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Giuseppe Greco (; 4 January 1952 – September 1985) was an Italian hitman and high-ranking member of the Sicilian Mafia. A number of sources refer to him exclusively as Pino Greco, although Giuseppe was his Christian name; Pino is a frequent abbreviation of the name Giuseppe.
One of the most prolific killers in criminal history, he was affiliated with the Ciaculli mafia family. Despite his surname, he was not related to the boss of Ciaculli Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco nor to the boss of Croceverde-Giardini Michele Greco. His father was also a Mafioso nicknamed Scarpa (Italian for "shoe"), hence his nickname of Scarpuzzedda, or "little shoe".
The Croceverde-Giardini cosca was closely allied with the Corleonesi, and specifically with their bosses, Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who would come to dominate the Sicilian Mafia in a violent Mafia war.
Greco gunned down Stefano Bontade, Salvatore Inzerillo, Pio La Torre and police officer Ninni Cassarà in 1985. He even murdered Inzerillo's fifteen-year-old son after the youth vowed to avenge his murdered father. Greco is rumoured to have chopped the boy's arm off before shooting him in the head and dissolving his corpse in acid.Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers, p.112.
On 25 June 1981 he failed in his attempt to ambush and kill future pentito Salvatore Contorno, and Contorno managed to shoot his would-be assassin in the chest, in a bulletproof vest saving Greco's life. Greco and his accomplices would subsequently retaliate against Contorno by murdering many of his friends and relatives in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to flush him out.
He rarely worked alone, instead leading a "death squad" that included Mario Prestifilippo, Nino Madonia, Filippo Marchese, Vincenzo Puccio, Gianbattista Pullarà, Giuseppe Lucchese, Caloger Ganci and Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino. Like Greco, they were all fugitives with numerous warrants issued for their arrest.
He participated in the so-called "Christmas Massacre" when, on the afternoon of 25 December 1981, in Bagheria, three Mafiosi – including Giovanni Di Peri, the boss of Villabate – and an innocent bystander were murdered. Filippo Marchese and his nephew Giuseppe also took part in the bloodshed. In the summer of 1982, he also participated in the Circonvallazione massacre and in the Via Carini massacre where prefect Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa and his wife were shot to death with an AK-47 by Antonino Madonia. Dalla Chiesa's escort, police officer Domenico Russo, was also mortally wounded
Greco worked particularly closely with Filippo Marchese, the boss of the Corso dei Mille neighbourhood in Palermo and another close ally of the Corleonesi. Marchese ran the so-called "Room of Death", a small apartment along the Piazza Sant Erasmo where victims were tortured and murdered before being thrown into vats of acid or dismembered then dumped out in the Mediterranean. According to pentito Vincenzo Sinagra, Greco helped Marchese carry out many killings there, he and Marchese garotte victims together, looping a length of rope around the victim's neck and each of them pulling on one end. Sinagra said it was usually his duty to hold the victim's kicking feet. At the end of the summer of 1982, Greco murdered Marchese on the orders of Riina. The Mafia War was dying down and Riina had decided Marchese was no longer of any use.
On 30 November 1982 Greco personally strangled to death Palermo boss Rosario Riccobono, the long-time ruler of the Partanna-Mondello family. Both Riccobono and Noce boss Salvatore Scaglione had originally been close allies to Stefano Bontade and Salvatore Inzerillo, only to later betray them and kill a number of their own friends and associates on behalf of Riina when it became clear the Corleonesi were winning the war. However, when they had outlived his usefulness, Riina decided to have them eliminated. The Corleonesi invited Riccobono, Scaglione and three other men to a meeting in a country villa between San Giuseppe Jato and Monreale, and shortly after their arrival, they were separated and massacred by Pino Greco, Giovanni Brusca and their team of killers. Following the massacre, many men loyal to both bosses were murdered in Palermo.
By then, Greco was believed to be the underboss of the Ciaculli family. Rather than delegate murders to his underlings, however, he continued to personally take part in them himself. On 29 July 1983 he and Nino Madonia parked the car bomb (a Fiat 126 loaded with explosives) that killed magistrate Rocco Chinnici and three other people: the two carabinieri of the escort (marshall Mario Trapassi and corporal Salvatore Bartolotta) and Stefano Li Sacchi, the porter of the building in Via Pipitone where Chinnici lived. The one survivor was Giovanni Paparcuri, the driver of Chinnici's car.
In order to weaken Greco's position, Riina ordered the massacre of Piazza Scaffa, when eight people were killed in the Ciaculli mandamento. The victims were gunned down with shotguns in a barn. Greco was not informed as part of a deliberate strategy to show his lack of effective power over the territory under his jurisdiction.Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, p. 239.
One of his last crimes was leading a large hit squad that ambushed and shot to death police investigator Antonino Cassarà on 6 August 1985. One of Cassarà's bodyguards (Roberto Antiochia) also died and another one, Natale Mondo, was unharmed, only to be killed on 14 January 1988. Three years earlier, Cassarà had issued a report leading to the arrest of 163 prominent Mafiosi, including Giuseppe Greco, the members of his death squad, and Michele Greco.
Giuseppe Greco was given an in absentia life sentence as part of the Maxi Trial in 1987 after being found guilty of 58 counts of murder, even though he was dead by then. As a strategy to delay and weaken the reactions of Greco's followers, Riina ordered the body to be dissolved in acid whilst in the meantime he told other Mafiosi that Greco was in hiding in the United States. Rumours of Greco's death surfaced in 1988 and these were only confirmed to the authorities by an informant, Francesco Marino Mannoia, the following year.
Francesco's brother, Agostino Marino Mannoia, was present at Greco's murder although only as a witness; he told his brother Francesco that he did not know the killing was due to take place. Agostino said that he was downstairs in Greco's house with another Mafioso whilst their host was upstairs talking with Puccio and Lucchese. After hearing shots, Agostino ran upstairs to see Greco lying dead and Puccio and Lucchese standing over him, the latter holding a smoking gun and subsequently explaining that he and Puccio had taken care of a problem on behalf of Riina.Stille, Excellent Cadavers, p.306 Agostino explained all this to his brother Francesco, and it was Agostino's murder in early 1989 that prompted Francesco to become an informant.
Another informant who had been one of Greco's friends, Salvatore Cancemi, subsequently told investigators that shortly after Greco's death Riina had approached him and explained to Cancemi: "You know we've found the medicine for madmen?...We've killed "Little Shoe"; he'd become crazy."
References and external links
Categories: 1952 Births, 1985 Deaths, 1985 Murders In Italy, Deaths By Firearm In Italy, Gangsters From The Metropolitan City Of Palermo, Greco Mafia Clan, Italian Mass Murderers, Italian Murderers Of Children, Italian Murder Victims, Italian People Convicted Of Murdering Police Officers, Mafia Hitmen, Mafiosi Murdered By The Corleonesi, Murdered Italian Gangsters, People Convicted In Absentia, People Convicted Of Murder By Italy, People Murdered In Sicily, Prisoners Sentenced To Life Imprisonment By Italy, Sicilian Mafia Commission, Sicilian Mafiosi Sentenced To Life Imprisonment
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