1. Stefano Bontade, born Stefano Bontate, was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia.
17 Facts About Stefano Bontade
1. 2.
Stefano Bontade was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesu Family in Palermo.
3.
Stefano Bontade had links with several powerful politicians in Sicily, and with prime minister Giulio Andreotti.
4.
Stefano Bontade's death sparked a brutal Mafia War that left several hundred mafiosi dead.
5.
In 1964, at the age of 25, Stefano Bontade became the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesu Mafia Family when his father, Don Paolino Bontade, stepped down because of ill-health.
6.
Stefano Bontade was arrested in 1972 and he was sentenced to three years in the second Trial of the 114 in July 1974, but the sentence was annulled on appeal.
7.
Nevertheless, Stefano Bontade was sent in banishment to Qualiano.
8.
Marino Mannoia, who had been close to Stefano Bontade, decided to cooperate with the Italian state in October 1989, after his brother was killed by the Corleonesi.
9.
In May 1994 Mafia turncoat Buscetta declared that Stefano Bontade had been involved in the murder of Enrico Mattei, the president of Italy's state-owned oil and gas conglomerate ENI.
10.
Buscetta claimed that the killing was organized by Stefano Bontade, Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu", and Giuseppe Di Cristina on the request of Angelo Bruno, a Sicilian-born Mafia boss from Philadelphia.
11.
Buscetta said that Stefano Bontade organized De Mauro's kidnapping, because the journalist's investigations into the death of Mattei came very close to the Mafia, and Stefano Bontade's own role in the affair.
12.
Stefano Bontade had links with the Christian Democracy politician Salvo Lima and Antonio Salvo and Ignazio Salvo, two wealthy mafia-cousins from Salemi who acted as the tax collectors on the island.
13.
Stefano Bontade visited Berlusconi's villa in Arcore on the outskirts of Milan, according to Antonino Giuffre, a mafioso who was a key aide to Mafia kingpin Bernardo Provenzano but turned state witness after his arrest in April 2002.
14.
At the time Stefano Bontade was emerging as one of the Sicilian Mafia's acknowledged leaders.
15.
Historically, the Greco clan from Croceverde Giardini had been at odds with the Greco clan of Ciaculli led by Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, of whom Stefano Bontade was an ally.
16.
In 1981, in an attempt to control the situation, Stefano Bontade plotted Toto Riina's killing but the latter learned all through Michele Greco, a former ally of Stefano Bontade's.
17.
Salvatore Contorno, one of Stefano Bontade's trusted aides, followed Buscetta's example.