Tommaso Buscetta
Tomasso Buscetta in an undated photograph
Born	July 13, 1928 Sicily
Died	April 4, 2000 (aged 71) New York, USA
Charge(s)	Drug trafficking, kidnapping
Penalty	14 years, later paroled
Status	Deceased (natural causes)
Occupation	Mafiosi, pentito

Tommaso Buscetta (Palermo, July 13, 1928- New York, April 4, 2000) was a Sicilian mafioso. Although he was not the first pentito (informant) in the Italian witness protection program, he is widely recognized as the the first important one breaking omertà. Many mafiosi would follow his example. Image File history File links Tommaso_Buscetta_young. ... July 13 is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Sicily (Sicilia 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. ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... NY redirects here. ... Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Parole can have different meanings depending on the area and judiciary system. ... Dope Hiphop crew out of Sydney Australia. ... This article is about the organized crime groups. ... Tommaso Buscetta (in sunglasses), the first important pentito of Italian Mafia, escorted in a court of law. ... July 13 is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sicily (Sicilia 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 organized crime groups. ... Tommaso Buscetta (in sunglasses), the first important pentito of Italian Mafia, escorted in a court of law. ... It has been suggested that Chivatos be merged into this article or section. ... In the United States, the Witness Protection Program (also known as WITSEC) is established by the Witness Protection Act, which in turn sets out the manner in which the U.S. Attorney General may provide for the relocation and protection of a witness or potential witness of the federal government... Omertà is a popular attitude, common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Calabria and Campania, where the criminal organizations like the Mafia, Ndrangheta, and Camorra are strong. ...

He was the youngest of 17 children raised in a poverty-stricken area of Palermo, which he escaped by getting involved with crime at a young age. He first became involved with the Mafia in 1945 and by the following year he was a full-fledged member of the Porta Nuova Family and his first boss was Giuseppe "Pippo" Calò. His first work was mostly smuggling cigarettes. A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ... For other uses, see Palermo (disambiguation). ... Giuseppe Pippo Calo (born 1931) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. ...

After the Ciaculli Massacre in 1963, Buscetta fled to the United States where the local Gambino crime family helped him to get started in the pizza business. In 1968, Buscetta was convicted of double murder, but the conviction was in absentia as he was not actually in custody (In Italy it is possible for fugitives to be prosecuted without them being present). Funeral for the seven police and military officers that were killed while trying to defuse the car bomb in Ciaculli. ... John Gotti, The Dapper Don The Gambino Crime Family is one of the Five Families that controls organized crime activities based in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia (or La Cosa Nostra). ...

In 1970 Buscetta was arrested in New York. Because Italian authorities did not ask for his extradition he was released. Buscetta moved on to Brazil where he set up a drug trafficking network. In 1972 Buscetta was arrested and tortured by the Brazilian military regime, and subsequently extradited to Italy where he began a life sentence for the earlier double murder conviction. In 1980, while on a day-release from prison, he fled again to Brazil to escape the brewing Mafia War instigated by Totò Riina that subsequently led to the deaths of many of Buscetta's allies, including Stefano Bontade. Arrested once more in 1983, Buscetta was sent back to Italy. He attempted suicide, and when that failed he decided that he was utterly disillusioned with the Mafia. Buscetta asked to talk to Giovanni Falcone and began his life as an informant. Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events... Torture is defined by the United Nations Convention Against Torture as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he... Life imprisonment is a term used for a particular kind of sentence of imprisonment. ... The Second Mafia War was a conflict within the Sicilian Mafia, mostly taking place in the early 1980s. ... Salvatore Riina - also known as Toto Riina or The Beast - (born 1930) is an infamous member of the Sicilian Mafia. ... Stefano Bontade (April 23, 1939 - April 23, 1981) was a powerful member of the Sicilan Mafia. ... Suicide (Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of intentionally taking ones own life. ... Giovanni Falcone during the Maxi Trial Giovanni Falcone, (May 18, 1939 – May 23, 1992) was an Italian magistrate who specialised in prosecuting Cosa Nostra crimes. ...

Pentito

Buscetta (in sunglasses) is led into court at the Maxi Trial, circa 1986.

In Italy he helped the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino to achieve significant successes in the fight against organized crime (the two judges were later both killed by the Mafia).^[1] He was the star witness in the Maxi Trial that led to almost 350 Mafia members being sent to prison. Image File history File links Mafia informant Tommaso Buscetta in court, circa 1986. ... Giovanni Falcone, one of the architects of the Maxi Trial. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Giovanni Falcone during the Maxi Trial Giovanni Falcone, (May 18, 1939 – May 23, 1992) was an Italian magistrate who specialised in prosecuting Cosa Nostra crimes. ... Paolo Borsellino (January 19, 1940 - July 19, 1992) was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate. ... Organized crime or criminal organizations are groups or operations run by criminals, most commonly for the purpose of generating a monetary profit. ... Giovanni Falcone, one of the architects of the Maxi Trial. ...

Buscetta revealed the existence and workings of the Sicilian Mafia Commission. It enabled Falcone to argue that Cosa Nostra was a unified hierarchical structure ruled by a Commission, and that its leaders – who normally would not dirty their hands with criminal acts – could be held responsible for criminal activities that were committed to benefit the organization. This premise became known as the Buscetta theorem and would be recognised legally with the confirmation of the Maxi Trial sentence in January 1992. 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. ... Charles Lucky Luciano, one of the most famous American bosses (La) Cosa Nostra (our thing or this thing of ours in Italian) is a worldwide alliance of criminals, linked through both familial and conspiratorial ties, that is dedicated to pursuing crime and protecting its members. ...

His testimony in the New York Pizza Connection Trial trial in the mid-1980s allowed the conviction of hundreds of mobsters in Italy and the United States, including Gaetano Badalamenti. NY redirects here. ... Tommaso Buscetta (in sunglasses) is lead into court at the Maxi Trial, circa 1986. ... This article cites very few or no references or sources. ... Gaetano Badalamenti (1923 - April 29, 2004) was an Italian-born Mafioso who was connected with the Pizza Connection drug smuggling scheme. ...

As a reward for his help, Buscetta was allowed to live in the USA under a new identity in the Witness Protection Program. He was reported to have undergone plastic surgery to conceal his identity. He sometimes gave interviews to journalists, although his face was pixelated when he appeared in documentaries. In an interview with the Italian journalist Enzo Biagi, Buscetta cheerfully bragged that he lost his virginity at the age of eight to a prostitute who charged him just a bottle of olive oil. Buscetta married three times and had six children, and at one point he was briefly suspended from the Mafia for walking out on his first wife, adultery evidently being a greater crime than murder in the eyes of his fellow mobsters. While in prison in the 70's he learned that his boss wanted to expell him from the organisation altogether for the treatment of his wives. In the United States, the Witness Protection Program (also known as WITSEC) is established by the Witness Protection Act, which in turn sets out the manner in which the U.S. Attorney General may provide for the relocation and protection of a witness or potential witness of the federal government... “Facial reconstruction” redirects here. ... An internet image or digital picture of low quality that appears with unattractive blurry squares. ... Documentary film is a broad category of cinematic expression united by the intent to remain factual or non-fictional. ... Enzo Biagi (born August 9, 1920) is a renowned Italian journalist. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Olive oil is a fruit oil obtained from the olive (Olea europaea), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. ... Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a partner other than the lawful spouse. ...

Judges and policemen found Buscetta to be very polite and intelligent, albeit sometimes prone to vanity. Like any informant, Buscetta was occasionally somewhat economical with the truth. He once claimed he had never dealt in narcotics even though he once contradicted himself by saying that everyone in the Mafia was involved in drugs, without exempting himself from this statement. Originally he denied ever killing anyone but later admitted in a television interview that he was a murderer. The term narcotic, derived from the Greek word for stupor, originally referred to a variety of substances that induced sleep (such state is narcosis). ...

Some of his lies had understandable motives. In the 1980s he said he had no knowledge of the links that various politicians like Salvo Lima and Giulio Andreotti had with the Mafia, but in the 1990s he admitted that he knew of such ties, claiming that he had feigned ignorance during the 1980s because the politicians in question were then in power, and he had feared for his life even within the security afforded by the Witness Protection Program. This article cites very few or no references or sources. ... Salvatore Lima (died March 12, 1992) was an Italian politician from Sicily who was murdered by the Mafia, with whom he was alleged to have ties with. ... Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti (born in Rome, 14 January 1919) is an Italian political figure, among the most powerful in post-war Italy. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ...

Only after the murders on Antimafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992, did Buscetta decide to talk about the links between the Mafia and politicians. On November 16, 1992, Buscetta testified before the Antimafia Commission presided by Luciano Violante about the links between Cosa Nostra and Salvo Lima and Giulio Andreotti. He indicated Salvo Lima as the contact of the Mafia in Italian politics. "Salvo Lima was, in fact, the politician to whom Cosa Nostra turned most often to resolve problems for the organisation whose solution lay in Rome," Buscetta testified. Giovanni Falcone during the Maxi Trial Giovanni Falcone, (May 18, 1939 – May 23, 1992) was an Italian magistrate who specialised in prosecuting Cosa Nostra crimes. ... Paolo Borsellino (January 19, 1940 - July 19, 1992) was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Mani pulite (Italian for clean hands) was a nationwide Italian police investigation into political corruption held in the 1990s, following the scandal of Banco Ambrosiano in 1982, which implicated mafia, Vatican Bank and P2, and the Maxi Trial of the mid-1980s. ... Luciano Violante was born 25 September 1941 in Dire Daua (Ethiopia). ... Salvatore Lima (died March 12, 1992) was an Italian politician from Sicily who was murdered by the Mafia, with whom he was alleged to have ties with. ... Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti (born in Rome, 14 January 1919) is an Italian political figure, among the most powerful in post-war Italy. ... Salvatore Lima (died March 12, 1992) was an Italian politician from Sicily who was murdered by the Mafia, with whom he was alleged to have ties with. ...

When fellow mafioso Salvatore Cancemi confessed to Buscetta at a trial in 1993 that he strangled his two sons, Busecetta forgave him saying that he knew Cancemi would not be able to refuse the order. Salvatore Cancemi (Palermo) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. ...

Buscetta died of cancer in 2000, aged 71, having lived out his final years peacefully in the US. Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ...

He was played by F. Murray Abraham in the 1999 movie Excellent Cadavers. Fahrid Murray Abraham[1] (born October 24, 1939) is an American actor. ... Excellent Cadavers is a documentary on judge Giovanni Falcones fight against the Mafia in Sicily and his assassination on his way from Palermo Airport. ...

References

• Dickie, John (2004). Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia, London: Coronet, ISBN 0-340-82435-2
• Jamieson, Alison (2000). The Antimafia. Italy’s Fight Against Organized Crime, London: MacMillan Press ISBN 0-333-80158-X
• Stille, Alexander (1995). Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, New York: Vintage ISBN 0-09-959491-9

Allexander Stillé is an American author and journalist. ...

External link

• BBC report of Buscetta's death
• (Italian) Un Buscetta inedito nell’intervista rilasciata a Saverio Lodato negli Stati Uniti nel 1999