Salvatore Greco
Encyclopedia
Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco (January 13, 1923 – March 7, 1978) was a powerful mafioso and boss of the Mafia
Family in Ciaculli
, an outlying suburb of Palermo
famous for its citrus fruit groves, where he was born. His nickname was "Ciaschiteddu" or "Chichiteddu", translated from the Sicilian
alternatively as "little bird" or as "wine jug
".
"Ciaschiteddu" Greco was the first "secretary" of the first Sicilian Mafia Commission
that was formed somewhere in 1958. That position came to him almost naturally because he headed one of the most influential Mafia clans at the time, which went back to the late 19th century.
Giardini in 1946-47. The peace between the two rival factions of the Greco clan was settled by giving the rights of the Giardini estate to Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco and his cousin Salvatore Greco, also known as "l'ingegnere" or "Totò il lungo". Although descendants of the old, established rural Mafia, the Greco cousins quickly learned to profit from the post-war economic boom and became involved in cigarette smuggling and heroin trafficking.
that took place in Palermo
between October 12–16, 1957, in hotel Delle Palme in Palermo
. Joseph Bonanno
, Lucky Luciano
, John Bonventre, Frank Garofalo, Santo Sorge
and Carmine Galante
were among the American mafiosi present, while among the Sicilian side there were – apart from the Greco cousins – Giuseppe Genco Russo
, Angelo La Barbera
, Gaetano Badalamenti
, Calcedonio Di Pisa
and Tommaso Buscetta
.
One of the outcomes of this meeting was that the Sicilian Mafia composed its first Sicilian Mafia Commission
and appointed "Ciaschiteddu" Greco as its "primus interpares".
According to the pentito
Tommaso Buscetta
, "Ciaschiteddu" Greco was involved in the killing of Enrico Mattei
, the controversial president of the state oil company Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI
) who died in a mysterious plane crash on October 27, 1962. He was probably also involved in the decision to kill the journalist Mauro De Mauro
, who disappeared on September 16, 1970 while investigating the Mattei case on request of film director Francesco Rosi
. (The film Il Caso Mattei was released in 1972)
war between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s – known as the First Mafia War, a second started in the early 1980s –, for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the illicit heroin trade to North America. The conflict was sparked by a quarrel over an underweight shipment of heroin and the murder of Calcedonio Di Pisa
– an ally of the Greco's – in December 1962. The Greco’s suspected the brothers Salvatore
and Angelo La Barbera
of the attack.
On June 30, 1963 a car bomb exploded near Greco’s house in Ciaculli, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The outrage over the Ciaculli Massacre
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 was dissolved and of those mafiosi who had escaped arrest many went abroad. "Ciaschiteddu" Greco fled to Caracas in Venezuela.
The repression caused by the Ciaculli Massacre disarranged the Sicilian heroin trade to the United States. Mafiosi were banned, arrested and incarcerated. Control over the trade fell into the hands of a few fugitives: the Greco cousins, Pietro Davì, Tommaso Buscetta
and Gaetano Badalamenti
.
On December 22, 1968, "Ciaschiteddu" Greco was sentenced in absentia to 4 years in prison at the trial against "the 114" in Catanzaro that was a consequence of the Ciaculli Massacre
. In the appeal he was acquitted. In 1973 he received the maximum period of five years of internal banishment at the remote island of Asinara
, but he was nowhere to be found.
in New York and the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan from Siculiana (Sicily) to facilitate drug trafficking.
While he resided in Venezuela, "Ciaschiteddu" Greco still remained an important figure in the internal leadership of Cosa Nostra, for which he travelled to Italy regularly. He was involved in the decisions to re-establish the Mafia Commission in 1970, and whether or not to take part in the neo-fascist wing coup attempt of Junio Valerio Borghese
for which Borghese had offered amnesty for Mafia members in prison. Cosa Nostra decided not to take part and the attempt foiled on December 8, 1970.
In January 1978, the old and ailing "Ciaschiteddu" Greco came all the way from Venezuela to try to refrain Gaetano Badalamenti
, Giuseppe Di Cristina
and Salvatore Inzerillo
from retaliating against the growing power of the Corleonesi
headed by Totò Riina. His efforts were in vain and the struggle would prove to be the prelude to the Second Mafia War
.
On March 7, 1978, "Ciaschiteddu" Greco died in Caracas
(Venezuela
) from cirrhosis
of the liver.
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...
Family 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...
, an outlying suburb 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...
famous for its citrus fruit groves, where he was born. His nickname was "Ciaschiteddu" or "Chichiteddu", translated from the Sicilian
Sicilian language
Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...
alternatively as "little bird" or as "wine jug
Jug (container)
A jug is a type of container used to hold liquid. It has an opening, often narrow, from which to pour or drink, and nearly always has a handle. One could imagine a jug being made from nearly any watertight material, but most jugs throughout history have been made from clay, glass, or plastic...
".
"Ciaschiteddu" Greco was the first "secretary" of the first 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...
that was formed somewhere in 1958. That position came to him almost naturally because he headed one of the most influential Mafia clans at the time, which went back to the late 19th century.
Early life
He was the son of Giuseppe Greco who was killed during a bloody internal feud between the factions of the Greco Mafia clan in Ciaculli and CroceverdeCroceverde
Croceverde is an outlying suburb of Palermo, Sicily in Italy. It has less than 5000 residents. Croceverde is close to the suburb of Ciaculli. It has been important within the history of the Cosa Nostra, and is relatively rural in character....
Giardini in 1946-47. The peace between the two rival factions of the Greco clan was settled by giving the rights of the Giardini estate to Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco and his cousin Salvatore Greco, also known as "l'ingegnere" or "Totò il lungo". Although descendants of the old, established rural Mafia, the Greco cousins quickly learned to profit from the post-war economic boom and became involved in cigarette smuggling and heroin trafficking.
Head of the Mafia Commission
"Ciaschiteddu” Greco was present at series of meetings between top American and Sicilian mafiosiGrand Hotel des Palmes Mafia meeting 1957
Over four days, between October 12–16, 1957, the American gangster Joseph Bonanno allegedly attended a series of meetings between some high-level Sicilian and American mafiosi in the Grand Hotel des Palmes in Palermo, Sicily – the most splendid in town at the time...
that took place 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...
between October 12–16, 1957, in hotel Delle Palme 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...
. Joseph Bonanno
Joseph Bonanno
Joseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family. He was nicknamed "Joe Bananas," a name he despised.-Early life:...
, Lucky Luciano
Lucky Luciano
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...
, John Bonventre, Frank Garofalo, Santo Sorge
Santo Sorge
Santo Sorge was an Sicilian Mafioso living in the United States. His exact role has never been very clear; he was one of the great 'unknowns' of the Sicilian and American Mafia. He was one of the highest-level Sicilian Mafia leaders in his time. His counsel was sought in important decisions...
and Carmine Galante
Carmine Galante
Carmine Galante, also known as "Lilo" and "Cigar" was a mobster and acting boss of the Bonanno crime family...
were among the American mafiosi present, while among the Sicilian side there were – apart from the Greco cousins – Giuseppe Genco Russo
Giuseppe Genco Russo
Giuseppe Genco Russo was an Italian mafioso, the boss of Mussomeli in the Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily....
, 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...
, Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Don Tano Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s...
, Calcedonio Di Pisa
Calcedonio Di Pisa
Calcedonio Di Pisa , also known as Doruccio, was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Noce neighbourhood in Palermo and sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission, the coordinating body of Cosa Nostra in Sicily.-Mafia career:Di Pisa was described by Norman...
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...
.
One of the outcomes of this meeting was that the Sicilian Mafia composed its first 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...
and appointed "Ciaschiteddu" Greco as its "primus interpares".
According to the 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...
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...
, "Ciaschiteddu" Greco was involved in the killing of Enrico Mattei
Enrico Mattei
Enrico Mattei was an Italian public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian Petroleum Agency Agip, a state enterprise established by the Fascist regime. Instead Mattei enlarged and reorganized it into the National Fuel Trust Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi...
, the controversial president of the state oil company Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI
Eni
Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oil and gas company, present in 70 countries, and currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 87.7 billion euros , as of July 24, 2008...
) who died in a mysterious plane crash on October 27, 1962. He was probably also involved in the decision to kill the 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...
, who disappeared on September 16, 1970 while investigating the Mattei case on request of film director Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...
. (The film Il Caso Mattei was released in 1972)
First Mafia War
"Ciaschiteddu" Greco was one of the protagonists in a bloody MafiaMafia
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...
war between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s – known as the First Mafia War, a second started in the early 1980s –, for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the illicit heroin trade to North America. The conflict was sparked by a quarrel over an underweight shipment of heroin and the murder of Calcedonio Di Pisa
Calcedonio Di Pisa
Calcedonio Di Pisa , also known as Doruccio, was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Noce neighbourhood in Palermo and sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission, the coordinating body of Cosa Nostra in Sicily.-Mafia career:Di Pisa was described by Norman...
– an ally of the Greco's – in December 1962. The Greco’s suspected the brothers Salvatore
Salvatore La Barbera
Salvatore La Barbera was a Sicilian mafioso. Together with his brother Angelo La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro. Salvatore La Barbera sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that was set up in 1958 as the capo mandamento for Mafia families of Borgo Vecchio, Porta Nuova and...
and 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...
of the attack.
On June 30, 1963 a car bomb exploded near Greco’s house in Ciaculli, killing 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 was dissolved and of those mafiosi who had escaped arrest many went abroad. "Ciaschiteddu" Greco fled to Caracas in Venezuela.
The repression caused by the Ciaculli Massacre disarranged the Sicilian heroin trade to the United States. Mafiosi were banned, arrested and incarcerated. Control over the trade fell into the hands of a few fugitives: the Greco cousins, Pietro Davì, 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 Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Don Tano Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s...
.
On December 22, 1968, "Ciaschiteddu" Greco was sentenced in absentia to 4 years in prison at the trial against "the 114" in Catanzaro that was a consequence 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...
. In the appeal he was acquitted. In 1973 he received the maximum period of five years of internal banishment at the remote island of 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...
, but he was nowhere to be found.
In Venezuela
Meanwhile, in Venezuela Greco formed alliances with the Gambino crime familyGambino crime family
The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
in New York and the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan from Siculiana (Sicily) to facilitate drug trafficking.
While he resided in Venezuela, "Ciaschiteddu" Greco still remained an important figure in the internal leadership of Cosa Nostra, for which he travelled to Italy regularly. He was involved in the decisions to re-establish the Mafia Commission in 1970, and whether or not to take part in the neo-fascist wing coup attempt of Junio Valerio Borghese
Junio Valerio Borghese
Prince Junio Valerio Scipione Borghese was an Italian Navy commander during the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and was a prominent hard-line fascist politician in post-war Italy.-Early career:Junio Valerio Borghese was born in Artena, Province of Rome, Kingdom of Italy...
for which Borghese had offered amnesty for Mafia members in prison. Cosa Nostra decided not to take part and the attempt foiled on December 8, 1970.
In January 1978, the old and ailing "Ciaschiteddu" Greco came all the way from Venezuela to try to refrain Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Don Tano Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s...
, Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy...
and 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...
from retaliating against the growing power of the 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...
headed by Totò Riina. His efforts were in vain and the struggle would prove to be the prelude to 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...
.
On March 7, 1978, "Ciaschiteddu" Greco died in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
(Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
) from cirrhosis
Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease characterized by replacement of liver tissue by fibrosis, scar tissue and regenerative nodules , leading to loss of liver function...
of the liver.