Corleonesi

The Corleonesi (Famiglia di Corleone) are a mafia clan of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra with headquarters in the mafia stronghold of Corleone .

Under the leadership of Salvatore "Totò" Riina , the highly underrated Corleonesi , often referred to by other established Mafia clans as i viddani ("The Peasants"), fought their way to the top of the Cosa Nostra during the second great Mafia war .

history

View over Corleone

Origins

The origins of the traditional Corleone mafia date back to the end of the 19th century. At that time the poor agricultural workers and small farmers of Sicily organized themselves under the leadership of the young Italian Socialist Party . The center of the movement was Corleone, and the slogan was: “The land belongs to whoever works it.” As a result, so-called gabellotti (estate managers) were given full powers by mostly aristocratic landowners to protect their land and their goods from insurgent peasants Protect brigands. The Gabellotti also leased land from the large landowners and leased it to local farmers. As guards and overseers, they ensured security on the plantations, but at the same time forced the farmers to hand over the “pizzu”, part of their harvest. It was the first form of protection money payment. The Gabelloti became more and more powerful over time, took on police duties and provided their own protection forces. They secured their power through threats of violence. This phenomenon emerged all over Sicily, as it is now in Corleone, and so gradually a criminal network, the Mafia, emerged.

Salvatore Cutrera was a suspected boss of the area at the end of the 19th century, whose main activities were, among other things, cattle theft. The cattle were sold or the previous owners were blackmailed for a fee. His subordinates also included Bernardo Terranova and his stepson Giuseppe "Peter" Morello , who emigrated with his family to New York City in 1892 and is considered the founder of the Morello family , which is now known as the forerunner of the Genovese family . At this time Giuseppe "Piddu" Battaglia (alleged uncle of Morello) became the new head of the clan.

In 1915, Bernardino Verro , the first socialist mayor of Corleone and leader of the local peasant movement, was murdered with 11 shots by a member of the mafia. According to Verro's memoirs, however, he even became a member of a Mafia group called "Fratuzzi" (little brothers) in Corleone in 1893 for his own protection. He later described the initiation ritual in his memoirs .

In 1920 Battaglia was replaced by Salvatore Cutrera's nephew Michelangelo Gennaro. Four years later, Angelo Gagliano became the new head. Gagliano was also charged with the murder of Bernardino Verro, but was acquitted. On July 7, 1930, at the age of 68, Gagliano was murdered by unknown assailants and the new leadership of the clan was taken over by Calogero Lo Bue. In 1943 Lo Bue died of natural causes. Thereafter, Gagliano's nephew Michele Navarra was the new head.

Navarre era

Dr. Michele Navarre

Since the 1920s, members of the Sicilian Mafia have been severely persecuted by Benito Mussolini . After the Allies landed in Sicily in the summer of 1943 and liberated the island from fascism, Navarra, the new head of the family, was able to fully resume family activities. In 1943, the US Army allowed Navarre to take over Italian military vehicles that had been left behind during the invasion. This enabled him to build a profitable transport company.

Navarre has served as president of the Corleone Farmers 'Union, trustee of the farmers' union, health insurance overseer in the region, and board member of the state railway company, a tuberculosis center and a smallholder health insurance company. Navarre was also closely associated with the Christian Democratic Party of Italy, Democrazia Cristiana . Like the rest of the Cosa Nostra, he took a hostile attitude towards communism and prevented unions from gaining a foothold in Corleone.

Corleone was a city of high violence in the mid-20th century. Over 150 murders were recorded between 1944 and 1948. From 1953 to 1961, Corleone lost 1.5 percent of the population to gang murders. During this time, 52 murders and 22 attempted murders were recorded within Corleone, plus the victims of the " Lupara Bianca ". In post-war Sicily, an area north of Corleone was also known as the Death Triangle . The corners of this triangle are the cities of Casteldaccia , Altavilla Milicia as well as Bagheria and Corleone.

Takeover by Liggio

Luciano Liggio (1974)

Michele Navarra was murdered on August 2, 1958. The murder was preceded by a conflict between the aspiring Luciano "Lucianeddu" Liggio and the established Patriarch Navarre. In the war that followed the assassination of Navarre, Liggio and his followers systematically eliminated Navarre's followers. Corleone became known as the "Tombstone" as a result of the ongoing violence. The L'Ora newspaper was bombed after it had published an article three days earlier about Liggio and his supporters entitled “Pericoloso” (dangerous).

Liggio was imprisoned from 1964 to 1969. His previous right-hand man, Salvatore "Totò" Riina , was appointed deputy boss during this time. In 1969 Liggio was acquitted in court under dubious circumstances and went into hiding.

The massacre in Viale Lazio on December 10, 1969, which put an end to the First Mafia War, showed Liggio's power in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra: two of his best assassins, Bernardo “Zu Binnu” Provenzano and Calogero Bagarella , belonged to it Killer squad that killed Michele Cavataio . Liggio was then next to Stefano Bontade and Gaetano Badalamenti one of the three bosses who provisionally headed the Cosa Nostra in the triumvirate until 1974, and he was then a member of the re-established commission , the regular "Senate", in which the most important bosses met. Liggio now expanded its activities to the Italian mainland and set up Corleonesi branches in Bologna , Rome , Naples and Milan .

After Liggio was arrested again in Milan in 1974, he appointed Riina and Provenzano as his mutual successors. Riina was to be the first to become the new boss of the Corleonesians and to be replaced by Provenzano after two years. Riina did not give up this office; Provenzano agreed to this. Since then, Provenzano has been considered Riina's right-hand man.

Reign of Riina

Although Riina had been wanted by arrest warrant since the early 1970s, she stayed in hiding and soon took the first steps to gain supremacy within the Cosa Nostra.

In the course of a mafia war in 1981 and 1982 in which hundreds of mafiosi died, the Corleonesi rose to become the leading mafia family in Sicily. After Riina had the Palermitan boss Rosario Riccobono and over 20 of his men murdered in a single day shortly before Christmas 1982, he was happy about it and was downright euphoric: "We even did better than the Americans with their Valentine's Day massacre !"

Riina and Provenzano henceforth dominated the Cosa Nostra; both sat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission at the same time . Due to pressure from law enforcement, the Corleonese began a campaign against the state. For years, prosecutors, judges, politicians, journalists and also uninvolved civilians have been killed.

Falcone (left) and Borsellino (right) on demonstration banners: You didn't murder them, their ideas continue on our feet

In January 1993 Riina was arrested and eventually convicted, among other things for the assassinations of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in May 1992.

Although Riina was officially "fugitive" for over twenty years, he probably lived in Sicily the whole time and built up a position of power in the mafia. There is evidence that he spent several years in Palermo under the protection of the family of the Palermitan district of Noce. It is generally believed that this was only possible because he enjoyed protection due to bribery, entanglement of interests and intimidation from the Sicilian government and the then very influential Democrazia Cristiana.

The Phantom Provenzano

Bernardo Provenzano (1959)

Provenzano, who had lived underground since the 1960s and was wanted by the authorities by phantom , became the new boss of the Corleonesi and thus de facto Capo dei Capi in 1995, after the arrest of Leoluca Bagarella , Riina's deputy . Thanks to Provenzano's leadership, the Sicilian Mafia could be relatively quiet as he tried to keep the Cosa Nostra out of the headlines and to consolidate it as best he could. He was able to halt the wave of Mafia renegades and he gave the care of prisoners back their traditionally high position on the priority list of the Cosa Nostra.

Again and again he changed hiding places and among other things it was said that Provenzano had disguised himself as a bishop. There were no computers or cell phones in his hiding places. He communicated exclusively via “pizzini” - small, closely written messages folded to the size of a fingernail, in which he gave instructions to his adepts and held the strings of the organization firmly in hand. An important part of his family was Carmelo Gariffo, Provenzano's nephew and deputy.

After 43 years on the "flight", Bernardo Provenzano, at the age of 73, was found on April 11, 2006 together with another person from the Italian Polizia di Stato in a shabby shed ("un casolare diroccato e isolato accanto una stalla e un caseificio ”), about 2 km from Corleone city center. A short time after Provenzano was arrested, Carmelo Gariffo was also arrested. The City Council of Corleone has declared the day of his arrest a public holiday and was able to name a street “Via 11 Aprile” in honor of the arrest.

Last years

After Provenzano's imprisonment, Rosario Lo Bue is said to have become the new head of the Corleonesi, according to media reports. According to research, he often met his men in the countryside while animals were grazing, preaching peace and reciting verses from the Bible in God's name. He traveled for miles through the countryside to get to secret meetings with his accomplices and to evade police surveillance. Rosario is the brother of Calogero and the uncle of his son Giuseppe Lo Bue. Together with the farmer Bernardo Riina, before Provenzano's arrest, they passed on his messages in the form of pizzini and helped him to continue operating out of the shadows. During the tenure of Lo Bue, it is said, there were undertakings on the part of Giovanni Grizzaffi (nephew of Totò Riina) and Antonino Di Marco to take over the management of the Corleone family. After a major operation in 2015, 62-year-old Rosario Lo Bue was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In 2011 the authorities arrested Totò's brother Gaetano "Zio Tano" Riina , who had been the consigliere of the family since the 1980s and was now accused of having been involved in the reorganization of the Cosa Nostra families. He was also said to have controlled the Corleone clan as the new boss from the city of Mazara del Vallo . Whether one can believe this assumption, however, is in question, since Rosario Lo Bue was considered the official boss of the Corleonesi until his arrest.

Twelve men were arrested in September 2016 for attempting to reorganize criminal rule over the district under the leadership of Carmelo Gariffo, who was released from prison in 2014. The investigators had wiretapped the mafiosi in an office in the Corleone stadium and learned of the blackmailing of several entrepreneurs from the real estate sector by paying the so-called pizzo . Previously, in August, Corleone's municipal administration was dissolved due to Mafia infiltration. Until the municipal administration was dissolved, the local mafia controlled the waste disposal, the school's cafeteria and the company responsible for collecting the tax.

On June 5, 2017, a court of cassation rejected an earlier judgment denying a request for Salvatore Riina's release, stating that Riina, like every prisoner, has the "right to death with dignity". A court in Bologna should now decide whether Riina can be released, placed under house arrest or taken to hospital, as he suffers from severe kidney and brain problems and, according to the Court of Cassation, no longer poses a threat to the general public; however, this was refused. In November, a few months later, he died in the inmates' infirmary in Parma after lying in an artificial coma for several days.

Historical tour

Head of the family

The head (capofamiglia) of a family can not always be clearly identified; especially if another family member comes to the fore due to a prison sentence. The external view does not always make it easy to recognize a new head as such or to determine his exact term of office. In addition, a presidential system seems to be establishing itself to a certain extent; d. H. the head shifts his power more to a so-called “acting boss” and / or “street boss”, who in turn continue to recognize the head as such, even if he is, for example, in custody.

Period	Surname	Nickname	Lifetime	Cause of death	annotation
1880s-1893	Salvatore Cutrera		1835 - ????
1893-1920	Giuseppe Battaglia	Piddu	1846 - ????		Uncle of Giuseppe "Peter" Morello
1920-1924	Michelangelo Gennaro		1864-1924		Nephew of Salvatore Cutrera
1924-1930	Angelo Gagliano		1862-1930	murdered on July 7, 1930	Uncle of Michele Navarra
1930-1943	Calogero Lo Bue		1887-1943	natural death
1943-1958	Michele Navarre	Il padre nostro	1905-1958	murdered on August 2, 1958	Client: Luciano Liggio
1958-1974	Luciano Liggio	Lucianeddu	1925-1993	Heart attack	Imprisoned 1964–1969 and 1974 until death
1974-1995	Salvatore Riina	Totò	1930-2017	natural death	Imprisoned until death in 1993
1995-2006	Bernardo Provenzano	To Binnu	1933-2016	cancer	Imprisoned until death in 2006
2006 - ????	Rosario Lo Bue		1953 – today		detained since 2015

Acting Boss (reggente)

1964–1969: Salvatore "Totò" Riina
1993-1995: Leoluca Biagio Bagarella ; involved in the murder of Paolo Borsellino / imprisoned since 1995
1996-2002: Carmelo Gariffo; 2006-2014 and detained since 2016

Underboss of the family

The underboss (Sottocapo) is number two in the criminal family, he is the deputy director of the syndicate. He gathers information for the boss, gives orders and instructions to the subordinates. In the absence of the boss, he leads the organization.

Period	Surname	Nickname	Lifetime	Cause of death	annotation
1930-1943	Michele Navarre	Il padre nostro	1905-1958	murdered on August 2, 1958	became boss in 1943
1945–1957	Vincenzo Collura	Mr. Vincent	1899-1957	murdered on February 24, 1957	Nephew of Calogero Lo Bue
1957-1958	Luciano Liggio	Lucianeddu	1925-1993	Heart attack	became boss in 1958
1958-1974	Salvatore Riina	Totò	1930-2017	natural death	became boss in 1974
1974-1995	Bernardo Provenzano	To Binnu	1933-2016	cancer	became boss in 1995

Consigliere of the family

The consigliere , the family advisor, is on the same level as the underboss . He advises the boss and the underboss, giving him considerable influence and power.

Period	Surname	Nickname	Lifetime	Cause of death	annotation
1974-1982	Luciano Liggio	Lucianeddu	1925-1993	Heart attack	Imprisoned until death in 1974
1982 - ????	Gaetano Riina	Zio Tano	1933 – today		detained since 2011

Other well-known members

Surname	Nickname	Lifetime	Cause of death	annotation
Calogero Bagarella		1935-1969	murdered on December 10, 1969 by Michele Cavataio	Brother of Leoluca Bagarella, brother-in-law of Salvatore Riina
Giovanni Brusca	U 'Verru	1957 – today		involved in the murders of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino / imprisoned since 1996

Films and documentaries

1996: Mafia: Witnesses for the Prosecution ; Documentary episode from the television program NZZ Format , about the Cosa Nostra.
1999: Giovanni Falcone - In the Mafia Network ; Film about the mafia chasers Giovanni Falcone and mafiosi like Tommaso Buscetta, Salvatore Inzerillo and Luciano Liggio (played by Gaetano Amato).
2006: The Phantom of Corleone ; Documentary about Bernardo Provenzano, who had been in hiding since 1963, before he was arrested on.
1999: Falcone - In the crosshairs of the Mafia (OT: Excellent Cadavers ); Film about the mafia chasers Giovanni Falcone and mafiosi like Tommaso Buscetta, "Totò" Riina (played by Victor Cavallo) and others.
2006: The Phantom of Corleone ; Documentary about the rise of and the search for Bernardo Provenzano before he was arrested.
2007: The Mafia (OT: Inside the Mafia ); the fourth episode of the documentary series, titled The Godfathers in Trouble, is about John Gotti and "Totò" Riina.
2007: The boss of the bosses (OT: Il capo dei capi) ; Series about the life of Salvatore Riina and his rise with Bernardo Provenzano.
2008: the last godfather ; Two-part feature film about the last time Bernardo Provenzano escaped from prosecution.
2013: Murderous Societies - A History of the Mafia ; Two-part documentation by Arte, about mafia organizations in southern Italy .
2015: Corleone - origin of the Sicilian Mafia ; Documentary by Holger Hendricks, about Corleone and the Corleonesi.