Calogero Bagarella (; January 14, 1935 – December 10, 1969) was an Italian criminal and member of the

Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia- terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sici ...

. He was from the town of

Corleone Corleone (; scn, Cunigghiuni or ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of roughly 11,158 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily. Several Mafia bosses have come from Corleone, including Tommy Gagliano, Gaetano Reina, Jack D ...

and belonged to the Mafia clan of

Corleonesi The Corleonesi Mafia clan was a faction within the Corleone family of the Sicilian Mafia, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio, Salvatore Riina, Bernardo Provenzano, and Leoluca Bagarella. Corleonesi affiliates were n ...

Biography

Calogero Bagarella was born in

to a family of Mafiosi that gave Cosa Nostra various affiliates. He was the second son of Salvatore Bagarella and Lucia Mondello, who moved to the town of Corleone after marriage. Salvatore Bagarella was sent to confinement in

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative Regions ...

from 1963 to 1968 for Mafia-related crimes. His mother was forced to work from home to support the family, while the children went to school. As a boy, Calogero worked at a mill with his childhood friend

Bernardo Provenzano Bernardo Provenzano (; 31 January 1933 – 13 July 2016) was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia clan known as the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, and ''de facto'' the boss of bosses (''il capo ...

. From the second half of the 1950s, Calogero Bagarella became affiliated with the Corleonesi clan headed by the doctor,

Michele Navarra Michele Navarra (; 5 January 1905 – 2 August 1958) was an Italian member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was a qualified physician and headed the Mafia family from the town of Corleone in Sicily. He was known as u patri nostru'' (our father) ...

and was a lieutenant of Navarra's right-hand man

Luciano Leggio Luciano Leggio (; 6 January 1925 – 15 November 1993) was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone. He is universally known with th ...

along with Bernardo Provenzano and

Salvatore Riina Salvatore Riina (; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called (, Totò being the 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 ...

. From 1958 to 1963, Bagarella fought in the internal clan war against his former boss, Michele Navarra. Zingales, ''Provenzano: il re di cosa nostra '', p. 162 On December 10, 1969, Bagarella was killed in an attack on Mafia boss

Michele Cavataio Michele Cavataio (18 March 1929 – 10 December 1969), also known as ''Il cobra'' (The cobra) was an Italian mobster and powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Acquasanta mandamento in Palermo and was a member of the first ...

, the boss of the Acquasanta quarter in the Viale Lazio in

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

, known as the

Viale Lazio massacre The Viale Lazio massacre on 10 December 1969 was a settling of accounts in the Sicilian Mafia. Mafia boss Michele Cavataio and three men were killed in the Viale Lazio in Palermo, Sicily, by a Mafia hit squad. The bloodbath marked the end of a ' ...

.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 104Mafia Boss Provenzano Accused of 1969 Palermo Murders
Bloomberg, November 29, 2007 He was part of a Mafia hit-squad consisting of Bernardo Provenzano, Emanuele D’Agostino and

Gaetano Grado Gaetano Grado (born in Palermo, 8 March 1943) is an Italian mafioso from Palermo, Sicily. He was a member of the Santa Maria di Gesù family under Stefano Bontade until his arrest, after which he became a justice collaborator. Biography Gaetano G ...

Stefano Bontade Stefano Bontade (23 April 1939 – 23 April 1981) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. His actual surname was Bontate. He was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. He was also known as the ''Principe di Villagrazia'' (Prin ...

’s Santa Maria di Gesù Family and Damiano Caruso, a soldier of

Giuseppe Di Cristina Giuseppe Di Cristina (April 22, 1923 – May 30, 1978) was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy. Di Cristina, nicknamed “la tigre’’ (the tiger), was born into a traditional Mafia family, ...

, the Mafia boss of

Riesi Riesi is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo and about south of Caltanissetta. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 11,678 and an area of .All de ...

.Servadio, ''Mafioso'', p. 228-30

References

Books

* *Servadio, Gaia (1976), ''Mafioso. A history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day'', London: Secker & Warburg * Stille, Alexander (1995). ''

Excellent Cadavers ''Excellent Cadavers'' is a 1995 non-fiction book by American author Alexander Stille about the Sicilian Mafia, concentrating on magistrate Giovanni Falcone's fight against the Mafia and his 1992 assassination. Book title The name of the book ...

. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic'', New York: Vintage * Zingales, Leone (2001).
Provenzano: il re di cosa nostra: la vera storia dell'ultimo "padrino"
', Cosenza: Pellegrini Editore {{DEFAULTSORT:Bagarella, Calegero 1935 births 1969 deaths Sicilian mafiosi Corleonesi Murdered Mafiosi Deaths by firearm in Italy