Police Informer
Di Cristina was isolated more and more. He decided to inform the Carabinieri about the danger of Corleonesi. The first meeting took place on April 16, 1978. According to the Carabinieri officer who met him, Di Cristina looked like a hunted animal. Di Cristina gave a full picture of the internal division within Cosa Nostra between the Corleonesi led by Luciano Leggio and the faction of Gaetano Badalamenti and Stefano Bontade. The Corleonesi had a secret death squad of fourteen men and were infiltrating other mafia families, according to Di Cristina. He also explained the growing importance of Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano.
"Their criminal strategy, while crazy, has its rewards," Di Cristina told the Carabinieri. "It provokes police activity but primarily against the 'old mafiosi' who are easy to identify; it causes their terrifying prestige to grow and undermines the prestige of the 'traditional' mafia and the principles on which it depends. It attracts to them, either through fear or through the appeal of such daring undertakings, new recruits and new forces."
Di Cristina was murdered on May 30, 1978 by the Corleonesi while waiting at a bus stop. His death was a prelude to the Second Mafia War, which would start off in 1981 when the Corleonesi killed Stefano Bontade. The murder took place in the territory of Salvatore Inzerillo. That way the suspicion fell on Inzerillo and Bontade, just as Di Cristina already explained.
Thousands of people attended the funeral of Di Cristina in his hometown Riesi. The mafioso Antonio ‘Nino’ Marchese received a life sentence for the murder of Di Cristina. Many of the followers of Di Cristina would move to another criminal organisation, the Stidda.
Read more about this topic: Giuseppe Di Cristina
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