Mafia Politicians

[B.]

Not close to comprehensive, as there are so many in Sicily. You can throw a dart at the island of Sicily during many decades pre-1950s and you will hit a mafia member who is mayor, often even the boss.

Politicians identified as mafia members in North America:

Louis Boschetto - Wyoming Senator identified as a made member by one of the San Jose member informants. Likely a member of the Colorado family. Frank Bompensiero was also told about a US Senator w/ mafia membership "back East", maybe a reference to Boschetto. Interestingly, Boschetto was not Sicilian but from the far north of Italy, technically part of Austria at the time. More info: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5942

Alfonso Gagliano - Minister of Labor, Ambassador to Denmark, and held other influential political positions in Canadian government. Introduced to Frank Lino as a made member of the Bonanno family in Montreal. Various ties to Sicilian mafia figures in Canada. From the mafia stronghold of Siculiana.

Politicians identified as mafia members in Sicily:

Gioacchino Pennino - Doctor and important member of the Christian Democrat party in Sicily. Member of the Brancaccio family.

Salvo Lima - Former mayor of Palermo and high-level Christian Democrat politician murdered in the 1990s. Buscetta identified Lima's father as a made member but was not sure of Lima's own membership. However, a group of Sicilian politicians and businessmen traveled to various US mafia cities in the 1960s and in each city met with mafia leaders. San Jose capodecina Angelo Marino told a San Jose member informant that one of these men was the mayor of Palermo who had mafia membership. Salvo Lima was the mayor of Palermo at this time.

Francesco Cuccia - Longtime mayor of Piana dei Greci and mafia boss.

Antonino Puleio - San Giuseppe Jato boss and mayor ~1914-1920.

Santo Termini - San Giuseppe Jato mayor in the 1920s and boss circa 1925.

Giuseppe Troia - San Giuseppe Jato boss and mayor in the 1940s.

Lucio Tasca Bordonaro - First post-fascist mayor of Palermo. Identified by Melchiorre Allegra as a mafia member.

Calogero Vizzini - Boss of Villalba who became mayor post-WWII.

Giuseppe Genco Russo - Boss of Mussomeli who like Vizzini and countless others became mayor post-WWII.

Honorary Rocco Balsamo - Important Sicilian Judge from Monreale, identified by Allegra as a member. Interestingly, I quoted him in the Palermo thread speaking out against the "maffia" influence in San Giuseppe Jato. However, we know from John Dickie's "Cosa Nostra" that various mafia-connected politicians, including alleged members, made public statements against the mafia to save face while supporting them in private, so this is not shocking.

Raffaele Pallizolo - High-level Palermo politician tried with powerful Villabate mafioso Giuseppe Fontana for the Notarbartolo murder in the early 1900s. Pallizolo was under the direction of the Villabate family and some have alleged he himself was a mafia member.

Niccolo Turissi Colonna - Baron and high-level Palermo politician who wrote an 1864 pamphlet about the "sect" (mafia). Despite publicly speaking out about the mafia, Colonna was a longtime friend and ally of powerful Uditore boss Antonino Giammona, who continued to support Colonna and vice versa. A source later stated that Colonna was himself a leader in the mafia.

--

Not going to get into municpial councilman in Sicily. The municipal council in San Giuseppe Jato in the 1920s is basically a list of the family's active membership. Angelo Bruno's cousin Calogero Sinatra was boss of Vallelunga and a councilman, etc.

Like the Mafia Doctors thread, feel free to list politicians who were more than just friendly with the mafia, but could be regarded as full-on associates.

[Antiliar]

Joseph Bulger/Imburgio - Chicago Outfit member on president of Melrose Park, IL in 1930s
Anthony Sanfilippo - Chicago Heights alderman and Mafia boss in 1910s-early 1920s
Anthony D'Andrea - ex-priest later became court translator, then Chicago Mafia boss, head of several unions, and won primary for alderman and later Republican committeeman
John D'Arco - Chicago alderman and Democratic committeeman and state congressman
Pat Marcy (Marciano) - Chicago First ward secretary and boss of Alderman Fred Roti

[Snakes]

Chicago had the following:

John D'Arco served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1945 to 1952 and from 1951 to 1963 was Chicago's 1st Ward Alderman in Chicago as well as a Democratic Committeeman.

Fred Roti was an Illinois State Senator from 1952 to 1957 and later served as Chicago's 1st Ward Alderman from from 1968 to 1993.

Vito Marzullo served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1941 to 1954. He was alderman of Chicago's 25th Ward from 1953 to 1986.

Pat Marcy was Secretary of Chicago's 1st Ward for decades, although I'm not sure if he counts since it wasn't an elected office.

[PolackTony]

For those interested, here’s a brief documentary on Vito Marzullo, produced by Chicago public television station WTTW in 1978:

https://mediaburn.org/video/vito-marzullo/

While the video of course makes no mention of that fact that the FBI had designated Marzullo a made member of the Outfit, it’s an interesting glimpse into the world of Chicago machine politics, where the aldermen essentially were permitted to function as “ward bosses” of their own personal fiefdoms while in turn paying obeisance to the dictates of the larger Machine apparatus. This system not only provided an ideal environment for the mafia to take root (well-practiced in the ways of political patronage and corruption from its origins in Italy, of course), but also served to shape some of the structures or concepts of the Outfit in turn (an example lays in intel from the 1960s that described made guys tasked with overseeing specific territories as “ward bosses”).

Marzullo, of course, paid obeisance not solely, or even primarily, to the city's "official" political Machine, historically dominated by the Irish, but to the “shadow Machine” of the Outfit, dominated by the Italians (my use of “shadow Machine” to describe the Outfit’s political apparatus derives from analyses by Salvatore Lupo and others on the emergence of the mafia as a “shadow state” that co-evolved with the modern state in post-Risorgimento Sicily).

In the documentary, one can note a decorative sign reading "Senerchia" near Marzullo’s home, on Oakley Blvd near Polk. The sign remains on the block until this day. Marzullo was from Senerchia in Avellino, a comune that sent a good number of its children to Chicago in search of a better life. While his wife Letizia was born in the UK (hence her distinctive English-Italian-Chicago accent), her parents were also from Senerchia.

The 25th Ward historically contained Chicago’s largest “Little Italy” (or “Italian Patch”, as they were often called in Chicago), as well as the primary port-of-entry ghetto for many Eastern European Jews in the early 20th century. By the time Marzullo left office in 1986, the 25th Ward had been buffeted by decades of large urban renewal projects (which some in Chicago over the years have charged was part of a targeted effort by the city’s Irish-dominated political structure to “keep the Italians down”) and demographic turnover, and — like the rest of the West Side — was beset with the attendant social and infrastructural decay, drugs, and street gang violence. As a side note, following the demolition of the large ABLA public housing complex and the expansion of the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, the area — now called Tri-Taylor/Little Italy/Univeristy Village --
has seen significant gentrification in recent years, with a large influx of students and physicians and other professionals.

Marzullo wasn't just any alderman, of course, but one of the longest-serving and arguably most powerful in Chicago’s history. Marzullo political career began as a precint captain back in the 1920s, when his fellow Napuletano "Diamond Joe" Esposito reigned over the Taylor St "Patch".

When he left office, Marzullo received honors from a host of public figures at all levels of government. Fittingly, the special meeting of the Chicago City Council honoring Marzullo’s decades of service to the city was presided over by his fellow “man of honor”, 1st Ward alderman Fred Roti.

Marzullo died in 1990, at the age of 92. That same year, Roti, Pat Marcy, and John D'Arco Jr were indicted in Operation Gambat, setting in motion the final curtain on the Outfit's longstanding "shadow Machine".

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicag ... y,amp.html

[Villain]

Joe Esposito?

Thomas “Tommy” Munizzo?

Maybe Anti will disagree with me on this one but Steve Malato mightve been another suspect....old 17th ward rep

[B.]

Big one:

- Bernardo Mattarella. Minister of Italy and top Christian Democrat. From Castellammare del Golfo, known to have numerous mafia connections, and was identified by pentito Francesco DiCarlo as a man of honor. Close friend of mafia bosses Joe Bonanno of NYC, Francesco Paolo Bontade of Castelvetrano, and Vincenzo Rimi of Alcamo.

[maatsetungi]

How about Silvio Berlusconi? Lot of hearsay.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41816356

[motorfab]

I'm not sure he was made but Vito Ciancimino from Corleone and former mayor of Palermo was highly connected to the mafia

[cobra]

Big one:

- Bernardo Mattarella. Minister of Italy and top Christian Democrat. From Castellammare del Golfo, known to have numerous mafia connections, and was identified by pentito Francesco DiCarlo as a man of honor. Close friend of mafia bosses Joe Bonanno of NYC, Francesco Paolo Bontade of Castelvetrano, and Vincenzo Rimi of Alcamo.

-his wife have name: buccellato

[motorfab]

There are probably other examples in Calabria, but Francesco "Don Ciccio" Mancuso was the mayor of Limbadi in the province of Vibo Valentia

[Dwalin2014]

There are probably other examples in Calabria, but Francesco "Don Ciccio" Mancuso was the mayor of Limbadi in the province of Vibo Valentia

What's also interesting, he even got elected while being on the run.

[Ivan]

Kind of a tangent here, but Don Lucchesi in Godfather III was based on Italian politicians with mob ties.

https://godfather.fandom.com/wiki/Licio ... the_scenes

[Pogo The Clown]

Kind of a tangent here, but Don Lucchesi in Godfather III was based on Italian politicians with mob ties.

Power wears out those who don't have it.


Pogo

[Ivan]

Kind of a tangent here, but Don Lucchesi in Godfather III was based on Italian politicians with mob ties.

Power wears out those who don't have it.

Yep, they even stuck that in the movie verbatim.

[B.]

Via Dwalin:

Vincenzo Di Carlo, the boss of Raffadali in Sicily until the 1960s, initially worked as a school teacher, then later became a justice of peace and at the same time was also the local secretary of the Christian Democratic political party (and earlier, of the Fascist one), apart from being an occasional police informant. Quite a busy guy with so many jobs