Postwar Sicily and the Mafia

Vocabulary terms covering the Allied invasion of Sicily, postwar politics, key Sicilian mafia figures, and the Sack of Palermo.

Operation Husky

The Allied invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943, involving about 460,000 troops.

AMGOT

Allied Military Government of the Occupied Territories, which governed Sicily from July 1943 to February 1944.

Joseph Russo (OSS Palermo)

A US intelligence officer cited as an example of parapolitics and the mafia's interaction with AMGOT.

CLN

Committees of National Liberation; an alliance of anti-fascist parties that governed Italy from 1944 to 1946.

MIS

Movement for Sicilian Independence, a separatist organization active in postwar Sicily.

EVIS

The separatist militia in Sicily to which Salvatore Giuliano was tied in 1945.

Lucio Tasca Bordonaro

Landowner, mayor of Palermo, and separatist whose ties to the mafia are examined.

1946 Italian election

A referendum that ended the monarchy and an election for the Constituent Assembly, resulting in DC winning 37%, PSI winning 21%, and PCI winning 19%.

Alcide De Gasperi (1947 actions)

Italian leader who visited the US in January 1947 (where aid was linked to anti-communism) and excluded the PCI and PSI from the government in May 1947.

DC governments

Christian Democratic governments that led Italy continuously from 1948 to 1992.

Calogero Vizzini (Don Calò)

Villalba mafia boss (1877–1954) emblematic of the mafia during the liberation period, paired with Genco Russo of Mussomeli.

Yellow handkerchief legend

A story claiming that the Sicilian mafia aided the Allied landing during World War II, a claim analyzed critically by historian John Dickie against the writings of Michele Pantaleone.

Michele Pantaleone

Socialist writer and advocate of land reform who clashed with Calogero Vizzini at Villalba in 1944.

Shootout in Villalba (1944)

A violent gun battle between Calogero Vizzini's faction and Michele Pantaleone alongside the Communist leader Girolamo Li Causi, leading to Don Calò consolidating power.

Dietrologia

The practice or cultural habit of looking behind visible events to uncover hidden powers, closely linked to Peter Dale Scott's concept of deep politics.

Lucky Luciano (1933–46 events)

American mafia figure sentenced to 30–55 years in 1936 by prosecutor Thomas Dewey, involved in a 1942 wartime 'sabotage' episode, and extradited to Italy in 1946 by Governor Dewey.

Henry Anslinger

Commissioner of the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics who served from 1930 to 1962.

Vito Genovese

Naples-born ally of Lucky Luciano (1897–1969) who fled to Naples in 1937, supported Mussolini, worked with AMGOT from 1943 to 1945, and later returned to the US.

Charles Poletti

New York Lieutenant Governor and Governor (1903–2002) who served as Civil Affairs Officer in Sicily and Naples in 1943, denying alleged connections to Vizzini, Genovese, and Luciano.

Cassa per il Mezzogiorno

The Southern Fund created in 1950 by the Christian Democrats alongside their Sicilian land settlement policy.

Ciaculli war (1946–47)

A mafia conflict centered in Palermo's tangerine-growing territory, sparked by a blood feud over the 1939 murder of Piddu Greco's son or competition over the tangerine trade; resulted in two Ciaculli bosses killed in 1946 by the Giardini Grecos.

Piddu Greco

Mafia leader known as 'the lieutenant' who emerged victorious in the Ciaculli war; father of Michele 'the Pope' Greco.

Salvatore Giuliano

Montelepre bandit (1922–50) known as the 'last bandit', linked to 430 murders, the mafia, and the separatist MIS/EVIS groups.

Portella della Ginestra massacre (1947)

The May Day massacre of leftist celebrants carrying out a gathering, resulting in 11 deaths and 33 wounded after the Blocco del popolo won about 30% of the vote.

Blocco del popolo

A leftist electoral alliance between the Italian Socialist Party and Italian Communist Party that secured approximately 30% of the vote in Sicily in 1947.

Gaspare Pisciotta

Associate and lieutenant of Salvatore Giuliano who was poisoned while in prison in 1954, leaving his autobiography lost.

Francesco Rosi

Italian film director (1922–2015) known for 'critical realism' and political cinema, whose works include Salvatore Giuliano (1962) and Lucky Luciano.

Michele Navarra

Corleone mafia boss and physician (1905–58) with Christian Democratic connections who was ambushed and killed by rivals in 1958.

Luciano Leggio

Navarra's rival from Corleone (1925–93), initiated into the mafia in 1945, acquitted of Navarra's murder in 1969 but convicted on appeal in 1970, and died in prison in 1993.

Placido Rizzotto

Italian Communist Party (PCI) trade union leader (1914–48) murdered in Corleone in March 1948 under orders issued by Michele Navarra.

Salvatore 'Totò' Riina

Corleonese mafioso (1930–2017) who assumed control of the Corleone cosca after Luciano Leggio went into hiding.

Bernardo Provenzano

Corleonese mafioso (1933–2016) and key criminal associate of Luciano Leggio and Totò Riina.

Tommaso Buscetta (pre-1980s)

Mafioso born in 1928 and initiated into the Porta Nuova cosca in 1945, active in international cigarette smuggling with travels to Argentina and Brazil between 1949 and 1956.

Sack of Palermo

An aggressive real estate and urban construction boom during the 1950s and 1960s caused by wartime destruction, a 20% population surge between 1951 and 1961, and the clearing of historic lemon groves.

Amintore Fanfani

Christian Democratic president from 1954 to 1959 and six-time Italian Prime Minister (1908–99) who transformed the DC into a mass-based political party.

Giovanni Gioia

Palermo DC party secretary from 1953 to 1959 who operated 59 party branches and was central to Amintore Fanfani's factional machine.

Vito Ciancimino

Corleone-born Palermo municipal politician (1924–2002) who served on the city council in 1956, became mayor from 1970 to 1971, possessed documented mafia ties, and was convicted in 1992.

Salvo Lima

Palermo mayor (1959–63 and 1965–68) linked to the mafia who was assassinated in 1992.

Patronage engine

The Palermo public works department, which distributed municipal building permits to mafia-linked developers during the Sack of Palermo.