Corso dei Mille family

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Surrounding area Corso dei Mille. Corso dei Mille / Sant'Erasmo district outlined in red

The mafia clan Corso dei Mille is a long-established Cosca of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in Palermo . The clan, successfully led by Filippo Marchese , the successor of Francesco di Noto , because of the many heroin laboratories she controls and the resulting profits, was one of the most popular because of the notorious "Camera della Morte - death chamber" on the Piazza Sant'Erasmo most violent ( "il più feroce dei clan" ) and cruelest in the history of the Sicilian Mafia. He originally belonged to the Palermitan families of the Bontade - Inzerillo - Badalamenti axis , but became apostate at the beginning of the second Mafia War and led the Corleonesi campaign against the former allies by force of arms. The Cosca temporarily had 65 members.

history

The Corso dei Mille is both an old city, bordered by Via Lincoln, Corso dei Mille and Oreto River , and on the other hand, continue along Corso dei Mille in the south, a district in Palermo , which extends from the Piazza Scaffa in the quarter Brancaccio via Acqua dei Corsari extends to Ciaculli and Croceverde-Giardini . The Salvatore Greco family is also said to have worked in this area. A number of large heroin refineries were discovered in the area in the late 1970s , most of which were conveniently located near the main airport road for the main Palermo- New York trade route . In one of them, which was controlled by the then Capomafia Pietro Vernengo , the police confiscated 80 kilograms of refined drugs . In Via Pecori Girardi, a side street off Corso dei Mille, a "Squadra Mobile" ( mobile police command ) led by Giorgio Boris Giuliano tracked down the hiding place of Leoluca Bagarella , one of Filippo Marquese's most important allies from the Corleone clan. Bagarella managed to escape at the last second. In connection with this, four kilograms of pure heroin were found in his hiding place and $ 500,000 in cash in a suitcase at Punta Raisi Airport . Giuliano was killed in an act of revenge on the morning of July 21, 1979 in the Bar Lux in Via Evangelista Di Blasi while drinking an espresso in public there . Giuseppe Marchese , nephew of Filippo Marchese, was charged with this murder.

The regional power of the Corso dei Mille family was enforced with authority and extreme violence , which was given an additional quality by the exorbitant profits from the international drug trade. The area became the scene of numerous bloody events in the course of the Second Mafia War, mainly due to the fact that the state was virtually non-existent here. Filippo Marchese bribed the Palermitan police directors on a large scale in the praesidium in Via Roma in order to be able to "rule" undisturbed in his mandamento . Filippo Marchese replaced his murdered predecessor Di Noto in the summer of 1981 and entered into a secret alliance with the Corleonesi, which aimed to exterminate the warring families from the Bontade-Inzerillo-Badalamenti axis.

Camera della Morte

The "Camera della Morte - Chamber of Death" , or "Covo degli Orrori - Cave of Terror" was located in an abandoned house on the Piazetta Sant'Erasmo on the coast, about one kilometer from Piazza Scaffa. It was run by Filippo Marchese and consisted of three rooms in a back courtyard that was covered by an alley. Here rivals or unpleasant people were tortured, tortured and killed in secret . It was Filippo Marchese's personal torture chamber where he and his Cosca killed people on behalf of the Corleonesi. The bodies were not found, only traces of skin on the ropes to which the victims were tied. Only testimonies during the Maxi Trial ( 1986 - 1987 ) by Vincenzo Sinagra "U 'Ndli" and Stefano Calzetta gave incomplete information about what had happened in the "Camera della Morte" . Further details about some of these acts were revealed in 1992 , according to statements by Giuseppe Marchese , who himself was involved in the killings.

On July 13, 1982 the businessman Antonio Militello, a relative of Salvatore "Totuccio" Contorno , was kidnapped. The Pentito Sinagra testified that the most ruthless men of the Corso dei Mille clan waited with Filippo Marchese personally for the used car dealer. Before Militello was killed, he was tortured and his body was eventually disposed of in one of the many “Mafia cemeteries” in Palermo.

On May 16, 1982 , the young bricklayer Rodolfo Buscemi and his brother-in-law Matteo Rizzuto were brought to the "death chamber" by the Soldati Marqueses to interrogate them in connection with leading merchants from Villabate. The “unofficial capo” of the Greco family of Ciaculli Pino “Scarpuzzedda” Greco , who, together with Filippo Marchese, administered the area of Villabate , also lurked in the chamber . Buscemis was charged with asking for “Pizzo” without the permission of the responsible Cosca . At first the bricklayer lied and claimed that he did not know that these were already defined protected areas, but then confessed after the use of torture and disclosed the name of his accomplice, Antonino Migliore. Both he and his brother-in-law were strangled immediately after the confession. After the acid that was supposed to dissolve their bodies had already been used up, the two bodies were locked in the trunk of a stolen Fiat Ritmo , then loaded onto a boat and finally at a point over seventy meters deep (the secret "Cimitero Marino - marine cemetery" of the Corso dei Mille family) thrown on the seabed. The exact number of victims can no longer be determined.

Antonino Migliore, 26, who lived near Piazza Scaffa, was also kidnapped while waiting in his Fiat for the level crossing in Brancaccio to open. He was removed to a house near Via Giafar, abducted, then interrogated under torture, and finally strangled. In the end, Antonino Migliore was also disposed of in the “marine cemetery” . Another case is that of Carmelo Lo Jacomo. The man was kidnapped by Marchese's men in Piazza Torrelunga. A chase broke out with Antonio Peri, a former carabinieri . pursued them. The kidnapper's mini minor stopped at Largo Grandi , one of the soldiers got out and killed Peri with three pistol shots. Lo Jacomo was also killed, his body taken to the death chamber and dissolved in acid there.

After an unprecedented series of murders in the bloody summer of 1982, Filippo Marchese became too unpredictable even for the Corleonesi and therefore Salvatore Riina ordered his removal, which was carried out by his former companion and friend Pino "Scarpuzzedda" Greco in late 1982 or early 1983 by talking to him with the Garrotte strangled.

Important members of the Corso dei Mille 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

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Letizia Paoli: Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style . Oxford University Press. 2008. ISBN 978-019-9-70509-2 . P. 28
  2. ↑ It is unclear whether it was Salvatore Greco: "Ciaschiteddu" Salvatore Greco (Mafioso, 1923) from the Ciaculli faction, "l'Ingegnere" Salvatore Greco (Mafioso, 1924) also from the Ciaculli Fraction or “Il Senatore” Salvatore Greco (Mafioso, 1927) from Croceverde-Giardini
  3. ↑ The criminal multi. The time. 5th September 1980
  4. ↑ This is perhaps the Via Pecori Giraldi Maresciallo
  5. ↑ possibly his remains were thrown in the nearby sea