Boss of Bosses (42 page)

Background descriptions of the Palazzolo family status in Cinisi are based on an author interview with Giovanni Impastato, who grew up with a mafioso father.

Palazzolo and Oliva,
Bernardo Provenzano: il ragioniere di Cosa Nostra
, gives a detailed account of how Provenzano built up an illegal empire using front-men and -women to cover his tracks. Also useful for background was Enrico Bellavia and Silvana Mazzocchi,
Iddu
. The position and status of women is described in: Liliana Madeo,
Donne di Mafia
, Teresa Principato and Alessandra Dino,
Mafia Donna;
and Clare Longrigg,
Mafia Women
(Chatto & Windus, London, 1997).

Legal documents

Tribunale di Palermo, testimony of Giovanni Brusca in the trial of Simone Castello and others, 12 December 2000.

Report by the Partinico company of carabinieri, 27 November 1983, in the trial of Bernardo Provenzano and eighteen others.

Tribunale di Palermo, fifth session, evidence admitted in the trial of Filippa La Fiura, Saveria Palazzolo and others. The sentence was given on 18 December 1990.

Much of the detailed information on Provenzano’s business dealings comes from an interview with General Angiolo Pellegrini, who investigated Provenzano’s activities in the early 1980s. Another rich source on the early days in Bagheria was the testimony of Nino Giuffré in the trial of Giuseppe Biondolillo and others, before the court of Termini Imerese (temporarily relocated to Padua’s maximum-security facility), 16 October 2002.

Legal documents

Procura di Palermo, deposition of the collaborator Angelo Siino, known as the Mafia’s ‘minister of works’, 10 June 1998.

Report on the collaboration between mafioso Gino Ilardo and Colonel Michele Riccio of the carabinieri special organized crime division (Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale, or ROS), Rome, 30 July 1996.

Tribunale di Palermo: examination of Nino Giuffré in the trial of Michele Aiello and others known as Talpe (‘Moles’), Milan, 8—9 March 2005.

Tribunale di Palermo: judicial report no 3033/16 1983 in the case of Gariffo Carmelo and twenty-nine others.

Also cited are: Palazzolo and Oliva,
Bernardo Provenzano: il ragioniere di Cosa Nostra;
Prestipino and Palazzolo,
Il codice Provenzano;
and Stille,
Excellent Cadavers
.

My most valuable source for this and the following chapter is assistant prosecutor Alfonso Sabella, who was at the centre of an extraordinary series of investigations in Palermo throughout the 1990s. Sabella was instrumental in the collaboration of Giovanni Brusca, whose testimony in the trial of Simone Castello and five others, dated 12 December 2000, is the other principal source.

Legal documents

Also important is Nino Giuffré’s testimony in the trial of Giuseppe Biondolillo and others, before the court of Termini Imerese, 16 October 2002.

The Mafia collaborator Salvatore Cancemi’s testimony was reported in the arrest warrants for those responsible for the murder of judge Falcone, his wife and escort, issued by the Procura distrettuale antimafia di Caltanissetta.

Trial of Simone Castello and five others, Tribunale di Palermo, deposition of Salvatore Barbagallo, 11 December 2000.

The extraordinary revelations of supergrass Tommaso Buscetta are contained in
La Mafia ha vinto
, by Sicilian journalist Saverio Lodato. Other revelations by collaborators about the relationship between Riina and Provenzano are contained in: Palazzolo and Oliva,
Bernardo Provenzano: il ragioniere di Cosa Nostra;
Giovanni Brusca, interviewed by Saverio Lodato,
Ho ucciso Giovanni
Falcone;
Alessandro Stille,
Excellent Cadavers;
Sandra Rizza and Giuseppe Lo Bianco,
Il gioco grande;
Lirio Abbate and Peter Gomez,
I complici;
and Prestipino and Palazzolo,
Il codice Provenzano
.

The details of Saveria Palazzolo’s move to Corleone, and her life there, are based on author interviews with the former mayor of Corleone, Pippo Cipriani, and with Provenzano’s lawyers past and present, as well as police on surveillance duty. I have also drawn on details contained in Palazzolo and Oliva,
Bernardo Provenzano: il ragioniere di Cosa Nostra
.

Provenzano’s sons spoke to the BBC in an interview broadcast in September 2007
(The Real Godfather)
. Details of Provenzano’s sons’ lives, and their conversations secretly recorded by the police, are reported in Abbate and Gomez,
I complici
.

Giovanni Brusca and Tommaso Buscetta’s interpretations of the family’s return to Corleone are contained in Saverio Lodato’s interviews (
Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone and La Mafia ha vinto
).

Lipari’s correspondence with Provenzano about his sons’ careers is taken from Palazzolo and Bellavia,
Voglia di Mafia
(Carocci, Rome, 2005).

The full story of Provenzano’s consigliere Pino Lipari and his unfortunate family is given in Prestipino and Palazzolo,
Il codice Provenzano
. The story of the Provenzano family Christmas in Germany is drawn from an account in Enrico Bellavia and Silvana Mazzocchi,
Iddu
. Further details of the mafiosi’s disaffection with Riina’s excesses are contained in Alessandro Stille,
Excellent Cadavers
.

The analysis and background of Provenzano’s position in the lead-up to the murder of judge Falcone are based on an author interview with assistant prosecutor Nino Di Matteo in Palermo. The account of the plot to murder the anti-Mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso is based on an author interview with Dr Grasso.

Much of the description of the dynamic between Riina and Provenzano in the lead-up to Riina’s arrest, including the detail of meetings to discuss strategy, comes from the testimony of Nino Giuffré. This chapter draws on testimony given on 14 May 2003 to the judges of the Palermo court of assizes, during the trial, named ‘Golden Market’, of Riina and members of the commission of Cosa Nostra. Giuffré also described the threat Falcone’s investigations posed to Cosa Nostra.

Giovanni Brusca’s views on Provenzano’s role before the assassination of judge Falcone are taken from his interview with Saverio Lodato (
Io ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone
). Lodato’s book
Trent’ anni di Mafia
contains Brusca’s account of Riina’s alleged negotiations with the authorities. The analysis by former Palermo boss and supergrass Tommaso Buscetta comes from Lodato’s interview (
La Mafia ha vinto
).

The collaborator Angelo Siino’s description of the events leading up to judge Borsellino’s death was given in the trial of his alleged killers, September 1998.

Excellent Cadavers
, by Alessandro Stille, details the mounting corruption scandals that contributed to the death of the first Italian Republic, and the disaffection of senior Mafia figures with Riina’s violent strategy. Stille also reports the Mafia’s threats against politicians.

This version of the alleged ‘negotiations’ between Mori and Cosa Nostra is based on the motivation for the sentence for the 1993 bombings, Tribunale di Firenze, and on an interview with assistant prosecutor Antonio Ingroia. I also draw on the account in
Il gioco grande
, by Sandra Rizza and Giuseppe Lo Bianco. Anti-Mafia chief Pietro Grasso’s views about Riina’s strategy are reported in the same book.

Provenzano’s line about putting his hands up to stop Lima banging his head is quoted in
I complici
, by Lirio Abbate and Peter Gomez. Giusy Vitale’s testimony about the extraordinary meeting of Mafia capos was reported in
La Repubblica
(19 November 2005).

Much of the material in this chapter is drawn from an author interview with assistant prosecutor Alfonso Sabella, who conducted a series of successful investigations against the Corleonesi during this period.

Brusca’s accounts of the meetings and political manoeuvring that followed Riina’s arrest are based on his testimony in the trial of Simone Castello and others, Tribunale di Palermo, 12 December 2000, and on his interview with Saverio Lodato (
Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone
).

I have drawn heavily on
Nino Giuffré’s sensational testimony in the trial of Giuseppe Biondolillo and others, Tribunale di Termini Imerese, 16 October 2002. Mafia plots to blow up monuments, and to poison and maim ordinary people, were revealed by the
pentito
Vincenzo di Sinacori testifying in the trial of the 1993 bombers, in Florence. John Dickie,
Cosa Nostra
, gives an account of the bombings on the mainland in 1993.

The account of Vincenzina Marchese’s tragic end is recounted in Teresa Principato and Alessandra Dino,
Mafia donna
, and Clare Longrigg,
Mafia Women
. The account of the war between the Di Peris and the Montaltos is based on the author interview with Alfonso Sabella, and is also described in Prestipino and Palazzolo,
Il codice Provenzano
.

The main source of this chapter is the report on the collaboration between the mafioso Gino Ilardo and Colonel Michele Riccio of the carabinieri special organized crime division (Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale or ROS), Rome 30 July 1996, filed in the Grande Oriente investigation. This report contains Riccio’s account of the fateful meeting at the farmhouse near the Mezzojuso junction in 1995.

Other legal documents

Arrest warrant in the trial of Bernardo Provenzano and his aides, known as Grande Mandamento, issued 5 October 2004, Tribunale di Palermo.

Nino Giuffré’s testimony in the trial of Giuseppe Biondolillo and others, Tribunale di Termini Imerese, 16 October 2002.

Trial of Simone Castello and five others, Tribunale di Palermo, deposition of Salvatore Barbagallo, 11 December 2000.

Testimony of Giovanni Brusca in the trial of Simone Castello and others, Tribunale di Palermo, 12 December 2000.

The major source on Provenzano’s strategy is an author interview with assistant prosecutor Nino Di Matteo, Palermo. Also useful were
Iddu
, by Enrico Bellavia and Silvana Mazzocchi, and
Bernardo Provenzano: il ragioniere di Cosa Nostra
, by Salvo Palazzolo and Ernesto Oliva. I also draw on news stories from ANSA and
La Repubblica
.