Leoluca Bagarella

Leoluca Bagarella
Mugshot of Bagarella after his arrest in 1995
Born	(1942-02-03) 3 February 1942 (age 82) Corleone, Sicily, Italy
Other names	"Don Luchino"
Occupation	Mafia boss
Criminal status	Imprisoned since 1995
Spouse	Vincenzina Marchese ​ ​ (m. 1991; died 1995)​
Relatives	Calogero Bagarella (brother) Salvatore Riina (brother-in-law) Giuseppe Marchese (brother-in-law)
Allegiance	Corleonesi
Conviction(s)	Mafia association Multiple murders
Criminal charge	Mafia association Multiple murders
Penalty	Life imprisonment

Leoluca Bagarella (Italian pronunciation: [ˌlɛoˈluːka baɡaˈrɛlla]; born 3 February 1942) is an Italian criminal and member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone. Following Salvatore Riina's arrest in early 1993, Bagarella became the head of the stragist strategy faction,^[1] opposing another faction commanded by the successor designate Bernardo Provenzano, creating a real rift in Cosa Nostra. Bagarella was captured in 1995, having been a fugitive for four years, and sentenced to life imprisonment for Mafia association and multiple murders.

Early life

Bagarella was born in Corleone on 3 February 1942. Bagarella sided with Luciano Leggio of the Corleonesi in the late 1950s. Bagarella became the brother-in-law of Salvatore Riina in 1974 when he married Bagarella's sister, Antonia. Two of Bagarella's brothers were also Mafiosi; his elder brother, Calogero Bagarella, was shot dead on December 10, 1969, in the Viale Lazio in Palermo, during a shootout with rival mafioso Michele Cavataio and his men, known as the Viale Lazio massacre.^[2][3] A second brother, Giuseppe, was murdered in prison in 1972.

On 21 July 1979, Bagarella killed police chief Boris Giuliano.^[4] Giuliano was shot dead in the Lux Bar in Palermo having a cappuccino while waiting for his car to take him to work early in the morning.^[5] Bagarella shot Giuliano in the neck three times and, standing over the body, fired four bullets into Giuliano's back before making his escape.^[4][6][7][8]

Giuliano's flying squad was investigating Bagarella after he had discovered his hiding place. Bagarella had managed to escape in time, but inside Giuliano discovered weapons, four kilograms of heroin and false documents with photographs depicting Bagarella.^[9]

Bagarella shot five times and killed investigative journalist Mario Francese on 26 January 1979, in front of his house in Palermo.^[10][11]

Terrorist campaign

Bagarella married Vincenzina Marchese in 1991. The powerfully built Bagarella modelled himself on the eponymous character of the film The Godfather, so when he married the attractive niece of a boss he had the movie theme played at a lavish party.^[12] According to pentito Toni Calvaruso, Vincenzina committed suicide on 12 May 1995, due to her depressive state after a series of miscarriages, her brother Giuseppe Marchese becoming a pentito and her husband's involvement with the kidnapping of 12 year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo (who was subsequently killed nearly a year after her own death).^[13][14][15]

Riina's reign as "boss of bosses" suffered a severe setback when hundreds of mafioso were found guilty at the Maxi Trial in 1986/87. Once the convictions were upheld by higher courts in January 1992,^[16][17] Riina ordered the murder of high-profile prosecutor Giovanni Falcone,^[18] a decision that was taken over an objection by Ignazio Salvo, who had argued that Falcone was best neutralized through political machinations.

Following Riina's arrest in January 1993, Bagarella was believed to have taken over the Corleonesi, rivalling Riina's putative successor, Bernardo Provenzano.^[19] In a meeting at Villabate, it was decided that both Provenzano and Bagarella should be in charge of holding the Corleonesi mandate together.^[20]

On 27 May 1993, a bomb under the Torre dei Pulci killed five people: Fabrizio Nencioni, his wife Angelamaria, their daughters nine-year-old Nadia and two-month-old Caterina and Dario Capolicchio, aged 20. Thirty-three people were injured.^[21] Further attacks on art galleries and churches left 10 dead with many injured, and caused outrage among Italians. At least one high-ranking investigator believed most of those who carried out murders for Cosa Nostra at this time answered solely to Bagarella, and that consequently Bagarella actually wielded more power than Provenzano, who was Riina's formal successor.^[22]

Provenzano protested about the terrorist attacks, but Bagarella responded sarcastically, telling him to wear a sign saying "I don't have anything to do with the massacres".^[23] Bagarella stopped ordering murders some time before his own capture, apparently due to the suicide of his wife Vincenzina.^[22]

Arrest and conviction

On 24 June 1995, Bagarella was arrested, having been a fugitive for four years.^[4][14] Bagarella was convicted of multiple murders and imprisoned for life. These included the murders of Giuliano,^[8][24][25] of Francese,^[26] of Giuseppe Russo,^[27] of Falcone,^[28] of Giuseppe Di Matteo,^[29] of Antonino Burrafato,^[30] of Salvatore Caravà,^[31] of Ignazio Di Giovanni,^[31] and of Simone Lo Manto and Raimondo Mulè.^[32]

In 2002, Bagarella had protested about his treatment under the Article 41-bis prison regime law that placed heavy restrictions on jailed Mafia bosses to prevent them from running their criminal empires from behind bars. At a court appearance that June, Bagarella made some thinly veiled threats to the Italian government, saying the Mafia is "tired of being exploited, humiliated, oppressed and used like goods exchanged among the various political forces."^[33][34] Some interpreted this as a sign the Mafia was annoyed that its previously cozy relationship with politicians had broken down, speculating about Mafia bosses having been in some sort of clandestine negotiations with politicians.^[35] In 2005, he launched boiling oil against an 'Ndrangheta boss prisoner, leading to a further one year sentence.^[36] Following the violence, he was transferred to a prison in Parma.^[36][37]

In total, Bagarella was given 13 life sentences plus 106 years and ten months, and solitary confinement for 6 years.^[38]

On 20 April 2018, he was sentenced to a further 28 years in prison.^[39]

In popular culture

Characters based on Leoluca Bagarella were featured in the 2007 Italian TV series Il Capo dei Capi, the 2014 TV series Furore, the 2018 TV series Il cacciatore, the 2007 film L'ultimo dei Corleonesi, and the 2013 film La mafia uccide solo d'estate.

References

1. "L' arresto di Riina (Brusca racconta cosa successe dopo)". YouTube.
2. Mafia Boss Provenzano Accused of 1969 Palermo Murders, Bloomberg, November 29, 2007
3. Servadio, Mafioso, p. 228-30
4. Reputed Head of the Mafia Is Arrested in Palermo Chase, The New York Times, June 26, 1995
5. Sterling, Octopus, p. 215-16
6. Mafia killer with a code of cruelty, The Independent, June 26, 1995
7. A Palermitan diary: Twenty years of reporting at the foot of Italy, by Attilio Bolzoni in"Culture of Lawlessness: The Role of the Mass Media" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
8. (in Italian) Il sacrificio di Boris Giuliano, La Sicilia, July 21, 2013
9. (in Italian) Quella P38 dietro l'omicidio Giuliano Archived August 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Antimafia Duemila N°14, July–August 2001
10. Follain, The Last Godfathers, p. 112
11. (in Italian) Mario Francese, quando una biro fa più paura di una pistola Archived 2014-05-18 at the Wayback Machine, Antimafia Duemila, January 26, 2014
12. Follain, Vendetta, pp. 244-5
13. "LA MOGLIE DI BAGARELLA SI E' IMPICCATA" (in Italian). repubblica.it. 17 January 1996.
14. Longrigg, Mafia Women, p. 122
15. (in Italian) Il femminile in Cosa Nostra, Francesco Flocca & Serena Giunta, Psychomedia, September 5, 2003
16. Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and the Procura of Palermo Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Peter Schneider & Jane Schneider, May 2002, essay is based on excerpts from Chapter Six of Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider, Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia and the Struggle for Palermo, Berkeley: U. of California Press
17. "Archivio - LASTAMPA.it". Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2017-07-23.
18. "Gli esecutori materiali della strage di Capaci - Sentenza d'appello per la strage di Capaci" (PDF) (in Italian).
19. "Audizione del procuratore Sergio Lari dinanzi alla Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia - XVI LEGISLATURA" (PDF) (in Italian).
20. "Bagarella non sopportava il modo di fare di Provenzano Giovanni Brusca processo Giovanni Mercadante". YouTube.
21. The massacre in via dei Georgofili, The Florentine, May 24, 2012
22. Follain, Vendetta, p. ?
23. Follain, Vendetta, pp. 230-231
24. (in Italian) Primo ergastolo per Bagarella, Corriere della Sera, March 1, 1997
25. (in Italian) Delitto Dalla Chiesa: ottavo ergastolo a Riina, Corriere della Sera, March 18, 1995
26. (in Italian) Biografia Mario Francese, Fondazione Francese
27. "Cronologia su mafia e antimafia" (in Italian). camera.it. Archived from the original on 2007-12-14.
28. "Stralcio della sentenza della Corte di Cassazione per la strage di Capaci" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-07-23.
29. "Mafia. Omicidio Di Matteo, confermato ergastolo a Bagarella e pene ai boss" (in Italian). rainews24.rai.it. 15 July 2002. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011.
30. "Morto per aver negato privilegi a Leoluca Bagarella . In quattro a giudizio per il delitto del vicebrigadiere Burrafato - la Repubblica.it". Archivio - la Repubblica.it. Retrieved Apr 8, 2023.
31. "Condannati Leoluca Bagarella e Giovanni Brusca | Ergastolo al cognato di Riina e 12 anni al pentito". www.voceditalia.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on Jul 19, 2009. Retrieved Apr 8, 2023.
32. Uno sgarbo, poi il duplice omicidio: nuovo ergastolo per Leoluca Bagarella « Quotidiano Sicilia | Cronaca Sicilia | Notizie, attualità e politica siciliana – Live Sicilia
33. Are Mob Hits Bad for Business? Time Magazine Europe, September 30, 2002
34. Mafiosi given 'soft jail time' by Berlusconi, The Observer, July 25, 2004
35. Dickie, Cosa Nostra, pp. 441-42
36. "Bagarella, olio bollente su un detenuto - Corriere della Sera". www.corriere.it. Retrieved Apr 8, 2023.
37. Il boss Bagarella trasferito al carcere di Parma
38. "Calcolate le pene di Provenzano e Bagarella: insieme hanno collezionano 33 ergastoli". Repubblica.it. March 25, 2014.
39. "Trattativa Stato-mafia, condannati Mori, De Donno, Dell'Utri e Bagarella. Assolto Mancino" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 20 April 2018.

Bibliography

• Dickie, John (2004). Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia, London: Coronet, ISBN 0-340-82435-2
• Follain, John (2012). Vendetta: The Mafia, Judge Falcone and the Quest for Justice, London: Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 978-1-444-71411-1
• Jamieson, Alison (1999). The Antimafia: Italy's fight against organized crime, London: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-80158-X
• Longrigg, Clare (1998). Mafia Women, London: Vintage ISBN 0-09-959171-5
• Servadio, Gaia (1976), Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day, London: Secker & Warburg ISBN 0-436-44700-2