- Greco Mafia family
The Greco Mafia family is a historic and one of the most influential
Mafia clans inSicily , going back to the late 19th century. The extended family ruled both inCiaculli and Croceverde Giardini, two south-eastern outskirts ofPalermo in the citrus growing area. Members of the family were important figures in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" was the first ‘secretary’ of theSicilian Mafia Commission , whileMichele Greco , also known as The Pope, was one of his successors.According to the
pentito Antonio Calderone “"the Greco’s effectively exercised power in the whole of Sicily".” According toGiovanni Brusca the Greco family was very important and the ones who tipped the balance in every internal Mafia war. [Lodato, "Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone", p. 53]Early history
Both family groups probably had a common ancestor in Salvatore Greco who was mentioned in the
Sangiorgi report at the turn of the 20th century as the "capomafia" of Ciaculli.it Lupo, "Storia della mafia", p. 81] it Caruso, "Da cosa nasce cosa", p. 84-86] Dickie, "Cosa Nostra", p. 254-59.Ermanno Sangiorgi , Questore (chief of police) of Palermo from 1898-1900 wrote a series of very comprehensive reports on Palermo's and the province's Mafia, formed by various groups, coordinated by a "conference among bosses" and headed by a "supreme boss", with details of criminal family structures, individual profiles, Mafia initiation rituals, codes of behaviour as well as it business methods and operations.]The Greco’s were typical representatives of the rural Mafia. In 1921, a Greco who had suffered a "sgarro" (a personal affront) killed two shepherds along with their flock of sheep. In 1929, a Greco fired twenty bullets into an enemy’s great casks of wine and then sat down amid the foaming splinters to smoke his pipe.Sterling, "Octopus", p. 97-98.]
The boss of the Croceverde Giardini, Giuseppe Greco, also known as "Piddu u tinenti" (Piddu the lieutenant), was gabelloto of I Giardini, an estate of about 300 hectares of citrus orchards, in particular the
tangerine s that make the area of Croceverde and Ciaculli famous.Servadio, "Mafioso", p. 178-79.]The Greco war: Interfamily feud
In 1939 a bloody
vendetta between both clans started during a brawl about a question of honour among youngsters of the two clans. The son of Giuseppe Greco, also known as "Piddu u tinenti" (Piddu the lieutenant), the boss of Croceverde Giardinicosca was killed. In 1946-47, the bloody internal feud between the factions in Ciaculli and Croceverde Giardini reached a climax. OnAugust 26 ,1946 , Giuseppe Greco, the boss of the Ciaculli clan and a brother-in-law of "Piddu u tinenti", and his brother Pietro Greco were killed with machine guns and grenades. The Ciaculli faction reacted a few months later when two of Piddu the lieutenant’s men where shot with a "lupara ", the typical Sicilian short-barrelled shotgun. In revenge the Giardini cosca kidnapped two members of the rival faction who were never seen again, a so-called lupara bianca.The struggle between the clans came to a peak with a full-scale gunfight in the main square of Ciaculli on
September 17 ,1947 . First, an important member of the Giardinicosca was shot down by a machine gun. When it became clear he was not dead yet, two women of the Ciaculli clan, Antonina (51) and Rosalia (19) the widow and daughter of one of the bosses killed the year before, went down into the street and finished the victim off with kitchen knives. In return, the brother and sister of the victim shot the women; Antonina was wounded and her daughter killed. Their attacker was then shot and killed by Antonina’s 18-year-old son.In total, eleven members of the two clans died and several others were wounded in the feud, before other Palermo Mafia bosses started to put pressure on Piddu the lieutenant to end the bloody feud, which drew too much attention. Moreover, Piddu was expected to take care for both factions of the feuding clans, after the killing of the bosses of the rival faction. His status depended on how he would manage the situation.
Mediation
Piddu the lieutenant asked for mediation from
Antonio Cottone , the boss of the Mafia family ofVillabate , a town close to Ciaculli and Croceverde. Cottone, who had been deported from the US, was an influential mafioso both inPalermo as in his native village Villabate, and still had good connections in the US, in particular withJoe Profaci , who came from the same village. At the time, Profaci was in Sicily and it seems he played an important role in the peace negotiations.it Lupo, "Storia della mafia", p. 169]The peace between the two rival factions of the Greco clan was settled by giving the rights of the Giardini estate to
Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" (the son of Giuseppe Greco of Ciaculli) and his cousin Salvatore Greco, also known as "l'ingegnere" (The Engineer) or "Totò il lungo" (Totò the tall) (the son of Pietro Greco of Ciaculli). They became co-owners of a citrus fruit export business and partners in a buss company.Historians are sceptical about the blood feud theory of the struggle. At stake was the control of the fruit business and control of the wholesale markets. Six of the victims in the war did not bear the Greco name. The blood feud legend was probably spread around to hide the real motives behind the struggle.
Descendants of the Ciaculli faction
Giuseppe Greco and Pietro Greco, of the Ciaculli faction, both had a son that became important mafiosi:
*Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" (the son of Giuseppe Greco and Santa Greco, the sister of Piddu the lieutenant)
*Salvatore Greco, (the son of Pietro Greco), also known as "l'ingegnere" (the engineer) or "Totò il lungo" (Totò the tall).Descendants of the Croceverde Giardini faction
Giuseppe Greco, also known as "Piddu u tinenti", the boss of Croceverde Giardini faction, had two sons that rose to prominence in Cosa Nostra:
*Michele Greco also known as The Pope.
*Salvatore Greco also known as The Senator. He married the daughter of Nino Cottone, the peacemaker between the two factions.Consolidation
Piddu the lieutenant withdrew from active life as a mafioso and settled in a modern house in
Palermo , where he consolidated and expanded his friendships among the ‘accepted’ section of society, protecting his younger relations when they got into trouble with the law.it [http://www.claudiofava.it/siciliani/memoria/banche/ban03.htm Onesti, onestissimi praticamenti mafiosi] , I Siciliani, April 1984] His influence in the higher circles of Palermo was considerable. CardinalErnesto Ruffini accepted an invitation of Piddu Greco to bless the new church of Croceverde-Giardini and a dinner afterwards.it [http://www.movimentoperlagiustizia.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=281 L'organizzazione giudiziaria antimafia: una lunga battaglia] , Gioacchino Natoli, February 19, 2005]The Greco’s were protagonist in the violent conflict about the
Palermo fruit and vegetable wholesale market that was moved from the Zisa area to Acquasanta near the port in January 1955, disturbing the delicate power balances withinCosa Nostra . The Acquasanta Mafia clan tried to muscle in on the protection racket that traditionally belonged the "Mafia of the Gardens" — such as the Greco’s and Cottone — because it now fell under their territory. The bosses of the Acquasanta Mafia clan,Gaetano Galatolo andNicola D’Alessandro , as well as Francesco Greco from the Ciaculli clan, a major wholesaler of fruit and vegetables, were killed in a dispute over the protection rackets. [Lupo, "Storia della mafia", p. 198] Schneider & Schneider, "Reversible Destiny", p. 62]Some villages just outside Palermo, like
Bagheria andVillabate , flared up with the same kind of violence for the control of irrigation, transport, and wholesale markets. OnAugust 22 ,1956 , "Nino" Cottone was killed as well. In the end the Acquasanta had to split the profits of the wholesale market racket with theGreco Mafia Family ofCiaculli , who traditionally controlled fruit and vegetable supply to Palermo wholesale market. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824336,00.html Sicilian Blood] , Time, September 3, 1956]On the Commission
Although descendants of the old, established rural Mafia, the cousins
Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" andSalvatore Greco "The Engineer" quickly learned to profit from the post-war economic boom and became involved in cigarette smuggling andheroin trafficking. They both participated at the Grand Hotel des Palmes Mafia meeting in October 1957 between prominent American and Sicilian mafiosi. Heroin trafficking between these two might groups might have been discussed, but there certainly was not a general agreement on the heroin trade between the Sicilian Mafia and the American Cosa Nostra, as is often suggested.At one of the meetings American Mafia boss
Joe Bonanno suggested the Sicilians to form aSicilian Mafia Commission to avoid violent disputes, following the example of the American Mafia that had formed their Commission in the 1930s. The Sicilians agreed andTommaso Buscetta ,Gaetano Badalamenti andSalvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" set the ground rules. Somewhere in 1958 the Sicilian Mafia composed its first Mafia Commission. "Ciaschiteddu" Greco was appointed as its first "segretario" (secretary), essentially a "primus inter pares" – the first among equals.Gambetta, "The Sicilian Mafia", p. 112] That position came to him almost naturally because he headed one of the most influential Mafia clans at the time. The Commission, however, was not able to prevent the outbreak of a violent Mafia War in 1962.First Mafia War
The cousins
Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" andSalvatore Greco "The Engineer" of the Ciaculli family were also protagonists in theFirst Mafia War between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the illicitheroin trade to North America. The conflict was sparked by a quarrel over an underweight shipment of heroin and the murder ofCalcedonio Di Pisa – an ally of the Greco's – in December 1962. The Greco’s suspected the brothers Salvatore andAngelo La Barbera of the attack.On
June 30 ,1963 a car bomb exploded near Greco’s house inCiaculli , killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The outrage over theCiaculli Massacre changed the Mafia war into a war against the Mafia. It prompted the first concerted anti-mafia efforts by the state in post-war Italy. TheSicilian Mafia Commission was dissolved and of those mafiosi who had escaped arrest many went abroad. Even the old Piddu Greco was arrested in October 1965, and send into internal banishment from Sicily in May 1966.The repression caused by the Ciaculli Massacre disarranged the Sicilian heroin trade to the United States. Mafiosi were banned, arrested and incarcerated. Control over the trade fell into the hands of a few fugitives: the Greco cousins,
Pietro Davì ,Tommaso Buscetta andGaetano Badalamenti ." [http://www.tni.org/archives/tblick/aruba.htm The Rothschilds of the Mafia on Aruba] ", by Tom Blickman, Transnational Organized Crime, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 1997]Salvatore "The Engineer" and "Ciaschiteddu" Greco were sentenced in absentia to respectively 10 and 4 years in prison at the
Trial of the 114 in 1968 that was initiated as the result of theFirst Mafia War , but as they had been on the run since 1963, they did not serve a day. "Ciaschiteddu" Greco had moved to Venezuela, and the whereabouts of "The Engineer" were completely unknown. In 1973 they were both given the maximum period of five years of internal banishment at the remote island ofAsinara , but they were nowhere to be found.Servadio, "Mafioso", p. 181.]Re-emergence
In the 1970s the Mafia recuperated. This time it were the Greco’s from Croceverde who rose to prominence. The brothers
Michele Greco andSalvatore Greco operated low profile and were able to enter into relationships with businessmen, politicians, magistrates and law enforcement officials through their membership of Masonic lodges.Schneider & Schneider, "Reversible Destiny", p. 77-78] Salvatore Greco’s nick name was "The Senator" for his political connections. He was the kingmaker of Christian Democrat politicians such asGiovanni Gioia ,Vito Ciancimino andGiuseppe Insalaco .Caruso, "Da cosa nasce cosa", p. 487] Bankers and other notables were invited to wine and dine and take part in hunting parties at Michele Greco’s estate La Favarella. The estate was also used as a refuge for mafiosi on the run and to set up a heroin laboratory.In 1974 the
Sicilian Mafia Commission was restored under the leadership ofGaetano Badalamenti . Michele Greco was a member and in 1978 he was appointed as the head of theSicilian Mafia Commission (Cupola), after its previous leaderGaetano Badalamenti was expelled in the run up to theSecond Mafia War between theCorleonesi headed byTotò Riina , and the faction lead byStefano Bontade andSalvatore Inzerillo . In January 1978, the ailing "Ciaschiteddu" Greco came all the way from Venezuela to try to stopGaetano Badalamenti ,Giuseppe Di Cristina andSalvatore Inzerillo from retaliating against the growing power of theCorleonesi . His efforts were in vain.econd Mafia War
Gradually, Michele Greco sided with the Corleonesi and according to some, was no more than a "puppet" for Corleonesi boss
Totò Riina . The Corleonesi’s decimated their adversaries when the simmering conflict escalated into an all-out war after the killing ofStefano Bontade in 1981. According toTommaso Buscetta Michele Greco would just nod his head and agree with virtually everything Riina said during meetings between the heads of various Mafia families.During the
Second Mafia War another offspring of the Greco clan rose to prominence:Giuseppe Greco , a distant relative of Salvatore and Michele Greco. Giuseppe "Pino" Greco was one ofTotò Riina preferred hit man and became a member of theSicilian Mafia Commission as well. Although Michele Greco nominally was his boss and head of the Commission, he was treated by Pino Greco as an irrelevant old man, making clear Pino Greco held the real power, according topentito Francesco Marino Mannoia . Greco’s contempt for Cosa Nostra’s leadership was such that he no longer attended the meetings of the Commission, sending his deputyVincenzo Puccio instead.Stille, "Excellent Cadavers", p. 306]Decline
Towards the end of 1985, Giuseppe Greco vanished. He was murdered on the orders of Riina, who thought Greco was getting a bit too ambitious. Riina was apparently threatened by the way a significant following of younger mobsters looked up to Greco and saw him as a potential future boss. Michele Greco was arrested on
February 20 ,1986 , and joined the hundreds of defendants at theMaxi Trial . Greco gave testimony at the trial and to illustrate his standing as a supposedly honest citizen, he boasted of all the illustrious people he had entertained at his large estate, including a former chief prosecutor and police chiefs.The Greco clan lost its grip on the
mandamento of Ciaculli, which was merged with Brancaccio and the leadership eventually was taken over byGiuseppe Graviano and his brother Filippo from the Brancaccio Mafia family. Salvatore Greco surrendered onJanuary 25 ,1991 , while in hospital for a heart attack. By than he was considered not more than a museum piece – the Greco’s were no longer part of the power structures of Cosa Nostra.References
*it Caruso, Alfio (2000). "Da cosa nasce cosa. Storia della mafia dal 1943 a oggi", Milan: Longanesi ISBN 88-304-1620-7
*Dickie, John (2004). "Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia", London: Coronet ISBN 0-340-82435-2
*Gambetta, Diego (1993)."The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection", London: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-80742-1
*it Lodato, Saverio (1999). "Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone. La confessione di Giovanni Brusca", Milan: Mondadori ISBN 88-04-55842-3
*it Lupo, Salvatore (1993). "Storia della mafia. Dalle origini ai giorni nostri", Rome: Donzelli editore ISBN 88-7989-020-4
*Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003). "Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo", Berkeley: University of California Press ISBN 0-520-23609-2
*Servadio, Gaia (1976). "Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day", London: Secker & Warburg ISBN 436-44700-2
*Sterling, Claire (1990), "Octopus. How the long reach of the Sicilian Mafia controls the global narcotics trade", New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-73402-4
*Stille, Alexander (1995). "Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic", New York: Vintage ISBN 0-09-959491-9External links
*it [http://www.claudiofava.it/siciliani/memoria/banche/ban03.htm Onesti, onestissimi, praticamenti mafiosi] , I Siciliani", April 1984.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.