Pentito

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As pentito ( nominalized past participle of ital. Pentirsi "regret"; plural : Pentiti ) is a member of the Mafia , particularly the Cosa Nostra or La Cosa Nostra called, not at the order of the Omertà holds.

To be regarded as a pentito (Italian: "repentant" and "confessor"), the suspicion of being unreliable or a potential traitor is sufficient. For this reason, drug addicts and members who engage with the wives of other Mafia members are also classified as a potential risk.

The term "repentant" is not always to be taken literally, since behind the statements there is often the motive to gain advantages for oneself (e.g. by easing the penalty) or to harm internal enemies; see for example Salvatore Contorno .

Chronology of the most famous pentiti

George Weinberg

George Weinberg was the brother of the better known Abraham "Bo" Weinberg , who disappeared without a trace in 1935 and was murdered by Dutch Schultz . He is therefore said to have become a government informant. On January 29, 1939, he took the gun of an officer protecting him from a safe shelter and shot himself. As a member of the Kosher Nostra , Weinberg apparently had to fear the consequences of his willingness to give evidence.

Abe Reles and Albert Tannenbaum

As mere associates of the US Mafia and members of Murder, Inc. , the Kosher Nostras Abe Reles and Albert Tannenbaum were not members of the La Cosa Nostra , but as their killers they were also subject to confidentiality.

Reles was arrested in 1940, testified in the face of the death penalty and incriminated his boss Louis Buchalter . Since he also incriminated his partner and accomplice Tannenbaum, he decided to testify as well. Buchalter was then arrested and executed in 1944 . Reles died in a mysterious lintel in 1941. In 1950 Tannenbaum testified in the trial against Jack Parisi . He stayed abroad, was only allowed to step on American soil once a year and died in 1976. Due to the death of Reles, the investigation against Albert Anastasia failed , since Reles had been the only key witness for Thomas E. Dewey's indictment .

Frank Nitti

Frank Nitti committed suicide on March 19, 1943. In doing so, he anticipated the murder on the orders of Paul Ricca . Nitti had been deposed as the official boss at a meeting at his house the previous day, as his public attention was now seen as a burden on the Chicago outfit after the infiltration of Hollywood had been exposed in 1943 . Nitti himself had already been summoned to a public hearing. A long prison sentence was threatened, but with cancer, Nitti actually had nothing more to lose. As a long-time "enforcer", Nitti had to assume that Ricca would not take the risk that the judiciary could turn him into an informant. A murder was therefore initially viewed by many as more plausible than proven suicide, although credible eyewitness reports were available.

Doris Lehman

Confidentiality also applies to the wives of the Mafiosi. Michael “Trigger Mike” Coppola's first wife , Doris Lehman, betrayed him to the police after three years for the murder of the politician Joseph Scottoriggio and was murdered by himself in 1948. This loss of reputation apparently cost him his monopoly on the street lottery in New York City, which went to Anthony Salerno .

Willie Moretti

Willie Moretti was not a traitor in the strict sense of the word, but he had admitted the existence of the American mafia in Washington on December 13, 1950 , before the Senate committee headed by Senator Estes Kefauver . His confession fueled fears among the bosses after further statements, which led to his assassination on October 4, 1951.

Alphonse Attardi

Other US investigative agencies also benefit from the renegade information. In 1952, the United States Department of the Treasury made Associate Alphonse Attardi an offer to become its informant to make it easier for undercover agents to break into the covert networks of drug trafficking. Attardi received a reward of US $ 5,000 for his successful help, left the country and later even gave an interview under the pseudonym of a magazine about his time as a drug dealer .

Eugenio Giannini

On September 20, 1952, Eugenio Giannini was gunned down in the street in Harlem . Lucky Luciano found out that Giannini was an informer for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN). Giannini had betrayed himself when he needed the help of the FBN while in Italian custody in Naples and Luciano, who had met Giannini in prison in 1942, became known.

Stephen Fringe

Stephen Franse was strangled to death on June 19, 1953 on suspicion of being a police informant . The scene of the crime was the Green Village nightclub in the eponymous district of New York City, perpetrator of the operator Joe Valachi , who himself was to become a government informant in 1963.

Abner Zwillman

Abner Zwillman , the "Al Capone of New Jersey", was to testify before the "McClellan" committee of the Senate in 1959 and had already received a subpoena. However, on February 27, 1959, he was found hanged . There were marks on his wrists that suggested he was bound . Therefore, the police assumed a murder. Some speculations see Vito Genovese as the commissioner of the murder, others believe that Meyer Lansky ultimately ordered the murder because he feared that the aging Zwillman had decided to become a government informant.

Rosa Messina

The 54-year-old widow had already lost her husband and later two of her sons in internal mafia battles in 1957. When her 13-year-old son Paolino was murdered on January 18, 1961, the widow no longer felt bound by confidentiality, as the murder had violated another unwritten law that ordered male members under the age of 16 to be spared. Of the 30 accused, however, 29 were acquitted and one was sentenced to three years.

Ann Coppola

After the first wife Doris Lehman, Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola's second wife - Ann Coppola - turned to the authorities, fled to Europe and committed suicide there. Michael Coppola was sentenced to four years in 1962 and died in a Boston hospital in 1966.

Conny Rastelli

Conny Rastelli was the wife of Philip Rastelli , the boss of the Bonanno family . She ran an illegal abortion practice in Brooklyn . After learning of Rastelli's relationship with another woman, she threatened to pass on her knowledge of her husband's business to the authorities if she did not receive adequate severance pay as part of a divorce settlement. She was found shot dead in 1962.

Floyd Hayes

Floyd Hayes was President of Local 41 of the US Teamsters union. In 1962 the FBI succeeded in proving that Hayes had embezzled US $ 200,000 and thus won him over as a key witness . The questioning in a hotel room lasted four days . It revolved around Roy Lee Williams , Jimmy Hoffa , the La Cosa Nostra and Teamsters . Even a high fence with floodlights and watch dogs could not protect Hayes from the consequences of his testimony. In June 1964 he was shot dead in a parking lot and his wife wounded. The latter was seen as an additional warning to potential future FBI key witnesses. Williams was immediately his successor as president in "Local 41" of the Teamsters; obviously understood the warning and has since been under the full control of Nick Civella , the boss of the Kansas City Mafia . When Williams was appointed administrator and trustee in the newly established Central States Pension Fund in 1962 , it was wide open to Civella and other mobsters , who financed casinos in Las Vegas in particular .

Joe Valachi

The first high-ranking Pentito to publicly admit the existence of “ La Cosa Nostra ” was Joe Valachi . This happened in the context of a hearing of the McClellan Committee , a committee of inquiry of the Congress of the United States , in October 1963. The term "La Cosa Nostra" (Italian: "Our cause"), was first mentioned and thus known.

“… A significant addition to the broad picture… gives meaning to much that we already know and brings the picture into sharper focus.”

"... a considerable addition to the big picture ... gives meaning to a lot of what we already know and sharpens our view of the overall context."

- Robert F. Kennedy

Joseph Barboza

Since 1962 the FBI has been tapping into the "office" of the Patriarca family in Boston. On October 6, 1966, the "enforcer" Joseph "Das Tier" Barboza was arrested. This arrest sparked a chain reaction in which Barboza ultimately became the Pentito. In 1968 Enrico Henry Tameleo , boss of the "Office" could be sentenced to death; Raymond Patriarca , the head of the clan, received five years in prison for inciting murder.

Vincent Teresa

Vincent Teresa was an underboss in the Patriarca family from Boston . After Joseph Barboza was arrested in 1966 and Enrico Henry Tameleo and Raymond Patriarca were convicted in 1968, Teresa was also arrested in 1969 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He followed the example of Barboza, whom he was originally supposed to assassinate on behalf of Patricia, and became one of the most coveted key witnesses in US judicial history.

Among other things, he testified in 1973 in the trial against Meyer Lansky . This was the final attempt by the US judiciary to bring Lansky to court. The prosecution failed because the jury disagreed about the credibility of the professional criminal Teresa. Lansky was acquitted.

Michele Cavataio

The preparation of written evidence can also be seen as a break in the omertà; in 1969 the death of Michele Cavataio u. a. also decided because he had recorded the clans of Palermo and their most important representatives on a site map.

Leonardo Vitale

In 1973 Leonardo Vitale (1941–1984) visited a police station in Palermo and identified himself as a member of the Mafia. Because of his auto-aggressive behavior , defenders of those he accused could cast doubt on his credibility, and only he and his uncle were imprisoned. Vitale then spent most of the time up to his death in a psychiatric hospital . In 1984 he was murdered by the Cosa Nostra.

Sam Giancana

In 1975, the US Senate Special Committee to Investigate Government Action Relating to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Democratic MP Frank Church , dealt in particular with the links between politics and crime. When Sam Giancana received a summons before this - also known as the Church Committee - body, the former boss of the Chicago Outfit was murdered on June 19, 1975 before he could meet his summons . In particular, his former friend Joseph Aiuppa is said to have feared that the booted Giancana would use the upcoming hearing to reveal internal knowledge.

Allen Glick and Tamara Rand

On November 9, 1975, Tamara Rand was murdered in the kitchen of her Mission Hills home . Rand had received funding from the Teamsters Union Central States Pension Fund and was apparently ready to testify before the authorities. A week earlier she had an argument with Allen Glick ; It is unclear whether she refused to give Glick a $ 2 million kickback (on: illegal cash payment made “under the table”) or even to refuse to repay the entire loan. Glick informed Joseph Aiuppa of the Chicago outfit that Rand was ready to testify and he gave the order to kill.

Allen R. Glick was the front man for La Cosa Nostra in the 1970s ; he received loans from the Central States Pension Fund to the casinos in Las Vegas to buy. In these casinos, a part of the profits was skimmed off tax (am: skimming). When the Nevada Gaming Control Board irregularities in the books of Argent Cooperation discovered was also the end for Glick in Las Vegas . Glick lost his license, was in the Black Book of Nevada registered and sold his casino interests in Allen D. Sachs ; a longtime partner of Kosher Nostras Moe Dalitz .

When "skimming" was discovered in 1978, Glick made himself available as a witness. In 1984 Frank Balistrieri , the boss of Milwaukee , was sentenced to 13 years in prison. In 1986, Joseph Aiuppa , Jackie Cerone , Joseph Lombardo , Angelo Lapietra , Milton J. Rockman and Carl DeLuna because of financial levies of casinos in Las Vegas sentenced in the amount of two million US dollars.

Henry Hill

As a half- Irishman , Henry Hill could not become a full member of the Lucchese family in 1980 , but his collaboration as an associate was welcome. He got into the drug trade and was exposed. Since he was also involved in the famous Lufthansa robbery in 1978, he had to fear for his life. After he was played a tape recording of the FBI , on which his murder was mentioned, the authorities were able to persuade him to cooperate. His testimony led to around fifty charges. Henry Hill's biography was filmed in Goodfellas in 1990 .

Joseph Bonanno

In 1983 Joseph Bonanno published his autobiography "A Man of Honor" with Sergio Lalli . Strictly speaking, this was also a break with omertà, because this book was the first to admit the existence of the "Commission", so to speak, the "Executive Committee" of the National Crime Syndicate , and the existence of the Five Families in New York City . In particular, the then prosecutor and later mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani took the book as an opportunity to file charges against members mentioned there.

Tommaso Buscetta

Shortly before the murder of Stefano Bontade , Tommaso Buscetta went into hiding on June 18, 1980, because his role as mafia boss in Sicily was no longer tenable. He emigrated to Brazil via Paraguay. In June 1984 the two judges Giovanni Falcone and Vincenzo Geraci visited him to persuade him to testify. Only after his extradition to Italy did he reveal himself and become a key witness in the three Maxi trials against the Mafia. His statements led to the conviction of Nino , Ignazio Salvo and Vito Ciancimino . In 1993, Totò Riina was also arrested. As a result of his testimony, 14 of Buscetta's relatives, including two sons and two nephews, were murdered. Buscetta's sentence was limited to three years. He then lived under the protection of the US witness protection program in a barracks in the USA.

Salvatore Contorno

In October 1984 Salvatore Contorno (* 1946) followed Tommaso Buscetta's example and made himself available as an informant. Contorno had been in custody since 1982 and, like Buscetta, can be seen as the loser of the "Second Great Mafia War". Since, in contrast to Buscetta, he revealed more about the inner connections of the international heroin trade (" Pizza Connection "), he was an extremely important informant. In addition to easing the sentence, Contorno apparently also used his testimony as a weapon against internal enemies. In other words, he not only never regretted his crimes, but wanted revenge on those involved in the murder of his boss Stefano Bontade .

Although US interests were also affected and Contorno was brought to the US, he was unable to participate in the US witness protection program and returned to Italy in 1988. In 1994 a bomb exploded near his secret accommodation. In 1997 Contorno was arrested for heroin trafficking and was initially thrown out of the Italian protection program that had now also existed. But since he made himself available again, he was accepted again in 2001.

Antonio Calderone

In 1983 Antonio Calderone fled to France with his family. When he was arrested and imprisoned in Nice in 1986 , he revealed himself to the authorities and asked for Giovanni Falcone . He interrogated him on April 9, 1987, together with his French colleague Michel Debaq. His testimony resulted in 160 convictions in Italy; u. a. he testified against Nitto Santapaola .

Francesco Marino Mannoia

With Francesco Marino Mannoia , a Mafioso followed in October 1989, who actually belonged to the winning side of the "Second Great Mafia War" in Italy, which provided important new information for the authorities, including: a. the clarification of the murders after the Banco Ambrosiano scandal . Since at that time the Italians did not have their own witness protection program , Mannoia in the USA was accepted into the local one.

Jackie Presser

In 1988, the New York Times reported on a bugged conversation between Jackie Presser , Anthony Salerno , John "Peanuts" Trolone , William J. McCarthy and Roy Williams . The conversation was taped in 1984, and McCarthy said in that conversation that he needed a decision from a Mafia boss before he could move forward in the Teamsters' transport union . Although the New York Times reported the conversation in 1988, McCarthy became president of the union in 1989. This was the first time that the cooperation between gangsters and unions was officially documented.

What the New York Times didn't know at the time: Jackie Presser was already an informant for the FBI and had already informed them about activities of the La Cosa Nostra in Cleveland. In return, the FBI protected him from a few attacks with a bomb placed in his car - a method that was very popular in Cleveland - by, for example, equipping his car with a special detector.

Nevertheless, Jackie Presser survived his collaboration with the FBI, never testified in court, became president of the "Teamsters" himself and died of natural causes.

Betty Tocco

In 1988 Albert Tocco was caught in Greece and extradited to Chicago . Numerous murders were on his account. His wife Betty, who is separated from him, announced in an interview with the Sun-Times in 1990 that she herself had helped Tocco bury the Spilotro brothers - Tony and Michael Spilotro - in a corn field near Enos, Indiana in 1986. The murder of the Spilotro brothers was used as a template for the Hollywood film " Casino ", which Martin Scorsese filmed in 1995 with Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone . Betty Tocco and her son were placed under the protection of the US witness protection program after the trial. Albert Tocco was sentenced to life imprisonment on January 5, 1989 for extortion, conspiracy, coercion and tax evasion.

Sammy Gravano, Alphonse D'Arco, Anthony Casso

At the beginning of the 1990s, leading mafia members broke the otherwise mandatory silence for the first time and worked with the government. In 1991, Sammy Gravano testified against Vincent Gigante , John Gotti and his consigliere Frank LoCascio . In particular, he exposed Gigante's alleged senility. He quoted an alleged statement by his boss John Gotti, who called Gigante in 1988 after a meeting as "Crazy like a fox". Alphonse D'Arco, a former subordinate of the Lucchese family , confirmed Gravano's testimony of Gigante's sanity and his participation in high-level mafia meetings, where he admitted that his eccentric behavior was designed as a deception. He also incriminated Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, also a former subordinate of the "Lucchese family", with the statement that he and his boss had been involved in the murder of John Gotti, Frank DeCicco and Gene Gotti (all members of the "Gambino family") planned. Anthony Casso became a pentito himself in the face of the strains, revealing that two police officers were hired by the Lucchese family; these two were finally sentenced to life imprisonment in early 2009 .

Gotti and LoCascio were sentenced to life imprisonment, Gigante to twelve years, Gravano received a new identity in Arizona through the witness protection program of the USA, but resumed his criminal career there. His new arrest in 1999 preceded the murder squad that had been set on him.

Gaspare Mutolo

In 1992 Gaspare Mutolo , who was convicted in the " Maxi Trial ", testified. He incriminated the judge Corrado Carnevale and the prosecutor Domenico Signorino . Since Signorino committed suicide shortly afterwards , this led to a public debate about the public disclosure of statements by the "Pentiti" and the possible unforeseeable consequences. After Riina was arrested in January 1993, Mutolo gave further statements on the record; he warned the authorities of upcoming serious attacks by the Corleonese on mainland Italy. These attacks occurred shortly afterwards in Florence , Rome and Milan . Mutolo himself confessed to over 20 murders and now lives with his family in an undisclosed location under the conditions of the Italian witness protection program .

Pasquale Galasso

Since August 1992, the detained Camorra boss Pasquale Galasso worked with the investigative authorities. Galasso was the first important pentito of the Neapolitan Camorra.

Giuseppe Marchese

In September 1992, Giuseppe Marchese became a Pentito. Marchese no longer wanted to follow the murderous course of Totò Riina . He himself admitted to having been involved in over 20 murders, especially those of Stefano Bontade and Salvatore Inzerillo . He was the first Corleonese to make himself available as a witness.

Salvatore Cancemi

On July 22, 1993, Salvatore Cancemi surrendered to the police at the Piazza Verdi police station in Palermo. Cancemi renounced the terrorist strategy of the Mafia, which detonated a public bomb in Florence on the same day. On the other hand, Leoluca Bagarella , the brother-in-law of Salvatore "Toto" Riina , blamed Cancemi for the arrest of Riina on January 15, 1993, and feared for his life. On July 27 and July 28, 1993, more bombs exploded.

Santino Di Matteo and Giovanni Brusca

After six months in prison, Santino Di Matteo decided to admit his involvement in the murder of judge Giovanni Falcone . Giovanni Brusca in particular was incriminated by his statements. In response, his 11-year-old son Giuseppe Di Matteo was abducted on November 23, 1993 and held for two years and three months. Since the father did not withdraw his statements, his son was strangled and dissolved in acid. On May 20, 1996, 400 police officers surrounded a house in Agrigento Province and were able to arrest the fugitive Brusca. Brusca was sentenced to life imprisonment, but made himself available as an informant after his arrest; In addition to the murder of the anti-Mafia fighter Giovanni Falcone , he was also responsible for the murder of Paolo Borsellino .

Because of his cooperation and good leadership, he has been allowed to visit his family as an outdoor prisoner since 2004 , which has led to bitterness among the relatives of the victims - especially the family of Giuseppe Di Matteo.

“I [mother of Giuseppe] will not forgive any of my son's murderers. These people abducted, tortured, and desecrated my child after he died. I hope that all guilty parties stay behind bars forever "

- Castellese Di Matteo.

Giorgio Basile

In 1998, the German-Italian professional killer of the 'Ndrangheta Giorgio Basile was arrested. Based on his testimony at the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office , the German police authorities succeeded in uncovering mafia-like structures in Germany and arresting 50 Mafiosi.

Frank Sheeran

Frank Sheeran is one of the few non-Italians, which is even rarer than non-Sicilians, to whom the FBI attributed full membership in La Cosa Nostra . Sheeran had always been a prime suspect in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa , the Teamsters ' union boss . It was not until 1999 that the seriously ill Sheeran confided in Charles Brandt . Apparently there was an agreement that the book "I heard you paint houses", which is a biography of Sheeran, would not be published until after Sheeran's death. Sheeran died on December 14, 2003 at the age of 83 in a nursing home, the book was published in 2004. Sheeran has admitted, according to Brandt, to be the killer of Jimmy Hoffa.

Susan Berman

In 2000, Susan Berman , daughter of gambling pioneer David Berman , was murdered. She had written a biography and announced that she knew more details from her father's past. David Berman was an associate of the Genovese family and was included in the Kosher Nostra .

Joseph Massino

In 2004 Joseph Massino , head of the Bonanno family , escaped the death penalty through his cooperation with the authorities . In the course of his statements, the FBI looked again at the place where the body of Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato had been found in 1981 . In October 2004 the remains of the missing Dominick Trinchera and Phillip Giaccone were discovered during an excavation at "The Hole" in the New York borough of Queens .

Adaptations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography of Anthony Strollo ( memento of February 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on www.angelfire.com (English)
  2. ↑ "Their Thing" at www.time.com (English)
  3. ↑ Mob at the end . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1973 ( online ).
  4. ↑ www.time.com “Blood Threat”, February 3, 1986
  5. ^ Joseph Bonanno: A Man of Honor. Buccaneer Books, Cutchogue NY 1998, ISBN 1-56849-722-9 .
  6. ↑ Dagobert Lindlau : The Mob. Research on organized crime (= German non-fiction book 11139). 4th edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-455-08659-4 .
  7. ↑ Werner Raith : Parasites and cartridge. Sicily's mafia is seizing power. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1990, ISBN 3-7632-3737-2 .
  8. ↑ New York ex-police officers convicted as killer on www. welt.de
  9. ↑ a b Mafiosi dissolved boy in acid on www.blick.ch from September 14, 2018
  10. ↑ "Mafia 'Butcher' talks his way out of life behind bars" , The (London) Times, October 14, 2004 (English)
  11. ↑ "Angel Face" only shows the back . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung