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Luciano Leggio (; 6 January 1925 – 15 November 1993) was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone. He is universally known by the surname Liggio, a result of a misspelling in court documents in the 1960s. Obituary: Luciano Liggio, The Independent, 17 November 1993
As well as setting the Corleonesi on track to become the dominant Mafia clan in Sicily, he became infamous for avoiding convictions for a multitude of crimes, including homicide, before he was finally imprisoned for life in 1974.
While behind bars in the late 1940s, he met Salvatore Riina, who was then aged 19 and starting a six-year sentence for manslaughter. The two eventually became accomplices in crime after Riina's release, as did two other young local criminals, Calogero Bagarella and Bernardo Provenzano.
On 10 March 1948, Placido Rizzotto, trade unionist, was kidnapped and murdered. The following year, two men confessed to helping Leggio kidnap Rizzotto, who shot the victim and dumped the body in a cavern.Dickie, Cosa Nostra, p. 333 Leggio went into hiding, and was tried twice in absentia for Rizzotto's murder. Identificati dopo 64 anni i resti di Rizzotto il sindacalista che combatteva la mafia di Liggio
A few weeks later, on 2 August 1958, Navarra and a fellow doctor (Giovanni Russo, who had nothing to do with criminal activities) were both shot to death on an isolated country road as they drove home in Navarra's Fiat 1100. The car was blocked on the open road by two other vehicles and riddled with submachine gun bullets. A few weeks later, on September 6, three men known as friends of Navarra were killed in a raid at Corleone. Reciprocal killings went on until 1963 and Leggio had to disappear, having been condemned for the killing of Navarra.Schneider & Schneider, Reversible Destiny, p. 59-60http://archiviopiolatorre.camera.it/img-repo/DOCUMENTAZIONE/Antimafia/01_rel_p03_2.pdf
Leggio thus became the boss of the Corleone Mafia. Among Navarra's suspected killers were Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Riina. Profile: Bernardo Provenzano, BBC News, 11 April 2006
The trial was regarded as farcical, with reports of blatant witness intimidation and evidence tampering. For example, fragments of a broken car light found at the Navarra murder scene which had been identified as belonging to an Alfa Romeo car owned by Leggio had, by the time of the trial, been replaced by bits of a broken light from a completely different make of car.
In February 1971, Leggio ordered the kidnapping for extortion of Antonino Caruso, son of the industrialist Giacomo Caruso, and also that of the son of the builder Francesco Vassallo in Palermo.http://archiviopiolatorre.camera.it/img-repo/DOCUMENTAZIONE/Antimafia/02_rel_6.pdf Leggio was linked to the murder of the General Attorney of Sicily, Pietro Scaglione, who was shot dead on 5 May 1971 with his police bodyguard Antonino Lo Russo.http://archiviopiolatorre.camera.it/img-repo/DOCUMENTAZIONE/Antimafia/04_rel_02.pdf
He is believed to have retained significant influence from behind bars, including commissioning the 1977 murder of Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Russo. Leggio had ordered the 1979 killing of Judge Terranova as a revenge for the insult at the interrogation in the 1960s; the murder was approved by the Sicilian Mafia Commission. Omicidio Terranova: La verità di Di Carlo, Centonove, 6 March 1998 Leggio was charged with ordering Terranova's murder, but was acquitted for lack of evidence, both in the first trial, which was held in Reggio Calabria in 1983, and three years later, in 1986, in the appeal process. L'uccisero i «corleonesi» di Liggio, La Sicilia, 25 September 2011 By the end of the 1970s, his lieutenant Salvatore Riina was in control of the Corleonesi clan.
In the Maxi Trial of 1986/87, the jury rejected the prosecution's call for 15 years imprisonment for Leggio, and the jury acquitted him of four murders that prosecutors charged he had masterminded from his jail cell in Sardinia.
On 15 November 1993, he died in prison from a heart attack, aged 68. Luciano Leggio; Mafia Boss, 68, The New York Times, 16 November 1993 He is buried in Corleone.
Capture
Leggio was captured in Corleone on 14 May 1964, at the house of Leoluchina Sorisi, the former girlfriend of Rizzotto. Leggio was imprisoned at Ucciardone prison in Palermo, but in December 1968 he was acquitted for lack of evidence in the trial held in Catanzaro against the protagonists of the First Mafia War, and also of that held in Bari in 1969, in which he was accused of the murders that took place in Corleone starting in 1958.
(2005). 9781403970428, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403970428 The judges and prosecutors were sent anonymous letters threatening them with death.
Fugitive again
Immediately after the trial, which ended in 1969, a determined Italian magistrate named Cesare Terranova appealed against Leggio's acquittal for the Navarra slaying. After hearing of his indicted to stand trial once more, Leggio checked into a private health clinic in Rome to have treatment for Pott disease, which he had suffered from most of his life and for which he had to wear a brace. Leggio then relocated to
Life imprisonment and death
Leggio was finally captured in Milan on 16 May 1974. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975, and imprisoned at the Badu 'e Carros prison in Nuoro, Sardinia.
In popular culture
External links
Categories: 1925 Births, 1993 Deaths, Corleonesi, Italian Prisoners Sentenced To Life Imprisonment, People Convicted Of Murder By Italy, People Acquitted Of Murder, Prisoners Sentenced To Life Imprisonment By Italy, Sicilian Mafiosi Sentenced To Life Imprisonment, Prisoners Who Died In Italian Detention, Sicilian Mafia Commission
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