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Luciano Leggio (January 6, 1925 – November 16, 1993) was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone. Some sources incorrectly spell his surname Liggio, a result of a misspelling on court documents in the 1960s. Image File history File links Luciano_Leggio. ...
is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
Corleone is a small town of approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. ...
Sicily ( in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. ...
is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_Sardinia. ...
Nuoro (Nùgoro, that literally means home[1], in the ancient Nuoros dialect), is a town and province in central Sardinia, Italy, located at the slopes of Mount Ortobene. ...
For the place in the United States, see Sardinia, Ohio. ...
Dr. Michele Navarra (1905 - August 2, 1958) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ...
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime, nominally for the entire remaining life of the prisoner, but in fact for a period which varies between jurisdictions: many countries have a maximum possible period of time (usually 50 years) a prisoner may be incarcerated, or require the...
This article is about the organized crime groups. ...
is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ...
Sicily ( in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. ...
This article is about the criminal society. ...
Luciano Leggio at a court appearance in 1974 Totò Riina, amidst tight security, appears in court following his capture in January 1993 The Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Mafia in the 1980s and the 1990s. ...
Corleone is a small town of approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. ...
As well as setting the Corleonesi on track to become the dominant Mafia Clan in Sicily, he became infamous for avoiding convictions for a multitude of crimes, including homicide, before he was finally imprisoned for life in 1974. Homicide (Latin homicidium, homo human being + caedere to cut, kill) refers to the act of killing another human being. ...
Early life Leggio was born in 1925, one of ten children raised in extreme poverty on a small farm. He turned to crime in his teens. His first conviction was when he was aged 18 for stealing corn and as soon as he completed a six-month sentence for this crime he murdered the man who had reported him to the police for the theft. In 1945 he was recruited by the Mafia boss of Corleone, Michele Navarra, to work as an enforcer and hitman. That same year Leggio shot dead a farm hand in order to take his job, then immediately took over the farm by demanding the owner to sign it over to him at gunpoint. For other uses, see Farm (disambiguation). ...
Dr. Michele Navarra (1905 - August 2, 1958) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ...
Many pentiti have described Leggio as being highly volatile and violent, as well as possessing a streak of vanity. According to Tommaso Buscetta, during meetings with Mafia bosses from Palermo, Leggio insisted on correcting grammatical errors made by Gaetano Badalamenti when Badalamenti tried to speak Italian rather than his native Sicilian. Leggio apparently liked to be called "The Professor", as if he were an intellectual, even though, like many of his fellow Corleonesi criminals, he was poorly educated. Leggio he left school at the age of nine and was illiterate until well into adulthood. He also tended to wear expensively tailored suits at his repeated court appearances, often along with sunglasses and grandly puffing on a cigar. Pentiti (Italian, literally meaning those who have repented) are former members of the Italian Mafia or similar criminal or terrorist organisations who have abandoned their criminal/terrorist organisation and helped police to discover as much as possible about the respective organisation, criminals, and in general anything related to their former...
For other meanings of vanity, see vanity (disambiguation). ...
Tommaso Buscetta (Palermo, July 13, 1928- New York, April 4, 2000) was a Sicilian mafioso. ...
For other uses, see Palermo (disambiguation). ...
Gaetano Badalamenti (Cinisi, September 14, 1923 – Devens Federal Medical Center, Ayer, Massachusetts, April 29, 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ...
Sicilian (, Italian: ) is a Romance language. ...
Literacy is the ability to use text to communicate across space and time. ...
For other uses, see Cigar (disambiguation). ...
On March 10, 1948, trade unionist Placido Rizzotto was kidnapped by three men in broad daylight, with a number of witnesses claiming Leggio was one of them. The following year two men confessed to helping Leggio kidnap Rizzotto, who shot the victim and dumped him in a fifty-foot deep cavern. The police recovered Rizzotto's body and two others, Leggio was arrested on suspicion of murder, but after spending almost two-years behind bars he was released and the charges dropped when witnesses refused to testify. The two alleged accomplices were eventually killed. Leggio went into hiding - although reportedly did not have to try hard to hide because no-one in Corleone seemed brave enough to alert the police as to his whereabouts - after he was indicted once again for the Rizzotto slaying. He was tried twice in absentia of the trade unionist's murder but acquitted due to insufficient evidence on both occasions. A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers...
For in absentia medical care, see Health care delivery. ...
Whilst behind bars in the late 1940s he met Salvatore Riina, who was then aged nineteen and starting a six-year sentence for Manslaughter. The two eventually became accomplices in crime after Riina's release, as did another young local criminal, Bernardo Provenzano. Salvatore Riina, also known as Totò Riina (born November 16, 1930, Corleone) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organisation in the early 1980s. ...
Bernardo Provenzano in 1959, aged 26. ...
Ascent to power Leggio soon began to build his own faction of mobsters loyal to him alone, including Riina and Provenzano, and in 1956 the Leggio faction went to war with Navarra and his followers. One evening in June 1958 Leggio was walking across a field when some of Navarra's men opened fire on him. He escaped with just a slight injury to his hand.
A couple of months later, on August 2, Leggio, Riina, Provenzano and a number of other gunmen set up an ambush just outside Corleone. Michele Navarra soon drove round the corner and the gunmen opened fire, riddling the car with two-hundred bullets. Navarra died instantly along with a friend (unconnected with the Mafia) he was giving a lift to, Lercara Friddi. Leggio proclaimed himself boss of Corleone and over the next five years he and his men hunted down and killed around fifty more of Navarra's remaining supporters. This article is about the projectile, for other uses see bullet (disambiguation). ...
Leggio and his faction emerged victorious, and he eventually took his place on the Sicilian Mafia Commission. However, the increase in violence in Corleone, coupled with the Ciaculli massacre in Palermo relating to a separate Mafia War, had inspired a crackdown against the Mafia in 1963, meaning Leggio and his associates had to go into hiding. 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. ...
Funeral for the seven police and military officers that were killed while trying to defuse the car bomb in Ciaculli. ...
Repeated acquittals Leggio spent the 1960s and early 1970s increasing the strength of the Corleonesi, murdering anyone who got in its way. In particular, he wanted control of the refining and trafficking of heroin that soon provided a huge source of income to the Sicilian Mafia. For other uses, see Heroin (disambiguation). ...
He was captured in Corleone in May 1964 (curiously, he was lodging with the former fiancée of Placido Rizzotto, whom he had once been accused of murdering) and was hauled off into custody, complaining loudly about his ill-health, old age (he was only thirty-nine) and how he was being persecuted and knew nothing of any Mafia. First off he was tried for murdering Navarra and Navarra's companion back in 1958. The trial ended with him being acquitted due to insufficient evidence. He stood trial in late 1968 with 113 defendants relating to the Mafia War that resulted in the Ciaculli Massacre. However, what became known as Trial of the 114 ended with only ten convictions. The rest, including Leggio, were acquitted. An engagement is an agreement by a couple to enter into marriage at some future time, usually accompanied by a formal or informal announcement to friends and family. ...
The 1960s Sicilian Mafia trials took place at the end of that decade in response to a rise in organized crime violence around the late 1950s and early 1960s. ...
He was not yet released, however, as he had to stand trial in 1969 on charges of murdering nine of Navarra's men. This time he was tried alongside over sixty of his fellow Corleonisi, including Salvatore Riina, who was one of almost two-thousand Mafiosi rounded up in the mid-1960s in the aftermath of the violence in the early years of that decade. Salvatore Riina, also known as Totò Riina (born November 16, 1930, Corleone) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organisation in the early 1980s. ...
The trial was regarded as farcical, with reports of blatant witness intimidation and evidence tampering. For example, fragments of a broken car light found at the Navarra murder scene which had been identified as belonging to an Alfa Romeo car owned by Leggio had, by the time of the trial, been replaced by bits of a broken light from a completely different make of car. The judges and prosecutors were sent anonymous letters threatening them with death. Alfa Romeo is an Italian automobile manufacturing company, founded as Darracq Italiana by Cavaliere Ugo Stella, an aristocrat from Milan in partnership with the French automobile firm of Alexandre Darracq. ...
In the end, all the defendants were acquitted.
Fugitive on the Italian mainland Immediately after the trial, which ended in July 1969, a determined Italian magistrate named Cesare Terranova appealed against Leggio's acquittal for the Navarra slaying. In December 1970 Leggio was finally convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for this murder, but it was in absentia because, once more, he had gone underground. In July 1969, after hearing of his indictement to stand trial once more, Leggio checked in to a private health clinic in Rome to have treatment for Pott's disease, which he had suffered from most of his life and for which he had to wear a brace. When the police finally came to arrest him in January 1970 he had checked out and vanished. The fact that he had not been arrested during his seven-month stay in the clinic was a scandal in Italy, as were his repeated acquittals. A magistrate is a judicial officer. ...
Judge Cesare Terranova Cesare Terranova (August 15, 1921 - September 25, 1979) was a magistrate from Sicily notable for his anti-Mafia stance. ...
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime, nominally for the entire remaining life of the prisoner, but in fact for a period which varies between jurisdictions: many countries have a maximum possible period of time (usually 50 years) a prisoner may be incarcerated, or require the...
In the common law legal system, an indictment is a formal charge of having committed a serious criminal offense. ...
For other uses, see Clinic (disambiguation). ...
Tuberculosis of the spine in an Egyptian mummy Potts disease is a presentation of extrapulmonary tuberculosis that affects the spine, a kind of tuberculous arthritis of the intervertebral joints. ...
There were many suspicions that corrupt figures in authority had helped Leggio avoid justice, with plenty of suspicion falling on the General Attorney of Sicily, Pietro Scaglione; he was shot dead in 1971. Pentiti Tommaso Buscetta and Salvatore Contorno later said Leggio personally shot Scaglione dead because he either did not want him to help deliver an acquittal for one of the Corleonisi boss's rivals or he did not want to leave someone who knew a lot of his secrets alive. Leggio would later be tried twice for killing Scaglione but was acquitted for insufficient evidence. Pentiti (Italian, literally meaning those who have repented) are former members of the Italian Mafia or similar criminal or terrorist organisations who have abandoned their criminal/terrorist organisation and helped police to discover as much as possible about the respective organisation, criminals, and in general anything related to their former...
Mafia turncoat Salvatore Totuccio Contorno Salvatore Totuccio Contorno (Palermo, May 28, 1946) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned into a state witness against Cosa Nostra in October 1984, following the example of Tommaso Buscetta. ...
He eventually hid out in Milan where he made ran a profitable kidnapping ring. In early 1973 he ran into a mobster named Damiano Caruso whom he blamed for killing one of his friends years before. Caruso vanished, as did his girlfriend and her fifteen-year-old daughter not long afterwards. According to numerous informants, Leggio killed Caruso then, when his girlfriend and her daughter came round asking questions, he raped and strangled them both. For other uses, see Milan (disambiguation). ...
Life imprisonment He was finally captured in Milan on May 16, 1974, local police having tracked him down by tapping his telephone. Leggio was finally sent off to serve his life sentence for the Navarra slaying. May 16 is the 136th day of the year (137th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ...
It has been suggested that Voice logging be merged into this article or section. ...
He is believed to have retained significant influence from behind bars, as have many other mobsters after imprisonment. However, by the end of the 1970s, his lieutenant Salvatore Riina was in control of the Corleonesi clan. Luciano Leggio at a court appearance in 1974 Totò Riina, amidst tight security, appears in court following his capture in January 1993 The Corleonesi is the name given to a faction within the Sicilian Mafia that dominated Mafia in the 1980s and the 1990s. ...
Raised in poverty, Leggio was a multi-millionaire by the time of his arrest. At the time of his capture, Italian law did not yet allow authorities to confiscate criminal's illicit fortunes, although this has since changed.
He was tried with a number of others in 1977 for previous crimes on the testimony of Leonardo Vitale; he was acquitted with all but one of the others (Vitale's uncle) when Leonardo Vitale's mental state was called into question. Leonardo Vitale (far left) in custody Leonardo Vitale (June 27, 1941 - December 2, 1984) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia who was one of the first to become an informant, or pentito, although originally his confessions were not taken seriously. ...
In the Maxi Trial of 1986/1987, Leggio faced charges of helping to run the Corleonesi from behind bars, including the accusation that he ordered the murder of prosecutor Cesare Terranova, who was shot dead in 1979. He acted as his own lawyer and defended himself, cross examining Tommaso Buscetta and other pentiti. He claimed he had been framed for political reasons. He was eventually acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence, although he still had his life-sentence to serve and was returned to a maximum security prison in Sardinia, where he indulged in his hobby of painting, in particular landscapes. Giovanni Falcone, one of the architects of the Maxi Trial. ...
For the fish called lawyer, see Burbot. ...
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by ones opponent. ...
Pentiti (Italian, literally meaning those who have repented) are former members of the Italian Mafia or similar criminal or terrorist organisations who have abandoned their criminal/terrorist organisation and helped police to discover as much as possible about the respective organisation, criminals, and in general anything related to their former...
For the place in the United States, see Sardinia, Ohio. ...
Painter redirects here. ...
Landscape art depicts scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests. ...
On November 16, 1993, he died in prison from a heart attack, aged sixty-eight. He is buried in Corleone. is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ...
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI or MI), more commonly known as a heart attack, is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. ...
References Allexander Stillé is an American author and journalist. ...
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