San Giuseppe Jato family (Mafia clan)

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Map of the area of ​​influence of the family from San Giuseppe Jato

The San Giuseppe Jato family or Brusca family is a mafia clan of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra that has been active since the 1950s. The clan was originally located in the municipality of San Giuseppe Jato , a neighboring town of Corleone , and had expanded to the towns of Piana degli Albanesi , Altofonte and Monreale . It was allied with the Greco , Cuntrera-Caruana , Corleonesi , Cinisi and Mazzarella clans and was mainly active in the fields of drug trafficking , usury , corruption , gambling , arms trafficking , illegal waste management and contract killing.

Since the 1980s it was also considered a kind of satellite family of the Corleonesi, as its high-ranking member Baldassare Di Maggio, who later testified as Pentito , was also the driver of Totò Riina . It once formed a strong connection in the heroin trade from the Mediterranean region via Brazil to the United States . Their power was significantly reduced in 2010. The family from San Giuseppe Jato, however, still has a seat on the provincial commission ("Commissione Provinciale") and is still influential at the local level. It had about 80 "Uomini d'Onore - men of honor", with numerous members imprisoned in recent years after the increased police operations against the Cosa Nostra.

history

Origins

The family of San Giuseppe Jato is one of the youngest in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. It was founded in 1957 as a provincial commission by Antonio "Il Furbo" Salamone and his right-hand man Bernardo Brusca in order to gain control of the entire Jato Valley, including the Piana dei Greci. In the beginning they were mainly limited to extortion (“Pizzo”) and extended this to cigarette smuggling and drug trafficking with the USA. In 1962, the First Mafia War broke out in Palermo and the surrounding area between the allies of Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco and Angelo La Barbera . Salamone was married to Girolama Greco, the sister of Salvatore "L'Ingegnere" Greco , the cousin of "Ciaschiteddu" , and thus automatically had connections to the Greco family. Other members of his Cosca instead supported La Barbera. The 1963 Ciaculli massacre resulted in tougher action by the Italian police . As a result, many Mafiosi have been imprisoned or fled abroad to escape either retaliation from rival families or criminal prosecution. One of them was Salomon, who emigrated to São Paulo in 1963 . “Il Furbo” ruled his overseas family until 1970, when he acquired Brazilian citizenship and passed control of the organization to Bernardo Brusca. In Brazil he made contacts with the Bicheiro (Brazilian gambling) Castor de Andrade . During this time, the heroin trade in the USA flourished.

Era of Brusca

Salamone's heir, Bernardo Brusca, allied himself with Luciano Leggio , who henceforth considered the family of San Giuseppe Jato to be his branch in the Jato Valley. He was able to extend his power until 1986 when there were arrests and the maxi-trial . Designated successor should initially be his son Giovanni Brusca, but in the end it was Baldassare Di Maggio, the driver of Riina. When he was released from prison in 1989, he was permanently replaced by Giovanni Brusca. Brusca enjoyed both charisma in the management of his family and a special tendency to violence , which he developed in the Second Mafia War (1981-1983) by inciting the murder of numerous members of rival clans and organs of the state police and judiciary. He was even involved in the 1992-1993 bombings. This included the assassination attempt on Judge Giovanni Falcone in 1992 . Giovanni Brusca was even proud of his deeds and testified that he had never worn gloves when dissolving the corpses in acid.

A particularly brutal episode was the murder of 11-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo, son of Santino "Santo" Di Matteo, a repentant and former contract killer of the Mafia. This murder sparked widespread public outrage that resulted in the arrest and conviction of Brusca and one of the kidnappers, Gaspare Spatuzza, in 1996. During the Brusca trial, Santo Di Matteo threatened to behead Giovanni Brusca in revenge for it.

After the death of his father in 2000, Giovanni Brusca began to cooperate with the judiciary. Brusca was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison, despite confessing to having committed more than 100 murders. As an inmate of the Rebibbia Roman prison, thanks to a decision by the judicial authorities, he received a bonus permit for good behavior so that he could leave the prison every 45 days and visit his family in a sheltered location.

In particular, among the families of his victims, the outdoor activity sparked sharp controversy in public opinion. Brusca soon lost these perks and was only allowed to use a cell phone , which was an open violation of the prison administration's rules.

Current status of the 2010s

With the statements of Giovanni Brusca and Baldasarre Di Maggio, many bosses of the Sicilian Mafia could be accused. Including many members of the San Giuseppe Jato family, many of whom have to serve long to life imprisonment . In addition, their sphere of influence at the time has been greatly reduced, and even at the criminal level it remains mainly small profits from blackmail.

As a result of the great " Mattanza ", the great Second Mafia War, around 1000 people were killed, many of them by the "Lupara Bianca" and their corpses were no longer found. The "Viddani" (Sicilian "farmers") under Totò Riina had conquered Palermo in an unprecedented "blood orgy" from 1981 to 1983 and all opponents and their families, such as Stefano Bontade , "Totuccio", Pietro and Antonio Inzerillo and many more, extinguished. As a result, the survivors of the Inzerillo clan, from their historic stronghold in the Passo di Rigano district , were banned by the provincial commission of the Cosa Nostra and had to seek refuge in the United States under the protection of the Gambino family .

It was only thanks to the mediation of the Capomafia Salvatore Lo Piccolo , Bernardo Provenzano's deputy , that some survivors of the Palermitan families succeeded in resuming drug trafficking. Faithful to the dictates of Salvatore Riina, Antonino Rotolo was strictly against the fact that parts of the Inzerillo family (Francesco “Franco 'u truttaturi” and Tommaso Inzerillo) were allowed to return to Sicily, which led to tensions. Rotolo is reported to have said, "If they come to Italy, we will kill them all."

Significant members of the San Giuseppe Jato family

literature

  • John Dickie: Cosa Nostra. A story of the Sicilian Mafia. London. 2004. Coronet, ISBN 0-340-82435-2 .
  • Pino Arlacchi: Mafia from within: The life of Don Antonino Calderone. S. Fischer Verlag.
  • John Follain: The Final Godfathers: Rise and Fall of the Corleones. Fischer paperback. 2017, ISBN 978-3-596-31906-0 .
  • Worries of a mafia stronghold about its reputation. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . April 29, 2003 ( nzz.ch ).

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Mazzarella clan is a mafia family of the Neapolitan Camorra. This family was active in cigarette smuggling and belonged to the Alleanza di Secondigliano . Her family member Michele Zaza had strong ties to the Sicilian Cosa Nostra
  2. ^ Cooperative against the Mafia. Deutschlandfunk. January 27, 2006.
  3. ↑ Leggio saw Brusca more as a kind of "pupo baby".
  4. ^ Giovanni Brusca: No. 5 on list of Top 5 most notorious Mob hitmen. Sicilian killer best known for blowing up highway to eliminate an anti-Mafia prosecutor The Mob Museum .
  5. ↑ Fashion instead of mafia. Hats off! Yesterday the mafia, today glamor: How Sicilians stole the Coppola from their godparents and turned the hat into a fashion brand. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. May 17, 2010 ( sueddeutsche.de ).
  6. ↑ report. The new honor of the godparents. In: Focus. July 5, 2004 ( focus.de ).
  7. ↑ Dalla strage di Capaci all'uccisione del piccolo Giuseppe Di Matteo: ecco chi è Giovanni Brusca. Corriere della Sera. October 7, 2019 (Italian).
  8. ^ Criminal Profile: Giovanni Brusca. Known as "The Pig" for his unkempt appearance and huge appetites, including a thirst for blood. He once testified that he'd killed “between 100 and 200” people with his own hands. In: Time magazine. ( content.time.com ).
  9. ↑ Relief of imprisonment for a notorious Mafioso in Italy. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. October 24, 2004 ( nzz.ch ).
  10. ↑ The ECJ ruling hits Italy deeply. Mildness for indomitable Mafiosi NTV. October 12, 2019.