Salvatore Riina (16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017) was an Italian crime boss and Don of the Corleonesi clan of the Sicilian Mafia from 1974 to 1993, succeeding Luciano Leggio and preceding Bernardo Provenzano.
Biography[]
Salvatore Riina was born in Corleone, Sicily, Italy in 1930, and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for murder at the age of 19, only to be released in 1956. He soon became involved in the Corleonesi mafia clan, taking part in the murder of crime boss Michele Navarra in 1958 and aiding Luciano Leggio in his subsequent rise to power. He and Leggio were arrested and tried in 1969 for murders carried out earlier that decade, but they were acquitted due to the intimidation of the jurors and witnesses. Riina went on to be a fugitive for the next 23 years, and, after Leggio's arrest in 1974, Riina became the new Don of the Corleonesi. From 1981 to 1983, he took on the rival crime bosses Stefano Bontade, Salvatore Inzerillo, and Gaetano Badalamenti in the "Second Mafia War" with the help of his lieutenant Bernardo Provenzano, and, over the next few years, he also eliminated his allies Filippo Marchese, Giuseppe Greco, and Rosario Riccobono. His would-be victim Tommaso Buscetta fled to Brazil in 1980 and became an informant against him, and Riina attempted to distract the government with a series of terrorist attacks blamed on political extremists; most famous among them was the December 1984 Train 904 bombing. He was given two life sentences in absentia during the Maxi Trial, and he retaliated by ordering the assassinations of Salvatore Lima and Giovanni Falcone in 1992. On 17 September 1992, he murdered Ignazio Salvo for advising him against Falcone's murder. He was arrested at his villa in Palermo by Carabinieri on 15 January 1993 after Riina's disillusioned subordinate Balduccio Di Maggio betrayed him. Riina was sentenced to 26 consecutive life sentences and died in prison in 2017.