Gaetano Badalamenti 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 1987, he was sentenced in the United States to 45 years in federal prison for being one of the leaders in the so-called "Pizza Connection", a $1.65 billion drug-trafficking ring that used pizzerias as fronts to distribute heroin from 1975 to 1984. He was also sentenced in Italy to life imprisonment in 2002 for the 1978 murder of Peppino Impastato.
La Piovra is an Italian television drama series about the Mafia. The series was directed by various directors who each worked on different seasons, including Damiano Damiani, Florestano Vancini, Luigi Perelli, and Giacomo Battiato . The music was written by Riz Ortolani, Ennio Morricone, and by Paolo Buonvino.
Michele Greco was a member of the Sicilian Mafia and a convicted murderer. Greco died in prison while serving multiple life sentences. His nickname was Il Papa due to his ability to mediate between different Mafia families. Greco was the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.
Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato, was an Italian political activist who opposed the Mafia, which ordered his murder in 1978.
Cinisi is a town and a comune in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily. As of 1 January 2022 it has a population of 11.846.
Cesare Manzella was a traditional Mafia capo, who sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission. He was the head of the Mafia family in Cinisi, a small seaside town near the Punta Raisi Airport. As the airport was in their territory it was an invaluable asset for the import and export of contraband, including narcotics. His deputy was Gaetano Badalamenti.
Ignazio Salvo and his cousin Nino Salvo were two wealthy businessmen from the town of Salemi in the province of Trapani. They had strong political connections with the Christian Democrat party, in particular with the former mayor of Palermo, Salvo Lima, and Giulio Andreotti. At the Maxi Trial against the Mafia in the mid-1980s, they were convicted of association with Mafia members.
Cesare "The Tall Guy" Bonventre was a Sicilian mobster who served as a caporegime in the Bonanno crime family, operating out of Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick. Bonventre alongside Salvatore “Toto” Catalano led the Sicilian “Zips” faction of the family and was a key member of the Pizza Connection until his assassination on April 16, 1984 on orders of Joe Massino and Philip “Rusty” Rastelli.
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.
Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone was an influential Sicilian mafioso from Catania, eventually becoming the capo of the Catania Mafia family.
Mafioso is a 1962 Italian Mafia black comedy film directed by Alberto Lattuada. The film stars Alberto Sordi as a factory manager who visits his hometown in Sicily and is tasked with performing a hit for the Mafia. It was awarded Best Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."
Aldo Fabrizi was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter and comedian, best known for the role of the heroic priest in Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City and as partner of Totò in a number of successful comedies.
The Second Mafia War was a period of conflict involving the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place from 1981 to 1984 and involved thousands of homicides. Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the Mattanza, it involved the entire Mafia and radically altered the power balance within the organization. In addition to the violence within the Mafia itself, there was violence against the state, including a campaign of deliberate assassinations of judges, prosecutors, detectives, politicians, activists and other ideological enemies. In turn, the war resulted in a major crackdown against the Mafia, helped by the pentiti, Mafiosi who collaborated with the authorities after losing so many friends and relatives to the fighting. In effect, the conflict helped end the secrecy of the Mafia.
The Sicilian Centre of Documentation organizes research into the Mafia in Sicily and campaigns against it. The Centre was the first study centre on the Mafia in Italy.
Vito Badalamenti is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was on the "Italy's most wanted list" from 1995 until 2012 when the statute of limitations was declared expired.
Il Capo dei Capi is an Italian biographical crime drama miniseries which debuted on Canale 5 between October and November 2007. It tells the story of Salvatore Riina, alias Totò u Curtu, a mafioso boss from Corleone, Sicily. Riina is played by Palermo-born actor, Claudio Gioè, and the series was directed by Alexis Sweet and Enzo Monteleone. The series is inspired from the eponymous book-inquiry of Giuseppe D'Avanzo and Attilio Bolzoni. It was broadcast in the UK in the spring of 2013 on the Sky Arts channel, retitled Corleone and split into 12 one-hour episodes.
Tony Sperandeo is an Italian actor of cinema and television. Sperandeo is notable for frequently playing the roles of tough characters from his native region, Sicily. As of 2011, he was working on La Nuova Squadra, a police drama televised by Rai Tre, as the Superintendent Salvatore Sciacca.
Claudio Gioè is an Italian actor of the cinema, theatre and television.
At War with Love is a 2016 Italian comedy film directed by Pif.
