''Lupara bianca'' (; "white ''

lupara () is an Italian word used to refer to a sawed-off shotgun of the break-action type. It is traditionally associated with the Sicilian Mafia for their use of it in vendettas, defense—such as its use against Benito Mussolini's army when he de ...

''") is a journalistic term for a

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

murder done in such a way that the victim's body is never found. Typical ways to carry out a ''lupara bianca'' include burying a victim in the open countryside or in remote places where their body would be difficult to find, burying the victim in concrete at a construction site, or dissolving the body in acid and throwing the remains into the sea. This last method was widely used by 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 ...

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 ...

faction during the

Second Mafia War The Second Mafia War was a period of conflict involving the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place from 1981 to 1993. It involved thousands of homicides, the deadliest of which incident left 40 dead in 1987. Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia ...

, mostly taking place from 1981 to 1984. Other methods included dissolving a body in a wet

lye Lye is the common name of various alkaline solutions, including soda lye (a solution of sodium hydroxide) and potash lye (a solution of potassium hydroxide). Lyes are used as cleaning products, as ingredients in soapmaking, and in various other c ...

pit, feeding remains to hogs, or pitching the victim (dead or alive) into a

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...

's molten metal. The ''lupara bianca'' prevents the family of the victim from holding a proper funeral, and it also destroys evidence that might point to the killers' identities. The term comes from the ''

'', a weapon typically associated with the

Examples

Sicilian Mafia member

Santino Di Matteo Santino Di Matteo (born 7 December 1954), also known as ''Mezzanasca'', is an Italian former member of the Sicilian Mafia from the town of Altofonte in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. Di Matteo took part in the killing of anti-Mafia j ...

's son Giuseppe's body was dissolved in acid in 1996, after 779 days of being held hostage. Italian investigative journalist

Mauro De Mauro Mauro De Mauro (; 6 September 1921 – disappeared 16 September 1970) was an Italian investigative journalist. Originally a supporter of Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime, De Mauro eventually became a journalist with the left-leaning newspaper ...

was kidnapped on the evening of 16 September 1970, while coming back home from work, in the via delle Magnolie in Palermo. Thousands of police and ''carabinieri'' with helicopters and dogs combed Sicily in vain in search of the reporter.Investigator of the Mafia Is Kidnapped on Sicily
The New York Times, September 22, 1970 De Mauro's body has never been found.Woodhull & Snyder,
Journalists in peril
', p. 101 On 28 July 1980, John Favara was abducted and disappeared several months after he accidentally ran over and killed mobster

John Gotti John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 ( , ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American '' mafioso'' and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambin ...

's middle son, 12-year-old Frank Gotti, who had been riding a family friend's

minibike A minibike is a two-wheeled, motorized, off-highway recreational vehicle popularized in the 1960s and 1970s, but available continuously from a wide variety of manufacturers since 1959. Their off-highway nature and (in many countries) typically ent ...

carelessly. There were several witnesses to the abduction and accounts ranged from him being beaten with a baseball bat, shot with a silenced .22 caliber pistol, or both. Accounts differed on what was done with Favara's body. One account said that while Favara was alive, he was

dismembered Dismemberment is the act of completely disconnecting and/or removing the limbs, skin, and/or organs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with regicid ...

with a chainsaw, his remains were stuffed into a barrel filled with concrete and dumped in the ocean, or buried somewhere on the lot of a

chop shop A chop shop is a business, often mimicking a body shop, that illicitly disassembles stolen motor vehicles and sells their parts. Chop shops are often linked to car-theft rings as part of a broader organized crime enterprise. In the United Stat ...

. In January 2009,

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

federal court papers filed by federal prosecutors contained allegations that mob

hitman Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

Charles Carneglia Charles Carneglia (born August 10, 1946) is an American mobster in the Gambino crime family. Carneglia was born in Queens on August 10, 1946. Charles Carneglia and his brother John owned a junkyard in the East New York section of Brooklyn that ...

killed Favara and disposed of his body in acid. On 11 September 1982,

member

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 ...

's two sons, Benedetto and Antonio, from his first wife, disappeared, never to be found again, which later prompted his

collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The ...

with Italian authorities.

References

{{Reflist Journalism terminology History of the Sicilian Mafia Murder Organized crime terminology Italian words and phrases

Examples

See also

References