18 Facts About Luciano Leggio

Luciano Leggio was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone.

Luciano Leggio is universally known by the surname Liggio, a result of a misspelling in court documents in the 1960s.

Luciano Leggio turned to crime in his teens and received his first conviction at the age of 18 for stealing corn.

That same year, Luciano Leggio murdered a farm hand in order to take his job, then immediately took over the farm by demanding at gunpoint that the owner sign it over to him.

Luciano Leggio went into hiding, and was tried twice in absentia for Rizzotto's murder.

Michele Navarra tried to have Luciano Leggio killed in June 1958.

Luciano Leggio was invited by Navarra to meet him at an estate but instead, he found fifteen armed men there.

The hitmen hired for the task did a poor job and Luciano Leggio escaped with just minor injuries.

Reciprocal killings went on until 1963 and Luciano Leggio had to disappear, having been condemned for the killing of Navarra.

Luciano Leggio was captured in Corleone on 14 May 1964, at the house of Leoluchina Sorisi, the former girlfriend of Rizzotto.

Luciano Leggio was imprisoned at Ucciardone prison in Palermo, but in December 1968 he was acquitted for lack of evidence in the trial held in Catanzaro against the protagonists of the First Mafia War, and of that held in Bari in 1969, in which he was accused of the murders that took place in Corleone starting in 1958.

For example, fragments of a broken car light found at the Navarra murder scene which had been identified as belonging to an Alfa Romeo car owned by Luciano Leggio had, by the time of the trial, been replaced by bits of a broken light from a completely different make of car.

In February 1971, Luciano Leggio ordered the kidnapping for extortion of Antonino Caruso, son of the industrialist Giacomo Caruso, and that of the son of the builder Francesco Vassallo in Palermo.

Luciano Leggio was linked to the murder of the General Attorney of Sicily, Pietro Scaglione, who was shot dead on 5 May 1971 with his police bodyguard Antonino Lo Russo.

Luciano Leggio was finally captured in Milan on 16 May 1974.

Luciano Leggio was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975, and imprisoned at the Badu 'e Carros prison in Nuoro, Sardinia.

Luciano Leggio is believed to have retained significant influence from behind bars, including commissioning the 1977 murder of Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Russo.

Luciano Leggio was charged with ordering Terranova's murder, but was acquitted for lack of evidence, both in the first trial, which was held in Reggio Calabria in 1983, and three years later, in 1986, in the appeal process.