This is what i call a Boss:

Salvatore Riina of the corleonesi, the peasant from Corleone probably the most feared boss ever to sit on the Commission of the Sicilian Mafia the Cupolla. His greed and appetite for power unleashed a wave of murder organized crime would ever see the likes in any where throughout the world. Toto served his apprenticeship in the Corleonesi under the infamous Luciano Liggio. Toto's prestige within the corleonesi would soar when he saved his mentors life. Liggio was ambushed by a gang sent from a rival clan he added by Michele Navarra. Both of them would take hits but Toto's instinct would be to protect his boss and get him to safety, and soon after they would seek retribution by Killing the then head of the Cupolla the doctor Michele Navarra.

Leggio would soon take over what Navarra left behind and although the Cupola wasn't happy with Leggio's actions but would not punish him. Riina began to seek power by striking up friendship's with influential men of honour belonging to deferent clans some as far as Napoli. His method was extremely insidious as he would fuel rifts in families in order to recruit younger men of honour.

This would serve Riina well when he took over the Corleonesi clan in the mid-seventies when Leggio was incarcerated. Riina Would sit on the Cupola as one of three men that divided the power into a third each. Riina was by now heavily involved in heroin distribution and his greed would spark a power struggle for control of the massive profits the corleonesi were already enjoying. Toto began plotting the deaths of the men he had to share the power of the cupola. First of all Salvatore Inzerello was murdered and shortly after Stefano Bontade suffered the same fate. This brought mayhem to Sicily Where upon over a thousand men of honour would die in a bloody war that threatened to engulf the entire Sicilian cosa nostra. But after the smoke cleared Toto Riina became the boss of bosses in Sicily.

The beast would be backed up by powerful bosses such as Michele Greco and Pipo Calo who would now be the new power on the cupola and Riina would enjoy a couple of peaceful years but there was a dark cloud on the horizon in the shape of Tomasso Buschetta and his crucial testimony in the maxi trials.

Tomasso Buschetta was arrested in Brazil and returned to Italy to face his crimes one of which just because he was a man of honor despite fleeing to Brazil Because he openly opposed the Corleonesi led by Riina. Buschetta angered by the murders of his 2 sons he began to cooperate with the authorities as an act of vengeance to the notorious Corleonesi. Buschetta testified at the maxi trials in Palermo where over 400 Mafiosi would be convicted although many were overturned by a corrupt judge, judge Carnevale nicknamed sentence killer.

Riina was also convicted even though he would not attend the maxi trials, Riina was supposedly a fugitive even though he never left Palermo. For nearly 20 years Riina avoided arrest thanks largely to the amount of law enforcement officers who were paid off so he could walk around Sicily like a free man.

Soon enough though Riina would be walking around freely no more. In 1993 Riina was
arrested after roughly twenty years on the lam. He was picked up in Palermo at midday,
a victim of the massive police crackdown sweeping across southern Italy. The authorities
and public were outraged at the senseless murders of 2 anti Mafia judges, Giovanni Falcone
and Paulo Borselino. Toto Riina is serving life behind bars but his underboss Bernardo Provenzano is now the head of the cupola.

You can read more of his "work" here:
Salvatore "Toto" Riina



[ October 30, 2001: Message edited by: Don_Michel ]

[ December 31, 2001: Message edited by: Don_Michel ]