Salvatore Greco (Mafioso, 1927)

Organizational chart of the Greco family

Salvatore Greco (* July 7, 1927 , † 1999 ) was a high-ranking member of the Sicilian Mafia , who was also called "Il Senatore - The Senator" because of his prominent business relationships .

Criminal career

Salvatore was born into an influential family of the rural mafia from Ciaculli and Cruceverde-Giardini as one of six children of his parents Giuseppe "Piddu u Tinenti - Piddu the Lieutenant" Greco and mother Caterina, née Ferrara . Salvatore's father "Piddu u Tinenti" was Gabellotto of a 300 hectare citrus plantation and led a bloody family feud against the two factions from neighboring Ciaculli and Salvatore's uncle Giuseppe and Pietro Greco. His older brother Michele (* 1924 ) rose to chair the Cupola in 1978 . Because of his excellent connections to the Palermitan elite, Salvatore was regarded as the “kingmaker” of Christian Democratic politicians such as Giovanni Gioia , Vito Ciancimino and Giuseppe Insalaco . Many of these personalities were invited to wine and festive banquets by Michele and him and took part in hunting trips on the family estate La Favarella. La Favarella also served as a haven for mafiosi and secret heroin refinery. Because of its remoteness, murders of competitors were also carried out here.

Imprisonment and death

During the Maxi Trial , Salvatore Greco managed to put pressure on Salvo Lima and other politicians and thus significantly hamper the prosecution. Revelations by Pentiti and the results of the police investigation soon made it clear that Salvatore Greco was one of the key figures in the leadership of Cosa Nostra and that an arrest warrant was issued against him as early as 1982 . However, he could until his arrest nearly ten years later in 1991 remain volatile Salvatore Greco was in 1991 arrested when he walked into a hospital because he was afraid of a heart attack to die, although this should prove medically unfounded . When arrested, he was no longer a significant figure in Cosa Nostra as the Greco family had been in decline for several years. Greco did not become a Pentito and eventually died of cancer in hospital prison in 1999 at the age of 72.

Forty years later, Salvatore's son Giuseppe, together with his cousin Leandro Greco, attempted a new rise in the powerful Greco family and a revival of the Cupola, but this was thwarted by the police.

literature

Pino Arlacchi: Mafia from within: The life of Don Antonino Calderone . S. Fischer Verlag
Alfio Caruso: Da cosa nasce cosa. Storia della mafia from 1943 a oggi . Longanesi. Milan. 2000 ISBN 88-304-1620-7 .
John Dickie: Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia. London. Coronet. 2004. ISBN 0-340-82435-2 .
Alexander Stille: Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic. New York. Vintage 1995. ISBN 0-09-959491-9 .

Web links

Notes and individual references

personal data
SURNAME	Greco, Salvatore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Il Senatore (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian mafioso
DATE OF BIRTH	July 7, 1927
DATE OF DEATH	1999

[1] Fondo Favarella, dal Covo dei Greco agli agrumenti dimenticati. "É qui che il Papa ei suoi decisero l'omicidio di Pio La Torre. Palermo Meridionews. April 15, 2019

[2] E 'morto nel suo letto Salvatore Greco, il "senatore" della mafia amico dei polititi. Giornale di Sicilia. (ital.)

[3] Leandro Greco é in Carcere. Spunta il figlio del 'senatore'. Live Sicilia. 3rd February 2019