A few years ago, when I had a Facebook profile, I posted an anecdote with the intention of making people aware of the plastic reality of Palermo company of the 60sin relation to cohabitation with mafia on the territory. The published assumption unleashed, on the part of the serial censors, a flurry of malevolent comments. But the same commentators were careful not to quote the last paragraphs of the story, where I highlighted that despite my personal knowledge of the Grecos since I was a child, I did not refuse to carry out – as a policeman – the house search – together with Ninni Cassarà and other colleagues – in the home of Michael Greco “u Papa”, in order to capture him.
The episode I am about to narrate happened in the early 1960s. My sister, who lived in Turin, had in mind to return to Palermo one day and so asked my father to look for a detached house to buy. It so happened that right near our birthplace there was a beautiful house for sale that my sister already knew. The house was occupied by a tenant born and raised in our village, Acqua dei Corsari. My father went to the lessor asking him if he was interested in buying the property. Having received a negative response, my father contacted the owner and first with a handshake – as was the custom at the time – sealed the preliminary purchase, subsequently paying the deposit.
In the meantime, the landlord had second thoughts and asked my father to cancel the contract, inviting him to ask for the deposit to be returned. Naturally, my father opposed the repeated requests and the landlord, in order to enforce the supposed right of pre-emptionaddressed himself directly to “u Papa”. Therefore he forced my father, even if reluctantly, to go with him to the Greco house in Croceverde Giardina. I would like to point out that both my father and I, due to our small citrus fruit transport business and to my maternal grandmother’s relationships with relatives living in the countryside of Ciaculli, knew the Greco families. On the day of the appointment, both were in the presence of Michele Greco who, listening to the reasons for the dispute established that my father had behaved respectfully, following the rules of good living, and therefore, he was able to draw up the deed.
In this story, many people saw reprehensible behavior towards my father: in their opinion he should not have done it. accept the meeting. I could agree with them if the anecdote had occurred in the early 80s, when the investigations confirmed Michele Greco’s membership in Our thing. But I underline that until the famous report of the 161 drawn up by Ninni Cassarà, and which cost the lives of Rocco Chinnici, Michele Grecohe even had a gun license and was therefore considered by the Palermo police headquarters to be an upright person.
After all, in the 60s and 70s, Michele “u Papa” and his brother Salvatore “u Senatore” were considered good people and respectable: both were honoured with numerous visits to the Favarella, by the Palermo bourgeoisie, politicians, and prelates. Many, even today, when they “talk” about the Grecos, make the mistake of not differentiating the Grecos of Croceverde Giardina, with those of Ciaculli. In fact, between Croceverde and Ciaculli, in the past years a mini war had broken out, between Giuseppe Greco “piddu u tenenti”, father of “u Papa” and of “u Senatore”, with distant relatives, Salvatore Greco “chicchiteddu” and Salvatore Greco “l’ingegneria”, both from Ciaculli (a suburb bordering Croceverde Giardina) which caused several deaths.
I met other Grecos who had nothing to do with the mafia. Peace was reached between the two factions of the Grecos with the mediation of the boss Antonino Cottone of Villabate, who had returned from the USA, where he had found refuge to escape the pressure of the iron prefect Mori. In the period before and after the purchase of the house, I had the opportunity to meet many mafiosi including the aforementioned Cottone: the list is long. And when I was assigned to the 5th investigative section of Cassarà, I made my previous knowledge of the territory and the mafiosi available to the office. However, to honor an oath made to my father, I refrained from investigating two mafiosi brothers, whom I had known as a child, their father held me in his arms: I told Ninni Cassarà not to entrust me with the investigations, explaining the reasons. The investigations were conducted by other colleagues, so much so that the two brothers were among the defendants in the maxi trial.
One of the two brothers in the 90s, when I was at the DIA, I saw him dead in a street in Palermo, while I met the other one after years at the cemetery in Palermo: the tomb of his loved ones and that of my parents were close. I later learned that shortly after our casual meeting he ceased to live from natural death.
