Bernardo Provenzano - Elevation To Godfather

Elevation To Godfather

Salvatore Riina was arrested in January 1993 and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering dozens of murders, including the two high-profile bombings (the Capaci massacre and Via D'Amelio massacre) that killed prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Falcone and Borsellino had been in charge of the Maxi Trial in the mid-1980s. Provenzano was also convicted of the same murders, in absentia.

It was not immediately clear that Provenzano had succeeded Riina. He had not been publicly seen since 1963, and when his wife and two grown sons came out from hiding in 1992, many then suspected that Provenzano was dead, from natural causes or otherwise. Informants subsequently claimed otherwise, saying that after Riina's arrest in 1993, Provenzano became the boss of the Corleonesi. It is said that two other mobsters, Leoluca Bagarella and Giovanni Brusca, challenged his leadership, but, even if they succeeded, they were both captured and imprisoned in 1995 and 1996 respectively.

Under Provenzano leadership, the Mafia became less bloodthirsty and more efficient. Provenzano is reported to have tried to arbitrate between rival Mafia factions competing for business, and steered away from the attacks on high-profile figures that were hardening public opinion against the Mafia and provoking police to respond. He was a careful operator, who took few overt risks, revealing his whereabouts to only a handful of associates. He shunned the telephone and issued orders and communications (even to his family) through small, hand-delivered notes called "pizzini".

Curiously, many of the notes from Provenzano that police have intercepted sign off with religious blessings, such as one that concluded "May the Lord bless and protect you." Coincidentally, according to mob godmother-turned-informant Giuseppina Vitale, Provenzano then appeared at a 1992 Cosa Nostra summit meeting dressed in the purple robes of a Catholic bishop. Religious behaviour and language progressively became the prominent features of Provenzano's figure. For example, Provenzano systematically underlined verses from the Bible and took notes of relevant passages to be threaded in his pizzini through otherwise routine instructions regarding daily business matters. He also recurrently thanked ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ’, and referred to ‘The Divine Providence’ and ‘Our beloved Lord’, expressing the hope that ‘He might help us to do the right things’. In particular, the expression Con il volere di Dio (With God’s will), to date has been counted 43 times, and it often appears more than once in the same piece of communication. Religion would therefore play a pivotal role in the way Provenzano established his leadership, succeeded in mediating between different mafia ‘families’ by creating a less centralised, more reticular structure, and eventually prevented the decline of the organisation.