Pietro Torretta
Encyclopedia
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
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...
. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Uditore district 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...
and one of the protagonists in the First Mafia War. He was considered to be the man behind the Ciaculli massacre
Ciaculli massacre
The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia...
.
Early career
Torretta hails from a long line of Mafiosi. He probably was the son of Francesco Torretta who is mentioned in the Sangiorgi report at the turn of the 20th century as major Mafioso. He was a member of the band of bandit Salvatore GiulianoSalvatore Giuliano
Salvatore Giuliano was a Sicilian peasant. It has been suggested that the subjugated social status of his class led him to become a bandit and separatist. He was mythologised during his life and after his death...
. He was first arrested in 1948 on extortion charges but released for lack of evidence.
Mafia upstart
In the 1950s and 1960s, Torretta together with other upstart Mafia bosses like the La Barbera brothersAngelo La Barbera
Angelo La Barbera was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro...
and their henchmen formed the so-called ‘New Mafia’ which adopted new gangster techniques. Other smaller cosche came to recognize the supremacy of these bosses – a supremacy achieved by sheer violence. Men who were starting their ‘careers’ in their shadow were forming into new generation of mafiosi; they had initiative, and the road to leadership of a cosca
Cosca
The word cosca is a Sicilian word which refers to any plant – such as the artichoke or the thistle – whose spiny closely folded leaves symbolize the tightness of relationships between members of the Mafia. In the English language this is best described as a clan. It is often used as a synonym for...
had suddenly become quicker and available to those who were fast with their tommy-guns. One of the other upstarts was 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...
, another was Gerlando Alberti
Gerlando Alberti
Gerlando Alberti , also known as "U Paccarè" is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He belongs to the Porta Nuova family in Palermo headed by Giuseppe Calò...
.
Torretta actively participated in what is called the Sack of Palermo
Sack of Palermo
The Sack of Palermo or scempio in Italian is the popular term for the construction boom from the 1950s through the mid 1980s that led to the destruction of the city's green belt and villas that gave it architectural grace, to make way for characterless and shoddily constructed apartment blocks...
. In 1959, the Christian Democrat
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
Salvo Lima became mayor of 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...
. That became the peak period of Palermo’s controversial building boom and of warfare among the capital’s cosche making money in the real estate business. Mafia bosses were granted building licenses through contacts with politicians. The construction boom destroyed the city's green belt and villas that gave it architectural grace, to make way for characterless and shoddily constructed apartment blocks.
First Mafia War
Torretta was one of the protagonist of the First Mafia War. He sided with the La Barbera brothersAngelo La Barbera
Angelo La Barbera was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro...
against a rival group headed by Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu". When Angelo La Barbera was shot and arrested in Milan in May 1963, both Torretta and Buscetta considered themselves to be the successors of Angelo La Barbera
Angelo La Barbera
Angelo La Barbera was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro...
. Torretta proposed himself as the capo of Palermo Centro and Buscetta as his deputy. However, the Greco’s thought Buscetta in particular a dangerous man to promote. The dispute gradually re-ignited hostilities between Torretta, Buscetta and the Grecos
Greco Mafia family
The Greco Mafia family is a historic and one of the most influential Mafia clans in Sicily, going back to the late 19th century. The extended family ruled both in Ciaculli and Croceverde Giardini, two south-eastern outskirts of Palermo in the citrus growing area. Members of the family were...
. Torretta and Buscetta acted first by ambushing two of their enemies in Torretta’s house.
On June 30, 1963, a car bomb in Ciaculli
Ciaculli
Ciaculli is an outlying suburb of Palermo, Sicily in Italy. It counts less than 5000 residents. Ciaculli is close to the suburb of Croceverde. Ciaculli has been important within the history of the Cosa Nostra. The best known Mafia family is the Greco Mafia clan...
killed seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The outrage over the Ciaculli massacre
Ciaculli massacre
The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia...
changed the Mafia war into a war against the Mafia. It prompted the first concerted anti-Mafia efforts by the state in post-war Italy. The Sicilian Mafia Commission
Sicilian Mafia Commission
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra...
was dissolved and of those Mafiosi who had escaped arrest many went abroad. Torretta was suspected of being the man behind the bomb attack, but it was eventually found to be Michele Cavataio
Michele Cavataio
Michele Cavataio , also known as The Cobra was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Acquasanta mandamento in Palermo and was a member of the first Sicilian Mafia Commission. Some sources spell his surname as Cavatajo.Cavataio was one of the most feared mafioso gangsters...
.
Arrest and conviction
On February 9, 1964, Torretta was arrested. He was one of the main defendants in the indictment concerning the Mafia war which bore his name (Pietro Torretta + 121 indictment by investigative magistrate Cesare TerranovaCesare Terranova
Cesare Terranova was a magistrate and politician from Sicily notable for his anti-Mafia stance. From 1958 until 1971 Terranova was an examining magistrate at the Palermo prosecuting office. He was one of the first to seriously investigate the Mafia and the financial operations of Cosa Nostra. He...
) in May 1965. Attributed to him were 14 killings, either ordered or personally executed. Among these were the victims of the Ciaculli massacre
Ciaculli massacre
The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia...
.
He was one of the few Mafiosi who received a heavy sentence at the Trial of the 114 against the Mafia in Catanzaro in December 1968. He was sentenced to 27 years. Pending appeal, he was released on a US$ 1,400 bail and under the condition he was forced to live in exile in Cittadella
Cittadella
Cittadella is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the thirteenth century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is 1461 m in circumference with a diameter of around 450 m. There are four gates which roughly...
, a northern Italian town.
Banished from Sicily, Torretta died on October 3, 1975, of kidney failure on the island Asinara
Asinara
Asinara is an Italian island of in area. The name is Italian for "donkey-inhabited", but it is thought to derive from the Latin "sinuaria", and meaning sinus-shaped. The island is virtually uninhabited. The census of population of 2001 lists one man. The island is located off the north-western...
. He was a stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
of the gangster-mafioso of the 1960s. Men like Torretta, Angelo La Barbera
Angelo La Barbera
Angelo La Barbera was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro...
, Rosario Mancino and 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...
among others were vague and doubtful figures, disorganized in their lives and their activities typifying a moment of transition and crisis in Cosa Nostra.
Sources
- Arlacchi, PinoPino ArlacchiGiuseppe Arlacchi, also known as Pino, is an Italian sociologist and is well known worldwide for his studies and essays about the Mafia...
(1988). Mafia Business. The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-285197-7 Caruso, Alfio (2000). Da cosa nasce cosa. Storia della mafia del 1943 a oggi, Milan: Longanesi ISBN 88-304-1620-7 - Dickie, John (2004). Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia, London: Coronet, ISBN 0-340-82435-2
- Lupo, Salvatore (2009). History of the Mafia, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-13134-6
- Servadio, Gaia (1976), Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day, London: Secker & Warburg ISBN 0-436-44700-2