Salvatore Giuliano

Over the years doubts about Giuliano's death have been expressed. According to some Giuliano fled from Sicily to Tunis and went on to live in the United States. The historian Giuseppe Casarrubea, son of one of the victims of Giuliano, compiled material to demonstrate that the body buried as Giuliano belonged to someone else. On 15 October 2010, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Palermo decided to exhume the body and compare its DNA with living relatives of Giuliano.

The DNA tests showed a 90% likelihood that the skeleton belongs to Giuliano. The DNA match between the skeleton and Giuliano's relations means that Sicilian prosecutors are now archiving the probe they opened in 2010 into the possibility that someone was murdered and passed off as Giuliano.

An opera, Salvatore Giuliano, was composed in 1985 by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero and premiered on 25 January 1986 at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. The libretto outlines in short, graphic scenes the network of intrigue between Sicilian independence activists, Mafia and State that surrounds, and eventually destroys, the bandit hero.

Novelist Mario Puzo published The Sicilian, a dramatized version of Giuliano's life, in 1984. The book was made into a film in 1987, directed by Michael Cimino and starring Christopher Lambert as Giuliano.

At a sparsely attended Separatist commemorative ceremony in 1980, his sister Mariannina gave her view of his character: "He was good and honest. Turridu did what he did only from fear and out of poverty."

A film of his life, Salvatore Giuliano, was directed by Francesco Rosi in 1961.

On 10 February 1954, a few days after he talked to Pietro Scaglione, an assistant prosecutor from Palermo, Aspanu Pisciotta was assassinated by poison in his cell at Ucciardone Prison in Palermo while breakfasting with his cellmate father. The dose was a substantial 20 centigrams of strychnine, enough to kill 40 dogs. When Ciro Verdiani and Cusumano Geloso died before their natural life expectancies, suspicions of poisoning were voiced. Benedetto Minasola was murdered in 1960. The Mafioso suspected of poisoning Pisciotta was shot in 1961, and Scaglione was killed by the Mafia while serving as Prosecutor General of Palermo in 1971.

Pisciotta and eleven other members of the Giuliano band were convicted for the massacre in 1952. While alive, Giuliano himself made various, somewhat inconsistent statements about the matter, always insisting that the bloodshed was unintended. He threatened to reveal the names of the men behind his actions, but never did. During the trial for the massacre, Pisciotta named the main conspirators as Leone Marchesano, a Palermo Mafioso and politician, and Prince Giuseppe Aliata of Monreale, with politician Cusumano Geloso as their intermediary—Pisciotta met only Geloso. His claims were confirmed by a letter delivered in 1969 to Giuseppe Montalbano, a long time leftist opponent of the reactionary establishment of Sicily. The writer, Antonio Ramirez—a prominent Palermo politician—ordered the letter delivered after his death. It stated that Gioacchino Barbera, a ranking Mafioso, had confirmed Pisciotta's accusations concerning Sicilian power-brokers, and also confirmed Giuliano's claim that the main conspirators did not intend the massacre. Barbera revealed all this to Ramirez during a December 1951 conversation. Billy Jaynes Chandler concludes that Sicily's reactionary establishment was the casus belli of the massacre, but that thanks to omerta and time, the details will never be revealed. A plaque erected by leftists in memory of the victims at Portella della Ginestra blames "landed barons and the Mafia."*

A great deal of testimony, some the most dramatic of the proceedings, concerned a reputed diary that Giuliano kept, naming the powerful politicians with whom he collaborated. Pisciotta, Perenze, Luca, Marotta, and especially de Maria figured in its saga. De Maria was accused by a Mafioso, Stefano de Peri of telling him that he had destroyed the memoirs. None of the accused admitted to knowing what became of Giuliano's journal. Testimony concluded late in 1951, and in May 1952 twelve defendants, including Terranova and Pisciotta, were sentenced for life; four were given shorter sentences, and the remainder were acquitted. More trials followed: the last arrest of a Giuliano confederate on related charges was in 1964, and the last prisoner among them was released by 1980.

The widespread international press coverage he attracted made him an embarrassment to the Italian government, and throughout his banditry, up to 2,000 police and soldiers were deployed against him. He was murdered on 5 July 1950. The historian Eric Hobsbawm described him as the last of the "people's bandits" (à la Robin Hood) and the first to be covered in real time by modern mass media.

In January 1950 a Sicilian carabiniere, Giovanni Lo Bianco, coerced Giuliano's treasurer, Benedetto Minasola, into betraying the bandit. Minasola set up band members to be captured by the authorities one at a time until April, when Giuliano had no more active operatives. Minasola was then able to persuade Aspanu Pisciotta to betray his closest friend—Pisciotta was an easy target, having long doubted Verdiani's plot to get himself and Giuliano out of the country.

A trial, which officially concerned the massacre at Portella della Ginestra convened at Viterbo, Lazio on 12 June 1950, but was quickly adjourned and reconvened in 1951. It then spun into a wide examination of Giuliano's career. There were thirty six defendants, all with attorneys, many of whom wanted to expand the scope of the trial to embarrass the conservative government. All of the defendants except Pisciotta denied even being present at the May Day event. Pisciotta named many of the names previously cited, but also included Mario Scelba, Minister of the Interior. His revelations often occurred during barely coherent outburts—his behavior indicated a man in the grip of fear and uncertainty. On 11 May 1951, he admitted murdering Giuliano.

Although Giuliano was under considerable duress by the beginning of 1949, he still had strengths to draw from. While his core band was diminished, men from the vicinity would still join him for the high wages he offered until the last months of 1949. His kidnapping and extortion rackets still produced sufficient income. For the first eight months of the year, he dominated the forces of law in his bailiwick—staging numerous ambushes and occasionally attacking their headquarters.

Although Ciro Verdiani had been replaced and dispatched, he maintained his contacts and continued to meddle in Sicily. To spite Luca and their mutual superiors, in December 1949 he arranged for Jacopo Rizza of Oggi magazine to interview Giuliano and Pisciotta in the countryside near Salemi. The interview, published in successive issues of the weekly, caused a sensation and embarrassed the government. Verdiani did much more, meeting with Giuliano near Castelvetrano, also in December. He agreed to help Giuliano and Pisciotta into exile, although his ultimate aim was almost certainly to kill the bandits and claim credit for the deed. The two men remained in contact until the last day of Giuliano's life, but in the end Verdiani's machinations failed.

Giuliano's next foray into politics ended in disaster. In the 1947 Sicilian regional election, the MIS won 9% of the vote, but began a steady deterioration from which it never recovered. The winner of the election with 30% of the vote was the Popular Bloc, Communists-Socialists, against less than 20% for the Christian Democrats. The island's conservatives and reactionaries were alarmed, and called on Giuliano for help. Their main aim was to intimidate the peasantry and thwart calls for land reform and redistribution. Although Giuliano identified with the peasantry and had progressive ideas for land reform close to left-wing doctrine, he was staunchly anti-Communist, based on stories of the U.S. he heard from his parents. This, and his practical desire for a pardon from Sicily's power brokers, inclined him to cooperate with the existing, predominantly right-wing power structure against the left. Giuliano may have been influenced by his interview early in 1947 with US pulp journalist Michael Stern. The American wore his WWII journalist sergeant's uniform to lend himself official credibility during his interview. Giuliano spoke to Stern as though the writer represented the US government, presenting a letter addressed to President Truman. The bandit emphasized his antipathy for Communism to Stern, who did nothing to discourage the bandit's mistaken notion that he was an official representative of the U.S. government. The interview led to a 5-page article in Life Magazine, (23 Feb 1948, pp. 60–4). Stern's subterfuge may have unwittingly influenced the bandit to cooperate with the Sicilian right.

After the Portella della Ginestra massacre, Giuliano's family was interrogated regularly and often incarcerated. (His house was under such surveillance that he could no longer visit.) Moved by their plight and desperate for some sort of pardon, the bandit once again answered the call of conservative politicians to work on their behalf in the 1948 elections.

In 1948 the parties of the Italian right and center were determined to undo the left's 1947 victory, and they were seeking every possible vote. The politicians couldn't afford to ignore the votes Giuliano controlled. Leone Marchesano, Santo Fleres, head of the Mafia and the Liberal Party in Partinico, and prominent Christian Democrat Bernardo Mattarella from the Mafia stronghold of Castellamare del Golfo all talked directly with Giuliano—who would not campaign without promises from the highest level of Sicilian power brokers. He was guaranteed a full pardon if he delivered a large majority of the votes in his district. He delivered extravagant majorities for the center-right's victory on 18 April. The bandit waited for weeks after the election for word of his pardon—and he was finally informed that Minister of the Interior Mario Scelba, himself a Sicilian, had denied it, and advised that Giuliano and his men could emigrate to Brazil where Prince Aliata had vast estates and the bandits would be protected.

Giuliano, who had held up his end of a bargain, was outraged and promised retaliation. Shortly after seeing his mother and Mariannina for what would be the last time at a June picnic in the countryside, the bandit learned that, besides the broken promise of a pardon, Santo Fleres' Mafia faction was informing law enforcement of Giuliano's movements. On 17 July 1948 two local Partinico bandits, hired by Giuliano, assassinated Fleres in that town's square. Thereafter, most of the Mafia organizations worked against Giuliano, effectively sealing his eventual fate. In the first action by any Mafiosi after Fleres' death, Giuliano opted out late from a law enforcement-Mafia fake escape to Tunisia by speedboat, probably forewarned by a still friendly Mafia faction or politician. Law enforcement also stepped up its own campaign against the bandit—from the middle of 1948 until Giuliano's death Montelepre was occupied in some state of siege by law enforcement, making the inhabitants' lives miserable. By the end of the year, all of his family was imprisoned.

Toward the end of 1948, a bit of relief arrived in the person of Maria Cyliakus, a Swedish dilettante journalist estranged from her Greek industrialist husband. Through audacity and luck she managed to visit, interview, and photograph Giuliano in the mountains, enhancing his notoriety throughout Europe, and giving Cyliakus her own burst of celebrity status.

For the remainder of 1947, Giuliano maintained a low public profile while continuing his kidnap and ransom enterprise, occasionally engaging in ambushes and firefights with the law forces as opportunities presented themselves or to assert dominance in his area of operations. The killing of a Carabiniere colonel in October 1947 occasioned a brief incursion of 1000 law enforcers and mass arrests, but failed to capture Giuliano or any member of his band. In January 1948, Giuliano and Pisciotta felt secure enough to make an early evening appearance in a popular cafe' in the town of Carini. The event was covered well by the Sicilian press, which speculated that it followed a tryst in the same town.

After the revolt the MIS resumed its political campaign, which was plagued by poor organization. Through surrogates, Giuliano campaigned for the MIS in the towns where he was the major power. On 2 June 1946 Giardinello, Monreale, and Montelepre voted heavily for the Separatists, but island wide, they received only 9% of the vote.

For the rest of 1946 and until his death, Giuliano's main activity and source of revenue was kidnapping, often carried out by the squad of Antonio Terranova, the bandit's most formidable and resourceful operative. Giuliano and his men treated their captives well—almost chivalrously—often giving them favorite foods, reading to them to alleviate boredom, and providing necessary medicines. Negotiations were usually conducted through various mafiosi. More than one kidnap victim remembered time with Giuliano in a positive light, despite its hardships. Giuliano also used the threat of kidnapping to extort money from wealthy Sicilians—some preferred kidnapping because the bandit stuck to his own rule that no one would be kidnapped twice, while the number of extortions had no limit.

In April 1945 venturing onto the larger stage of politics, Giuliano issued a public declaration of his support for MIS, the Movement for the Independence of Sicily (also referred to as Separatism). Separatism coalesced in the aftermath of the invasion, drawing on long-simmering anger at Sicily's neglect by the central government, and the sudden fluidity of the political situation. The movement was dealt a severe blow when, for political and war strategy reasons, the Allies, who had courted, if not encouraged separatist leaders, handed control of Sicily to the Badoglio government in Rome in February 1944. Strong sentiment for independence still existed in Sicily, but the three main Italian political parties of post-war Italy, Christian Democratic, Communist, and Socialist—were all opposed to Sicilian independence. After a government enabled campaign of violent repression, the MIS decided to augment its political campaign with armed resistance. Their small armed contingent, the EVIS, operated in Catania Province in eastern Sicily. To strengthen their forces and divert attention from their army, the leaders of MIS and EVIS enlisted Giuliano, who after negotiating for substantial funding, accepted the rank of Colonel, and agreed to conduct an armed campaign in his zone. He recruited 40–60 young men (in addition to his regular band), provided them with uniforms, ranks, and weapons, and trained them. Among the recruits was Gaspare Pisciotta, nicknamed Aspanu. He and Turi would be virtually inseparable friends for the rest of Giuliano's life, and by the end of the MIS military campaign Pisciotta would become his second-in-command, also for the rest of the chieftain's life. Contrary to many reports, the Montelepre native was neither a cousin, nor a close childhood friend of Giuliano.

On 27 December 1945, Giuliano launched his insurrection with an attack on a Carabinieri outpost—two days before the MIS army was put out of existence at San Mauro. Their campaign, the most publicly spectacular of the bandit's career, created havoc for the police forces and government. Martial law was declared in Montelepre and the surrounding region on 13 January 1946, and continued for 126 days—at times incorporating army units. Giuliano's campaign was so effective that up to 500 police officers and soldiers were deployed against him. During the MIS campaign, the national Minister of the Interior Giuseppe Romita offered 800,000 lire for the capture of Giuliano—who responded with a 2 million lire reward for the capture of Romita. The chieftain and his men eventually realized the political hopelessness of their situation, and the revolt dissolved, as the new recruits went back to their ordinary lives. Giuliano helped at least 2 of his men to emigrate to the U.S. The EVIS campaign drew widespread news coverage, and made the bandit an international figure.

On Christmas Eve 1943, the Carabinieri moved into Montelepre to apprehend Giuliano. The operation included mass arrests—a dragnet. He escaped, but angered by the dragnet, he shot and killed another officer. Benefitting from his intimate knowledge of the surrounding mountainous terrain Giulano was able to evade the authorities, while visiting his family occasionally. On 30 January 1944, he helped the escape of eight fellow villagers from the jail in Monreale. Six of them joined him and formed a band that was able to expand operations.

The bandit's most famous exploit occurred early in his career in 1944—the robbery of the Duchess of Pratameno. He and his men sneaked into her estate unnoticed, and Giuliano was in her salon before she knew what was occurring. He kissed her hand and showed respect for her noble status, but then demanded all of her jewelry. When she refused, Giuliano threatened to kidnap her children. After she handed the loot over, he took a diamond ring from her hand, which he wore for the rest of his life, and borrowed John Steinbeck's "In Dubious Battle" from her library before leaving (which was returned with a respectful note a week later). By mid-1945, Giuliano's daring, good looks, and theatrical flair were the talk of Sicily, and soon beyond.

The outbreak of World War II brought him opportunities in the form of jobs installing road barriers and telephone infrastructure. He performed well, but was dismissed from both jobs after disputes with his bosses. At the time of the Allied Invasion of Sicily in July 1943, Giuliano was once again trading in olive oil.

The Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories (AMGOT) used the remnants of the previous fascist government, especially the Polizia and Carabinieri, to suppress the black market. Since their pay was irregular and most of their income was bribes from major black marketeers, they focused their attention on minor operators. On 2 September 1943, Giuliano was caught at a Carabinieri check point transporting two sacks of black market grain. While trying to negotiate his release in return for surrendering the grain, Giuliano drew his gun when another black marketeer was apprehended. When one of the officers raised his weapon, Giuliano shot and killed him. He was shot in the back as he fled. After the escape and an operation arranged by his family, he hid out in the family home.

If benevolence failed, Giuliano killed informers and enemies ruthlessly. Whenever possible they were allowed a minute to pray before death and a note of responsibility was left; to warn other spies, and to make sure that neither Giuliano nor other bandits would be accused of crimes they didn't commit. From time to time, he and his men would attack Carabinieri and Polizia outposts and patrols, often killing lawmen. They killed 87 Carabinieri and 33 Polizia from 1943–49.

Central to Billy Jaynes Chandler's analysis is Giuliano's personality and psychology. The bandit definitely saw himself as a romantic, heroic figure. He mused about his epitaph: "Here lies Giuliano, hero of Sicily." He made photos of himself heroically astride a horse, labeled, "Robin Hood." He cultivated his image carefully, with an eye on history. He was, according to Chandler, audacious (turning the tables on the Carabinieri Christmas Eve, 1943), intelligent and astute (when negotiating with EVIS and, later, with Sicily's power brokers). At the same time, he was unsophisticated and naive—an inexperienced village boy negotiating with far more worldly men when he played politics. Compounding his naivete' was his monumental ego and overly grand self-conception. Maria Lombardo shared his conception—she told Michael Stern that the three outstanding personages of history were Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and her son, Turi. Eric Hobsbawm agrees with Chandler's assessment of the bandit, emphasizing the role of the MIS leaders in persuading Giuliano see himself as a major political player.

In historical context, Chandler concurs with Hobsbawm's assessment of Giuliano as a "heroic robber". Giuliano can also be interpreted through the prism of Samuel L. Popkin's rational peasant concept, according to Chandler. The bandit's acquisitive urge coincides well with the rational peasant model, and he and his mother engaged in mafia-like rational acquisitiveness by demanding a fee from a bakery attempting to open a branch in Montelepre. But his "foolhardy, impulsive" killing of a police officer in 1943 was the polar opposite of careful calculation. The ordinary peasants who joined his armed actions in the moments of greatest need were more rational—willing to take significant risks from time to time for a better payday than they would ordinarily earn in the difficult years after the war. Mafiosi arising from the peasantry are even better examples of rationality: their entire lives are dedicated to material acquisition.

Turi or Turridu – as he was known to distinguish him from his father – attended primary school in the village from the age of 10 to 13. Although he was a good student, when his older brother Giuseppe was drafted into the Italian armed forces in 1935, he left school to help his father cultivate the family farm. He soon tired of the drudgery of farm work, hired a substitute from the village to take his place, and began trading in olive oil, which brought additional income to the family. Later in life he claimed that he quit school as much from youthful impulsiveness as from economic necessity.

Salvatore Giuliano (Italian: [salvaˈtoːre dʒuˈljaːno]; Sicilian: Turiddu or Sarvaturi Giulianu; 16 November 1922 – 5 July 1950) was an Italian bandit, who rose to prominence in the disorder that followed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. In September of that year, Giuliano became an outlaw after shooting and killing a police officer who tried to arrest him for black market food smuggling when 70% of Sicily's food supply was provided by the black market. He maintained a band of subordinates for most of his career. He was a flamboyant, high-profile criminal, attacking the police at least as often as they sought him. In addition, he was a local power-broker in Sicilian politics between 1945 and 1948, including his role as a nominal colonel for the Movement for the Independence of Sicily. He and his band were held legally responsible for the Portella della Ginestra massacre, though there is some doubt about their role in the numerous deaths which occurred.

Giuliano was born on 16 November 1922, in Montelepre, a rural village in western Sicily, the fourth and youngest child of Salvatore Giuliano, Sr. and Maria Lombardo. His parents were landed peasants who had spent some of their earlier lives in the United States where they had earned the money to buy their farmland.