Michele "Il Papa" Greco (12 May 1924–13 February 2008) was the boss of the Greco Mafia clan from 1978 to 1987, succeeding Salvatore Greco and preceding Filippo La Rosa. An influential member of the Commission, Greco was a secret longtime ally of Corleonesi boss Salvatore Riina, and aided him in his campaign against the other Palermo Mafia clans in the 1980s.
Biography[]
Greco was born on 12 May 1924 to an Italian family in Ciaculli, Sicily. His father, Giuseppe "Piddu u tinenti" Greco, was a high-ranking member of their family Mafia clan, and his cousin, Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, was the boss. Michele became a mafioso in his youth, and following Salvatore and his loyalists going into hiding after the infamous Ciaculli massacre of 1963, this led Michele and his brother Salvatore "The Senator" to broaden their influence within Cosa Nostra, establishing firm links with public officials due to their statuses as Freemasons; Michele soon went into expanding his influence in as many illicit schemes as possible, including his control of the water supply in Palermo and scamming the European Economic Community by destroying citrus crops he had never grown. In 1978, Greco replaced his cousin as boss of the clan and took up his seat on the Commission, becoming its ruling leader and acting as a mediator between the Palermo clans and their drug trafficking partners, the Gambino crime family in New York City, earning him the moniker "Il Papa" (the Pope) for it. However, despite presenting himself as a peacemaker, Greco was in fact an ally of the rebellious Corleonesi clan and its boss Salvatore Riina, who looked to kill all the Palermo bosses who stood in his way to take control of Cosa Nostra. In 1981, Riina launched his campaign, and Greco collaborated with him, using his rural estate In Palermo as a "killing ground" where various mafiosi, such as Rosario Riccobono or Salvatore Scaglione were murdered. Greco was arrested and later prosecuted during the Maxi Trial in 1986. On 16 December 1987, Greco was found guilty of 78 counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in a prison in Rome on 13 February 2008, aged 83.