Calogero Vizzini - Mayor of Villalba

Mayor of Villalba

The Mafia only became credible again after the end of the invasion. The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT), looking for anti-fascist notables to replace fascist authorities, made Don Calogero Vizzini mayor of Villalba, as well as an Honorary Colonel of the US Army. In the chaos that followed the invasion of Sicily and the collapse of Fascism, the American army often relied on senior churchmen for advice on whom to trust. Don Calò was one of those recommended. He had a long record of involvement with Catholic social funds and there were several clergymen in his family.

A witness at the time described the appointment of Vizzini: “When Don Calò Vizzini was made mayor of the town almost the entire population was assembled in the square. Speaking in poor Italian, this American lieutenant said, ‘This is your master’.” According to Vizzini’s own account he was carried shoulder high through Villalba on the day he took office as mayor. He claimed to have acted as a peacemaker; only his intervention saved his Fascist predecessor from being lynched.

Michele Pantaleone, who first reported the legend of Luciano’s foulard, observed the Mafia's revival in his native village of Villalba. He described the consequences of AMGOT's policies: "By the beginning of the Second World War, the Mafia was restricted to a few isolated and scattered groups and could have been completely wiped out if the social problems of the island had been dealt with ... the Allied occupation and the subsequent slow restoration of democracy reinstated the Mafia with its full powers, put it once more on the way to becoming a political force, and returned to the Onorata Societa the weapons which Fascism had snatched from it."

The Americans seemed to have appreciated Vizzini, not only because of his political power, but also because he had opposed the Fascists. For his part, Vizzini liked to brag about his contacts with the Americans, and spoke of their support for the separatist movement. Vizzini was later to become an important player during the separatist crisis. The Americans seem to have treated Vizzini as the Mafia’s overall boss. The OSS relied on the Mafia, and in particular on Vizzini, for its intelligence. His codename was ‘Bull Frog’ in secret communications. For a while, the chief of the OSS Palermo office, Joseph Russo, met him and other Mafia bosses ‘at least once a month’.