Italian crime boss and member of the Sicilian Mafia
Salvatore Riina
Mugshot of Totò Riina after his arrest in 1993
Born
(1930-11-16)16 November 1930
Corleone, Italy
Died
17 November 2017(2017-11-17) (aged 87)
Parma, Italy
Nationality
Italian
Other names
"Toto u curtu" (Totò the Short) "La belva" (The Beast) "Il capo dei capi" (The Boss of the Bosses)
Occupation
Mafia boss
Criminal status
Deceased (imprisoned from 1993)
Spouse
Antonia Bagarella
(m. 1974)
Children
4
Relatives
Leoluca Bagarella (brother-in-law)
Allegiance
Corleonesi
Conviction(s)
Mafia association Multiple murders
Criminal charge
Mafia association Multiple murders
Penalty
26 Life sentences
Salvatore Riina (Italian pronunciation:[salvaˈtoːre(toˈtɔr)riˈiːna]; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called Totò (sicilian diminutive of Salvatore), was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, resulting in widespread public outcry and a major crackdown by the authorities. He was also known by the nicknames la belva ("the beast") and il capo dei capi (Sicilian: 'u capu di 'i capi, "the boss of bosses").
Riina succeeded Luciano Leggio as head of the Corleonesi criminal organisation in the mid-1970s and achieved dominance through a campaign of violence, which caused police to target his rivals. Riina had been a fugitive since the late 1960s after he was indicted on a murder charge. He was less vulnerable to law enforcement's reaction to his methods, as the policing removed many of the established chiefs who had traditionally sought influence through bribery. In violation of established Mafia codes, Riina advocated the killing of women and children and killed blameless members of the public solely to distract law enforcement agencies.[1] Hitman Giovanni Brusca estimated he murdered between 100 and 200 people on behalf of Riina. Although this scorched-earth policy neutralized any internal threat to Riina's position, he increasingly showed a lack of his earlier guile by bringing his organisation into open confrontation with the state. As part of the Maxi Trial of 1986, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for Mafia association and multiple murders. After 23 years of living as a fugitive, he was captured in 1993, provoking a series of indiscriminate bombings of art galleries and churches by his organisation. His lack of repentance subjected him to the stringent Article 41-bis prison regime until his death on 17 November 2017.
^"' E Toto' Riina Ci Ordino' Uccidete I Bimbi Dei Pentiti'" (in Italian). repubblica.it. 24 April 1994. Archived from the original on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
SalvatoreRiina (Italian pronunciation: [salvaˈtoːre (toˈtɔ r)riˈiːna]; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called Totò (sicilian diminutive of Salvatore)...
Commission in 1992 was made up by SalvatoreRiina for the province of Palermo, Nitto Santapaola for the province of Catania, Salvatore Saitta for the province of...
Provenzano also participated in the Viale Lazio massacre in the late 1960s. SalvatoreRiina succeeded Leggio in the mid-1970s, and Provenzano became the second-in-command...
Bontade, Salvatore Inzerillo and Rosario Riccobono, he was considered one of the main rivals of the Corleonesi Mafia clan of SalvatoreRiina during the...
Riina may refer to: SalvatoreRiina Charlie RiinaRiina (given name) This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Riina. If an internal...
Mafia, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio, SalvatoreRiina, Bernardo Provenzano, and Leoluca Bagarella. Corleonesi affiliates...
trade. Leggio was imprisoned in 1974, so he acted through his deputy SalvatoreRiina, to whom he eventually handed over control. The Corleonesi bribed cash-strapped...
represented by SalvatoreRiina as Liggio was in hiding on the Italian mainland. When Liggio was captured in 1974 and imprisoned for murder, Riina soon took...
criminals in the world. With the deaths of Bernardo Provenzano in 2016 and SalvatoreRiina in 2017, Messina Denaro was seen as the unchallenged boss of all bosses...
bloody Mafia war. A new dominant group within the Mafia, headed by Salvatore (Totò) Riina, of Corleone, killed and replaced the traditional bosses of Palermo...
of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone. Following SalvatoreRiina's arrest in early 1993, Bagarella became the head of the stragist strategy...
2007. It tells the story of SalvatoreRiina, alias Totò u Curtu (Totò the Short), a mafioso boss from Corleone, Sicily. Riina is played by Palermo-born...
just 17 years old, Giuseppe Marchese was initiated into the Mafia by SalvatoreRiina and Leoluca Bagarella as ‘reserved’ man of honour affiliated with the...
it turned out, Michele Greco had been allied with SalvatoreRiina and the Corleonesi all along. Riina had used Greco's position on the commission to help...
in Palermo were Salvatore Lo Piccolo and Antonio Rotolo, capo mandamento of Pagliarelli, a Corleonesi loyalist in the days of Totò Riina. In a message referring...
closely allied with the Corleonesi, and specifically with their bosses, SalvatoreRiina and Bernardo Provenzano, who would come to dominate the Sicilian Mafia...
growing power of Totò Riina and the Corleonesi who were increasingly challenging the established Mafia families of Palermo. Salvatore Inzerillo ordered the...
survived. Salvatore Cancemi, who later turned pentito, described the Mafia's victory celebration that followed the Capaci bombing; Totò Riina ordered champagne...
a government witness. (in Italian) Riina mi fece i nomi di… Confessioni di un ex boss della Cupola (2002) Salvatore Cancemi and Giorgio Bongiovanni, Massari...
Italian law enforcement officials during the reign of SalvatoreRiina, also known as "Toto Riina". In Sicily the term Excellent Cadavers is used to distinguish...
Giuseppe Morello, Michele Navarra, Luciano Leggio, Leoluca Bagarella, SalvatoreRiina and Bernardo Provenzano. It is also the birthplace of several fictional...
Antonio Bassolino, compared the arrest to that of Sicilian Mafia chief SalvatoreRiina in 1993. Schiavone is now serving a life sentence after a criminal...
trade. Leggio was imprisoned in 1974, so he acted through his deputy SalvatoreRiina, to whom he eventually handed over control. The Corleonesi bribed cash-strapped...
Second Mafia War — when the Corleonesi allies of Michele Greco and SalvatoreRiina attacked the established Mafia families of Palermo — the Corleonesi...
Mafia boss and perennial fugitive Bernardo Provenzano, but regarded SalvatoreRiina as irrational. In the aftermath of Mafia bomb outrages in the 1990s...
SalvatoreRiina, who was then aged 19 and starting a six-year sentence for manslaughter. The two eventually became accomplices in crime after Riina's...
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