Calcedonio Di Pisa (; 11 October 1931 – 26 December 1962), also known as Doruccio, was a member of the

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...

. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Noce neighbourhood in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

and sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission, the coordinating body of Cosa Nostra in Sicily. Di Pisa's murder in 1962 triggered the outbreak of the

First Mafia War The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salva ...

Mafia career

Di Pisa was born in

. He was described by British author Norman Lewis in "The Honoured Society" as "a garish young freebooter, habitually begloved, shirted in a puce silk and with a coat of the palest camel hair – a kind of latter-day

George Raft George Raft (né Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembe ...

. He drove a butter-coloured, gadget-festooned Alfa Romeo, and with his dandified presence he was anathema to the mafiosi of the old school …."Lewis, ''The Honoured Society''
pp. 217–219
/ref> Di Pisa was a contrabandist in cigarettes and was actively involved in the flourishing real-estate racket, known as the

Sack of Palermo The sack of Palermo is the popular term for the construction boom from the 1950s through the mid-1980s in Palermo, Italy, that led to the destruction of the city's green belt and historic villas to make way for characterless and shoddily-constructe ...

, during the reign of

Salvo Lima Salvatore Achille Ettore Lima (; 23 January 1928 – 12 March 1992), often referred to as Salvo Lima, was an Italian politician from Sicily who was associated with, and murdered by, the Sicilian Mafia. According to the '' pentito'' (Mafia de ...

as mayor of

. He was known as one of the ablest emissaries of the Mafia in Palermo in the field of tobacco smuggling and drug trafficking. Catanzaro, ''Il delitto come impresa'', p. 216 Di Pisa was present at a series of meetings in the hotel Delle Palme and the Spanò seafood restaurant between top Italian-American and Sicilian

mafiosi A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a leve ...

on 12–16 October 1957.

Joseph Bonanno Joseph Charles Bonanno (born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno; ; January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002), sometimes referred to as Joe Bananas, was an Italian-American crime boss of the Bonanno crime family of New York City, which he ran from 1931 to 1968. ...

Lucky Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano ( ; ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian gangster who operated mainly in the United States. He started his criminal career in the Five Points Gang and was instrumental in the ...

, John Bonventre,

Frank Garofalo Frank, FRANK, or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a Germanic people in late Roman times * Franks, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crus ...

Santo Sorge Santo Sorge (Mussomeli, January 11, 1908 – New York, May, 1972) was a Sicilian Mafioso living in the United States. His exact role has never been very clear; he was one of the great 'unknowns' of the Sicilian and American Mafia. He was one of t ...

and Carmine Galante were among the American mafiosi present, while among the Sicilian side were

Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco (, ; 13 January 1923 – 7 March 1978) was a powerful mafioso and boss of the Sicilian Mafia in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo famous for its citrus fruit groves, where he was born. His nickname, "Ciaschit ...

and his cousin Salvatore Greco, known as "l'ingegnere" or "Totò il lungo",

Giuseppe Genco Russo Giuseppe Genco Russo (26 January 1893 – 18 March 1976) was a Sicilian Mafia boss from Mussomeli in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. Genco Russo, also known as "Zi Peppi Jencu", was an uncouth, sly, semi-literate thug with excellent politi ...

Angelo La Barbera Angelo La Barbera (; 3 July 1924 – 28 October 1975) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro. Salvatore La Barbera sat on the first Sicilian Mafi ...

Gaetano Badalamenti Gaetano Badalamenti (; 14 September 1923 – 29 April 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ''Don Tano'' Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s. In 1 ...

, Totò Minore and

Tommaso Buscetta Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was a high-ranking Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization. Buscetta p ...

.Servadio, ''Mafioso'', p. 189Sterling, ''Octopus'', p. 83 Di Pisa was killed on 26 December 1962, on the Piazza Principe di Camporeale in Palermo while walking to a tobacco kiosk. Three men shot him with a sawn-off shotgun and a revolver. None of the bystanders on the square could even recall hearing any shots when questioned by the police.Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 62Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', p. 311

First Mafia War

Di Pisa's murder triggered the outbreak of the

. The conflict erupted over an underweight shipment of heroin. The shipment was financed by Cesare Manzella, the Greco cousins from Ciaculli and the La Barbera brothers ( Angelo and Salvatore) from Palermo Centre. Suspicion of double-crossing fell on Di Pisa, who had collected the heroin for Manzella from the Corsican supplier, Pascal Molinelli, and had organised the transport to Manzella's partners in New York.Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 57Lupo, ''History of the Mafia''
pp. 228-29
/ref> Di Pisa was summoned to appear before the Sicilian Mafia Commission but managed to convince most of the members that he was not guilty. However, the La Barbera brothers contested the decision, and they were suspected of being behind the murder of Di Pisa and Manzella. The disagreement led to a bloody conflict between the Grecos and the La Barberas. The war ended with the

Ciaculli massacre The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salva ...

which 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. The Sicilian Mafia Commission was dissolved and of those mafiosi who had escaped arrest, many went abroad. Only later did it become clear that Mafia boss Michele Cavataio had killed Di Pisa, according to

after he became a cooperating witness in 1984. Cavataio had lost out to the Grecos in a war of the wholesale market in the mid-1950s. Cavataio killed Di Pisa in the knowledge that the La Barberas would be blamed by the Grecos and a war would be the result. He kept fueling the war through other bomb attacks and killings.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 103Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', p. 315

References

Sources

* Catanzaro, Raimondo (1988).
Il delitto come impresa. Storia sociale della mafia
', Milan: Rizzoli, * Dickie, John (2004).
Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia
', London: Coronet, * Lewis, Normann (1967) 964
The Honoured Society: The Sicilian Mafia Observed
', Harmondsworth: Penguin Books * Lupo, Salvatore (2009).
History of the Mafia
', New York: Columbia University Press, * Servadio, Gaia (1976),
Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day
', London: Secker & Warburg * Shawcross, Tim & Martin Young (1987). ''Men Of Honour: The Confessions Of Tommaso Buscetta'', Glasgow: Collins * Sterling, Claire (1990).
Octopus. How the long reach of the Sicilian Mafia controls the global narcotics trade
', New York: Simon & Schuster, . * Stille, Alexander (1995). ''Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic'', New York: Vintage {{DEFAULTSORT:Di Pisa, Calcedonio 1931 births 1962 deaths Sicilian mafiosi Sicilian Mafia Commission Murdered Mafiosi Gangsters from Palermo People murdered in Sicily Deaths by firearm in Italy