Revolutionary Mafioso
While incarcerated for attempted extorsion, Cascioferro was recruited into the Fasci Siciliani (Sicilian Leagues), a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, by Bernardino Verro, the president of the League in Corleone. The Leagues needed muscle in their social struggle of 1893-94. Cascioferro became the president of the Fascio of Bisacquino.
In January 1894, the Fasci were outlawed and brutally repressed on the orders of Prime Minister Francesco Crispi. Many leaders were put in jail; Cascioferro fled to Tunis for a year. After serving his sentence for his role in the peasant unrest, Cascioferro managed to return to a position of social power and pressured authorities in Palermo to put him in charge of granting emigration permits in the district of Corleone. According to Mafia historian Salvatore Lupo, Cascioferro was involved in clandestine emigration networks.
Read more about this topic: Vito Cascioferro