All Blog Posts Tagged 'Riina' (16)

By David Amoruso

Sicilian Cosa Nostra is feeling the heat. And Italian authorities continue to turn up the pressure. So much so that the Mafia has threatened to wage a new war against the state and in particular those prosecuting them. And this time, young boss of bosses Matteo Messina Denaro could join in.

Last month, imprisoned mob boss Toto…

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By David Amoruso

For a Sicilian Cosa Nostra boss loyal to omerta, the code of silence, Toto Riina was quoted in the media an awful lot of times in the past few months. His incriminating and outright hostile words brought back memories of his vicious war on the Italian State during the 1990s in which the Sicilian Mafia terrorized the entire country…

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Mob Corner is written by Thom L. Jones. A retired businessman, he has had a long interest in organized crime, and in particular the Sicilian and American Mafia.



A hobby triggered by a book he read while studying at university "God…

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By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto



Italian organized crime, divided in Cosa Nostra, ‘Ndrangheta, Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita, is a rich and powerful criminal enterprise…

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Organized crime at its most organized. That’s what Sicilian Cosa Nostra achieved by organizing all the families on the island in what are called ‘mandamenti’. Gangsters Inc.’s Angelo Carmelo Gallitto explains that “a 'mandamento' is formed by three or more neighboring crime families and it's led by a 'capomandamento', who is a member of the Provincial…

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By David Amoruso

Posted in 2006 - Updated in 2013

Copyright © www.gangstersinc.nl



Bernardo Provenzano was born on January 31, 1933 in Corleone, Sicily. After the second World War Provenzano joined the Mafia Family of boss Michele Navarra and became an enforcer for Luciano Leggio in that Family. In a short time Provenzano and another young man named Toto Riina, who would later become known as one of the most vicious…

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By David Amoruso

Are Italian authorities too harsh on imprisoned Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano? His lawyer and family say yes. In video clips aired by Michele Santoro’s Servizio pubblico, or public affairs program, on television network LA7, viewers see an old and vulnerable Provenzano, who is unable even to use the prison…

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By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto

No one is untouchable. Of course, others are easier to touch than others. In Italy this is being proven each and every day as Mafiosi and corrupt politicians escape justice by abusing one of the many loopholes the law offers them.

One of the men who managed to escape justice, according to many judges, pentiti,…

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Mussomeli, Sicily, once home of the legendary godfather Giuseppe Genco Russo

By Carl Russo

After the spectacular capture of Corleone capomafia Bernardo Provenzano by police in 2006, Sicily braced for a blowback. If history is an indicator, observers warned, a Mafia war will break out. And it will take the form of either an…

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By Thom L. Jones

In his government photograph, Antonino Burrafato (photo, below right) has something of the look of actor Jon Cryer, wearing a uniform and a funny hat. His lips are pursed as though he is about to ask the man behind the camera to get on with it. The eyes are steely and piercing, someone who does not suffer fools gladly. He looks more like a Jefe than simply a…

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By Thom L. Jones



It was bloodletting out of all proportion, even for the men who ran the Mafia in Sicily.



Eight men killed for eighteen horses.



The worst day of mass killing in its history since May 1947, when 11 people were shot dead and 33 wounded by Salvatore Giuliano’s bandit gang at Portella della Ginestra, near San Giuseppe Jato; an…

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Part One - Part Two - Part Three



By Thom L. Jones



Following Leggio’s acquittal in the second trial, although he was subject to…

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By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto

Posted in 2003



Leoluca Bagarella was born in Corleone in 1941. He is the brother-in-law of Salvatore Riina, the boss of bosses, who married his sister Antonina. He supported Luciano Leggio during the war against Navarra’s men in 1960s. His brother Calogero was murdered in 1969 during the Viale Lazio slaughter in Palermo;… Continue

By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto

Posted in 2003



Salvatore Riina was born on November 16, 1930 in Corleone, Sicily. He was introduced into the Corleone “family” by his uncle Giacomo Riina, himself a “man of honour”, when the boss was the doctor Michele Navarra, nicknamed “Our Father”, powerful and respected by the entire village. After the second World War when the Fascist dictatorship finished, the Corleone family was almost decimated,… Continue

By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto

Posted in 2003

Copyright © www.gangstersinc.nl



Stefano Bontade was born on April 23, 1939 in Palermo. His father was Francesco Paolo “Don Paolino” Bontade, the boss of Santa Maria di Gesù family, one of the most powerful families of the city of Palermo. Born in 1914, he was a farmer and he ran the fields and the wells around Villagrazia, Santa Maria di Gesù,… Continue

‘Man lives with the society he finds around him.’



Salvatore Lima, Christian Democratic politician,

Murdered by the Mafia, March 1992.



By Thom L. Jones

Copyright © Thom L. Jones



If he was right in what he said, it happened on the afternoon of September 20th 1987; if it did happen, it… Continue