Outrage in Corleone, Sicily, over ‘provocative’ post by son of notorious mafia boss

A social media post by the son of a notorious Cosa Nostra mafia boss has sparked outrage in the Sicilian town of Corleone, undermining the community’s efforts to shed the stigma attached to its dark organized crime past.

On August 15, the day Italians celebrate Ferragosto, “Salvuccio” Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, son of Salvatore “Totò” Riina, the head of the Sicilian Mafia from 1974 until his arrest in 1993, posted a holiday greeting on social media: “Happy holidays from 24 Scorsone Street, in Corleone.”

According to The Guardian, for many years this was the address of the Riina family’s home in the town, but in 2018 the street was renamed from “Scorsone” to “Terranova”, in honour of judge Cesare Terranova, who fought against the Mafia and was killed in a deadly ambush in 1979 by Luciano Leggio, another leading figure in the local Mafia.

Walter Ra, who was elected mayor of Corleone in June last year, described the move by “Salvuccio” Riina as “cowardly” and stressed that the city has definitively left its dark past behind and will not succumb to any form of intimidation. “We will not allow it. We have turned the page and no one will force us to go back,” the newly elected mayor said in an interview with Italian media.

A statement from the authorities went on to stress that statements like those made by “Salvuccio” Riina “sound like a vulgar attack on the State and its institutions.” “All they do is promote a negative and distorted image of Corleone, and undermine the efforts that the community makes every day to rid itself of a reputation associated with the Mafia and criminality. Corleone is not the Mafia. Corleone is history, culture, freedom, but above all legality.”

It is notable that “Salvuccio” Riina later removed the reference to “Via Scorsone” from his post.

Corleone was repeatedly in the spotlight in the 20th century as the birthplace of many Mafia bosses, including Bernardo Provenzano and “Totò” Riina. The city gained worldwide fame through Mario Puzo’s novel “The Godfather” (1969), which chronicles the life of fictional Mafia boss Vito Corleone and his family. The first film adaptation was directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1972, starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. The film won three Academy Awards and was a worldwide success, and was followed by two more in 1974 and 1990.

“Totò” Riina died in prison in 2017. Nicknamed “the Beast” for his brutality, he is said to have ordered more than 150 murders, including that of a 13-year-old boy whose body was later dissolved in acid. In the early 1990s, Riina ordered the killings of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, crimes that shocked Italy and led to a massive crackdown by law enforcement.

The mafia boss’s third son, “Salvuccio” Riina, returned to Corleone for good in 2023 after serving nearly nine years in prison for mafia connections, money laundering and extortion. The previous administration in Corleone had tried in vain to oust him in order to protect the city from further “damage to its reputation.”