The 1957 Palermo summit

[Slumpy]

I've always believed the purpose of the Palermo summit was to refine the details of the heroin pipeline, and that this was generally accepted as fact. I must have misremembered because during some reading the other day I saw that there weren't any first hand accounts of the meeting besides Tommaso Buscetta, in fact, Buscetta (a supposed attendee) claimed the summit didnt take place at all... that bonanno was there for a vacation and was simply receiving guests.

I do have a hard time believing Joe Boanno just shows up in Palermo with half his administration and receives some of the biggest names in narcotics trafficking over the next 30 odd years and doesn't discuss the drug pipeline that would come to be... So what's the deal here? Was Buscetta lying?

[JeremyTheJew]

Luciano I thought did admit the meeting happened.

But said he just sat in the back.....
From last testimont of Luciano

[MichaelGiovanni]

Bill Bonanno said they discussed heroin at the meeting.
I think he mentions it in the ‘inside the mafia’ documentary.

[motorfab]

It seems that the heroin pipeline thing was only one of the topics discussed, the main one seems to have been the installation of the Sicilian Commission, the Cupola.

Among Americans the names that come up often are:

-Lucky Luciano
-Joe Bonanno
-Carmine Galante
-John Priziola
-Santo Sorge

On the Italian side:

-John Bonventre (Bonanno retired to Sicily)
-Frank Garofalo (ex Bonanno underboss retired to Sicily)
-Salvatore "Cicchiteddu" Greco (Ciaculli)
-Salvatore "L'Ingegnere" Greco (Ciaculli)
-Rosario Mancino (Palermo Centro)
-Salvatore La Barbera (Palermo Centro)
-Angelo La Barbera (Palermo Centro)
-Gaspare Magaddino (Castellammare del Golfo)
-Vito Vitale (Castellammare del Golfo)
-Calcedonio "Doruccio" Di Pisa (Noce)
-Luciano Leggio (Corleone)
-Giuseppe Genco Russo (Mussomeli)
-Vincenzo Rimi (Alcamo)
-Filippo Rimi (Alcamo)
-Nicola Gentile (Siculiana?)
-Francesco Coppola (ex Detroit)
-Cesare Manzella (Cinisi)
-Gaetano Badalementi (Cinisi)

And probably a few others that I forget

[Cduggan]

I read an article that supposedly the first heroin pipeline was the Detroit family with John priziola who was the biggest connection in the states who supplied new York just after ww2 and into the early 1950s. It might have been a Scott burnstein article but I'm not positive. Does anyone know how much truth there is to it. It definitely seems plausible.

[B.]

I've had a hard time separating fact from fiction when it comes to this meeting.

[motorfab]

I've had a hard time separating fact from fiction when it comes to this meeting.

Yeah it's a bit like those in Atlantic City or Havana, it's hard to disentangle the true from the false or who were really the participants