Michele Greco

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Organizational chart of the Greco family
Michele Greco's case file
Maxiprocesso in the bunker
Ciaculli and the Monte Grifone
Street scene from Croceverde-Giardini
Ciaculli mandarins

Michele Greco (born May 12, 1924 in Palermo , † February 13, 2008 in Rome ) was a high-ranking member of the Sicilian Mafia . Greco was head of the Greco family from Ciaculli and chairman of the Sicilian Mafia Commission . Because of his high level of power and his great reputation among all Mafia families, he was also called " U'Papa / Il Papa " - "The Pope ". Michele Greco was seen as a representative of the traditional mafia. The Greco family ruled the citrus groves of Ciaculli (Agrumeti), irrigated through an underground tunnel system, since the 19th century. The Greco clan, which was counted as part of the “Mafia of the Gardens”, also fought violently for the irrigation, transport and tropical fruit wholesale market in the neighboring communities of Bagheria and Villabate .

Criminal career

Michele Greco was part of the powerful Greco Mafia clan that ruled both in his hometown of Ciaculli and in Croceverde-Giardini , two suburbs on the outskirts of Palermo. He took over the mandament from Croceverde-Giardini after his father Giuseppe Greco, " Piddu u Tinenti - Piddu the lieutenant ", died. Giuseppe Greco was gabellotto of a 300 hectare citrus plantation. Michele Greco was married to Rosa Greco and had a son, Giuseppe Greco , who later went into the film business. Most of the Greco family members were mafia. These included his brother Salvatore “ Il Senatore - The Senator ” Greco, cousin Salvatore “Ciaschiteddu” Greco (1923–1978), the first secretary of the Mafia Commission, and his nephew Pino Greco (1952–1985).

Both Michele and his brother Salvatore " Il Senatore " Greco behaved inconspicuously in public and were able to build numerous relationships with business people, politicians, judges, law enforcement officials, church dignitaries and aristocrats through their membership in Masonic lodges .

His brother Salvatore was called " Il Senatore " because he had special relationships with politicians. Salvatore was considered the “ kingmaker ” of Christian Democratic politicians such as Giovanni Gioia, Vito Ciancimino and Giuseppe Insalaco . The Greco brothers invited these personalities to festive banquets and hunting parties at their La Favarella estate. The tangerine plantation La Favarella (here the well-known variety Mandarino Tardivo di Ciaculli was grown) was located between Ciaculli and Croceverde and was a well-known retreat of the mafia, which was also used as a heroin laboratory . There is also said to have been a network of underground escape tunnels.

Together with other Mafia families, the Grecos controlled the water supply. The digging of wells was financed with government funds. According to Italian law, landowners were only allowed to have wells for private use. The excess water was common property. The city of Palermo regularly issued contracts to purchase water rights, one third of which the Grecos acquired. Especially in hot summers in dry periods, the Grecos sold water at exorbitant prices . Another business model was the abusive use of EC - subsidies for set-aside for the citrus production, however, did not take place in reality. The Grecos bribed the EC inspectors to forge their records.

Puppet boss

In 1978 Michele Greco became head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission after his predecessor Gaetano Badalamenti was out of the country. Greco gave the commission a facade of neutrality behind which the Corleonesi could effectively hide their brutal expansion campaign. In 1981, during the Second Mafia War, the two bosses Stefano Bontade and Salvatore Inzerillo were murdered within a few weeks. Michele Greco is said to have said: " The falcon is dead. Now it's the turn of the next ."

Thanks to his leadership position within the Cupola, the Commission and with the approval of the Corleonesi, Michele Greco took indirect control of his Cosca after Stefano Bontade's murder. This gave him the opportunity to siphon off a large part of the profits from the heroin business of the Bontade family and the American Pizza Connection . Without Michele Greco's approval, the mafia could hardly do any big business. A short time later, Greco invited a number of Bontade's allies to meet at his estate. A few clan members became suspicious and did not show up, but those present were killed. Salvatore " Totuccio " Contorno was also able to evade an attack by Pino Greco and a little later hid from the effects of the Second Mafia War, the revenge of the Corleonesi and the law enforcement authorities. In 1983 Contorno was arrested and acted as Pentito . According to him, the public first learned of Michele Greco's senior membership in the Mafia. Up until now he was only thought of as an influential large landowner with an unusually high income.

It was later found that Michele Greco was allied with Salvatore Riina and the Corleonesi all along and acted against their enemies. Riina used Greco's position of power in the Cupola to ban Gaetano Badalamenti from Sicily . Through the further influence of the Corleonesi, Michele Greco became a kind of "puppet boss" in the late phase of his chairmanship in the Cupola. Pentito Tommaso Buscetta testified that Greco “was the perfect man, given his mild and weak personality, to become head of the commission and not stand in the way of Riina's plans .” Greco is said to have nodded off everything Riina said at meetings of mafia bosses.

Persecution and arrest

On the basis of the anonymous revelations made by Salvatore Contorno, Police Chief Antonino Cassarà drew up a report in July 1982 that listed 162 mafiosi who justified an arrest. The report was unofficially known as the "Michele Greco +161" report and underscored Greco's great importance to the other suspects. On August 6, 1985, Antonino " Ninni " Cassarà and others were murdered in front of a group of fifteen heavily armed men in the presence of his terrified wife. The "Michele Greco +161" report was the basis for a far-reaching investigation that was to develop into the maxi-trial in which the entire Mafia leadership was charged with numerous capital crimes. On July 9, 1983, Greco, along with 14 others, including his brother Salvatore Greco, Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Nitto Santapaola, was indicted by Judge Giovanni Falcone for the murder of the Prefect of Palermo, General, on September 3, 1982 Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa .

Michele Greco was arrested on February 20, 1986. He was tracked down in a country house in the mountains of Caccamo. Greco was accused of ordering 78 murders, including that of anti-mafia magistrate Rocco Chinnici by a car bomb in 1983. Greco insisted on his innocence and pretended not to know anything about the mafia. In order to be considered an honest citizen, he bragged about the illustrious guests he had entertained at La Favarella. These included attorneys general and police chiefs. Stefano Bontade would also have hunted on his property frequently. On Good Friday , almost immediately before his murder, he had been to visit him. The fact that Bontade was shot in the face with automatic fire rifles he described as "Sfortuna - misfortune" . In court he made statements like: "Mr. Richter, I wish you peace, because only with peace you can judge me." Or "Violence is not part of my dignity." At the end of the trial, on December 16, 1987, the then 63 year old Greco found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life in prison.

Imprisonment and death

The progress of the Maxi-Trial was largely reversed by generous offers from the public prosecutor's office. In particular by the judge Corrado Carnevale , who would release mafiosi under the slightest pretext, which led to the frustration of the architects of the Maxi Trial and the chief prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino . On February 27, 1991, Greco was released on appeal . Giovanni Falcone, head of the criminal affairs department of the Italian Ministry of Justice, issued a decree ordering the re-arrest of Greco and other mafiosi. Greco was therefore arrested again in February 1992 and put behind bars to serve his reinstated life sentence. Michele Greco, Bernardo Provenzano , Salvatore Riina and Leoluca Bagarella were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Russo . In the same year Greco was sentenced to life imprisonment along with Bernardo Provenzano, Bernardo Brusca, Francesco Madonia and Salvatore Riina at the trial for the murder of the Commissioners Beppe Montana and Antonino Cassarà. Together with Bernardo Provenzano, Bernardo Brusca, Giuseppe Calò, Nenè Geraci, Francesco Madonia and Salvatore Riina, Greco received another life sentence during the 1997 trial for the murder of Judge Cesare Terranova .

Greco did not admit his crimes or his position in the Cosa Nostra. In a letter to the press in the summer of 2007, he claimed "he was as innocent as a newborn child". He added, “ I was buried alive because of an injustice in the 1980s and have been in prison for 22 years. The moisture in my cell has ruined my health and I feel really bad . ”He remained in prison in Rebibbia, Rome, until his death from lung cancer on February 13, 2008, and died in Pertini Hospital.

According to historian John Dickie , Greco was "the archetype of a Mafia capo: without smiling, speaking in tacit, only in maxims and allusive parables."

Legacy and resurgence of the Ciaculli family

Michele's grandson Leandro Greco (son of Giuseppe Greco ), who was also called "Michele" by his followers, was also active in the mafia early on. Already at the age of 23 Leandro was appointed Capomandamento di Ciaculli and wanted to renew the Cupola according to oligarchical and Palermo-ruled models together with Calogero Lo Piccolo, the son of Salvatore Lo Piccolo convicted of extortion . This commission is to be dominated by two to three board members. The investigators attested Leandro Greco, despite his youth, the attributes of the old mafia guard and prosecutor Salvatore De Luca even considered him the most dangerous of the imprisoned mafiosi. The first thing he wanted to do was eliminate his competitor Francesco Coletti. With the arrest of Greco Junior, the public prosecutor of Palermo prevented a new Mafia war.

literature

  • Pino Arlacchi: Mafia from within: The life of Don Antonino Calderone. 2nd Edition. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-10-033615-1 .
  • Saverio Lodato: Venticinque anni di mafia: C'era una volta la lotta alla mafia. BUR, Milan 2005, ISBN 88-17-00228-3 .
  • Rossella Merlino: Papi, Cupole e Mandarini Tardivi: Religiosità e Identità nelle Parole del boss Michele Greco . In: L'immaginario devoto tra organizzazioni mafiose e lotta alla mafia . Viella Editrice, Rome 2017, ISBN 978-88-6728-516-7 , pp. 61–82 (Italian, abstract (in English) [accessed March 29, 2020]).

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Mafia: "The water in the kettle is boiling". In: Der Spiegel . October 8, 1984. Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  2. ↑ according to the Sicilian reading
  3. ^ Sicily's 10 most notorious godfathers. In: The Local.it. Retrieved March 28, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ a b c d e Enrico Bellavia: Mafia, morto il boss Michele Greco i Corleonesi lo fecero "Papa". In: La Repubblica . January 4, 2010, accessed March 28, 2020 (Italian).
  5. ↑ John Dickie: Moving History of a Fruit. In: Rotary Magazine. August 1, 2017, accessed March 28, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Italian land tenant
  7. ↑ Alone for the Mafia. In: The time . January 23, 1998, accessed March 28, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Silvia Buffa: Fondo Favarella, dal covo dei Greco agli agrumeti dimenticati "É qui chel il Papa ei suoi decisereo l'omicidio di Pio La Torre". In: MW Meridio News Edizione Palermo. April 15, 2019, accessed March 28, 2020 (Italian).
  9. ↑ the late mandarin from Ciaculli
  10. ^ Helena Attlee: The Land Where Lemons Grow: The Story of Italy and Its Citrus Fruit . The Countryman Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-58157-610-8 .
  11. ↑ Stefano Bontade's nickname
  12. ↑ Erwin Brunner: Honorable corpses: The mafia behind bars. In: The time . April 4, 1986, Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Mafia: "The water in the kettle is boiling". In: Der Spiegel . October 8, 1984, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Presumably the massacre in the pre-Christmas period 1982 is meant in which Saro Riccobono was strangled
  15. ↑ Lirio Abbate: "Così arrestai Michele Greco, il 'papa' di Cosa nostra che riceveva a casa la" Palermo bene "". In: L'Espresso. January 22, 2019, accessed March 28, 2020 (Italian).
  16. ↑ Dominik Straub: The young mafia bosses are softer than their fathers. In: Aargauer Zeitung . January 23, 2019, accessed March 28, 2020 .
  17. ↑ a b c d e f g Mafia, fermato il nipote di Michele Greco: enfant prodige di Cosa nostra che voleva fare la guerra agli altri boss. In: il Fatto Quotidiano . January 22, 2019, accessed March 28, 2020 (Italian).
personal data
SURNAME Greco, Michele
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Papa (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian mafioso
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Palermo
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2008
Place of death Rome