Pentito - A mafioso is unpacking

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Pentito - A Mafioso Unpacks (in the Italian original: Pentito - Una storia di mafia ) is a documentary thriller . Based on numerous conversations, the Italian journalist Marco Bettini , who lives in Bologna, addresses the true story of a Sicilian mafioso who became a pentito and now lives in the leniency program . in the style of a biography, the career of Enzo is accompanied, who appears as a first-person narrator . In Italy the book became a bestseller .

The Italian first edition was published in 1994 by Bollati Boringhieri in Turin . On April 29, 2008, the Piemme factory in Milan was relaunched. A German translation by Marie Rahn followed in May 2010 , which was published by Ullstein Verlag .

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Enzo was born in Sicily on December 3, 1956. His older brother is called Minicheddu and he has two other brothers. Enzo comes from a poor background, although his father was a farmer with his own vineyard. As a problem child, Enzo was sent to a convent school outside of his hometown Castelvetrano, which however collapsed in the course of an earthquake, so that he returned to his family in his hometown. There his future godfather Cusumano took him under the wing, gave him work as an apprentice and taught him to become a uomo d'onore. Enzo was sent to juvenile prison for various minor crimes, including slashing a convertible to steal cigarettes. At that time, he had stolen various pistols and rifles that he had buried in his father's vineyard in several break-ins. After Enzo had just been exposed to some physical clashes in juvenile prison, he decided to start boxing at the age of 14. His family first discovered his cold-blooded, rational streak when Enzo's father got into an argument with a shepherd. The shepherd had let his flock graze in the father's vineyard without being asked and devastated it when he was driven from the vineyard. Thereupon the father decided to guard the vineyard at night in order to ambush the shepherd. Enzo, on the other hand, dug up one of his captured rifles and went to the shepherd's house to shoot his sheep.

Enzo hooked up with Roba, a girl from Castelvetrano. When Roba became engaged to another young man by her father, he put this young guy under pressure until he broke off the engagement and Roba's father agreed to betroth Roba to Enzo. But Enzo did without, who was meanwhile of the opinion that Roba should not have gotten engaged to another man if she really wanted to be his wife. Instead, Enzo accidentally made another girl pregnant, so he married her civilly. However, since he did not love it, he decided not to have a church wedding. Through the bride's father Capogreco, who became his new godfather, Enzo moved closer to the Sicilian mafia. Enzo was sent to prison on the island of Favignana for two years on suspicion of murder in the Tilotta murder, in which he was innocent. He was released for lack of evidence. On October 4, 1979, the famiglia accepted him into their ranks. He learned from his godfather: "Everyone dies in his own time."

First he was entrusted with an order to extort protection money. In February 1980, his release was revoked in the Tiolotta murder. He faced another five years in prison. That sentence was suspended again and tried by the Court of Cassation. Enzo was implicated in the mayor's murder during this time. Then his father-in-law Capogreco became the new mayor. Enzo carried out an assassination attempt on Capo Canata because of an emerging rivalry within the famiglia. From his death he learns: "In the face of a pistol muzzle, all friends disappear."

The last two murders were carried out by Enzo together with Nicastro, who had been in the famiglia for a long time, but was now jealous of Enzo's rapid rise in the mafia hierarchy. Nicastro invited Enzo to dinner in the garden of his property to have him shot there. However, as Enzo, according to his custom, appeared unannounced at Nicastro's before the time communicated to him and found no one, he went to the garden and the adjacent wooded area. From a clearing he discovered that from here there was a clear field of vision and fire on one of the places on the board. His suspicions about the planned assassination attempt prove true when two men actually appear in the clearing with rifles and telescopic sights. Enzo, who saw through the plan, had Nicastro invite him again a few days later. But instead of falling victim to Nicastro's men, Enzo shot Nicastro in turn.

Enzo was used in the following time as a drug courier in Milan to sell heroin from Sicily to local dealers. He also manipulated local elections in Castelvetrano by threatening voters. His father-in-law and mayor Capogreco deliberately sowed distrust among Enzo and his friends in order to consolidate his position and the structures of the famiglia so that none of the young men tried to increase his influence and power with the backing of his friends. Capogreco taught him: "The more a man knows, the more he is worth, and you should always learn."

Enzo was apparently employed by a building contractor in Paderno Dugnano near Milan, but he actually worked as a warehouse manager at the airport in order to have drugs imported into the country past customs. After some time, he decided to move to a larger house in Vercelli so that his wife Linate and their daughter could follow, although it was a forced marriage at the urging of the Mafia, based on pure physical attraction. So it came later to the liaison with Carmela, the daughter of Enzo's Capo in Paderno Dugnano, who was already engaged. After Enzo was caught inflagranti by her father Berresi, he should have been killed according to the rules of the famiglia. But because Carmela protected her lover Enzo with her life, her father refrained from killing. Due to the disgrace, however, he urged Enzo to resign from his position at the airport and return to Castelvetrano with his wife and daughter.

In the meantime, Enzo's two-year period of police supervision had ended on suspicion of Tilotta's murder. To be forgotten on the recommendation of Capo Casomano, Enzo traveled for a few weeks to Horb in Germany at the end of May, where his brother-in-law Biagio had lived since Tilotta's murder. There he got to know and love Marina, a friend of Biagio. Enzo helped her hide her brother Dieter, who was wanted by the police, in Castelvetrano.

Marina became pregnant by Enzo, he had hardly any money left and the trial against him was imminent in Italy, for which he should have held about 20 million lira in bribes. In order to get rid of these problems, he decided to carry out a bank robbery at the Sparkasse Rottweil together with Marina and his brother Carl. They looted around 80,000 DM. After successfully escaping, they were arrested due to an unfortunate coincidence and Carl's headlessness. Enzo was sentenced to five years in prison in Freiburg. There he learned the German language. In March 1983, Marina gave birth to a son. A few months later, Enzo was sentenced in absentia by an Italian court in his pending trial to 15 years in prison because the famiglia had dropped him and failed to pay the 20 million lira bribe. After a failed attempt to escape in Germany, Enzo was initially taken into solitary confinement for six months and then transferred to another prison with a corresponding security standard. On March 4, 1986, after 28 months in German prisons, he was extradited to Italy, where he served the remainder of his outstanding imprisonment on the island of Favignana. There he met Jacu, a friend from old times, who confirmed his suspicion that the famiglia had dropped him. Against the Mafia, Enzo managed to rehabilitate while he was still in custody, so that in the autumn of 1986 he was transferred to the prison in Alessandria, where he was assigned to Salvatore Ciulla by the Mafia for personal protection. As a result, he was accepted back into the famiglia and moved back to Favignana after a year.

Enzo's wife applied for a divorce while he was still in custody, for which she should have died according to the rules of the Cosa Nostra. As a result, Enzo began correspondence from prison with several women with whom he met on the island of Favignana on special leave before his release from prison. In July 1990, he was granted the first release to the mainland near Trapani, which Enzo used to flee to support the famiglia, which had been weakened by numerous imprisonments. He was entrusted with setting up a courier network for distributing cocaine in Turin, Milan and Rome. From January 1991, his drug deals took him to Stuttgart, which Enzo took as an opportunity to visit Marina's mother. Enzo learned from her that Marina was back in prison after another bank robbery. Their son, whom Marina had also named Enzo in honor of his biological father, had been put up for adoption. Marina's mother was able to convince Enzo of her idea to kidnap the child to bring it to Italy so that it could grow up in his family. During the kidnapping attempt, however, Enzo found that the boy is better off with his adoptive parents than he would be in Italy. Therefore, he refrained from kidnapping and instead told the adoptive parents about his life story from among the Italian mafia. Marina never saw Enzo again.

Enzo moved with Paola to Gallinaro in the province of Frosinone in order to be able to devote himself to the drug trade in Rome and Lativa. Despite his return to the famiglia, Enzo's distrust of all members of the organization grows. He begins to question the structures. “The mistrust of my capi increased the more I lost my inner willingness to blindly obey them. I had the impression that they were simply using their power, our discipline and our obedience to orders, their cunning and our disputes to conduct their business, to advance their interests, to amass their fortunes. The Cosa Nostra, the honor, the famiglia, the truth, the respect, all of this was completely indifferent to them. For their purposes, they treated people like puppets and then dropped them. I realized that the whole organization was only good for two types of people: young men who believe everything they are told - like me at the time of my admission - and people who are willing to go over dead bodies go to assert yourself as the new capi. The others, the honest ones, who also kill, but still believe in honor, in promises, in loyalty and friendship, who cannot hide every thought, every feeling, are condemned to serve forever or to die. "

With Vanni and Aspanu, Enzo ultimately turns against the famiglia, knowing full well that this would mean his death if his allies should turn against him. The goal of the three men is to earn one billion lira in the drug trade.

After the natural death of his godfather Cusumano, Enzo received the order from Capogreco to kill the judge Borsellino, to whom some Pentiti, apostate traitors of the Cosa Nostra, had already turned. Baretta had meanwhile refused to pay for the damage after the loss of a drug shipment and was therefore considered doomed by the famiglia. Enzo went to Baretta at his house, where he was awaited by a large number of police officers on November 5, 1991 and arrested. After 15 months of freedom, he was again taken to solitary confinement on Favignana. Later, after contacting Judge Borsellino, Enzo was transferred to Marsala. On December 3, 1991, the first meeting between Enzo and Borsellino took place, which was followed by a change of prison to protect Enzo. The breach of the bit of silence, the omertà, took place on January 6, 1992 opposite Borsellino, whereupon Enzo was transferred to a prison outside Sicily.

At the beginning of May 1992, Capogreco, Aspanu and the Zichitella brothers were arrested, as well as around another 50 arrests. While Enzo was moved to a high-security wing for his protection, his brothers, who had no contact with the Mafia and were at large, waived any police protection out of shame at Enzo's collaboration with Judge Borsellino. Enzo realized that he never really had a choice: “Because if the Cosa Nostra requires you to take an oath, then you cannot say: No, thank you, I would rather not, but we can remain friends. Either you join the famiglia or you die. "

On May 21, 1992, Enzo testified as a witness in the Lipari murder. Judge Falcone was murdered two days later, whereupon Enzo retracted his statements and dropped his own accusations in order to protect the daughter. However, after talking to Judge Borsellino, Enzo decided to withdraw his withdrawal and reappeared as a witness. He was then granted a bodyguard and a constant change of residence made to ensure Enzo's safety. Enzo, on the other hand, drew attention to the inadequate security precautions of the personal protection with his escape, but was able to be persuaded by Borsellini to return and continued his testimony against the members of the famiglia in court. Eventually Borellino was killed by a bomb.

Enzo still lives somewhere in Italy today under a different name and a false identity.

criticism

"In his exciting book, Bettini reveals the political, economic and social strategies of the Mafia," said the editorial team of the Italian daily La Repubblica .

Corriere della Sera , also an Italian daily newspaper, writes: "Always keeping an eye on the tension, Bettini penetrates the darkest corners of our thoughts and shows us the dark side of power."

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marco Bettini: Pentito - Ein Mafioso unpackt , Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1st edition, May 2010, ISBN 978-3-548-37334-8 , p. 76
  2. ^ A b Marco Bettini: Pentito - Ein Mafioso unpacks , Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1st edition, May 2010, ISBN 978-3-548-37334-8 , p. 161
  3. ↑ Marco Bettini: Pentito - Ein Mafioso unpackt , Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1st edition, May 2010, ISBN 978-3-548-37334-8 , p. 186
  4. ↑ Marco Bettini: Pentito - Ein Mafioso unpackt , Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1st edition, May 2010, ISBN 978-3-548-37334-8 , p. 297f.
  5. ↑ Marco Bettini: Pentito - Ein Mafioso unpackt , Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1st edition, May 2010, ISBN 978-3-548-37334-8 , p. 332

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