Claudine Cassar - The Battle for Sicily’s Soul: The Rise of the Mafia and the Fight to Free Sicily from its Evil Tyranny

First published in Malta by Alert Publishing 2022

2022 Claudine Cassar

www.claudinecassar.com

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other that that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 978-9918-615-00-1 (paperback)

ISBN 978-9918-615-02-5 (.mobi ebook)

ISBN 978-9918-615-01-8 (.epub ebook)

For Andrew and in memory of the brave men and women who fought the Mafia and lost their lives in the battle for Sicilys soul

Map of Sicily with Key Locations

The Italian Republic has been plagued by organised crime since its very inception, with the oldest and most powerful criminal societies originating in the southern part of the country. These are Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Camorra in Naples. In the twentieth century new mafias came into being - the Stidda in Sicily, the Sacra Corona Unita in Brindisi, Lecce, and Taranto, and Societ Foggiana in the Province of Foggia.

This book focuses on the Sicilian Mafia, which is the archetype of mafia organisations worldwide. It examines how social conditions, politics and international forces coalesced in Sicily during the nineteenth century to form a toxic primordial soup, out of which rose Cosa Nostra.

The Mafia, which was made up of a network of cosche (clans) controlling different territories on the island, appropriated Sicilys cultural norms and the sacred symbols and rituals of the Catholic Church, manipulating and corrupting them to suit its criminal purposes. In this way it created a faade of respectability and convivenza (co-existence) with the Sicilian people, camouflaging its true nature as a bloodthirsty and vicious criminal organisation, killing and maiming people for profit.

In the 1970s, the Corleone cosca (clan), led by Luciano Leggio, started manoeuvring to take over control of the Mafia and the highly lucrative narcotics trade. When Leggio was captured and imprisoned, he was replaced by his second-in-command, Tot Riina, also known as la belva (the beast). Riina was hell-bent on controlling Cosa Nostra, launching a vicious war on the other clans and massacring hundreds of mafiosi and their family members in what became known as the Great Mafia War. At the same time, he orchestrated the assassinations of journalists, police officers and other justice officials who had become an inconvenience. In the end, the Corleonesi succeeded in taking over control of Cosa Nostra, with Riina becoming the boss of bosses of the Sicilian Mafia.

What Tot Riina and his allies had not considered, however, was the backlash from the defeated mafiosi who feared for their lives and the lives of their loved ones. They had also not anticipated the reaction of the Sicilian public, the Catholic Church, or the Italian State, who could no longer ignore the ravages wrought on the island by mafia activity.

The massacre thus led to the breaking of omert (the vow of silence) by various pentiti (repented mafiosi who turned states evidence). The first high profile mafioso to defect was Tommaso Buscetta, who sat with Judge Giovanni Falcone for forty-five days, describing the inner workings of Cosa Nostra. Based on this information, and further testimony from the flood of pentiti that followed, a Maxi Trial commenced on the 10th of February 1986, indicting 475 mafiosi, of which 333 were found guilty and imprisoned.

The Maxi Trial and the subsequent high-profile assassinations of Magistrate Rosario Angelo Livatino in 1990, Judge Giovanni Falcone and his friend and colleague Judge Paolo Borsellino in 1992, and the mafia terrorist attacks on the Italian mainland along with the murder of Fr Pino Puglisi in 1993 outraged the Italian public and led to a massive crackdown by the authorities to eradicate Cosa Nostra. The Catholic Church was no longer able to sit on the fence, and finally the ecclesiastical authorities took a firm stand against the Mafia. This further weakened the criminal organisation, which had already been decimated because of the mafia war and the Maxi Trial.

This book looks at how Cosa Nostra manipulated Sicilian society and the Catholic Church for decades, disappearing into the background while hiding in plain sight. The roots of the Mafia in the islands religious superstition, bigotry and legends were so strong that it took over one hundred years and a massacre for the vows of secrecy to be broken, revealing the true face of the criminal association.

Civil society, the Italian State, and the Catholic Church are now engaged in a relentless and ongoing battle with the Mafia for Sicilys soul.

Section I

It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could ever have been present. But if (and oh what a big if) we could conceive in some warm little pond with all sorts of ammonia & phosphoric salts light, heat, electricity present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present such matter would be instantly devoured, or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed

Charles Darwin, 1871

Chapter 1

I f by mafia they mean having such a strong sense of honour that it is sometimes taken to the extreme; if they mean being steadfastly intolerant of bullying and injustice, showing the generosity of spirit to stand up to the strong while supporting the weak; if they mean being so loyal to your friends that your loyalty is stronger than anything, even than death; if by mafia they mean feelings like these, even though they might sometimes be exaggerated, then what they are talking about are the distinguishing traits of the Sicilian soul, so I too am a mafioso and I am proud to be one.

Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, from a speech in 1925.

The Sicilian Mafia is a centrally controlled criminal organisation with its own history, mythology, rituals, and laws, insidiously rooted in the culture and traditions of Sicily, which it has misappropriated and corrupted for its own ends. In fact, to truly understand the nature of Cosa Nostra, we cannot look solely at the criminal society itself, because it does not exist within a vacuum. One must also consider the history, economic realities and power hierarchies which moulded Sicilian culture, since only then can we appreciate how the Mafia was able to seize control while operating in the shadows.

This chapter gives a brief overview of the history of the island and the sequence of events that created a market niche which was subsequently seized by ruthless, entrepreneurially minded men who formed the genus of the social and criminal phenomenon that is the Sicilian Mafia.