Gaspare Pisciotta - Imprisonment and Death

Imprisonment and Death

In prison, Pisciotta made it clear that he believed his life was in danger. He was reported to have said "One of these days, they will kill me," and he refused to share a cell with anyone but his father, also serving a life sentence for involvement in Giuliano’s band. Gaspare even reportedly kept a tame sparrow to test his food for poison, and ate nothing but what his mother brought for him from home. However, on the morning of February 9, 1954, Gaspare took a vitamin preparation which he stirred into his coffee and drank. He almost immediately became violently ill, and despite being rushed to the prison infirmary, he was dead within forty minutes. The cause of death, as revealed by the autopsy, was the ingestion of 20 mg of strychnine.

Both the government and the Mafia were suggested as being behind the murder of Pisciotta, but no-one was ever brought to trial. Gaspare's mother Rosalia wrote a letter to the press on March 18, 1954, denouncing the governmental corruption and possible Mafia involvement in her son's death, stating: "Yes, it is true that my son Gaspare will never open his mouth again, and already many people think they are safe; but who knows – perhaps other things may speak." Gaspare Pisciotta had supposedly written an autobiography in prison, to which his mother may have been referring, and which his brother Pietro tried to sell. However, this document went missing and its contents remain unknown.