Salvatore Riina

Lore & Background

Riina was born on 16 November 1930 and raised in poverty in Corleone. In September 1943, his father died attempting to open an unexploded American bomb, also killing Riina's brother Francesco. At age 19, Riina was sentenced to 12 years for killing Domenico Di Matteo; he was released in 1956. He later became a key figure in the Corleonesi under Luciano Leggio, participating in the 1958 murder of boss Michele Navarra. Riina went into hiding in 1969 after being indicted for murder and remained a fugitive for 23 years.

Riina succeeded Leggio as head of the Corleonesi in the mid-1970s. He achieved dominance through a campaign of violence, causing police to target his rivals. In violation of established Mafia codes, he advocated killing women and children and innocent members of the public to distract law enforcement. In December 1987, the Maxi Trial verdict sentenced Riina to life in absentia. He was finally captured on 15 January 1993. In retaliation for his arrest and the crackdown on the Mafia, Riina ordered a series of bombings of art galleries and churches in May and July 1993.

Reader's Guide

Riina's significance lies in his transformation of the Sicilian Mafia from a relatively covert organisation into one that openly challenged the Italian state. His strategy of violence—including the murders of judges, prosecutors, and police—culminated in the 1992 assassinations of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, which sparked public outrage and led to legal changes and a major crackdown. Riina's capture in 1993 ended 23 years as a fugitive but triggered retaliatory bombings of cultural sites. His legacy includes the Maxi Trial, which convicted 338 Mafia members, and the use of informants like Tommaso Buscetta, whose testimony revealed the Mafia's hierarchical structure. Riina's methods, including the killing of women and children, violated traditional Mafia codes and ultimately weakened the organisation by provoking sustained law enforcement action. His lack of repentance ensured he remained under the strict Article 41-bis prison regime until his death.

Did You Know?

• Riina's father and brother were killed in 1943 when his father tried to open an unexploded American bomb.
• Hitman Giovanni Brusca estimated he murdered between 100 and 200 people on Riina's behalf.
• Riina ordered the 23 December 1984 Train 904 bombing, known as the 'Christmas Massacre,' which killed 17 and wounded 267.
• Riina was captured in 1993 after 23 years as a fugitive, provoking bombings of art galleries and churches.

Roots in East Harlem

The Gambino family traces its roots to a cluster of Sicilian immigrants who settled in East Harlem in the early 1900s. Ignazio Lupo and his partner Giuseppe Morello built one of the city's first Italian criminal enterprises. When both were sentenced to thirty years for counterfeiting in 1910, Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila, a former Lupo captain, stepped into the vacuum. He had already appeared on police records in 1906 for a confidence scam. D'Aquila used his ties to Mafia leaders across the United States to build a network of influence, making his Palermitani faction the dominant Italian gang in New York. By absorbing the Mineo gang and seizing rackets abandoned after Camorra leaders Morano and Vollero received life sentences for murder in 1917, he consolidated his position. His only major rival by the late 1920s was Joe Masseria, a former Morello captain who had built competing power in Little Italy. That rivalry ended on October 10, 1928, when Masseria's gunmen killed D'Aquila outside his home, leaving lieutenant Alfred Mineo and right-hand man Steve Ferrigno in command of the largest Sicilian gang in the city.

The Castellammarese War and a New Identity

The violent conflict that reshaped New York organized crime erupted in 1930, pitting Joe Masseria against Salvatore Maranzano, who had taken over the Castellammarese gang originally established by Nicolo Schirò in Brooklyn. This war, known as the Castellammarese War, ultimately produced the five families that would dominate the city's underworld for decades. The group that would become the Gambino family emerged from this upheaval as one of those five. For roughly the next twenty-five years, however, it remained a relatively minor player compared to its rivals. The most notable figure associated with the family during this quieter period was underboss Albert Anastasia, who earned a fearsome reputation as the operational head of Murder, Inc., the underworld's dedicated enforcement unit. Even after that organization was dismantled in the late 1940s, Anastasia continued to hold power within the family. In 1951, he assumed the top position, reportedly after having the founder Vincent Mangano killed, and the group was briefly known as the Anastasia crime family. The family's true ascent into a position of national prominence would not begin until 1957.

Three Successions and a Golden Age

The family's transformation into one of America's most powerful criminal organizations was set in motion in 1957, when Albert Anastasia was shot dead while seated in a barber chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan. Many historians suspect his own underboss, Carlo Gambino, helped arrange the killing to seize control. Under Gambino's leadership, the family's reach expanded dramatically, stretching from New York and the eastern seaboard all the way to California. His partnership with Meyer Lansky to control gambling operations in Cuba and other locations further boosted the family's fortunes. Gambino held the top position until 1976, when he named his brother-in-law Paul Castellano as his successor. Castellano's tenure, however, was marked by escalating tension with ambitious capo John Gotti. In 1985, Gotti had Castellano murdered and took over. Gotti's reign ended in 1992 when his own underboss, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, flipped and cooperated with the FBI, sending Gotti and most of the family's leadership behind bars. The family's illicit operations during this era included labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.

After the Gotti Era

Following the mass imprisonment of the Gotti-era leadership, the internal balance of power within the family shifted toward its Sicilian faction, which assumed control of the organization. The family's illicit portfolio remained broad, encompassing labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing stolen goods. In 2015, Frank Cali took the helm as boss, representing the latest chapter in a lineage that stretched back to the East Harlem gangs of the 1900s. That chapter was cut short on March 13, 2019, when Cali was assassinated outside his home on Staten Island. The family's history, spanning from D'Aquila's early rackets through the Castellammarese War, the Gambino and Gotti eras, and into the post-Gotti Sicilian-led period, reflects the broader arc of Italian-American organized crime in New York. Five bosses had led the group between 1910 and 1957, and the pattern of succession through violence and internal betrayal continued to define its identity well into the twenty-first century.

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