Leonardo Messina
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Leonardo "Narduzzo" Messina (born San Cataldo, September 22, 1955) is a Sicilian former mafioso who became a government informant or "
pentito ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
" in 1992. His testimony led to the arrest of over 200 mafiosi during the so-called "Operation Leopard" (). Messina has implicated several politicians and government officials with ties to
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 ...
, in particular
Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti ( ; ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and wikt:statesman, statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992), and was leader of th ...
, seven times Prime Minister for Italy.


Early career

Born in San Cataldo, Caltanissetta, Messina was from a family of mafiosi going back a few generations.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 362 "I represent the seventh generation belonging to Cosa Nostra," he said. "I was affiliated not because I was a robber or because I was able to kill, but because I was bound to become a member by family tradition." He left elementary school and became involved in burglary. He was imprisoned several times. In April 1982 after serving four years for armed robbery he eventually became a "man of honour" in the local Mafia family of San Cataldo. Messina became a close friend of Giuseppe Madonia, the boss of Vallelunga – one of the most important Mafia families in the province of Caltanissetta and an ally of the
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 wer ...
.Messina Leonardo
, short biography of Leonardo Messina
In 1984 he was arrested again for the killing of a drug dealer. He stayed in prison until 1989. After his release, he organized a drug trafficking ring for Giuseppe Madonia that covered several region in Italy. Madonia, in the meantime, had become the representative of the province of Caltanissetta in the Interprovincional Commission of Cosa Nostra.


Arrest and ''pentimento''

Messina was arrested in April 1992 and decided to become a government informant (
pentito ''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
). He was the first mafioso to start collaborating after the Capaci massacre in which judge
Giovanni Falcone Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
, his wife and three men of his police escort were killed. He said he was moved by emotional appeal of Rosaria Schifani – the widow of one of the police escorts of Falcone – against the Mafia.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 365 Messina started to collaborate on June 30, 1992 and was a goldmine of information to Falcone’s colleague
Paolo Borsellino Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of ...
, especially about the workings of the Mafia in central and southern Sicily. He talked about a rival mafia-like organisation in Sicily, the Stidda. It was composed originally of mafiosi who had left the organisation during the Second Mafia War of the 1981-82. The new group was particularly strong in southern Sicily around the towns of
Agrigento Agrigento (; or ) is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. Founded around 582 BC by Greek colonists from Gela, Agrigento, then known as Akragas, was one of the leading cities during the golden ...
,
Caltanissetta Caltanissetta (Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Cartanissètta)'' is an Italian comune with a population of 58,012 inhabitants, serving as the capital of the Province of Caltanissetta, free municipal consortium of Caltanissetta in Sicily. The earl ...
and
Gela Gela (Sicilian and ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the regional autonomy, Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of area and population, it is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily. Gela is part of the Province o ...
. As a result of his declarations 203 arrest warrants were issued on November 17, 1992, in the so-called "Operation Leopard" (''Operazione Leopardo''). At that time the Mafia had killed Borsellino as well.


The Corleonesi reign of terror

Messina also revealed that Cosa Nostra was in the midst of a profound internal crisis around 1990. Life within the organisation had become an intolerable nightmare under the reign of terror instituted by the
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 wer ...
under the leadership of Totò Riina. Murder had become institutionalised instead of a measure that had to be used sparingly and rationally. Messina described how the Corleonesi organized their rise to power: "They took power by slowly, slowly killing everyone … We were kind of infatuated with them because we thought that getting rid of the old bosses we would become the new bosses. Some people killed their brother, others their cousin and so on, because they thought they would take their places. Instead, slowly, (the Corleonesi) gained control of the whole system. (…) First they used us to get rid of the old bosses, then they got rid of all those who raised their heads, like Giuseppe Greco 'the Shoe', Mario Prestifilippo and Vincenzo Puccio … all that’s left are men without character, who are their puppets."Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 364-65.


Public-sector contracts

An important part of Messina’s testimony was information on how the Mafia maintained its grip on construction and public-sector contracts in Sicily, which some experts suggest is the Sicilian Mafia’s greatest source of income. He revealed the identity of Totò Riina's "minister of public works" Angelo Siino – a businessman who oversaw the Mafia’s public-sector contracts, collected the bribes, met the entrepreneurs and politicians, made the threats and, if necessary, ordered the killings.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 363 Messina himself was heavily involved negotiating the contracts as the underboss of the Mafia family with an aging leader, acting as the intermediary between business leaders and politicians. Government contracts were an important source of revenue and virtually nothing got built without Mafia approval and the necessary kickbacks. "The rule is that any firm starting a job on the territory of a family must contact a man of honour of that family, in order to establish … the percentage to be paid to the Mafia family, considering the overall value of the work," according to Messina.
Masonic lodges A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...
played an important role to tie the necessary contacts. All the most senior Mafia bosses were affiliated to the Masonry, according to Messina, which represented a “meeting point for everyone”.


Mafia and politics

Perhaps Messina's most devastating revelations were about the relations between Cosa Nostra and Italian politics. He was the first pentito to name
Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti ( ; ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and wikt:statesman, statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992), and was leader of th ...
as the ultimate point of reference of a chain of political exchanges that should have adjusted the sentence of the
Maxi Trial The Maxi Trial () was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 (the first day of the Corte d'Assise) to 30 January 1992 (the final day of the Supreme Court of Cassati ...
that had established Cosa Nostra a single hierarchical organisation ruled by a
Commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...
and that its leaders could be held responsible for criminal acts that were committed to benefit the organisation (the so-called Buscetta theorem). The Mafia counted on judge Corrado Carnevale of the Supreme Court to modify the sentence.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 381-82 And Salvo Lima – Andreotti’s pro-consul on Sicily – "acted as the liaison with (…) Andreotti for the needs of the Sicilian Mafia," said Messina.Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 390 However, one of the architects of the Maxi Trial, judge
Giovanni Falcone Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
, had moved to the ministry of Justice in Rome and managed to prevent that Carnevale would preside the section that would judge the Maxi Trial sentence. According to Messina, there was widespread resentment within Cosa Nostra toward the Andreotti faction of the
Christian Democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
and the Craxi group of the
Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...
.


The Mafia betrayed

The Mafia felt betrayed by Salvo Lima and Andreotti. In their opinion they had failed to block the confirmation of the sentence of the
Maxi Trial The Maxi Trial () was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 (the first day of the Corte d'Assise) to 30 January 1992 (the final day of the Supreme Court of Cassati ...
by the Italian Supreme Court in January 1992, which upheld the Buscetta theorem. Many Mafia bosses were condemned to life in prison and Cosa Nostra reacted furiously. In March 1992, they killed Lima and in May Mafia killers blew up Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three bodyguards. In July, a second car bomb killed Falcone's colleague and close friend
Paolo Borsellino Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of ...
, along with five bodyguards. "As for the killings of Falcone and Borsellino, without a doubt the result of the Maxi Trial played a determining role'', " Messina said. "''A reaction was absolutely necessary to improve morale and to re-assert the power of Cosa Nostra. That reaction had to be against the magistrates who had handled the case and against the politicians who had failed to guarantee the positive outcome of the trial and had allowed Carnevale to be removed from the case."


Legacy

Although a mafioso of minor importance from the
province of Caltanissetta The province of Caltanissetta (; or ; officially ''libero consorzio comunale di Caltanissetta'') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the southern part of Sicily, Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 20 ...
, Messina’s early testimony about the links between Cosa Nostra and politics was of crucial importance at the time. The knowledge about the inner workings of the top echelon of Cosa Nostra, he obtained from Giuseppe Madonia – considered to be the number two of the Mafia around 1990. He was a key witness for the prosecution against the Mafia in the province of Caltanissetta. On December 4, 1992 he appeared before the Italian Parliamentary Antimafia Commission led by senator Luciano Violante. However, some of his declarations were far fetched. He claimed that there was Mafia Commission on a global scale, which has been discarded by most serious academics and law enforcement specialists. He also claimed
Umberto Bossi Umberto Bossi (born 19 September 1941) is an Italian politician and former leader of (Northern League), a party seeking autonomy or independence for Northern Italy or Padania. He is married to the Sicilian Manuela Marrone, and has four sons, ...
and the League of the North, a political organization advocating the separation of Northern and Southern Italy, was a "creature" of the Sicilian mafia in order to set up a similar League of the South controlled by the Mafia.Labrousse et al., ''The World Geopolitics of Drugs 1998/1999'', p. 105


References

*Jamieson, Alison (2000), ''The Antimafia. Italy’s Fight Against Organized Crime'', London: MacMillan Press *Labrousse, Alain; Laurent Laniel and Alan A. Block (2002). ''The World Geopolitics of Drugs, 1998/1999'', Dordrecht (Netherlands): Kluwer Academic Publishers *Lyman Michael D. and Gary W. Potter (2000).
Organized Crime
', Prentice-Hall *Paoli, Letizia (2003). ''Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style'', New York: Oxford University Press * Stille, Alexander (1995). ''Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic'', New York: Vintage


External links


Messina Leonardo
short biography 1955 births Living people People from San Cataldo, Sicily Gangsters from the Province of Caltanissetta Pentiti {{Mafia