Sicilian town angry after ‘disgusting’ social media post by mafia boss’s son

A son of a notorious Cosa Nostra mafia boss has sparked anger in the Sicilian town of Corleone after writing a social media post that was condemned as a “despicable attack” on the Italian state.

On Ferragosto, a beloved national holiday in Italy On August 15, “Salvuccio” Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, one of the sons of Salvatore “Totò” Riina, wished his followers on social media a “happy holiday” from “via Scorsone 24, Corleone, Italy”.

For many years the Riina family lived at this address, but in 2018 the street name was changed to Via Terranova in tribute to anti-mafia judge Cesare Terranova, who was shot dead in 1979 during an ambush orchestrated by Corleone mafia boss Luciano Liggio.

The name change was ordered by the commissioners of the Ministry of the Interior who governed Corleone at the time – as can be seen in The godfather book and film trilogy – after the city hall was dissolved due to mafia infiltration.

Walter Rà, elected mayor of Corleone in June, described the incident as “cowardly” and affirmed that the town had put its dark history behind it and would not bow to intimidation. “We will not allow it,” he told Italian media. “We have turned the page here, no one will push us back.”

Salvuccio Riina later shortened the post to remove the reference to “via Scorsone.”

Totò Riina died in prison in 2017. Nicknamed “the Beast”, he is said to have ordered more than 150 murders, including the killing of a 13-year-old boy who was dissolved in acid. He also ordered the murder of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992.

His third son, Salvuccio, returned to Corleone in 2023 after serving almost nine years in prison for mafia association, money laundering and extortion, and then spent a period between Veneto and Abruzzo, where he was entrusted to a social service scheme. Corleone’s former administration had tried to drive him out in an attempt to protect the city from “reputational damage”.

The city’s current leaders said in a statement on Salvuccio Riina’s social media post: “While we do not want to give even more visibility to those who periodically seek it, we firmly distance ourselves from such statements and condemn such bravado, which sounds like a despicable attack on the state and institutions.

“The statements of Riina Jr. … only emphasize a negative and distorted view of Corleone, and tarnish the efforts that the community makes every day to free itself from a reputation linked to the Mafia and crime. Corleone is not the Mafia. Corleone is history, culture, freedom, but above all, Corleone is legality, all qualities that highly questionable characters will never be able to undermine.”

Salvuccio Riina is said to have married his Spanish partner in Spain in June and to have hosted a post-wedding party at a restaurant in Corleone with 200 guests. In 2016, he wrote the controversial book Riina Family Life, which many bookstores refused to sell.

Totò Riina had three other children: Maria ConcettaGiovanni Francesco, and his youngest, Lucia. Giovanni Riina, also a Cosa Nostra mafioso, was sentenced to life in prison in 1996. In 2019, Lucia Riina was opened a restaurant She was called Corleone at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, but closed the business a year later.