Cinisi family (Mafia clan)

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The Cinisi family is a Mafia clan of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra from the municipality of the same name Cinisi on the west coast of Sicily.

history

Cinisi, about 40 kilometers from Palermo , was considered a mafia stronghold. One of the first big Capomafia was Cesare Manzella (* December 18, 1897, † April 26, 1963). He belonged to the traditional capo mafia type and was a member of the first mafia commission where he represented his mandamento Cinisi. He owned the lands of a large orange plantation . After a time in the USA, in the Chicago gambling business , he was deported to Italy again in 1947 . He was described by the local Carabinieri as a "violent and harassing personality" who also had great authority in the surrounding villages of Carini, Torretta, Terrasini, Partinico, Borgetto and Camporeale. In his hometown Cinisi he was popular with the poor because of his charitable donations. So he founded an orphanage and was president of the Azione Cattolica organization.

Together with his Sottocapo Gaetano Badalamenti, he was involved in cigarette smuggling and heroin trafficking . Because of an underweight heroin shipment financed by Manzella, the Greco cousins from Ciaculli and the La Barbera brothers from the old town of Palermo, the First Mafia War broke out between the Greco and La Barbera factions. The Cinisi family stood on the side of the Grecos and thus became the target of the opponents.

On April 26, 1963, Manzella died in a serious car bomb explosion. According to reports, parts of his body were found on lemon trees a hundred meters from the bomb crater. Then Gaetano "Don Tano" Badalamenti, who had excellent connections to politicians and police in Cinisi, took over the management of the family.

The Cosca of Cinisi experienced its heyday under Badalamenti and made a fortune with illegal business. This included construction companies and the business around Punta Raisi Airport , the building site of which was on the family's property. From there, large quantities of heroin were exported to the USA as part of the Pizza Connection , and Badalamenti became one of the largest drug dealers of his time. The Pizza Connection generated a profit of 1.65 billion US dollars from 1975 to 1984 .

In 1974 the Cupola was reconstituted under the direction of Badalamenti. At the end of the 1970s the first tensions arose with the competing Corleonesi , which resulted in the murders of Francesco Madonia († April 8, 1978), Giuseppe Di Cristina († May 1978), Giuseppe Calderone († September 8, 1978) and discharged others. But this was just the beginning of the massacres of the Second Mafia War.

In 1978 the young mafia activist Peppino Impastato , who had publicly denounced the business of Gaetano Badalamenti (Cesare Manzella was the brother-in-law of Peppino's father Luigi Impastato, who also belonged to the local mafia) and his family with satirical radio broadcasts, was killed in revenge by the mafia.

In 1978 Gaetano went abroad and his cousin Antonio took over the Cosca. "Don Tano" Badalamenti survived the bloody Second Mafia War (1981-1983), in which the axis Bontade-Inzerillo-Badalamenti was completely destroyed, in exile and was born on April 8, 1984 in Madrid , together with his son Vito Badalamenti Police arrested and sentenced to a long prison term in the Pizza Connection trial.

Important members of the Cinisi family

literature

  • John Dickie: Cosa Nostra. A story of the Sicilian Mafia . London. 2004. Coronet. ISBN 0-340-82435-2 .
  • Pino Arlacchi: Mafia from within: The life of Don Antonino Calderone . S. Fischer Verlag
  • John Follain: The Final Godparents: Rise and Fall of the Corleones Fishermen Paperback. 2017. ISBN 978-359-6-31906-0 .

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ The godfather no longer lives here. The time. June 10, 2010
  2. ↑ According to other sources, 1968
  3. ↑ "pieces of Manzella's body were found stuck to lemon trees hundreds of meters from the crater where the car had been."
  4. ↑ A godfather of the old school. The New Zurich Times. May 9, 2004
  5. ↑ 40 years after the death of Peppino Impastato. Mafia? No thanks eV June 6, 2018
  6. ^ Memory House Felicia and Peppino Impastato, Cinisi, Sicily