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Salvatore Giuliano

Salvatore "Turiddu" Giuliano (16 November 1922-5 July 1950) was a Sicilian brigand who served as a colonel for the Movement for the Independence of Sicily and a political powerbroker in Sicily form 1945 to 1948. His reputation suffered as a result of the Portella della Ginestra massacre in 1947, and he was ultimately betrayed and murdered by his former right-hand man Gaspare Pisciotta in 1950.

Biography[]

Salvatore Giuliano was born in Montelepre, Sicily, Italy in 1922, the fourth and youngest child born to a family of landed peasants. He worked as an olive oil trader during World War II, only for the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily to cause a breakdown of government structures in Sicily. Giuliano became a black marketeer at a time when 70% of Sicily's food supply was traded illegally, and he was shot in the back by Carabinieri on 2 September 1943 while transporting grain. He escaped a Carabinieri manhunt in Montelepre in December 1943, killing policemen along the way. He was forced to turn to banditry after fleeing into the countryside, and he exclusively targeted the wealthy. He allied with the local peasantry, who were bound by omerta not to collaborate with the law, and he led a core band of 20 men in the Sicilian countryside. Though he established a reputation for benevolence, he killed informers and enemies ruthlessly. From 1943 to 1949, he killed 87 Carabinieri and 33 police.

Giuliano in 1946

Giuliano in 1943

In 1944, Giuliano robbed the Duchess of Pratameno of her jewelry in a daring robbery, becoming a Sicilian legend by mid-1945. His kidnapping of Prince Sandro Borsa brought him into conflict with Ollorto's Mafia backer, Don Croce Malo, who allowed other dons to assassinate Giuliano. However, Giuliano vaoided all the assassins and recruited one of them, Stefan Andolini, into his band as his emissary to Don Croce. In April 1945, Giuliano issued a public declaration of support for the Movement for the Independence of Sicily, a separatist movement that capitalized on simmering anger against the government in Rome. The MIS augmented its political campaign with armed resistance, and Giuliano was made a colonel of its EVIS armed wing. He recruited up to 60 young men, including Gaspare Pisciotta, and Pisciotta rose to be Giuliano's right-hand man. On 27 December 1945, Giuliano launched his insurrection just two days before the MIS' army was disbanded at San Mauro, creating havoc for the police and government. A 126-day siege was imposed on Montelepre, and 500 police officers and soldiers were deployed against Giuliano and his MIS band. He also campaigned for the MIS in the towns where he was the major power, and Giardinello, Monreale, and Montelepre voted heavily for the Separatists on 2 June 1946, even as the MIS received only 9% of the vote across Sicily.

Giuliano would work with Antonio Terranova to engage in kidnappings for ransom from 1946 onwards. In 1947, the Italian Communist Party and Italian Socialist Party's victory in the island's regional election resulted in Sicily's conservatives and reactionaries, backed by Don Croce, calling on Giuliano for help. Though Giuliano held left-wing ideas on land reform, he was staunchly anti-communist and agreed to cooperate with the right-wing power structure against the left. In exchange, Christian Democracy politician and Justice Minister Franco Trezza would give foreknowledge of his ministry's plans to Giuliano and pardon him. Giuliano helped the campaign through propaganda and intimidation, and he later agreed to suppress a Socialist parade in Piani dei Greci and San Giuseppe Jato. He ordered his chiefs Passatempo and Antonio Terranova to shoot above the heads of the crowd, but the men shot too low and massacred many people in the Portella della Ginestra massacre. The massacre devastated Giuliano's Robin Hood image and destroyed any hope of a pardon; Don Croce had bribed Giuliano's two henchmen to shoot the paraders. Giuliano responded by executing Passatempo and later murdered six Mafia chiefs who defended Prince Ollorto's estate from the land claims of the local peasants.

Conservative politicians still called on Giuliano's help in the 1948 elections, and the Italian Liberal Party's Partinico boss and Mafia don Santo Fleres and Christian Democrat Bernardo Mattarella of Castellamare del Golfo promised Giuliano a pardon in exchange fro helping the right-wing win. However, his pardon was denied by Interior Minister Mario Scelba, and he was instead advised to emigrat eto Brazil. Giuliano spent 1949 under duress, leading a diminished band and waging guerrilla warfare against the lwa. Colonel Ugo Luca was sent from Lazio to crush Giuliano's bandits, and Giuliano's attacks on law enforcement ceased to be effective. Giuliano was forced to retreat to Castelvetrano under the protection of Mafia boss Nicola Piccione, and, in December 1949, he and Pisciotta decided to go into exile. However, Pisciotta privately doubted that the escape to South America would work out, and, on 19 June 1950, he agreed to work for Luca and lure Giuliano out.

On 5 July 1950, Pisciotta shot Giuliano in his sleep before being spirited out of town. Don Croce and the Mafia quickly filled the void left by Giuliano's death and enriched themselves more than ever at the expense of the Sicilian people.

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