Ciaculli massacre
| Ciaculli massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Ciaculli,an outlying suburb ofPalermo |
| Date | 30 June 1963 |
| Target | Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco,head of theSicilian Mafia Commission |
Attack type | Car bomb |
| Deaths | Mario Malausa, Silvio Corrao, Calogero Vaccaro, Eugenio Altomare and Mario Farbelli from theCarabinieri,Pasquale Nuccio and Giorgio Ciacci from theArmy.[1] |
| Perpetrators | Michele Cavataio,the Mafia boss of theAcquasantaquarter of Palermo |
TheCiaculli massacreon 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded inCiaculli,an outlying suburb ofPalermo,killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended forSalvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco,head of theSicilian Mafia Commissionand the boss of the CiaculliMafiafamily. Mafia bossPietro Torrettawas considered to be the man behind the bomb attack.
The Ciaculli massacre was the culmination point of a bloody Mafia war between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s—now known as theFirst Mafia War,a second started in the early 1980s—for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the illicitheroin tradeto North America.[2][3]The ferocity of the struggle was unprecedented, reaping 68 victims from 1961 to 1963.
Preceding events
[edit]During the 1950s, theMafiahad developed interests in urban property, land speculation, public sector construction, commercial transportation, and the wholesale fruit, vegetable, meat and fish markets that served the burgeoning city of Palermo, whose population rose by 100,000 between 1951 and 1961.[4]
A relationship developed betweenmafiosiand a new generation of politicians of the Christian Democratic Party (Democrazia Cristiana) such asSalvo LimaandVito Ciancimino.Lima was connected toAngelo La Barbera,Tommaso Buscettaand the leading construction entrepreneurFrancesco Vassallo.
The period from 1958 to 1964, during which Lima served as mayor of Palermo and Ciancimino served as assessor for public works, was later referred to as the "Sack of Palermo".[4]Throughout this five year span, 4,000 building licences were signed, more than half in the names of three pensioners with no connection to the construction industry. The construction boom led to the destruction of the city's green belt, and distinctive villas were replaced by apartment blocks.
First Mafia War
[edit]The Mafia war was sparked by a quarrel over a lost heroin shipment and the murder ofCalcedonio Di Pisa—an ally of theGrecos—in December 1962. The Grecos suspected the brothers Angelo and Salvatore La Barbera of perpetrating the attack.[5]
The Ciaculli massacre shifted the Mafia war into a war against the Mafia, which in turn prompted the first concerted anti-mafia efforts by the state in post-war Italy. Within a period of ten weeks, 1,200 mafiosi were arrested, many of whom would be kept out of circulation for as many as five to six years. The Sicilian Mafia Commission was dissolved, and of those mafiosi who had escaped arrest—among themTommaso Buscetta—many went to the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. Salvatore "Cicchiteddu" Greco fled toCaracasin Venezuela.[2][6]
The atrocity galvanized the Italian Parliament into implementing a law for the constitution of anAntimafia Commission;the law passed in December 1962, and the Commission met for the first time on July 6, 1963. Its final report was submitted in 1976.
Perpetrators
[edit]
According to Tommaso Buscetta, who became a cooperating witness in 1984,Michele Cavataio,the boss of the Acquasanta quarter of Palermo, was responsible for the Ciaculli bomb. Cavataio had lost out to theGreco Mafia clanin a war for control of the wholesale market in the mid-1950s. Cavataio killed Di Pisa with the belief that the La Barberas would be blamed by the Grecos and a war would result; he ultimately continued to fuel the war with additional bomb attacks and killings.[7]
Cavataio was backed by other Mafia families, who resented the growing power of theSicilian Mafia Commissionto the detriment of individual Mafia families. Cavataio was killed on 10 December 1969 in the Viale Lazio in Palermo as retaliation for the events in 1963; the assassination was carried out by a Mafia hit squad includingBernardo Provenzano,Calogero Bagarella(an elder brother ofLeoluca Bagarellathe brother-in-law ofTotò Riina),Emanuele D’AgostinoofStefano Bontade’s Santa Maria di Gesù Family,Gaetano Grado,and Damiano Caruso, a soldier ofGiuseppe Di Cristina,the Mafia boss ofRiesi.[8]The attack is known as theViale Lazio massacre(Lazio Boulevard Massacre).
Several top Mafia bosses had decided to eliminate Cavataio on the advice ofSalvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco.Greco had come to subscribe to Buscetta’s theory regarding the initial catalyst for the First Mafia War.[9]The composition of the hit squad, according to Buscetta, was a clear indication that the killing had been sanctioned collectively by all the major Sicilian Mafia families; not only did it include Calogero Bagarella from Corleone and a member of Stefano Bontate’s family in Palermo, but also a soldier of Giuseppe Di Cristina’s family from Riesi, on the opposite end of Sicily. The Viale Lazio bloodbath marked the end of a ‘pax mafiosa’ that had reigned since the Ciaculli massacre.[3]
Villabate massacre
[edit]In the same day of the massacre of Ciaculli, inVillabatethere was another car-bomb attack in which two civilians, Giuseppe Tesauro and Pietro Cannizzaro, died.[10]
Victims
[edit]The seven victims of themassacrewere Mario Malausa, Silvio Corrao, Calogero Vaccaro, Eugenio Altomare and Mario Farbelli from theCarabinieri,and Pasquale Nuccio and Giorgio Ciacci from theItalian Army.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ab(in Italian)Strage Ciaculli: Lumia, "tenere attenzione sempre alta"Archived2011-07-07 at theWayback Machine,ANSA, 30 June 2009
- ^abSchneider & Schneider,Reversible Destiny,pp. 65–66
- ^abStille,Excellent Cadavers,pp. 103–104
- ^abSchneider & Schneider,Reversible Destiny,pp. 14–19
- ^Dickie,Cosa Nostra,pp. 311–312
- ^Servadio,Mafioso,p. 181
- ^Dickie,Cosa Nostra,pp. 315–316
- ^(in Italian)Provenzano a giudizio per la strage di Viale LazioArchived2007-09-28 at theWayback Machine,Antimafia 2000, March 28, 2007
- ^Dickie,Cosa Nostra,p. 328
- ^"Strage di Villabate".vittimemafia.it.30 June 1963.Retrieved2022-06-13.
- Dickie, John (2004).Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia,London: CoronetISBN0-340-82435-2
- Jamieson, Alison (2000).The Antimafia: Italy’s fight against organized crime,London: Macmillan,ISBN0-333-80158-X.
- Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003).Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo,Berkeley: University of California PressISBN0-520-23609-2
- Servadio, Gaia (1976).Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day,London: Secker & WarburgISBN0-440-55104-8
- Stille, Alexander(1995).Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic,New York: Vintage,ISBN0-09-959491-9
External links
[edit]- (in Italian)Ciaculli, la strage dimenticata[permanent dead link],ilpungolo.com, June 26, 2007
- (in Italian)La strage di Ciaculli,La Domenica del Corriere del 21 luglio 1963