1. Overview
Stefano Bontade (born Stefano BontateStefano BontateItalian; April 23, 1939 - April 23, 1981) was a powerful and influential member of the Sicilian Mafia, serving as the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. Known by the nicknames Principe di VillagraziaPrince of VillagraziaItalian - referring to the area of Palermo he controlled - and Il Falcothe FalconItalian, Bontade was a central figure in the Mafia's illicit activities, including international cigarette smuggling and extensive heroin trafficking. He cultivated significant connections with powerful Italian politicians, notably Giulio Andreotti, then-Prime Minister, and Silvio Berlusconi. His assassination on his 42nd birthday by the rival Corleonesi faction sparked the brutal Second Mafia War, a conflict that led to the deaths of hundreds of mafiosi and significantly impacted the landscape of organized crime in Italy, ultimately contributing to the rise of key Mafia turncoats who would expose the organization's inner workings. His career exemplifies the deep infiltration of organized crime into Italian society and its detrimental effect on democratic development.
2. Early life and Mafia career
Stefano Bontade's early life was deeply rooted in the traditions of the Sicilian Mafia, and his ascent to power began at a relatively young age, following in the footsteps of his family's long-standing involvement in the criminal organization.
2.1. Childhood and family background
Stefano Bontade was born on April 23, 1939, in Palermo, Sicily, into a family with a long and powerful history within the Mafia. Both his father, Francesco Paolo Bontade, and his grandfather were prominent Mafia bosses in the areas of Villagrazia, Santa Maria di Gesù, and Guadagna. These districts were largely rural until their absorption into the city of Palermo during the 1960s. His father, known as Don Paolino Bontade, was considered one of the most powerful mafiosi on the island and notably served as a pallbearer at the funeral of Calogero Vizzini, one of Sicily's most influential Mafia bosses from after World War II until his death in 1954.
2.2. Education
Stefano Bontade, along with his brother Giovanni Bontade, who later pursued a career as a lawyer, received their education at a Jesuit college. This formal schooling provided a different dimension to their upbringing compared to many of their contemporaries in the Mafia.
2.3. Early Mafia activities
In 1964, at the age of 25, Stefano Bontade assumed leadership of the Santa Maria di Gesù Mafia Family. This occurred when his father, Don Paolino Bontade, stepped down from his position due to declining health, suffering from diabetes. Bontade took control during a challenging period for the Mafia, following the bloody First Mafia War which culminated in the Ciaculli massacre in June 1963. This event, which involved a bomb in an abandoned Alfa Romeo Giulietta killing seven police and military officers, transformed the internal Mafia conflict into a concerted war against the Mafia by the state.
In the aftermath of the Ciaculli massacre, the first significant anti-mafia efforts in post-war Italy were launched. Within a span of ten weeks, 1,200 mafiosi were arrested, many of whom remained incarcerated for several years. The Sicilian Mafia Commission was dissolved, and many mafiosi who evaded arrest either went into exile or hid within Italy. Despite these difficulties, Bontade managed to maintain a highly important position within Cosa Nostra. He was also among those who ordered the death of Michele Cavataio, sending two of his soldiers, Gaetano Grado and Emanuele D'Agostino, to carry out the assassination in the Viale Lazio massacre.
Following the murder of Pietro Scaglione, Palermo's Chief Prosecutor, on May 6, 1971, police initiated a widespread roundup of known Mafia bosses. Bontade was arrested in 1972 and subsequently sentenced to three years in the second Trial of the 114 in July 1974. However, his sentence was later annulled on appeal. Despite this, Bontade was subjected to banishment, a policy that relocated mafiosi to other areas of Italy, in his case to Qualiano in the Province of Naples. This policy inadvertently backfired, as it allowed mafiosi like Bontade to establish new contacts outside Sicily. For instance, Bontade forged connections with Giuseppe Sciorio of the Maisto-clan of the Camorra, who was subsequently initiated into Cosa Nostra.
3. Major activities and involvement
Stefano Bontade's influence extended across significant criminal enterprises, particularly in illicit trafficking, and he was implicated in major political affairs, showcasing the intertwined nature of organized crime and Italian governance during his era.
3.1. Cigarette smuggling and heroin trafficking
Bontade and other mafiosi who had been banished to other parts of Italy successfully infiltrated the international cigarette smuggling market. They achieved this by first imposing their protection and then their direct involvement on existing smugglers in Naples, who were connected with the Camorra, and Palermo, who had been operating since the 1950s. A notable example is Nunzio La Mattina, a thriving smuggler who was initiated into the Santa Maria di Gesù Family. This illicit trade, and subsequently heroin trafficking, proved crucial for many mafiosi to survive the challenging period following the Ciaculli Massacre, leading to a rapid accumulation of vast sums of money. According to the pentito Antonio Calderone, Bontade once remarked that he was fortunate Tommaso Spadaro engaged in cigarette smuggling and shared profits, as they "were starving to death." Spadaro was related to Bontade, serving as a godfather to one of his children.
Bontade was closely associated with the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino network, which dominated heroin trafficking from the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s. This period saw a significant reduction in the heroin supply from the Sicilian Mafia due to efforts by US and Italian law enforcement, notably the Pizza Connection Trial. The Bontade-Spatola-Inzerillo traffickers supplied the Gambino crime family in New York, through John Gambino, with heroin refined in laboratories on Sicily from Turkish morphine base. Investigating magistrate Giovanni Falcone estimated that this group generated approximately 600.00 M USD from their operations. These proceeds were heavily reinvested in real estate, leading to figures like Rosario Spatola, who began his youth selling watered milk in Palermo, becoming the city's largest building contractor and Sicily's biggest taxpayer.
Francesco Marino Mannoia, a member of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family renowned for his chemistry skills and highly sought after by other Mafia families, later became a pentito (collaborating witness). He recalled having refined at least 2.2 K lb (1.00 K kg) of heroin for Bontade. Marino Mannoia, who had been close to Bontade, began cooperating with the Italian state in October 1989, after his brother, mother, sister, and aunt were killed by the Corleonesi. According to Marino Mannoia, the Sicilian-born banker Michele Sindona laundered the proceeds from heroin trafficking for the Bontade-Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino network. While the English source details Bontade's deep involvement in heroin trafficking, some accounts, such as those from the Japanese source, suggest he was publicly negative towards drug trafficking, a stance that may have been a facade given the scale of his operations.
3.2. Allegations regarding the Mattei affair
In May 1994, Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta testified that Stefano Bontade was involved in the 1962 murder of Enrico Mattei, the president of Italy's state-owned oil and gas conglomerate, ENI. According to Buscetta, Mattei was killed at the request of the American Cosa Nostra because his oil policies had negatively impacted significant American interests in the Middle East, potentially as a favor to major oil companies. Buscetta claimed that the assassination was orchestrated by Bontade, Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu", and Giuseppe Di Cristina following a request from Angelo Bruno, a Sicilian-born Mafia boss from Philadelphia.
Buscetta also alleged that the journalist Mauro De Mauro was killed in September 1970 on Bontade's orders due to his investigations into Mattei's death. De Mauro's inquiries reportedly came too close to the Mafia's involvement and Bontade's own role in the affair. Other pentiti corroborated that De Mauro was kidnapped by Emanuele D'Agostino, a mafioso from Bontade's Santa Maria di Gesù Family. De Mauro's body has never been recovered. Marino Mannoia further testified that Bontade had ordered him in 1977 or 1978 to exhume several bodies, including De Mauro's, and dissolve them in acid to eliminate evidence.
3.3. Allegations regarding Sindona's bogus kidnapping
Michele Sindona was a prominent banker who managed one of the largest banks in the United States, the Franklin National Bank. This institution controlled the Vatican's foreign investments and was a significant financial supporter of the Christian Democracy party (DC - Democrazia Cristiana), as revealed by a 1982 parliamentary inquiry. The inquiry also highlighted Sindona's close relationship with Giulio Andreotti, who served as the prime minister of Italy seven times and once lauded Sindona as the "rescuer of the lira."
After Sindona's banks collapsed in 1974, he fled to the United States. In July 1979, Sindona ordered the murder of Giorgio Ambrosoli, a lawyer appointed to liquidate his failed Banca Privata Italiana. Concurrently, the Mafia assassinated police superintendent Boris Giuliano, who was investigating the Mafia's heroin trafficking operations and had contacted Ambrosoli two weeks prior to compare their investigations.
While under indictment in the US, Sindona staged a fabricated kidnapping in August 1979 to conceal a mysterious 11-week trip to Sicily before his scheduled fraud trial. Bontade's brother-in-law, Giacomo Vitale, who was a freemason like Bontade, was among those who organized Sindona's travel. The true objective of the staged kidnapping was to issue thinly veiled blackmail notes to Sindona's former political allies, including Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, in an attempt to engineer the rescue of his banks and recover Cosa Nostra's illicit funds. The plot ultimately failed, and after his "release," Sindona surrendered to the FBI. The Sindona affair starkly illustrated the intricate connections between the Mafia and certain influential businessmen, freemasons, and politicians. Subsequent investigations revealed that many of these individuals were linked through the secret P2 lodge, led by Licio Gelli.
4. Political connections
Stefano Bontade cultivated extensive ties with key Italian politicians, leveraging these relationships to exert influence over governance and significant political events, demonstrating the deep penetration of the Mafia into the political fabric of Italy.
4.1. Relationships with politicians
Stefano Bontade maintained significant connections with prominent politicians, including Christian Democracy politician Salvo Lima and the wealthy Mafia-affiliated cousins Antonio Salvo and Ignazio Salvo from Salemi, who managed the island's tax collection, which was contracted out by the government. Through these intermediaries, Bontade gained access to Giulio Andreotti, a powerful figure who served as Italy's Prime Minister multiple times. In October 2004, Italy's highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that Andreotti had "friendly and even direct ties" with leading figures in the so-called moderate faction of Cosa Nostra, specifically Stefano Bontade and Gaetano Badalamenti, facilitated by their connection to Lima. The Japanese source notes that Salvatore Lima was particularly close to Bontade, frequently meeting with him.
According to the pentito Francesco Marino Mannoia, Andreotti contacted Bontade in an attempt to prevent the Mafia from assassinating the Christian Democracy politician Piersanti Mattarella. Mattarella, who became the President of the autonomous Sicilian Region in 1978, sought to reform the government's public contracts system, which extensively benefited Cosa Nostra. Bontade and other mafiosi felt betrayed by Mattarella, despite rumors of his father Bernardo Mattarella's association with the Mafia, which were never proven in court.
In the mid-1970s, Stefano Bontade also established contact with Silvio Berlusconi, who at the time was a wealthy real estate developer and was beginning to build his private television empire. Berlusconi would later serve as Italy's Prime Minister on multiple occasions. According to Antonino Giuffrè, a mafioso who was a key aide to Mafia kingpin Bernardo Provenzano before becoming a state witness in April 2002, Bontade visited Berlusconi's villa in Arcore, on the outskirts of Milan. Bontade's contact at the villa was the late Vittorio Mangano, a convicted mafioso who worked there as a stable manager. Giuffrè stated: "When Vittorio Mangano got the job in the Arcore villa, Stefano Bontade and some of his close aides used to meet Berlusconi using visits to Mangano as an excuse." Berlusconi's lawyer dismissed Giuffrè's testimony as "false" and an attempt to discredit Berlusconi and his party.
4.2. Influence on political events
Andreotti's efforts to dissuade the Mafia from targeting Mattarella ultimately failed. Piersanti Mattarella was murdered on January 6, 1980. Following this assassination, Andreotti once again contacted Bontade, reportedly to "straighten things out." However, according to Marino Mannoia, Bontade issued a stark warning to Andreotti, declaring: "we are in charge in Sicily, and unless you want the whole DC canceled out, you do as we say." This assertion underscored the extent of the Mafia's perceived control over Sicilian affairs and its willingness to directly challenge political authority. After Bontade's assassination, Salvatore Lima, who had been close to Bontade, shifted his allegiance and began associating with Salvatore Riina and the Corleonesi.
5. Role in the Sicilian Mafia Commission
In 1970, the Sicilian Mafia Commission, also known as the Cupola, was revived. Initially, it comprised ten members but was effectively governed by a triumvirate consisting of Gaetano Badalamenti, Stefano Bontade, and the Corleonesi boss Luciano Leggio, although it was Salvatore Riina who primarily represented the Corleonesi. At this time, Bontade was rapidly emerging as one of the most recognized leaders within the Sicilian Mafia. His youth, wealth, personable demeanor, intelligence, and judicious nature, combined with being the son of a renowned Mafia boss, made him an undisputed candidate for a seat on the Commission.
By 1975, the full Commission was formally reconstituted under the leadership of Badalamenti. The primary purpose of the Mafia Commission was to mediate disputes and maintain peace among the various clans. However, Leggio and his successor, Salvatore Riina, were secretly plotting to systematically eliminate the powerful Palermo clans, including those led by Bontade and his ally, Salvatore Inzerillo.
A significant shift in the leadership of the Sicilian Mafia occurred at the close of 1978. Gaetano Badalamenti was expelled from the Commission, and Michele Greco replaced him. This change marked the end of a period of relative peace and signaled a major internal transformation within the Mafia itself. Michele Greco, despite his previous alliances, was secretly allied with Salvatore Riina. He subsequently used his position on the Commission to strategically lure many of Bontade's allies and associates to their deaths in the brutal conflict that would become the Second Mafia War. Historically, the Greco clan from Croceverde Giardini, to which Michele Greco belonged, had been at odds with the Greco clan of Ciaculli, led by Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, who was an ally of Bontade.
6. Second Mafia War
The Second Mafia War was a devastating conflict that raged from 1981 to 1984, fundamentally reshaping the Sicilian Mafia. During this period, the Corleonesi, led by Salvatore Riina, waged what was effectively two simultaneous wars. Riina had secretly forged an alliance of mafiosi drawn from various families, deliberately cutting across traditional clan divisions in defiance of Cosa Nostra's established rules of loyalty. This clandestine inter-family group became known as the Corleonesi. Their primary objective was to systematically slaughter the ruling families of the Palermo Mafia, including Bontade's, to seize complete control of the organization. Concurrently, they waged a parallel war against Italian authorities and law enforcement, aiming to intimidate and prevent any effective investigations and prosecutions against their operations.
The Corleonesi initiated the war against the powerful coalition led by Bontade and Badalamenti, driven by their ambition to control the lucrative heroin trafficking routes. They began by strategically eliminating Bontade's key allies outside Palermo, such as Giuseppe Di Cristina and Giuseppe Calderone, who were bosses in Riesi and Catania, respectively. This tactic aimed to isolate the influential Palermitan bosses. Despite their greater economic resources and wider international networks, the Bontade-Spatola-Inzerillo-Badalamenti coalition proved unable to withstand the overwhelming and ruthless violence unleashed by the Corleonesi. A significant blow to Bontade's position came in March 1980, when key members of the Inzerillo, Spatola, and Gambino clans were arrested for heroin trafficking. In 1981, in an attempt to regain control of the escalating situation, Bontade plotted the assassination of Totò Riina. However, Riina was forewarned of the plot by Michele Greco, who, despite his previous association with Bontade, had secretly allied with the Corleonesi.
7. Assassination
On the evening of April 23, 1981, Stefano Bontade was assassinated while driving home from his 42nd birthday party in Palermo. The attack occurred at approximately 11:30 pm, as he was stopped at a red light in via Aloi, seated in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta 2000. He was approached by a motorcycle driven by Giuseppe Lucchese, with Giuseppe Greco, also known as Scarpuzzedda ("little shoe"), riding behind him. Greco opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle, shooting Bontade to death and leaving his body unrecognizable.
Just three weeks later, Bontade's close ally, Salvatore Inzerillo, met a similar fate. He was shot to death outside his mistress's house by a group of hitmen armed with the same type of rifle. In the months that followed, many of Bontade and Inzerillo's friends, fellow mafiosi, and relatives were systematically targeted and killed to prevent them from seeking revenge for the deaths of their bosses.
8. Impact and assessment
Stefano Bontade's life and death profoundly impacted the history of the Sicilian Mafia and Italian society, leading to significant shifts in organized crime and the state's response to it.
8.1. Testimonies from key figures
The brutal aftermath of Bontade's assassination played a crucial role in the subsequent efforts to combat the Mafia. One of Bontade's close friends, Tommaso Buscetta, became a pentito (collaborating witness) after his arrest in Brazil in October 1983. Following Buscetta's example, Salvatore Contorno, one of Bontade's trusted aides, also decided to cooperate with the Italian state. These two individuals became pivotal witnesses, providing crucial testimonies that enabled prosecuting magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and the Antimafia pool to successfully prosecute numerous Mafia members in the landmark Maxi Trial during the mid-1980s. Their cooperation exposed the inner workings of Cosa Nostra and led to unprecedented convictions.
8.2. Historical evaluation
Stefano Bontade's assassination marked a critical turning point in the history of the Sicilian Mafia, directly sparking the brutal Second Mafia War which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of mafiosi. His career highlights the deep infiltration of organized crime into Italian society and governance, facilitated by his extensive connections with powerful politicians and his involvement in major criminal enterprises, particularly heroin trafficking. The scale of his operations, as revealed by investigations like the "Pizza Connection" trial, underscored the immense social harm caused by the Mafia's activities. While his death led to a period of unprecedented violence and the rise of the ruthless Corleonesi, it paradoxically also contributed to the emergence of more pentiti, whose testimonies ultimately strengthened the state's anti-Mafia efforts and led to significant legal successes. Bontade's legacy is thus intertwined with both the Mafia's peak influence and the beginnings of its eventual decline through state prosecution.
9. Criticism and controversy
Stefano Bontade's criminal career was marked by extensive illicit activities, deep associations with political corruption, and alleged involvement in numerous murder cases, all of which had severe negative consequences for Italian society and its democratic institutions.
9.1. Criminal activities and violence
Bontade's criminal enterprises were vast and destructive. His deep involvement in international cigarette smuggling and, more significantly, large-scale heroin trafficking, generated immense wealth but also fueled widespread addiction and crime. The operations of his network, particularly the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino connection, were central to the "Pizza Connection" drug trade, which funneled massive quantities of heroin into the United States, causing immense social harm. His tenure was characterized by pervasive violence, exemplified by his ordering of the Viale Lazio massacre and his central role in the escalating internal conflicts that led to the Second Mafia War. This period of intense violence resulted in a significant human cost, both within the Mafia and among those who stood against it.
9.2. Association with political corruption
Bontade's deep-seated links with corrupt political figures, including his connections to Giulio Andreotti, Salvo Lima, and even Silvio Berlusconi, illustrate how organized crime systematically undermined democratic institutions in Italy. His ability to directly threaten political leaders, as demonstrated by his warning to Andreotti regarding the Christian Democracy party, revealed the alarming extent of Mafia control and influence over Sicilian politics. The Michele Sindona affair further exposed the corrupt nexus between the Mafia, high finance, and secret societies like the P2 lodge, a network that Bontade actively facilitated. These relationships allowed organized crime to operate with impunity, manipulate public contracts, and evade justice, thereby eroding public trust in governance.
9.3. Involvement in murder cases
Stefano Bontade was directly involved in or ordered several high-profile murder cases, contributing to the climate of fear and violence in Italy. These include:
- Murder of Enrico Mattei (1962):** Bontade was alleged by pentito Tommaso Buscetta to have been involved in the assassination of the ENI president, a politically charged killing reportedly ordered by the American Cosa Nostra due to Mattei's oil policies.
- Murder of Mauro De Mauro (1970):** Bontade allegedly ordered the killing of this journalist to suppress his investigations into the Mattei affair, as De Mauro's inquiries were reportedly too close to the Mafia's involvement and Bontade's own role. De Mauro's body was later allegedly dissolved in acid.
- Viale Lazio massacre (1969):** Bontade ordered the assassination of Michele Cavataio during this massacre, a significant event in the First Mafia War.
- Assassination of Piersanti Mattarella (1980):** Although Andreotti attempted to intervene, Bontade's faction was ultimately responsible for the murder of the Sicilian regional president, who sought to combat Mafia influence in public contracts.
- Assassination of Michele Sindona's liquidator and a police superintendent (1979):** While Sindona ordered the murder of his liquidator, Giorgio Ambrosoli, the Mafia simultaneously killed police superintendent Boris Giuliano, who was investigating their heroin trafficking, demonstrating the interconnectedness of these violent acts.
- His own assassination (1981):** Bontade's death on his 42nd birthday, ordered by the Corleonesi, and the subsequent murder of his ally Salvatore Inzerillo, marked the beginning of the brutal Second Mafia War. This conflict led to widespread killings of his friends and relatives, as the Corleonesi sought to eliminate all opposition and consolidate power.