Second Mafia War
Encyclopedia
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 short term. However, the Second Mafia War, which is sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the Mattanza (Italian for, The Killing), involved the entire Mafia and radically altered the power balance within the organization.
Even more so than the first one, the Second Mafia War involved a staggering amount of violence, with upwards of a thousand homicides. The dates of the war are sometimes given as 1981 to 1983, but while the majority of the violence did occur during these years, the first shots had been fired in 1978, and the instigators and eventual victors had been preparing their strategy some years before. Similarly, the victors dragged the killing out until the end of the 1980s as they disposed of their allies.
In addition to the violence within the Mafia itself, there was violence against the state
, including a campaign of deliberate assassination
s of authority figures, such as judge
s, prosecutors and politicians. In turn, the war resulted in a major crackdown against the Mafia, helped by the pentiti, Mafiosi who collaborated with the authorities after losing so many friends and relatives in the Second Mafia War. In effect, the conflict helped blow off the lid of secrecy on the Mafia.
, the Mafia Family from the town of Corleone
, although they were helped by a number of other Mafia Families. Hailing as they did from a small rural
town, the Corleonesi were often referred to as "the peasants" - i viddani in Sicilian - by other Mafia Families, especially by the powerful urbanized bosses in the capital of Palermo
. Things began to change in the 1960s as the Corleonesi grew in power and prestige under the leadership of the brutal and ambitious Luciano Leggio
, who had become the Mafia boss of Corleone
via the crude but effective method of simply shooting the old one, Michele Navarra
.
During the 1970s the Mafia in Sicily resumed its normal illicit business after the Mafia Trials of the 1960s
had ended with few convictions. The Corleonesi's primary rivals were Stefano Bontade
, Salvatore Inzerillo
and Gaetano Badalamenti
, bosses of various powerful Palermo Mafia Families. The Sicilian Mafia Commission
was re-established in 1970, with Bontate and Badalementi making up two of the three leaders of the Commission. The third was Leggio, although he was represented by his Underboss, Salvatore Riina
as Leggio was in hiding on the Italian mainland. When Leggio was captured in 1974 and imprisoned for murder, Riina soon took over as boss of the Corleonesi, with Bernardo Provenzano
as his underboss.
The Corleonesi
began to win over allies amongst other Mafia Families. Amongst those who aligned themselves with the Corleonesi were Palermo bosses Giuseppe Calò
(boss of Porta Nuova), Filippo Marchese
(boss of Corso Dei Mille) and Rosario Riccobono
(boss of Partanna Mondello). In 1978, for reasons still unknown, Riina managed to have Badalamenti expelled from the Commission and subsequently exiled from the Mafia and Sicily altogether. His place was taken by Ciaculli
Godfather Michele "The Pope" Greco
, who was also aligned with Riina. Greco, like Calò, Marchese and Riccobono, kept his alliance secret from the likes of Bontate and Inzerillo.
It was also in 1978 that Riina arranged for the murders of Giuseppe Di Cristina
and Giuseppe Calderone
, bosses of Riesi
and Catania
respectively. Both men were allies of Bontade and Inzerillo; their successors were allies of Riina, who sponsored them. Gradually, the bosses of Palermo and their men were isolated.
On April 23, 1981, Bontade was machine-gunned to death, and a few weeks later, on May 11, Inzerillo was killed in a hail of bullets. Various relatives and associates of the pair were subsequently killed or vanished without trace, including Inzerillo's 15-year-old son, who was killed for vowing to avenge his murdered father. Badalamenti only managed to survive by fleeing Sicily after the Corleonesi
had him expelled in the late 1970s.
More and more killings took place over the next two-years, with the bloodshed best illustrated by the fact that, on a single day - November 30, 1982 - twelve Mafiosi were murdered in Palermo in twelve separate incidents. The murders even extended across the Atlantic, with one of Inzerillo's brothers being found dead in New Jersey
after fleeing to the U.S.
. The dismembered body of one of Badalamenti's nephews turned up in a field in Germany
.
Amongst the many hitmen
at the disposal of the Corleonesi and their allied clans was Giuseppe Greco
from Ciaculli. He was a member of the Ciaculli clan headed by his uncle, Michele "The Pope" Greco
, but was primarily at the disposal of Riina. An ace shot with an AK-47
, Giuseppe Greco is suspected of killing around eighty people on behalf of Riina, including Bontade and Inzerillo. He led a "death squad" of hitmen, which included Mario Prestifilippo
and Giuseppe Lucchese
. Filippo Marchese
, boss of Corso Dei Mille, also took an active part in the slaughter, as did his young nephew, Giuseppe Marchese
who was caught in 1982. Vincenzo Puccio
, another prolific assassin, missed most of the war as he was in prison until 1983.
During 1981 and 1983 there were at least 400 Mafia killings in Palermo and as many again across Sicily. In addition there were at least 160 cases of Mafiosi and their associates who vanished, victims of what is known as lupara bianca (Sicilian for "White Shotgun"), whereby the body is completely destroyed or buried so that it is never found.
The Corleonesi and their allies were the overwhelming victors in the war, suffering few casualties themselves. One of the reasons was their natural secrecy. Whilst some Mafiosi lived quite publicly, putting on a persona of respectability, Riina, Provenzano, Leoluca Bagarella
and their many killers spent years as fugitives, often rarely seen by fellow Mafiosi, let alone the public.
The fact that many bosses aligned themselves with the Corleonesi but without telling other mafiosi also aided the campaign in that these allies continued to have the misplaced trust of the Corleonesi's enemies. A prime example took place not long into the war, whereby six members of Bontade and Inzerillo's Mafia Families were invited to a meeting with one of their supposed friends. This 'friend' had, in fact, allied himself with the Corleonesi and the four who went along were never seen again. One who did not go was Emanuele D'Agostino, who became suspicious and instead, together with his son, sought refuge with one of Bontade's oldest allies, Rosario Riccobono
. Of course, Riccobono had also secretly allied himself with the Corleonesi, and D'Agostino and his son were likewise eliminated. The only one of the six men to survive was Salvatore Contorno
, who subsequently survived a murder attempt and went into hiding before he was caught by the police.
While on the run, Contorno sent anonymous letters to the police, giving up vital information about the war. This was invaluable to the authorities, who - like the losing clans - had little idea as to what exactly was going on with all the bloodshed. Mafiosi were obviously very secretive normally, and at the time of the Second Mafia War the authorities were at a loss to understand the exact allegiances and motives of the war. For example, when Bontade was murdered, for a short while, until he himself was killed, the police thought he had been killed as an act of treachery by Inzerillo. Deliberate disinformation was also employed by the Corleonesi. When Inzerillo died he was wanted for the murder three-years previously of Giuseppe Di Cristina
, but in fact the Corleonesi had murdered Di Cristina, deliberately doing so on Inzerillo's territory in order to frame him.
and their allies, however, started a specific campaign of assassination of state figures.
This started in 1977 with the killing of Carabinieri
Colonel Giuseppe Russo
and continued throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. Amongst the victims (known as "excellent cadavers") were police chiefs Emanuele Basile
and Boris Giuliano
, magistrate
s Rocco Chinnici
and Cesare Terranova
, and politicians Piersanti Mattarella
and Pio La Torre
.
Nonetheless a team of anti-Mafia prosecutors, including Giovanni Falcone
, Paolo Borsellino
and Antonino Caponetto, laboured to orchestrate a concerted effort to combat the Mafia and the rising tide of violence, as well as the flow of heroin whose control was behind the war.
The war against the Mafia resulted in the Maxi Trial
of 1986/87, whereby hundreds of Mafiosi were convicted of a long litany of crimes. Some of the investigations and crimes had begun in the 1970s but a bulk of the charges related to the Second Mafia War. Many of the defendants, such as Riina and Provenazno, were convicted in absentia
as they were still fugitives at the time of the trial. The trial was significant as several Mafiosi on the losing side of the war, like Salvatore Contorno
and Tommaso Buscetta
, took the stand and testified against their former fellow Mafiosi. These became known as pentiti.
By the end of 1982 the Corleonesi
and their allies were all but triumphant, with many of the surviving members of the old clans surrendering and switching their allegiance to the victors. The killing did not end though. The Corleonesi decided to dispose of key allies, starting with Rosario Riccobono
, who was killed along with over twenty of his associates and friends in late 1982, and swiftly followed by Filippo Marchese
, who was strangled and dissolved in acid like many of those who had died at his own hands.
The violence dragged on into the latter half of the 1980s as a result of the Corleonesi's treachery and desire to ensure their hegemony throughout the Mafia. Riccobono and Marchese were already eliminated by the start of 1983. Further murders followed, primarily involving Ciaculli killers Giuseppe Greco
, Mario Prestifilippo
and Vincenzo Puccio
, and Agostino Marino Mannoia, who had switched sides from Bontade's to Riina's. These four men were invaluable to the Corleonesi throughout the first half of the 1980s, notching up literally hundreds of murders between them, but between 1985 and 1989 they were all murdered on the orders of the Corleonesi bosses, who saw them as having outlived their usefulness and/or perceived them as too ambitious and therefore a threat. Puccio's two brothers, also Mafiosi, were likewise killed.
Once again, the authorities were largely unaware of these new events in the closed world of the Mafia until they were confirmed by Francesco Marino Mannoia
(brother of Agostino Marino Mannoia) in October 1989. He had been in prison since 1985 for trafficking heroin but had been kept up to date on incidents by Agostino, who visited him regularly. According to Francesco Mannoia, his brother, Vincenzo Puccio and Puccio's two brothers were killed after Riina discovered they had been plotting to overthrow him. Giuseppe Greco and Mario Prestifilippo were apparently slain because they became too ambitious.
Mannoia's information was confirmed in 1992 by several more , including Gaspare Mutolo
, Giuseppe Marchese
and Leonardo Messina
. Unlike the of the mid-1980s, these men were on the winning side of the Second Mafia War, former allies of the Corleonesi. They all complained of the same thing, that Riina and the other bosses of Corleone abandoned or eliminated their allies once they were of no further use or perceived as a potential threat. It seemed the only way to survive being an ally of Riina was to do exactly as he said. In an interview with Borsellino in 1992, Messina summed this up by stating that the Corleonesi bosses "used us to get rid of the old bosses, then they got rid of all those who raised their heads, like Giuseppe Greco, "the Shoe", Mario Prestifilippo and [Vincenzo] Puccio...all that's left are men without character, who are their puppets."
and its bosses, Salvatore Riina
and Bernardo Provenzano
. By the mid-1980s they were effectively in charge of much of the Mafia and by the end of the decade, after many of their allies were eliminated or in prison, they effectively had a hegemony over the criminal organization.
This was summed up by Salvatore Contorno
who, when asked at the Maxi Trial
about the 'winners' and 'losers' of the Second Mafia War, declared that "The winning and losing clans don't exist, because the losers don't exist. They, the Corleonesi, killed them all."
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...
, 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 short term. However, the Second Mafia War, which is sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the Mattanza (Italian for, The Killing), involved the entire Mafia and radically altered the power balance within the organization.
Even more so than the first one, the Second Mafia War involved a staggering amount of violence, with upwards of a thousand homicides. The dates of the war are sometimes given as 1981 to 1983, but while the majority of the violence did occur during these years, the first shots had been fired in 1978, and the instigators and eventual victors had been preparing their strategy some years before. Similarly, the victors dragged the killing out until the end of the 1980s as they disposed of their allies.
In addition to the violence within the Mafia itself, there was violence against the state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
, including a campaign of deliberate assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s of authority figures, such as judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
s, prosecutors and politicians. In turn, the war resulted in a major crackdown against the Mafia, helped by the pentiti, Mafiosi who collaborated with the authorities after losing so many friends and relatives in the Second Mafia War. In effect, the conflict helped blow off the lid of secrecy on the Mafia.
Preceding events
The instigators of the Second Mafia War were the CorleonesiCorleonesi
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...
, the Mafia Family from the town of Corleone
Corleone
Corleone is a small town and comune of approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy....
, although they were helped by a number of other Mafia Families. Hailing as they did from a small rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
town, the Corleonesi were often referred to as "the peasants" - i viddani in Sicilian - by other Mafia Families, especially by the powerful urbanized bosses in the capital 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...
. Things began to change in the 1960s as the Corleonesi grew in power and prestige under the leadership of the brutal and ambitious Luciano Leggio
Luciano Leggio
Luciano Leggio was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone...
, who had become the Mafia boss of Corleone
Corleone
Corleone is a small town and comune of approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy....
via the crude but effective method of simply shooting the old one, Michele Navarra
Michele Navarra
Michele Navarra was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was a qualified physician and headed the Mafia Family from the town of Corleone...
.
During the 1970s the Mafia in Sicily resumed its normal illicit business after the Mafia Trials of the 1960s
1960s Sicilian Mafia trials
The 1960s Sicilian Mafia trials took place at the end of that decade in response to a rise in organized crime violence around the late 1950s and early 1960s. There were three major trials, each featuring multiple defendants, that saw hundreds of alleged Mafiosi on trial for dozens of crimes...
had ended with few convictions. The Corleonesi's primary rivals were 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...
, 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 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...
, bosses of various powerful Palermo Mafia Families. 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 re-established in 1970, with Bontate and Badalementi making up two of the three leaders of the Commission. The third was Leggio, although he was represented by his Underboss, 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...
as Leggio was in hiding on the Italian mainland. When Leggio was captured in 1974 and imprisoned for murder, Riina soon took over as boss of the Corleonesi, with Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and is suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the village of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi of the entire Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in 2006.His nickname is Binnu u tratturi...
as his underboss.
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...
began to win over allies amongst other Mafia Families. Amongst those who aligned themselves with the Corleonesi were Palermo bosses 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....
(boss of Porta Nuova), 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....
(boss of Corso Dei Mille) and 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...
(boss of Partanna Mondello). In 1978, for reasons still unknown, Riina managed to have Badalamenti expelled from the Commission and subsequently exiled from the Mafia and Sicily altogether. His place was taken by 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...
Godfather Michele "The Pope" Greco
Michele Greco
Michele Greco was a member of the Sicilian Mafia, previously incarcerated for multiple murders. His nickname was "il Papa" because of his ability to mediate between different Mafia families...
, who was also aligned with Riina. Greco, like Calò, Marchese and Riccobono, kept his alliance secret from the likes of Bontate and Inzerillo.
It was also in 1978 that Riina arranged for the murders of Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy...
and Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone was an influential Sicilian mafioso from Catania. He became the ‘secretary’ of the interprovincial Sicilian Mafia Commission, formed around 1975 on his instigation. Its purpose was to coordinate the provincial Mafia commissions and avoid conflicts over public contracts...
, bosses of Riesi
Riesi
Riesi is a comune in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about 110 kilometres southeast of Palermo and about 20 kilometres south of Caltanissetta...
and Catania
Catania
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...
respectively. Both men were allies of Bontade and Inzerillo; their successors were allies of Riina, who sponsored them. Gradually, the bosses of Palermo and their men were isolated.
The Great Mafia War
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...
had him expelled in the late 1970s.
More and more killings took place over the next two-years, with the bloodshed best illustrated by the fact that, on a single day - November 30, 1982 - twelve Mafiosi were murdered in Palermo in twelve separate incidents. The murders even extended across the Atlantic, with one of Inzerillo's brothers being found dead in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
after fleeing to the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The dismembered body of one of Badalamenti's nephews turned up in a field in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Amongst the many hitmen
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...
at the disposal of the Corleonesi and their allied clans was 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...
from Ciaculli. He was a member of the Ciaculli clan headed by his uncle, Michele "The Pope" Greco
Michele Greco
Michele Greco was a member of the Sicilian Mafia, previously incarcerated for multiple murders. His nickname was "il Papa" because of his ability to mediate between different Mafia families...
, but was primarily at the disposal of Riina. An ace shot with an AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
, Giuseppe Greco is suspected of killing around eighty people on behalf of Riina, including Bontade and Inzerillo. He led a "death squad" of hitmen, which included Mario Prestifilippo
Mario Prestifilippo
Mario Prestifilippo was a member of the Sicilian Mafia.He was briefly the boss of the Ciaculli Mafia Family after Giuseppe Greco was murdered in 1985. He played a significant role in the Second Mafia War of the early 1980s orchestrated by Salvatore Riina...
and Giuseppe Lucchese
Giuseppe Lucchese
Giuseppe Lucchese is a member of the Sicilian Mafia from the Brancaccio neighbourhood in Palermo. He was one of the favourite hitmen of the Corleonesi, headed by Totò Riina, during the Second Mafia War in 1981-83....
. 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....
, boss of Corso Dei Mille, also took an active part in the slaughter, as did his young nephew, Giuseppe Marchese
Giuseppe Marchese
Giuseppe Marchese was a member of the Sicilian Mafia, who turned state witness . Giuseppe Pino Marchese was born in Palermo. His father Vincenzo Marchese was a powerful Mafia boss and his uncle Filippo Marchese was the head of the Corso dei Mille Mafia family.-Early Mafia career:He learned the...
who was caught in 1982. 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...
, another prolific assassin, missed most of the war as he was in prison until 1983.
During 1981 and 1983 there were at least 400 Mafia killings in Palermo and as many again across Sicily. In addition there were at least 160 cases of Mafiosi and their associates who vanished, victims of what is known as lupara bianca (Sicilian for "White Shotgun"), whereby the body is completely destroyed or buried so that it is never found.
The Corleonesi and their allies were the overwhelming victors in the war, suffering few casualties themselves. One of the reasons was their natural secrecy. Whilst some Mafiosi lived quite publicly, putting on a persona of respectability, Riina, Provenzano, 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 their many killers spent years as fugitives, often rarely seen by fellow Mafiosi, let alone the public.
The fact that many bosses aligned themselves with the Corleonesi but without telling other mafiosi also aided the campaign in that these allies continued to have the misplaced trust of the Corleonesi's enemies. A prime example took place not long into the war, whereby six members of Bontade and Inzerillo's Mafia Families were invited to a meeting with one of their supposed friends. This 'friend' had, in fact, allied himself with the Corleonesi and the four who went along were never seen again. One who did not go was Emanuele D'Agostino, who became suspicious and instead, together with his son, sought refuge with one of Bontade's oldest allies, 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...
. Of course, Riccobono had also secretly allied himself with the Corleonesi, and D'Agostino and his son were likewise eliminated. The only one of the six men to survive was 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...
, who subsequently survived a murder attempt and went into hiding before he was caught by the police.
While on the run, Contorno sent anonymous letters to the police, giving up vital information about the war. This was invaluable to the authorities, who - like the losing clans - had little idea as to what exactly was going on with all the bloodshed. Mafiosi were obviously very secretive normally, and at the time of the Second Mafia War the authorities were at a loss to understand the exact allegiances and motives of the war. For example, when Bontade was murdered, for a short while, until he himself was killed, the police thought he had been killed as an act of treachery by Inzerillo. Deliberate disinformation was also employed by the Corleonesi. When Inzerillo died he was wanted for the murder three-years previously of Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy...
, but in fact the Corleonesi had murdered Di Cristina, deliberately doing so on Inzerillo's territory in order to frame him.
War against the state
Whilst the Sicilian Mafia has generally been more inclined to kill authority figures than their American counterparts, this is still usually only as a last resort. The CorleonesiCorleonesi
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...
and their allies, however, started a specific campaign of assassination of state figures.
This started in 1977 with the killing of Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
Colonel Giuseppe Russo
Giuseppe Russo
Giuseppe Russo is an Italian footballer who currently plays for Hellas Verona.He made his Serie B debut with Crotone in the 2001/2002 season.- External links :...
and continued throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. Amongst the victims (known as "excellent cadavers") were police chiefs Emanuele Basile
Emanuele Basile
Emanuele Basile was a captain of the Carabinieri and a collaborator of Paolo Borsellino on anti-Mafia investigations. He was killed by Cosa Nostra in Monreale, Palermo, shot repeatedly in the back whilst he carried his four-year-old daughter, who was unhurt in the shooting...
and Boris Giuliano
Boris Giuliano
Giorgio Boris Giuliano was a police chief from Palermo, Sicily. He was the head of Palermo's Flying Squad ....
, 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...
s Rocco Chinnici
Rocco Chinnici
Rocco Chinnici was a noted Italian Antimafia magistrate killed by the Mafia.-Life:Born at Misilmeri, Chinnici graduated in law at the University of Palermo in 1947 and started working as a magistrate in 1952 in Trapani. In 1966 he moved to the prosecutors office in Palermo...
and Cesare Terranova
Cesare 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...
, and politicians 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:...
and Pio La Torre
Pio La Torre
Pio La Torre was a leader of the Italian Communist Party...
.
Nonetheless a team of anti-Mafia prosecutors, including 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...
, 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....
and Antonino Caponetto, laboured to orchestrate a concerted effort to combat the Mafia and the rising tide of violence, as well as the flow of heroin whose control was behind the war.
The war against the Mafia resulted in the Maxi Trial
Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial that took place in Sicily during the mid-1980s that saw hundreds of defendants on trial convicted for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities, based primarily on testimony given in as evidence from a former boss turned informant...
of 1986/87, whereby hundreds of Mafiosi were convicted of a long litany of crimes. Some of the investigations and crimes had begun in the 1970s but a bulk of the charges related to the Second Mafia War. Many of the defendants, such as Riina and Provenazno, were convicted in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
as they were still fugitives at the time of the trial. The trial was significant as several Mafiosi on the losing side of the war, like 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...
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...
, took the stand and testified against their former fellow Mafiosi. These became known as pentiti.
Continuing violence
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...
and their allies were all but triumphant, with many of the surviving members of the old clans surrendering and switching their allegiance to the victors. The killing did not end though. The Corleonesi decided to dispose of key allies, starting with 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...
, who was killed along with over twenty of his associates and friends in late 1982, and swiftly followed by 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....
, who was strangled and dissolved in acid like many of those who had died at his own hands.
The violence dragged on into the latter half of the 1980s as a result of the Corleonesi's treachery and desire to ensure their hegemony throughout the Mafia. Riccobono and Marchese were already eliminated by the start of 1983. Further murders followed, primarily involving Ciaculli killers 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...
, Mario Prestifilippo
Mario Prestifilippo
Mario Prestifilippo was a member of the Sicilian Mafia.He was briefly the boss of the Ciaculli Mafia Family after Giuseppe Greco was murdered in 1985. He played a significant role in the Second Mafia War of the early 1980s orchestrated by Salvatore Riina...
and 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...
, and Agostino Marino Mannoia, who had switched sides from Bontade's to Riina's. These four men were invaluable to the Corleonesi throughout the first half of the 1980s, notching up literally hundreds of murders between them, but between 1985 and 1989 they were all murdered on the orders of the Corleonesi bosses, who saw them as having outlived their usefulness and/or perceived them as too ambitious and therefore a threat. Puccio's two brothers, also Mafiosi, were likewise killed.
Once again, the authorities were largely unaware of these new events in the closed world of the Mafia until they were confirmed by Francesco Marino Mannoia
Francesco Marino Mannoia
Francesco Marino Mannoia is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who became a pentito in 1989. His nickname was Mozzarella. He is considered to be one of the most reliable government witnesses against the Mafia...
(brother of Agostino Marino Mannoia) in October 1989. He had been in prison since 1985 for trafficking heroin but had been kept up to date on incidents by Agostino, who visited him regularly. According to Francesco Mannoia, his brother, Vincenzo Puccio and Puccio's two brothers were killed after Riina discovered they had been plotting to overthrow him. Giuseppe Greco and Mario Prestifilippo were apparently slain because they became too ambitious.
Mannoia's information was confirmed in 1992 by several more , including Gaspare Mutolo
Gaspare Mutolo
Gaspare Mutolo is a Sicilian mafioso, also known as "Asparino". In 1992 he became a pentito . He was the first mafioso who spoke about the connections between Cosa Nostra and Italian politicians...
, Giuseppe Marchese
Giuseppe Marchese
Giuseppe Marchese was a member of the Sicilian Mafia, who turned state witness . Giuseppe Pino Marchese was born in Palermo. His father Vincenzo Marchese was a powerful Mafia boss and his uncle Filippo Marchese was the head of the Corso dei Mille Mafia family.-Early Mafia career:He learned the...
and Leonardo Messina
Leonardo Messina
Leonardo "Narduzzo" Messina is a former Sicilian mafioso who became a government informant or "pentito" in 1992. His testimony led to the arrest of over 200 mafiosi during the so-called "Operation Leopard"...
. Unlike the of the mid-1980s, these men were on the winning side of the Second Mafia War, former allies of the Corleonesi. They all complained of the same thing, that Riina and the other bosses of Corleone abandoned or eliminated their allies once they were of no further use or perceived as a potential threat. It seemed the only way to survive being an ally of Riina was to do exactly as he said. In an interview with Borsellino in 1992, Messina summed this up by stating that the Corleonesi bosses "used us to get rid of the old bosses, then they got rid of all those who raised their heads, like Giuseppe Greco, "the Shoe", Mario Prestifilippo and [Vincenzo] Puccio...all that's left are men without character, who are their puppets."
End of the 1980s
The primary result of the Second Mafia War was the victory of the CorleonesiCorleonesi
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...
and its bosses, 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...
and Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano is a member of the Sicilian Mafia and is suspected of having been the head of the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the village of Corleone, and de facto capo di tutti capi of the entire Sicilian Mafia until his arrest in 2006.His nickname is Binnu u tratturi...
. By the mid-1980s they were effectively in charge of much of the Mafia and by the end of the decade, after many of their allies were eliminated or in prison, they effectively had a hegemony over the criminal organization.
This was summed up by 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...
who, when asked at the Maxi Trial
Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial that took place in Sicily during the mid-1980s that saw hundreds of defendants on trial convicted for a multitude of crimes relating to Mafia activities, based primarily on testimony given in as evidence from a former boss turned informant...
about the 'winners' and 'losers' of the Second Mafia War, declared that "The winning and losing clans don't exist, because the losers don't exist. They, the Corleonesi, killed them all."