The Sicilian Mafia Commission (), usually simply known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Sicilian Mafia members who decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra. It is composed of representatives of a mandamento (a district of three geographically contiguous Mafia families) who are called capo mandamento or rappresentante. The Commission is not a central government of the Mafia, but a representative mechanism for consultation of independent Mafia families who decide by consensus. Its primary role is to keep the use of violence among families within limits tolerable to the public and political authorities."Crisis among the 'Men of Honor (), interview with Letizia Paoli, Max Planck Research, February 2004
Characteristics
The Commission is not the supreme command of the Sicilian Mafia. "Contrary to the wide-spread image presented by the media, these superordinate bodies of coordination cannot be compared with the executive boards of major legal firms. Their power is intentionally limited [and] it would be entirely wrong to see in the Cosa Nostra a centrally managed, internationally active Mafia holding company," according to criminologist Letizia Paoli.
The jurisdiction extends over a province; each province of Sicily has some kind of a Commission, except Messina, Siracusa and Ragusa. Initially the idea was that the family bosses would not sit on the Commission, but in order to prevent imbalances of power some other prominent member would be appointed instead. However, that rule was not obeyed from the start. According to the pentito Tommaso Buscetta, the Commission first came into being "to settle disputes between members of the various families and their bosses" in order to discipline members of each family. Only later did its function expand to "the regulation of the activities of all families in a province.", Time Magazine, October 15, 1984
Exposure The first time the existence of such a Commission filtered out to the rest of the world was in 1965 during the inquiry into the First Mafia War by judge Cesare Terranova. Terranova based himself on a confidential report of the Carabinieri of May 28, 1963, where a confidential informant revealed the existence of a commission composed of fifteen persons – six from Palermo city and the rest from towns in the province – "each with the rank of boss of either a group or a Mafia family." Judge Terranova did not believe that the existence of a commission meant that the Mafia was a tightly unified structure.Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia, Pp. 110-12 In 1973, Leonardo Vitale – a lower-level Mafioso – revealed the existence of the Commission, but his revelations were discarded at the time and Vitale judged insane.Dickie, Cosa Nostra, pp. 265-268
The existence of the Commission was first established by a court of law during the Maxi Trial in 1986–87. The groundwork for the Maxi Trial was done at the preliminary investigative phase by Palermo's Antimafia Pool, created by judge Rocco Chinnici in which the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino worked as well.Law "Enforcement in Italy and Europe against mafia and organized crime" (), Umberto Santino It was Tommaso Buscetta who definitively revealed the existence and workings of the Commission, when he became a state witness and started to give evidence to judge Giovanni Falcone in 1984. It enabled Falcone to argue that Cosa Nostra was a unified hierarchical structure ruled by a Commission and that its leaders – who normally would not dirty their hands with criminal acts – could be held responsible for criminal activities that were committed to benefit the organisation.
The existence and functioning of the Commission was confirmed by the first degree conviction. The Mafia was identified with the Cosa Nostra organization, and defined a unique, pyramidal and apex type organization, provincially directed by a Commission or Cupola and regionally by an interprovincial organism, in which the head of the Palermo Commission has a hegemonic role. This premise became known as the Buscetta theorem. That vision of Cosa Nostra was not immediately recognized. Other magistrates, in particular Corrado Carnevale – also known as the Sentence Killer – of the Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione), sustained that Mafia associations are autonomous groups, not connected amongst themselves, and therefore, the collective responsibility for the Commission members did not exist. Carnevale's view prevailed at the appeal of the Maxi Trial, but at the theorem was confirmed upheld by the final sentence of the Supreme Court in January 1992. (Carnevale did not preside the court that did the ruling.) In the meantime, the Antimafia Pool of Palermo was dismantled and judge Rocco Chinnici had been murdered in 1983.
Many Mafia bosses were condemned to life in prison and Cosa Nostra reacted furiously and started a series of revenge killings because of the Supreme Court sentence. The Mafia had counted on the politicians Salvo Lima and Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to appoint Corrado Carnevale to review the sentence. Carnevale had overturned many Mafia convictions on the slenderest of technicalities previously. Carnevale, however, had to withdraw due to pressure from the public and from Giovanni Falcone – who at the time had moved to the Ministry of Justice. Falcone was backed by the Minister of Justice Claudio Martelli despite the fact that he served under Prime Minister Andreotti. In March 1992, Lima was killed, followed by Falcone and Paolo Borsellino later that year.
Interprovincional Commission Beyond the provincial level, details are vague. According to the pentito Tommaso Buscetta, an Interprovincial Commission was created in the 1970s, while the pentito Antonino Calderone claims that there had been a rappresentante regionale in the 1950s even before the Commissions and the capi mandamento were created. The rappresentante regionale in those days was a certain Andrea Fazio from Trapani.Arlacchi, Gli uomini del disonore, p. 30
The Interprovincional or Regional Commission was probably set up in February 1975 on the instigation of Giuseppe Calderone from Catania who became its first "secretary". The other members were Gaetano Badalamenti for Palermo, Giuseppe Settecasi (Agrigento), Cola Buccellato (Trapani), Angelo Mongiovì (Enna) and Giuseppe Di Cristina (Caltanissetta).
According to the pentito Leonardo Messina, the Regional Commission in 1992 was made up by Salvatore Riina for the province of Palermo, Nitto Santapaola for the province of Catania, Salvatore Saitta for the province of Enna, Giuseppe "Piddu" Madonia for the province of Caltanissetta, Antonio Ferro for the province of Agrigento and Mariano Agate for the province of Trapani. Ordinanza di custodia cautelare in carcere , Tribunale di Caltanissetta, Ufficio del giudice per le indagini preliminari, April 11, 1994
History and rules
According to Tommaso Buscetta, the first Sicilian Mafia Commission for the province of Palermo was formed after a series of meetings between top American and Sicilian mafiosi that took place in Palermo between October 12–16, 1957, in the hotel Delle Palme and the Spanò seafood restaurant. US gangsters Joseph Bonanno and Lucky Luciano suggested their Sicilian counterparts to form a Commission, following the example of the American Mafia that had formed their Commission in the 1930s, in an effort to reduce infighting within the organization. The meeting came at the tail end of a violent Mafia war in Palermo over the fruit and vegetable wholesale market that was moved from the Zisa area to Acquasanta near the port in January 1955, disturbing the delicate power balances within Cosa Nostra.
The Sicilians agreed with their suggestion and Buscetta, Gaetano Badalamenti and Salvatore Greco set the ground rules. Sometime in early 1958, the Sicilian Mafia formed its first Mafia Commission. It was formed among Mafia families in the province of Palermo, which had the highest concentration of cosche (Mafia families), approximately 46. Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco was appointed as its first segretario (secretary) or rappresentante regionale, essentially a primus inter pares – the first among equals. Initially, the secretary had very little power. His task was simply to organize the meetings.
Before that time, the Mafia families were not connected by a collective structure. According to judge Cesare Terranova, they "were a mosaic of small republics with topographical borders marked by tradition." In the days before the Commission, coordination inside Cosa Nostra was ensured by informal meetings among the most influential members of the most powerful families. In fact, the decision to form a Commission was a formalisation of these occasional meetings into a permanent, collegial body.Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, p. 52-55
Originally, to avoid excessive concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals, it was decided that only "men of honour" holding no leadership position within their own family – in other words, simple "soldiers" – could be appointed as members of the Commission. That rule was, however, not applied universally due to the opposition of some family-bosses who threatened to abandon the project from the start.
The Commission had two main competencies. The first was to settle conflicts among Mafia families and single members, and to enforce the most serious violations of the normative codes of Cosa Nostra. Second, the Commission was entrusted with the regulation of the use of violence. It had exclusive authority to order murder of police officials, prosecutors and judges, politicians, journalists and lawyers, because these killings could provoke retaliation by law enforcement. To limit internal conflicts, it was agreed that each family boss had to ask the Commission's authorisation before killing any member of another family.
Until the early 1980s, the Commission's competencies were often disregarded due to its collegial character and the wide autonomy for the family bosses. Only when Totò Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and the Corleonesi imposed their rule, the Commission became a central leadership body. The Commission in fact lost its autonomy and became a mere enforcement body that endorsed the decisions made by Riina and Provenzano.
The first Commission According to Buscetta, the first Commission numbered "not many more than ten" and the number was variable. Among the members of the first Commission in the province of Palermo were:Padovani and Falcone, Men of Honour. E Leggio spacco' in due Cosa nostra, La Repubblica, October 3, 1984Abbate + 706, pp. 2.235 – 2.327
Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" for the Ciaculli mandamento (Palermo) Antonino Matranga for the Resuttana mandamento (Palermo) Mariano Troia for the San Lorenzo mandamento (Palermo) Michele Cavataio for the Acquasanta mandamento (Palermo) Calcedonio Di Pisa for the Noce mandamento (Palermo) Salvatore La Barbera for the Palermo Centro mandamento Cesare Manzella for the Cinisi mandamento Giuseppe Panno for the Casteldaccia mandamento Antonio Salamone for the San Giuseppe Jato mandamento Lorenzo Motisi for the Pagliarelli mandamento (Palermo) Salvatore Manno for the Boccadifalco mandamento (Palermo) Francesco Sorci for the Santa Maria di Gesù mandamento (Palermo) Mario Di Girolamo for the Corso Calatafimi mandamento (Palermo).
The Commission, however, was not able to prevent the outbreak of a violent Mafia War in 1963. Casus belli was a heroin deal gone wrong, and the subsequent killing of Calcedonio Di Pisa on December 26, 1962, who was held responsible. Instead of settling the dispute, the Commission became part of the internal conflict.