absolutely no idea of how to live a different life."
At the age of 13 she was had to leave school because her family needed her services to carry messages to and from relatives in prison. Her brother Leonardo, who was 17 years her major and acted as her father, was jealous, she explained. "I'd reached the third year of middle school but he wouldn't let me go any further." She knew her brothers were men of honour in Cosa Nostra and they kept her informed.
Capo mandamento
Her brothers became fugitives and, later, were arrested and both given long jail sentences for murder. Leonardo and Vito turned to Giusy to keep the clan moving and exchange messages while they were separate. While not a "man of honour" in both senses – women are not allowed to enter the Mafia as made members – Giusy Vitale became the regent of the mandamento after the arrest of her brother Vito in April 1998 and managed the affairs of the Vitale clan, although she could not participate in Mafia meetings.Her brothers had several reasons to give her the position: their sister was already fully aware of all the secrets of the family because she had been the go-between for the members inside and outside jail. Moreover, she proved to have a strong character while being already a member of the blood family so that the leadership could stay within the Vitale clan and there would be less risk that someone else would take over their position.
She showed remarkable resourcefulness and autonomy. The court attributed to Vitale a decisively different role from the one that Mafia women had performed in the past. She took part in the decisions her brothers made in prison, personally contacted leading Mafia personalities, such as Corleone bosses Leoluca Bagarella
Leoluca Bagarella
Leoluca Bagarella is an Italian criminal and member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone and was a member of the Corleonesi.-Biography:...
and Giovanni Brusca
Giovanni Brusca
Giovanni Brusca is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia. He murdered the anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in 1992 and once stated that he had committed between 100 and 200 murders but was unable to remember the exact number...
. Such an essential position had never been seen involving a woman. Other Mafia bosses accepted the nomination by her brothers, and she could be considered a veritable donna d'onore.
Arrest
Two months after she has assumed the leadership of the mandamento, she was arrested in June 1998. Charged with Mafia association, she was sentenced to six years. In December 2002, she was released, but arrested again in March 2003 for ordering a murder.She was the first woman charged with Mafia association – confirming the leading position of Vitale in the Cosa Nostra family.
Pentita
While in jail, Giusy, mother of two, met a pentito, Alfio Garozzo, a former head of the Cursotti clan from CataniaCatania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
. Her husband, Angelo Caleca, was serving time for a killing that she allegedly ordered. In February 2005, she became a state witness (pentita
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...
). She gave testimony about her role as family boss, including how she helped her brother Leonardo to organise "a number of murders" from behind bars.
Her brother Leonardo, after learning that his sister started to collaborate with Italian justice, said at a trial: "I've learned that a certain blood relation of mine is collaborating with justice. We disown her whether she's living or dead - and we hope it's the latter, and as quickly as possible."
She justified her decision to testify simply "for the good of my children." She said: "I want to be a mother and I want to be near my bambini. They've got to grow up with me. If I stay in prison, I'll lose them." "While I was in jail, they brought my son, who is now 12, to see me. He was about six then and I remember that he asked me why I had been arrested. In particular I remember he said, 'Mamma, what is the Mafia?' I didn't know what to say."
She petitioned for divorce, violating yet another of the Cosa Nostra's strict rules, which forbids adultery. Vitale today lives outside Sicily under Italy's witness protection programme, and is making a new life for herself with her children.
Biography
- Vitale, Giusy & Camilla Costanzo (2009), Ero cosa loro, Milan: Mondadori, ISBN 978-88-80458449