Francesco Paolo Bontade

Francesco Paolo Bontade (born May 3, 1914 in Palermo ; † February 25, 1974 ibid) alias "Don Paolino Bontà" , was a legendary and powerful member of the Sicilian mafia . Some sources spell his last name as Bontate. He came from Villagrazia , a former rural village before it was incorporated into the city of Palermo in the 1960s. His father Stefano was a powerful capo mafia in the area, which included Santa Maria di Gesù and Guadagna .

Life

According to the criminal court of Palermo, “Don Paolino Bontà” embodied the traditional capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù family , who intervened directly in all matters on his territory, settling private disputes, assuming the role of patron and protector of his citizens, and infiltrating public offices and private companies and exerts its influence through cunning and covert systems of intimidation obscured by formally correct and respectful behavior. Francesco Paolo Bontade was pallbearer at the funeral of Mafia Capo Calogero "Don Calò" Vizzini , one of the most influential mafia bosses in Sicily after the Second World War until his death in 1954. He stood next to Giuseppe Genco Russo , Vizzini's heir his high status within the power of the mafia.

Like Vizzini, Bontade also supported the Sicilian separatist movement after the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. When he realized that an independent Sicily was not feasible, he turned to the Monarchist Party. In 1958 he supported the Sicilian regional government of Silvio Milazzo, an atypical coalition government composed of communists, monarchists, neo-fascists and dissident Christian democrats. The government was formed in protest against the violation of Sicilian autonomy and the threat to Sicilian patronage from the headquarters of the Christian Democratic Party in Rome. Bontade did not hesitate to publicly slap an MP who had not voted for Milazzo in the face. After this interlude he became a staunch supporter of the Christian Democrats through his connection to the Salvo cousins, supporters of Silvio Milazzo, who as a result gained control of private tax collection concessions in Sicily.

The Salvos and Bontade withdrew their support for Milazzo when Christian Democrats tried to regain control of the region. The relationship with the Salvos gave Don Paolino and later his son Stefano Bontade access to influential regional politicians. According to “ Pentito ” Francesco Marino Mannoia, he was close to Bernardo Mattarella, an important Christian Democrat politician and minister in various governments in the 1950s and 1960s .

Francesco Paolo Bontade used his excellent connections to secure the Elettronica Siciliana (ELSI) site, a subsidiary of the large US defense company Raytheon , in his district in 1962 . The Italian factory manager later told Parliament's Anti-Mafia Commission why he had to work with the Capo-Mafia: “Paolo Bonta is useful to me, he provides me with the water I need, he gives me the land to run the factory and I have to rely on him to manage the workers in the factory. ” He would have felt Bontade's power for the first time when he opened the door during a meeting at the factory where all the highest regional and local authorities were present opened and a short, fat man came in. Everyone immediately turned to the newcomer to give him a hug. "At that moment I understood what the word" Mafia "meant," he later recalled. After the First Mafia War from 1962 to 1963 and the Ciaculli massacre , which triggered the state's first concerted anti- mafia actions in post-war Italy, Bontade was one of the many internally banished in Italy to drive the Mafiosi from their homeland. Around 1964 Don Paolino Bontade resigned as head of the family of his mafia clan for health reasons (diabetes). His son Stefano Bontade succeeded him as head of the Santa Maria di Gesù mafia family. In December 1968, he was acquitted in the 114 trial. He died on February 25, 1974, after spending six months bedridden in a hospital in Messina.

swell

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ today Oreto-Guadagna
2. ↑ The Godfather and the Dead Light. Friday. November 13, 2008

literature

• John Dickie: Cosa Nostra. A story of the Sicilian Mafia . London. 2004. Coronet. ISBN 0-340-82435-2 .
• Salvatore Lupo: History of the Mafia . New York. Columbia University Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0-231-13134-6 .
• René Seindal: Mafia: Money and Politics in Sicily, 1950–1997 . Copenhagen. Tusculanum Press Museum. 1998. ISBN 87-7289-455-5 .