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The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (Italian: [ˈkɔːza ˈnɔstra, ˈkɔːsa-], Sicilian: [ˈkɔːsa ˈnɔʂː(ɽ)a]; "our thing" [3]), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. It is an association of gangs which sell their ...
According to a popular account that arose after the end of World War II, as prime minister of the Kingdom of Italy, Mussolini had visited Sicily in May 1924 and passed through Piana dei Greci, where he was received by the mayor and Mafia boss Francesco Cuccia. At some point Cuccia expressed surprise at Mussolini’s police escort and is said to ...
The Second Mafia War was a period of conflict involving the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place from 1981 to 1984 and involved thousands of homicides. [2] Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the Mattanza (Italian for 'Slaughter'), it involved the entire Mafia and radically altered the power balance within the organization.
According to Giusy Vitale, a pentita, in 1998, Messina Denaro was one of the young Turks within Cosa Nostra who wanted to set aside Bernardo Provenzano. In addition to Messina Denaro, they were Giovanni Brusca, Domenico Raccuglia, and Vito Vitale. The younger bosses wanted to take strategic decisions without prior consent of Provenzano.
The Cosa Nostra wars of the late 1970s and early 1980s brought the Corleonesi Clan and its vicious and ruthless leaders Luciano Leggio, Salvatore "Toto" Riina, and Bernardo Provenzano into power. This caused disorganization and disenchantment inside the traditional Cosa Nostra power base and values system, leaving the growing Stidda ...
Italian Americans were very helpful in the planning and execution of the invasion of Sicily.The Mafia was involved in assisting the U.S. war efforts. [13] Luciano's associates found numerous Sicilians to help the Naval Intelligence draw maps of the harbors of Sicily and dig up old snapshots of the coastline.
Salvatore Riina (Italian pronunciation: [salvaˈtoːre (toˈtɔ r)riˈiːna]; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called Totò (sicilian diminutive of Salvatore), was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino ...
(Carnevale did not preside the court that did the ruling.) In the meantime, the Antimafia Pool of Palermo was dismantled and judge Rocco Chinnici had been murdered in 1983. Many Mafia bosses were condemned to life in prison and Cosa Nostra reacted furiously and started a series of revenge killings because of the Supreme Court sentence.