Mafia history
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According to Tommaso Buscetta the first Sicilian Mafia Commission for the province of Palermo was formed after a series of
meetings between top American and Sicilian mafiosi that took place in Palermo between October 12-16, 1957,
in the hotel Delle Palme and the Spanò sea-food restaurant.
US gangsters Joseph Bonanno and Lucky Luciano suggested their Sicilian counterparts to form a Commission, following the
example of the American Mafia that had formed their Commission in the 1930s.
The Sicilians agreed with their suggestion and Buscetta, Gaetano Badalamenti and Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" set the ground rules.
Sometime in early 1958 the Sicilian Mafia formed its first Mafia Commission. It was formed among Mafia families in the
province of Palermo, which had the highest concentration of cosche (Mafia families), approximately 46. Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu"
Greco was appointed as its first segretario (secretary) or rappresentante regionale, essentially a "primus inter pares" –
the first among equals. Initially, the secretary had very little power. His task was simply to organize the meetings.
Before that time the Mafia families were not connected by a collective structure.
According to judge Cesare Terranova they "were a mosaic of small republics with topographical borders marked by tradition."
In the days before the Commission coordination inside Cosa Nostra was ensured by informal meetings among the most influential members
of the most powerful families. In fact, the decision to form a Commission was a formalisation of these occasional meetings into
a permanent, collegial body.
Originally, to avoid excessive concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals it was decided that only
"men of honour" holding no leadership position within their own family – in other words simple "soldiers" – could be
appointed as members of the Commission.
That rule was immediately dropped due to the opposition of some Family-bosses
who threatened to abandon the project from the start.
The Commission had two main competencies. The first was to settle conflicts among Mafia families and single members, and
to enforce the most serious violations of the normative codes of Cosa Nostra.
Second, the Commission was entrusted with the regulation of the use of violence. It had exclusive authority to
order murder of police officials, prosecutors and judges, politicians, journalists and lawyers, because these killings
could provoke retaliation by law enforcement. To limit internal conflicts, it was agreed that each Family boss had
to ask the Commission’s authorisation before killing any member of another Family.
Until the early 1980s the Commission’s competencies were often disregarded due to its collegial character and the wide
autonomy for the Family bosses.
Only when Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and the Corleonesi imposed their rule, the Commission became a central
leadership body. However, the Commission in fact lost its autonomy and became a mere enforcement body that endorsed the
decisions made by Riina and Provenzano.
The first Commission
According to Buscetta the first Commission numbered "not many more than ten" and the number was variable.
Among the members of the first Commission in the province of Palermo were:
- Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" for the Ciaculli mandamento (Palermo)
- Antonio Matranga for the Resuttana mandamento (Palermo)
- Mariano Troia for the San Lorenzo mandamento (Palermo)
- Michele Cavataio for the Acquasanta mandamento (Palermo)
- Calcedonio Di Pisa for the Noce mandamento (Palermo)
- Salvatore La Barbera for the Palermo Centro mandamento
- Cesare Manzella for the Cinisi mandamento
- Giuseppe Panno for the Casteldaccia mandamento
- Antonio Salamone for the San Giuseppe Jato mandamento
- Lorenzo Motisi for the Pagliarelli mandamento (Palermo)
- Salvatore Manno for the Boccadifalco mandamento (Palermo)
- Francesco Sorci for the Santa Maria di Gesù mandamento (Palermo)
- Mario Di Girolamo for the Corso Calatafimi mandamento (Palermo)
The Commission, however, was not able to prevent the outbreak of a violent Mafia War in 1963.
Casus belli was a heroin deal going wrong, and the subsequent killing of Calcedonio Di Pisa on December 26, 1962,
who was held responsible. Instead of settling the dispute, the Commission became part of the internal conflict.
On June 30, 1963, a car bomb exploded near Greco’s house in Ciaculli, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse
it after an anonymous phone call. The outrage over the Ciaculli massacre changed the Mafia war into a war against the Mafia.
It prompted the first concerted anti-mafia efforts by the state in post-war Italy.
The Sicilian Mafia Commission was dissolved and of those mafiosi who had escaped arrest many went abroad.
"Ciaschiteddu" Greco fled to Caracas in Venezuela.
According to Tommaso Buscetta it was Michele Cavataio, the boss of the Acquasanta quarter of Palermo, who was
responsible for the Ciaculli bomb, and possibly the murder of boss Calcedonio Di Pisa in late 1962.
Cavataio had lost out to the Greco’s in a war of the wholesale market in the mid 1950s. Cavataio killed Di Pisa in the
knowledge that the La Barbera’s would be blamed by the Greco’s and a war would be the result. He kept fuelling the
war through other bomb attacks and killings.
Cavataio was backed by other Mafia families who resented the growing power of the Mafia Commission to the detriment
of individual Mafia families. Cavataio was killed on December 10, 1969, in the Viale Lazio in Palermo as
retaliation for the events in 1963 by a Mafia hit-squad - including Calogero Bagarella, Bernardo Provenzano, and Giuseppe Di Cristina.
