To sound out the willingness of Mafiosi to talk, Ciancimino contacted Riina's private doctor, Antonino Cinà [it]. The apartment was only raided 18 days later but it had been completely emptied. Apparently Vincenzo Puccio had been planning to overthrow Riina as head of the Sicilian Mafia but the Corleonesi boss had found out about the plot. In 2002, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of judge Alberto Giacomelli. On 23 May 1992, Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three police officers died in the Capaci bombing on highway A29 outside Palermo. The Italian government arranged for a massive crackdown against the Mafia in response. [11] Veteran journalist Indro Montanelli doubted the claim, saying Andreotti "doesn't even kiss his own children". Investigating magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and his colleague Paolo Borsellino prosecutions against the Mafia had meant they were under the constant threat of death. [53][54], Riina was held in a maximum-security prison in Parma with limited contact with the outside world in order to prevent him from running his organization from behind bars. [42][43], The Carabinieri's ROS (Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale) persuaded the Palermo Public Prosecutor's Office not to immediately search the Riina's apartment, and then abandoned surveillance of the apartment after six hours leaving it unprotected. Summary: Salvatore Riina is 60 years old today because Salvatore's birthday is on 09/23/1960. His lack of repentance subjected him to the stringent Article 41-bis prison regime until his death on 17 November 2017. In response to public disquiet about the failure to effectively combat the organisation Riina headed, La Torre's law was passed ten days later. Riina reprimanded an ambitious Mafioso, Balduccio Di Maggio, for leaving his wife and children for a mistress, telling him he would never be made a boss. At the time of his death, he was still considered to be the head of the Cosa Nostra according to a magistrate. In November 2001, a court in Palermo sentenced 24-year-old Giovanni to life in prison for four murders. Dirt bike, minivan collide after Niagara Falls Police chase 33 people were injured. [5][38][39], After Riina was captured in January 1993, numerous terror attacks were ordered as warning to its members to not turn state's witness, but also in response for the overruling of the Article 41-bis prison regime. According to the Carabinieri commanders the house was abandoned because they didn't consider it to be important and they actually never told the prosecutor to be willing to maintain the surveillance during the following days. His two sons, Giovanni and Giuseppe, followed in their father's footsteps and have since joined him behind bars. [45], According to an FBI memo revealed in 2007, leaders of the Five Families voted in late 1986 on whether to issue a contract for the death of then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudy Giuliani. On 15 January 1993, Carabinieriarrested Riina at his villa in Palermo. Salvatore Riina, boss of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra from the late 1970s, reportedly until his death in jail in 2017, was known as Totò ‘u Curtu in dialect. As part of the Maxi Trial, Riina was given two life sentences in absentia. By 1983, the Corleonesi were effectively ruling the Mafia, and over the next few years Riina increased his influence by eliminating the Corleonesi allies, such as Filippo Marchese, Giuseppe Greco and Rosario Riccobono. Calderone also said that, when Riina set his sights on marrying his sweetheart, Ninetta, the young lady's family objected to the union. Riina was regarded by the U.S. Government as "the most dangerous man in the world" during his reign, some U.S. government officials even considered him to be just as if not more dangerous than Al Qaeda leader/terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Il Capo dei Capi (The Boss of the Bosses) is a six-part Italian miniseries which debuted on Canale 5 between October and November 2007. The head of the Mafia Family in Corleone was Michele Navarra until 1958, when he was shot to death on the orders of Luciano Leggio, a ruthless 33-year-old Mafioso, who subsequently becam… In 1992 Carabinieri Colonel Mario Mori met with Vito Ciancimino, who was close to Riina's lieutenant Bernardo Provenzano. Whereas his predecessors had kept a low profile that caused some in law enforcement to question the very existence of the Mafia, Riina ordered the murders of judges, policemen and prosecutors in an attempt to terrify the authorities. [34] In July 2012, Mancino was ordered to stand trial on charges of withholding evidence about alleged 1992 talks between the Italian state and the Mafia. Although Riina's criminal actions were geared towards the acquisition of wealth and power, his treachery and the sheer number of murders he either committed or sanctioned seem excessive even by the standards of other gangsters. Former interior minister Nicola Mancino said this was not true. In May 1982, the Italian government sent Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, a general of the Italian Carabinieri, to Sicily with orders to crush the Mafia. The convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court in January 1992. Previous to Salvatore's current city of Monroe, NY, Salvatore Riina lived in Chester NY and Yonkers NY. Salvatore Riina married Ninetta (sister of Leoluca Bagarella) in 1974, and they had four children. [2] At the age of 19, Riina was sentenced to a 12-year prison sentence for having killed Domenico Di Matteo in a fight; he was released in 1956. The mansion was subsequently converted into a police office and opened in 2015. Salvatore also answers to Salvatore A Riina and Salvatoree A Riina… Riina pinned his hopes on the lengthy appeal process that had frequently set convicted mafioso free, and he suspended the campaign of murders against officials while the cases went to higher courts. Salvatore "Totò" Riina (born November,16 1930 - died November,17 2017) was a Sicilian crime lord, mafiosi, drug kingpin, businessman, mass murderer, terrorist, and the overlord of the Sicilian Mafia, a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the late 1970s. On 19 July, the Tribunal denied this request. Riina is currently held in a maximum-security prison with limited contact with the outside world in order to prevent him from running his organization from behind bars, as many others have done. Rita Borsellino, sister of Sicilian Mafia victim Paolo Borsellino, was one of a number of high-profile Italians who condemned the idolization of Mafiosi, comparing the sites to those "that laud Hitler or Nazism". Mori maintained his contacts with Ciancimino were aimed at combating the Mafia and catching Riina, and there had been no list. Riina was highly persuasive and often highly sentimental. [47][48] In 2014, it was revealed by former Sicilian Mafia member and informant, Rosario Naimo, that Riina had ordered a murder contract on Giuliani during the mid-1980s. In 2012, he was given another life sentence for the 1992 murder of Alfio Trovato in Milan. A crucifix looms over the Sicilian town of Corleone, the ancestral home of the late Mafia boss Salvatore "Toto" Riina. When Ciancimino was informed that the goal was to arrest Riina, he seemed unwilling to continue. The council of top bosses headed by Riina reacted by ordering the assassination of Salvatore Lima (on the grounds that he was an ally of Giulio Andreotti), and Falcone. Lima granted a valuable monopoly concession on tax collection to mafioso businessman Ignazio Salvo, and was instrumental in Rome based Giulio Andreotti becoming a force in national politics. At the entrance to a complex of villas where a wealthy businessman who acted as Riina's driver lived, Di Maggio identified Riina's wife. During the late 1970s, Riina orchestrated the murders of a number of high-profile public officials, such as judges, prosecutors and members of the Carabinieri. The public was outraged, both at the Mafia and also the politicians who they felt had failed adequately to protect Falcone and Borsellino. [57], In mid-March 2003, he underwent surgery for heart problems and in May of the same year he was admitted to a hospital in Ascoli Piceno due to a heart attack. Mori also said Ciancimino had disclosed little beyond implicitly admitting he knew Mafia members, and that key meetings were after Borsellino death. Buscetta was from a losing family in the Mafia war and had lost several relatives and many friends to Riina's hitmen; becoming an informant was the only way both to save himself and get his revenge on Riina. Claims of negotiations with the government, https://mafia.wikia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Riina?oldid=40374. Brusca also quoted Riina as declaring that the children of informants were legitimate targets. ", "Giovanni Falcone, who has died aged 53, spent most of his life doggedly fighting the mafiosi responsible for murdering him", "Sicilian mafia 'plotted to kill' former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani", "Rudy Giuliani says mafia put $800,000 bounty on his head—but ex-New York mayor admits Islamist terrorists scare him more than the mob", Italy: Top Mafia fugitive 'betrayed' by boss, "Italian police open headquarters in former mafia hideout", "The most violent and feared Mafia Godfather has died", "Jailed Sicilian mafia 'boss of bosses' Riina to stay in jail", "Ascoli, Totò Riina ricoverato in ospedale dopo malore - la Repubblica.it", "Totò Riina ricoverato per problemi al cuore - la Repubblica.it", "Totò Riina ricoverato in ospedale: "Non in pericolo di vita, "Riina minaccia Don Ciotti. Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003). Mori was later investigated on suspicion of posing a danger to the state after it was alleged he had taken a list of Riina's demands that Ciancimino had passed on. . [27], In an attempt to divert investigative resources away from Buscetta's key revelations, Riina ordered a terrorist-style atrocity, 23 December 1984 Train 904 bombing; 17 people were killed and 267 wounded. [14] Di Maggio's credibility had been shaken in the closing weeks of the Andreotti trial, when he admitted killing a man while under state protection. In the early 1960s, Leggio, Riina and Provenzano, who had spent the last few years hunting down and killing dozens of Navarra's surviving supporters, were forced to go into hiding due to arrest warrants. In contrast, Riina, Provenzano and other Corleonesi were fugitives, always in hiding and rarely seen by other mobsters, let alone the public. In September 1943, his father Giovanni found an unexploded bomb; his father attempted to open it to sell the powder and metal, but in doing so, set it off, killing himself and Riina's seven-year-old brother Francesco, while injuring his other brother Gaetano. Riina was born and raised in Corleone and joined the local Mafia clan at the age of nineteen by committing a murder on their behalf. The same year, Provenzano was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of judge, The same year, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment together with, In 2009, he received another life sentence together with Bernardo Provenzano for the. In February 1980, Tommaso Buscetta had fled to Brazil to escape the brewing Second Mafia War. [20][21] Buscetta was arrested in Sao Paulo, Brazil once again on 23 October 1983, and extradited to Italy on 28 June 1984. Knowing Riina would order the death of subordinates whom he considered unreliable, Di Maggio fled Sicily and collaborated with the authorities. By the end of the war, the Corleonesi were effectively ruling the Mafia, and over the next few years Riina increased his influence by eliminating the Corleonesi's allies, such as Filippo Marchese, Giuseppe Greco and Rosario Riccobono. In 2004 it was reported that Riina had suffered two heart attacks in May and December the previous year. Consequently, when a policeman or judge was ill it was the more visible Mafia Families who were the subject of official investigations, especially as these assassinations were deliberately carried out in the territory (or 'turf') of the Corleonesi rivals rather than anywhere near the town of Corleone itself. Appeal court judges rejected Di Maggio’s testimony. In 1974 Luciano Leggio was arrested and imprisoned for the murder of Michele Navarra sixteen years earlier. [88], Riina died on 17 November 2017, one day after his 87th birthday, while in a medically induced coma after two operations in the prison unit of the Maggiore Hospital in Parma. Riina and Leggio were arrested and tried in 1969 for murders carried out earlier that decade. In 2006, the Palermo Court absolved Mario Mori and Captain "Ultimo" (Sergio Dicaprio) – the man who arrested Riina – of the charge of consciously aiding and abetting the Mafia. In 2006, the council of Corleone created T-shirts reading I love Corleone in an attempt to dissociate the town from its infamous Mafiosi, but a brother-in-law of one of Riina's daughters began an attempt to sue the Corleone mayor by claiming the Riina family owned the copyright to the phrase. Although Leggio retained some influence from behind bars, Riina was now the effective head of the Corleonesi.