Calogero Vizzini - Early Years in Villalba

Early Years in Villalba

Vizzini was born in Villalba, a village in the Province of Caltanissetta, with a population of approximately 4,000 people at the time. This area in the middle of Sicily, known as the “Vallone”, was a poor region where most people lived off subsistence agriculture. His father, Beniamino Vizzini, was a peasant, but managed to marry into a slightly more well-off family that owned some land. A member of his mother’s family, Giuseppe Scarlata, had risen to high eminence in the Catholic Church. Calogero’s brothers, Giovanni and Giuseppe, both became priests. Giuseppe Vizzini became the bishop of Noto. Calogero Vizzini, however, was semi-literate and did not finish elementary school.

The Mafia of Villalba was of relatively recent origin, as it did not go back to the 1860s, considered to be the period when the Mafia emerged around Palermo. It started as a form of private protection and has little to do with large estates as was the case in many other rural areas where many mafiosi started as caretakers and lease-holders (gabelloto or bailiff) for absentee landlords.

In the 1890s some people – including the young Calogero Vizzini – decided to do something about the absence of peace and security in the countryside. The state police at the time was as much a danger as the brigands. The Villalba Mafia thus emerged as an alternative social regime centred on the membership in church-sponsored associations that generated considerable social capital. It later transformed into a protection racket, victimizing villagers and landowners alike through violence, intimidation and omertà.

Don Calò once explained how he saw the mafia when he was interviewed by one of Italy’s most famous journalists, Indro Montanelli, for the Corriere della Sera (October 30, 1949): "The fact is that in every society there has to be a category of people who straighten things out when situations get complicated. Usually they are functionaries of the state. Where the state is not present, or where it does not have sufficient force, this is done by private individuals." At one time, Vizzini’s criminal dossier included 39 murders, six attempted murders, 13 acts of private violence, 36 robberies, 37 thefts and 63 extortions.