1. Salvatore Contorno gave detailed accounts of the inner-workings of the Sicilian Mafia.
23 Facts About Salvatore Contorno
1. 2.
Salvatore Contorno's testimonies were crucial in the Maxi Trial against the Sicilian Mafia in Palermo and the Pizza Connection trial in New York City in the mid 1980s.
3.
Salvatore Contorno was a godson of Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, who would go on to become the secretary of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.
4.
In 1975, the butcher Totuccio Contorno was initiated in the Santa Maria di Gesu Mafia family in Palermo, then led by Stefano Bontade, an influential member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission and a close ally of Ciaschiteddu.
5.
Salvatore Contorno was involved in kidnapping, for which he was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
6.
Salvatore Contorno needed to borrow money to invest in heroin shipments.
7.
Salvatore Contorno did not turn up to the fateful meeting at Greco's estate.
8.
The Corleonesi employed a scorched earth policy to hunt down Salvatore Contorno, killing his relatives and friends, to prevent them from hiding him.
9.
Salvatore Contorno was arrested on 23 March 1982, in Rome, where he had gone to prepare for the murder of Giuseppe Pippo Calo who Salvatore Contorno held responsible for the murder of his boss Stefano Bontade.
10.
Salvatore Contorno's revelations were the first time the authorities learned of Michele Greco's high-ranking membership of the Mafia.
11.
Cassara used Salvatore Contorno to create a map of the families of the Palermo region and a report on their increasingly confrontational relations and involvement in narcotics.
12.
Information provided by Tommaso Buscetta, plus the evidence of Salvatore Contorno, led to the first Maxi Trial which involved 475 defendants which ended in December 1987,22 months after it began, with 338 convictions.
13.
Salvatore Contorno received a reduced sentence of six years due to his collaboration with the prosecution.
14.
Salvatore Contorno testified in a rapid, often incomprehensible specific Palermitan dialect and Mafia jargon that had to be translated for the official record.
15.
Salvatore Contorno held the court room captivated with his open contempt for the brotherhood he had once belonged to.
16.
Salvatore Contorno was a key witness in the Pizza Connection Trial.
17.
Salvatore Contorno agreed to testify, and was a protected witness in the United States for four years.
18.
Salvatore Contorno gave evidence that directly linked some defendants to heroin trafficking.
19.
Salvatore Contorno testified that defendant Frank Castronovo, cousin of Carlo Castronovo in Sicily, used pizza parlors as fronts in the United States.
20.
On 26 May 1989, Salvatore Contorno was arrested again in a hideout near Palermo together with his cousin Gaetano Grado and a cache of weapons.
21.
Salvatore Contorno was in contact with De Gennaro prior to his arrest, who tried to monitor his movements.
22.
In January 1997 Salvatore Contorno was arrested again, because of his involvement in dealing 2 kilograms of heroin in the early 1990s, which resulted from the investigations into the bombing attempt.
23.
In November 2004, Salvatore Contorno was arrested again for extorting a former fellow cellmate, but the charges were dropped.