Salvatore Inzerillo (; 20 August 1944 – 11 May 1981) was an Italian 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 ...

, also known as Totuccio (a diminutive for Salvatore). He rose to be a powerful boss of Palermo's Passo di Rigano family. A prolific

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

trafficker, he was killed in May 1981 during the Second Mafia War by a firing squad 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 ...

family led by Totò Riina, who opposed the established Palermo Mafia families of which Inzerillo was one of the main proponents.

Early life

Inzerillo was born 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 ...

. He married his cousin, Giuseppa Di Maggio, the daughter of his mother's brother, Rosario Di Maggiothe boss of the Passo di Rigano Mafia family.Arlacchi, ''Mafia Business'', pp. 199-200 Through a string of marriages, the Inzerillos were related to the Di Maggio and Spatola families in Palermo and the Gambinos in New York.Sterling, ''Octopus'', pp. 199-200. He had two sons, Giuseppe and Giovanni. Inzerillo was a close ally of Stefano Bontade and

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 ...

and a relative of the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Mafia boss Carlo Gambino. He became a member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission in 1978, succeeding his uncle Rosario Di Maggio, and formed a strong alliance with Bontade against the growing power of Totò Riina and the

who were increasingly challenging the established Mafia families of Palermo.

Killed in the Second Mafia War

Salvatore Inzerillo ordered the killing of prosecuting judge Gaetano Costa who signed the 53 arrest warrants against the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino clan and their heroin-trafficking network in May 1980. Costa was murdered on 6 August 1980 by a gunman who escaped on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice. Inzerillo acted without asking permission from the Mafia Commission to prove he could commit a murder in rival territory (that of Giuseppe Calò) just as the Corleonesi.Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 126Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 110 Salvatore Inzerillo body

On 11 May 1981, Inzerillo was shot to death after leaving his mistress' house in

.Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 143 When he was about to get into his armoured Alfa Romeo Alfetta, from a parked

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

van (that was stolen the night before) driven by Giuseppe Marchese, Giuseppe Greco, Antonino Madonia and Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino (who was armed with an automatic

Shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

) opened fire through the windshield, killing him in a hail of bullets. For the murder the hitmen used an automatic

and two

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

rifles, the same type of assault rifle that was used the evening before to shoot at the windows of a jewellery store in Palermo, to test the penetration power against the armoured glass of the shop, at the time the Kalashnikov wasn't commonly used among criminals and it was difficult to obtain from common arms smugglers. It was used three weeks before by Giuseppe Greco to murder Stefano Bontade. The deaths of these two bosses started the Second Mafia War that lasted three years and saw hundreds of mafiosi killed as Toto Riina and the Corleonesi decimated their rivals in order to take over Cosa Nostra by sheer brute force. Inzerillo crime scene

At Inzerillo's funeral, his teenage son Giuseppe vowed to avenge his father, and not long after, most probably in June 1981, the boy was kidnapped, tortured and killed. A number of informants, including

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 ...

, said that it was Giuseppe Greco who abducted the youth and shot him through the head, after he hacked his arm off with a machete symbolically removing the arm the youngster had vowed to shoot Riina with.Shawcross & Young, ''Men Of Honour'', p. 144Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 305 Santo Inzerillo, the brother of Salvatore, was strangled on 26 May 1981, when he came to a meeting to ask for clarifications about the killing of his relatives. One of the other brothers, Pietro Inzerillo subsequently turned up murdered in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, in January 1982.

References

Sources

* Arlacchi, Pino (1988). ''Mafia Business. The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism'', Oxford: Oxford University Press * Jamieson, Alison (2000), ''The Antimafia. Italy’s Fight Against Organized Crime'', London: MacMillan Press * Paoli, Letizia (2003). ''Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style'', Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press * 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:Inzerillo, Salvatore 1944 births 1981 deaths Gangsters from Palermo Mafiosi murdered by the Corleonesi Sicilian Mafia Commission Sicilian mafiosi Inzerillo-Gambino Mafia clan Italian drug traffickers People murdered in Sicily Deaths by firearm in Italy