By: Angelo Carmelo Gallitto

Stefano Bontade was born on April 23rd 1939 in Palermo; his father was Francesco Paolo “Don Paolino” Bontade, the boss of Santa Maria di Gesù family, one of the most powerful of Palermo city. Born in 1914, he was a farmer and he ran the fields and the wells around Villagrazia, Santa Maria di Gesù, and Guadagna neighbourhoods, which before 1960s were rural areas; introduced into organized crime by his father, Stefano’s grandfather, he quickly became one of the most powerful bosses of Palermo area, and his word was going to be “law” to the people. He was designated boss after the death of Andrea Messina, the old boss of Santa Maria family.

Stefano was introduced into Cosa Nostra very early and at about in 1964, when he was 25, he became the official boss of the family because of his father’s disease. At the beginning of 1970s he took part in the triumvirate, with Gaetano Badalamenti and Luciano Leggio, which ran Cosa Nostra for a few years, before the Commission was reorganized after the repression of the State.

Thanks to his politics and freemasons connections, Stefano was a real authority inside Cosa Nostra; he was in friendship with Salvo Lima, once Palermo’s mayor, Giovanni Gioia, senator of DC party, and several others, included Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. But when his power seemed to be untouchable, an obscure enemy was going to rise, the “Corleoneses” lead by Totò Riina, who he called “the rudes”. They wanted to replace him, his politics connections and his business, included drug trafficking and cigarettes smuggling. The Bontades had a lot of refineries around Palermo province, one of these was directly ran by Giovanni Bontade, brother of Stefano, murdered in 1988. The first signals which Riina sent to Bontade were the kidnappings of Pino Vassallo, son of an important entrepreneur, Luciano Cassina, son of the Count Arturo, and Luigi Corleo, one of the richest of Sicily, father-in-law of Salvo’s from Salemi. The mafia war reached the top on April 23rd 1981, when Stefano was shot to death while he was driving his armoured car. After him about 900 “men of honour” were killed in Palermo from 1981 to 1983; that was the end of the last member of the “Old Mafia”.

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