Political Connections
Di Cristina was known as the ‘elector’ of Calogero Volpe, an MP for Christian Democrat party (DC – Democrazia Cristiana). Giuseppe’s brother Antonio Di Cristina would become the mayor of Riesi and the under-secretary of the Christian Democrat party of the Caltanissetta province. According to the pentito Antonino Calderone: “They were the bosses of the Riesi Mafia for three generations … the supported the Democrazia Cristiana, they were all DC.”
Di Cristina’s best men at his marriage were Giuseppe Calderone – the Mafia boss of Catania – and Christian Democrat senator Graziano Verzotto. Verzotto was the president of the state-owned Ente Minerario Siciliano (EAS - the Sicilian Mines Authority), which was created after World War II to try to stem the crisis in the sulphur mining industry.
After he returned from an internal banishment in Turin due the Mafia crackdown by the Italian authorities after the Ciaculli massacre in 1963, Di Cristina was made treasurer of the EAS-owned company So. Chi. Mi. Si. (Società Chimica Mineraria Siciliana), presided over by Verzotto, although he was known to the police as a mafioso and had been subject to special police measures.
Di Cristina changed sides in his political preferences because he got no support from the Christian Democrats when he was in trouble over a restraining order. Instead he turned to Aristide Gunnella from the small Italian Republican Party (PRI). In the next elections Gunnella suddenly received an avalanche of votes in comparison to what they used to get. Despite the upheaval about Gunnella’s relationship with Di Cristina, he was defended by Republican Party leader Ugo La Malfa. The party could not do without one of his top vote-getters. La Malfa made Gunnella a minister of government.
The case was first exposed by the journalist Mauro De Mauro of L'Ora, who would disappear on September 17, 1970.
Read more about this topic: Giuseppe Di Cristina
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