Salvatore "Toto" Riina from the 1970s until his arrest in 1993 was the boss of a mafia clan from the Sicilian town of Corleone. He was known as a ruthless and cruel man, who was called none other than the Beast. Riina was once considered the capo del capi of the Sicilian mafia and was implicated in more than a thousand murders.
Corleone Peasant
Salvatore Riina was born in Corleone on November 16, 1930. As a teenager, he joined a local mafia group, which at the time was run by respected local doctor Michele Navarra.
Toto Riina's criminal life began with joining a squad headed by Luciano Leggio. In 1949, Toto was ordered to kill a man named Domenico DeMateo; it was his first victim. For this crime, Salvatore was arrested and imprisoned for 6 years.
After his release from prison, he returned to his old village and engaged in cigarette smuggling, cattle theft and extortion. In those years, bandits from richer and more influential clans disparagingly called members of the groupLejo "peasants". This nickname cost dearly to everyone who uttered it at least once. In the mid-1950s, Luciano Leggio and his team became less dependent on high boss Michele Navarra. Tension grew between them, and Navarra decided to eliminate the recalcitrant "lieutenant". In the summer of 1958, Legjo's failed assassination attempt only fueled his fury.
A couple of weeks after the failed assassination attempt, Luciano Leggio and his men hit back. The kill squad included Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. On August 2, 1958, Navarra and another doctor were driving home when they came under machine-gun fire from an ambush. The vehicle was riddled with bullets, killing both Navarre and his companion. In the weeks and months that followed, several of Navarre's most loyal men were slaughtered and Leggio took control of the Corleone clan.
Lejo's Corleonesi
Representatives of the group from Corleone became famous as cruel criminals who killed everyone who got in their way. The police drew attention to the increase in violence and figured out the person responsible for the bloodshed. Soon Riina, Provenzano and Leggio were put on the wanted list. Around the same time, Leggio joined the supporters of Salvatore Greco, who led the war against Angelo Barbera, the head of a hostile mafia structure. These events went down in history as the First War of the Sicilian Mafia. In December 1962, Calcedonio Di Pisa, who was accused of stealing heroin frombatch destined for shipment to New York. In response, Greco ordered the assassination of Salvatore Barbera. The killings continued until 1963, when Angelo Barbera was arrested. However, this war forced the government to organize a large-scale operation against the mafia, as a result of which hundreds of people went to jail. In 1964, Lejo and Riina were taken into custody, but they managed to intimidate the jury and witnesses. A little later, Riina was released and went underground again. For the next 23 years, he remained a ghost.
By 1969, when Lejo came out, a lot had changed in the structure of the mafia. The copula, formed in 1957 by Joseph Bonanno, by this time included only three original members: Gaetano Badalamenti, Stefano Bontade and Luciano Leggio. Meetings were often attended by his deputy, Salvatore Riina, instead of his boss. In the same year, the murder of Michele Cavataio, a former member of the copula and leader of the Aquasanta clan, was organized. One of his killers was Riina. After that, the bandits from Corleone extended their power to Palermo, the center of the Sicilian mafia.
Mattanza, 1981-1983
Hiding in Milan, Lejo was arrested in 1974 after police tapped his phone. Even from prison, he continued to manage his affairs through Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who were known among fellow mafiosi as Le belve, or "wild beasts". Riina began to gather allies throughout Sicily to destroy his rivals. Among these contenders were memberscopulas Gaetano Badalamenti and Stefano Bontade, as well as Salvatore Inzerillo and Tommaso Buscetta. The second Mafia war is usually called Mattanza, a term for tuna fishing in Sicily. The catalyst for the increase in violence was the removal of Gaetano Badalamenti from the post of head of the Sicilian mafia. Riina accused Badalamenti of embezzling money from the sale of drugs, as a result of which the latter had to flee to America. Another reason for the start of the war was the murder of Giuseppe Di Cristina, an associate of Salvatore Inzerillo, in 1978. It was clear that Riina was aiming to seize supreme power in the Sicilian mafia and complete control of drug trafficking.
In 1980, Tomaso Buscetta was released from prison and went to Brazil in order not to get involved in the war. A year later, Stefano Bontade was killed, and two weeks later Inzerillo was shot dead. Thus, the main enemies of the bandits from Corleone were eliminated. However, Riina did not stop there and successively killed all their relatives and friends. For example, Salvatore Contorno lost 35 family members. As a result, the Sicilian mobster Contorno was afraid all his life and decided on the only form of revenge by becoming a federal witness.
Cadaveri eccelenti (Radiant corpses)
As the Corleonesi gained power and we alth, so did their ability to influence the government. Political figures often cooperate with the mafia, and those who refuse are quickly removed. For example, in 1971 prosecutor Pietro Scallione was assassinated after visiting his wife's grave. He wasclose to Vito Ciancimino, who would later become mayor of Palermo and carry out Riina's orders. In September 1982, the mafia again demonstrated that they could eliminate any person, and they would get nothing for it. Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, an Italian general who had come to Sicily to hunt down the Mafiosi and put an end to the Mattanza, was shot dead. After that, no one dared to challenge the criminals until Giovanni Falcone appeared. At first, he received almost no help from his colleagues, because everyone was afraid of being killed by the mafia. After some time, the big mafioso Tomaso Buscetta decided to testify in order to punish the "Corleonesi" who killed all his relatives.
Buscetta was one of the most senior organized crime figures ever to testify; he revealed many of the inner workings of the Mafia and pointed out many of the people involved in the Mattanza. Thanks to the vast amount of information received, in 1986 Falcone was able to bring the case to a hearing in the Supreme Court. Before the start of the proceedings, the police tracked down several mafiosi in order to bring them to justice. However, Toto Riina and his deputy Bernardo Provenzano remained at large. Buscetta became the main witness and sent many of his old associates and enemies to prison. After the trial, Falcone knew he was in danger and spent his final years surrounded by bodyguards.
Murder of Falcone
In 1992, Salvatore Riina was able to get to Falcone. The order to destroy it was given to Giovanni Brusca, who belongs to an old mafia dynasty and is devoted to his boss. On May 23, 1992, Brusca and his people planted a bomb on one of the sections of the motorway leading to Palermo airport. Falcone and his wife rode in an armored Fiat, accompanied by several police officers. Brusca and his men were waiting for them at some distance from the road. They waited for the right moment and, when Falcone's car approached the bomb, they detonated the explosive device. Several cars were destroyed at once, including Falcone's car, as well as a large section of the road. Falcone, his wife and three policemen died instantly. After that, Riina set his sights on the destruction of Paolo Borsellino. Just a month later, Borsellino was killed outside his home by a car bomb. The deaths of these two human rights activists infuriated the people, who were tired of enduring the incessant violence and constant fear of the Corleone bandits.
Arrest and trial
Under the pressure of the people, the carabinieri had to make every effort to catch Toto Riin. On January 15, 1993, he was arrested right on the street, pulled out of his own car. Toto's whereabouts were reported by his personal driver, Baldassare DiMaggio. They say that during the arrest, Riina shouted at the carabinieri: Communista! In court, Toto claimed that he was an innocent accountant and had no idea that he was Italy's most wanted criminal for the past three decades. Soon the news of Riin's capture appeared in the newspapers. The surprise wasthat the head of the mafia had lived in Palermo all these years, unnoticed and unidentified by anyone. In 1974, he even spent his honeymoon in Venice without anyone knowing about it. Most likely, people simply had no idea what he looked like after many years on the run.
Riina has already been sentenced in absentia to two life terms on charges of more than 100 crimes, including the murders of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. In 1998, he was sentenced to another life term for the murder of Salvo Lima, a corrupt politician with close ties to the Corleonesi. Currently, the failed "Don Corleone" Toto Riina is in a maximum security prison on the island of Sardinia. In 2003, he was reported to have suffered two heart attacks in May and December.
The legacy of Salvatore Riina
After the departure of Toto, Bernardo Provenzano took over the reins. Under his leadership, the mafia became calmer and violence was greatly reduced. Nevertheless, Provenzano was the killer and the police were looking for him. It was only in 2006 that he was arrested.
Giovanni and Giuseppe Riina, the sons of Toto Riina, whose biography can hardly serve as an example to follow, nevertheless followed in the footsteps of their father and were convicted of various crimes. The Riina family owned a large amount of real estate throughout Sicily, but after the arrest of the head of the family, the government confiscated much. The villa, which was his last refuge, passed to the Peppino Impastato Association (Peppino Impastato fought all his life againstmafia and was killed in 1978). Another villa was given to the public in 1997 and became an institution.
Toto Riina is still considered one of the most vicious and cruel mafia bosses.
