Arrest and Conviction
On February 9, 1964, Torretta was arrested. He was one of the main defendants in the indictment concerning the Mafia war which bore his name (Pietro Torretta + 121 indictment by investigative magistrate Cesare Terranova) in May 1965. Attributed to him were 14 killings, either ordered or personally executed. Among these were the victims of the Ciaculli massacre.
He was one of the few Mafiosi who received a heavy sentence at the Trial of the 114 against the Mafia in Catanzaro in December 1968. He was sentenced to 27 years. Pending appeal, he was released on a US$ 1,400 bail and under the condition he was forced to live in exile in Cittadella, a northern Italian town.
Banished from Sicily, Torretta died on October 3, 1975, of kidney failure on the island Asinara. He was a stereotype of the gangster-mafioso of the 1960s. Men like Torretta, Angelo La Barbera, Rosario Mancino and Tommaso Buscetta among others were vague and doubtful figures, disorganized in their lives and their activities typifying a moment of transition and crisis in Cosa Nostra.
Read more about this topic: Pietro Torretta
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