Giovanni Inzerillo (born in Brooklyn, New York, April 30, 1972), is a construction entrepreneur and son of
Salvatore Inzerillo, a notorious Sicilian Mafia boss who was killed in May 1981 on the orders of Mafia boss
Salvatore "Totò" Riina during the
Second Mafia War
The Second Mafia War was a period of conflict involving the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and involved thousands of homicides. Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the ''Mattanza'' (Italian ...
.
After the
Corleonesi Mafia clan killed his father, they also murdered his 15-year-old brother, Giuseppe. Giuseppe had vowed to avenge his father, and not long afterwards he was kidnapped, tortured and killed. A number of informants, including
Tommaso Buscetta, said that it was
Pino Greco who abducted him and shot him through the head, but first hacked his arm off, symbolically removing the arm the youngster had vowed to shoot Riina with.
[Shawcross & Young, ''Men of Honour'', p. 144.][Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 305.]
When Totò Riina gave the instructions to exterminate the clan he made it quite clear: "Not even the pips must remain from the Inzerillo family".
["Inzerillo, Nicchi and the Others: The Big Bosses jailed in New York"]
'' la Repubblica'', February 7, 2008. The Inzerillo family had been on the verge of total extermination by the Corleonesi. With the intervention of relatives in New York, including associates of the
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...
, a deal was worked out that allowed the surviving Inzerillos to take refuge in the U.S., with the agreement that none of them, or their offspring, could ever return to Sicily.
["Changes in Mafia Leadership Reveal New Links to US-Based La Cosa Nostra"]
DNI Open Source Center, November 19, 2007. Many went to the New York area and joined forces with the Gambino family. They were dubbed "''gli scappati''" (the escapees).
'' Time'', November 5, 2007.
Giovanni returned to Sicily in 2000. Officially he is a building constructor and lives in the same house his father lived in at 346 Via Castellana in the district of Palermo called Passo di Rigano. He was indicted and arrested on February 7, 2008, in
Operation Old Bridge against the Gambinos in New York and their connections in Palermo, involved in drug trafficking.
["Dozens Arrested in Italy and US in Major Mafia-busting Operation"]
''la Repubblica'', February 7, 2008.
''la Repubblica'', February 7, 2008.
References
*Shawcross, Tim & Martin Young (1987). ''Men of Honour: The Confessions of Tommaso Buscetta'', Glasgow: Collins .
*
Stille, Alexander (1995). ''Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic'', New York: Vintage .
External links
"Inzerillo jr, da 'scappato' a capomafia" ''la Repubblica'', Palermo, February 8, 2008.
''la Repubblica'', Palermo, June 3, 2007.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inzerillo, Giovanni
1972 births
Living people
Sicilian mafiosi
American gangsters of Sicilian descent
Inzerillo-Gambino Mafia clan
Italian exiles