Benedetto Santapaola
Encyclopedia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
from Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
, the main city and industrial centre on Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
's east coast. His nickname is il cacciatore (the hunter), because of his passion for shooting game. He is currently in jail serving several life sentences.
Early years
Nitto Santapaola was born in the degraded neighbourhood of San Cristoforo, in CataniaCatania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
, into a poor family together with his brothers Salvatore, Antonino, Natale and numerous cousins, such as the Ferrera clan, the Ercolano clan and the Romeo clan, all members or associates of Cosa Nostra, and the future nucleus of the Santapaola-Ercolano Mafia family.
At the beginning of 1960s, Santapaola was introduced by his cousin Francesco Ferrera into the largest Mafia family of Catania, at the time under the command of Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone was an influential Sicilian mafioso from Catania. He became the ‘secretary’ of the interprovincial Sicilian Mafia Commission, formed around 1975 on his instigation. Its purpose was to coordinate the provincial Mafia commissions and avoid conflicts over public contracts...
. Santapaola’s first denunciation was in 1962 for theft and criminal conspiracy. In 1970 he was sent into internal exile and in 1975 he was denounced for cigarette smuggling.
Ally of the Corleonesi
While Giuseppe CalderoneGiuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone was an influential Sicilian mafioso from Catania. He became the ‘secretary’ of the interprovincial Sicilian Mafia Commission, formed around 1975 on his instigation. Its purpose was to coordinate the provincial Mafia commissions and avoid conflicts over public contracts...
was elevated to the Regional Commission
Sicilian Mafia Commission
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Mafia members to decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra...
of Cosa Nostra in 1975, his underboss Santapaola took over the illicit business in Catania for the Mafia family and became the capo famiglia of the clan. Santapaola managed the interests in heroin trafficking and acted as chief enforcer for the leading businessmen. Meanwhile, he carefully built a private faction within the family that was loyal to him – and strengthened relations with Totò Riina and the Corleonesi
Corleonesi
The Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca...
.
While Riina was a fugitive he frequently spent time in and around Catania and often went hunting with Santapaola around the local mountains. Riina decided to support Santapaola’s faction in order to replace Calderone, an ally of Stefano Bontade
Stefano Bontade
Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo...
from Palermo and Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina
Giuseppe Di Cristina was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy...
from Caltanissetta. Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone was an influential Sicilian mafioso from Catania. He became the ‘secretary’ of the interprovincial Sicilian Mafia Commission, formed around 1975 on his instigation. Its purpose was to coordinate the provincial Mafia commissions and avoid conflicts over public contracts...
, was killed on September 30, 1978 by his former close friend and protégé. Santapaola took over the command of the Catania Mafia Family. These skirmishes were just a prelude to the Second Mafia War
Second Mafia War
The Second Mafia War was a conflict within the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place in the early 1980s. As with any criminal organization, the history of the Sicilian Mafia is replete with conflicts and power struggles, and the violence that results from them, but these are generally localised and...
that really started after the murder of Stefano Bontade
Stefano Bontade
Stefano Bontade was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the capomafia of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo...
in 1981.
Catania Mafia wars
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
, known as Cursoti, which waged war in order to control gambling and cigarettes smuggling. He was also involved in a bitter feud with the faction of Alfio Ferlito, who had been a close friend of Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe Calderone
Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone was an influential Sicilian mafioso from Catania. He became the ‘secretary’ of the interprovincial Sicilian Mafia Commission, formed around 1975 on his instigation. Its purpose was to coordinate the provincial Mafia commissions and avoid conflicts over public contracts...
. The war involved gun battles in the streets and dozens of murders.
On June 6, 1981, Santapaola was seriously wounded when ambushed by Ferlito and his men. When Ferlito was arrested Santapaola planned his revenge. On June 16, 1982, Ferlito was killed in an ambush when he was escorted by the Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
during a transfer between two prisons. The killers were from Palermo and linked to the Corleonesi
Corleonesi
The Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Cosa Nostra in the 1980s and the 1990s. It was called the Corleonesi because its most important leaders came from the town of Corleone, first Luciano Leggio and later Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca...
.
The murder of General Dalla Chiesa
Santapaola paid back the service by sending a hit team from Catania to Palermo to kill CarabinieriCarabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was a general of the Italian carabinieri notable for campaigning against terrorism during the 1970s in Italy, and later assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo.-Biography:...
, on September 3, 1982, in the Via Carini in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
. Swapping hit teams proved to be a successful way to distract police investigations. Dalla Chiesa had just been appointed prefect
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
of Palermo to end the violence that was the result of a war between rival Mafia families. In his last public interview it had become clear that Dalla Chiesa started to focus on the emerging role of the Catania Mafia.
Dalla Chiesa had noticed that four mighty real estate developers that dominated the construction industry on Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
were building in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
with the consent of the Mafia. The four entrepreneurs, Carmelo Costanzo, Francesco Finocchiaro, Mario Rendo and Gaetano Graci, were granted the honorary title Cavaliere del Lavoro (Knight of Labour) by the Italian government as reward for special merit to the Italian economy.
Links with business and politics
After Dalla Chiesa’s murder, investigating magistrate Giovanni FalconeGiovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...
found a note that indicated that Dalla Chiesa had discovered that Santapaola was on the payroll of Costanzo. Falcone encouraged Elio Pizzuti of the Italian Financial/Customs Police (Guardia di Finanza
Guardia di Finanza
The Guardia di Finanza is a Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance. Like the Carabinieri, it is part of the Italian Armed Forces. The Guard is essentially responsible for dealing with financial crime and smuggling; it has also evolved into Italy's...
) to look into their financial records. Pizzuti found ample evidence of corruption and political influence peddling by the four Knights that tied together the local Mafia, high finance and political figures.
Santapaola had been a guest at the wedding of Costanzo’s nephew and had been hiding in one of Costanzo’s luxury hotels near Catania. He also had access to the private game reserve of another one of the Knights, Gaetano Graci. Mario Rendo bought all his cars from Santapaola’s car dealership, while wiretaps revealed Rendo’s executives discussing subcontracting with various mafiosi.
Pizzuto also discovered a massive tax fraud by the Knights through phoney receipts and a list of payoffs to politicians and magistrates. Rendo told inspectors that the false receipts were necessary to create a slush fund for government contracts. (A prelude to the scandal of political bribery known as Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli
Tangentopoli is a term which was coined to describe pervasive corruption in the Italian political system exposed in the 1992-6 Mani Pulite investigations, as well as the resulting scandal, which led to the collapse of the hitherto dominant Christian Democracy party and its allies.-Popular distrust...
that would emerge ten years later in 1992) Rendo discussed the investigations of Pizzuti with his boss, Treasury minister Rino Formica
Rino Formica
Salvatore Formica , best known as Rino Formica, is an Italian former politician.-Biography:Formica was born in Bari....
of the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
(PSI). Pizzuti was promoted and sent to North Italy – as far away as possible from Sicily.
Later, photographs turned up showing the mayor and members of the Catania city council with Santapaola, while a clan war bloodied the streets at the time. One picture showed Santapaola in friendly embrace with Salvatore Lo Turco, a member of the Sicilian parliament’s Antimafia Commission
Antimafia Commission
The Italian Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate . The Antimafia Commission is a commission of inquiry into, initially, the “phenomenon of the Mafia”...
.
The Catanese Mafia was generally able to learn about arrest warrants before they were issued and sometimes have names crossed of the list. The police released Santapaola after only a few routine questions when his bulletproof car had been found at the scene of a vicious shoot-out in which several people had been killed. Moreover, they continued to grant him a license to bear arms, despite his well-known criminal record.
Ties with the 'Ndrangheta
Santapaola had strong ties with some 'Ndrangheta clans, in particular with Natale IamonteNatale Iamonte
Natale Iamonte is an Italian criminal and a historical boss of the 'Ndrangheta. The Iamonte 'Ndrina is based in Melito di Porto Salvo and Montebello Ionico on the Ionic coast of Calabria...
, the head of the Iamonte 'Ndrina based in Melito di Porto Salvo
Melito di Porto Salvo
Melito di Porto Salvo is a comune in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about 130 km southwest of Catanzaro and about 25 km southeast of Reggio Calabria; and is also the country's southernmost city...
on the Ionic coast of Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
. Iamonte and his ally Paolo De Stefano
Paolo De Stefano
Paolo De Stefano was a member of the 'Ndrangheta who became the undisputed boss of Reggio Calabria. Together with his brothers Giovanni, Giorgio and Orazio he headed the De Stefano 'ndrina.-Early years:...
secured arms and drug transports when the harbour of Catania was controlled too strictly. In return Santapaola helped the Iamonte clan to get subcontracts for the construction of rail works with the Costanzo firm.
Murder of Giuseppe Fava
Giuseppe Fava
Giuseppe Fava , also known as Pippo, was an Sicilian writer, investigative journalist, playwright and Antimafia activist who was killed by the Mafia. He was the founder of the I Siciliani monthly magazine...
on January 5, 1984. Fava, founder and editor in chief of the magazine I Siciliani, exposed the links between the Catania Mafia and the world of business and politics. In the first edition of I Siciliani Fava published an article I quattro cavalieri dell'apocalisse mafiosa (The four horsemen of the Mafia apocalypse), denouncing the links of the entrepreneurs with the Mafia.
In 1994, Maurizio Avola, a nephew of Santapaola, confessed the killing of Fava, and became a pentito
Pentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
. He also confessed some 70 other murders. Avola said that his uncle Nitto Santapaola had ordered the killing of the journalist.
Arrest and convictions
On May 18, 1993, the fugitive Nitto Santapaola was arrested in a farmhouse hideout outside CataniaCatania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
after being on the run for 11 years. His wife, Carmela Minniti, was killed on September 1, 1995, by killers posing as policemen. They called at her house, pushed past her daughter and shot her dead. "She ran his affairs," said Liliana Madeo, author of a book on the Mafia's new women. "If she was just a little woman, she wouldn't have been killed."
Santapaola’s rival Giuseppe Ferone (who had become a pentito
Pentito
Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...
) was one of the killers. Nitto Santapaola forgave his wife's killer in a letter he publicly read in court. Ferone’s son and father had been killed on the orders of Santapaola.
In 1998, Santapaola and Aldo Ercolano were convicted for ordering the killing of Giuseppe Fava. In 2001 the Court of Appeal in Catania confirmed the life sentences. He also received life sentences for the murder of Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was a general of the Italian carabinieri notable for campaigning against terrorism during the 1970s in Italy, and later assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo.-Biography:...
, Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...
and Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Borsellino was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo, less than two months after his fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone had been assassinated....
.
Santapaola allegedly continues to run his clan from inside prison with the help of a string of "regents". On December 4, 2007, his son Vincenzo Santapaola who allegedly succeeded his father, was arrested. Vincenzo had been in and out of jail since 1992 on various charges including the murder of Antimafia journalist Giuseppe Fava. He now faces charges of trying to reorganise his father’s business.
External links
- Benedetto Santapaola Biography
- I quattro cavalieri dell’apocalisse mafiosa, by Giuseppe FavaGiuseppe FavaGiuseppe Fava , also known as Pippo, was an Sicilian writer, investigative journalist, playwright and Antimafia activist who was killed by the Mafia. He was the founder of the I Siciliani monthly magazine...
in I Siciliani, January 1983.