Was Andreotti actually a MEMBER? I know he was thoroughly in collusion with the mafia, like Dell Utri and to an extent Berlusconi but he wasn't an actual member, was he?
Makes me wonder, what's the highest an actual mafioso has risen in front line politics? Obviously they've managed to infiltrate Italian politics to the highest level at various times, but what about actual mafioso politicians - and I mean outside the countless members on town/village councils in rural Sicily and Calabria.
That's an interesting question. I read about some mayors who were made members of the mafia and bosses of their own families, like Giuseppe Biondolillo from Cerda, but these were mostly small towns, almost villages. There was the mayor of Castelvetrano though, Antonino Vaccarino, who was the consigliere of Francesco Messina Denaro's family. He was surely made, if the informant Vincenzo Calcara was telling the truth: he said Vaccarino was the one presiding over the ceremony of him being made.
Also, there was the mayor of Palermo, Vito Ciancimino, a close ally of Toto' Riina, but nobody seems to know if he was ever made.
As for Andreotti, I doubt he was actually made, although some informant said he was. But they usually son't make non-Sicilians.
