Luciano Leggio - Repeated Acquittals

Repeated Acquittals

Leggio spent the 1960s and early 1970s increasing the strength of the Corleonesi, murdering anyone who got in its way. In particular, he wanted control of the refining and trafficking of heroin that soon provided a huge source of income to the Sicilian Mafia.

He was captured in Corleone in May 1964 (curiously, he was lodging with the former fiancée of Placido Rizzotto, whom he had once been accused of murdering) and was hauled off into custody, complaining loudly about his ill-health, old age (he was only thirty-nine) and how he was being persecuted and knew nothing of any Mafia. First off he was tried for murdering Navarra and Navarra's companion back in 1958. The trial ended with him being acquitted due to insufficient evidence. He stood trial in late 1968 with 113 defendants relating to the Mafia War that resulted in the Ciaculli Massacre. However, what became known as Trial of the 114 ended with only ten convictions. The rest, including Leggio, were acquitted.

He was not yet released, however, as he had to stand trial in 1969 on charges of murdering nine of Navarra's men. This time he was tried alongside over sixty of his fellow Corleonesi, including Salvatore Riina, who was one of almost two-thousand Mafiosi rounded up in the mid-1960s in the aftermath of the violence in the early years of that decade.

The trial was regarded as farcical, with reports of blatant witness intimidation and evidence tampering. For example, fragments of a broken car light found at the Navarra murder scene which had been identified as belonging to an Alfa Romeo car owned by Leggio had, by the time of the trial, been replaced by bits of a broken light from a completely different make of car. The judges and prosecutors were sent anonymous letters threatening them with death.

In the end, all the defendants were acquitted.