The Bandit Giuliano | Italian Politics Documentary | Full Movie | Sicilian History

The Bandit Giuliano Salvatore Giuliano. Was he the young man who was shot, lying here on the ground? A terrorist. He fought for the most vulnerable. A murderer. Mafia. State. Secrets. Robberies. Carabinieri. Family. Freedom. A state secret is a restriction placed by the President of the Council of Ministers, through the affixing, the opposition or the confirmation of the opposition, on records, documents, information, activities, things and places, whose non-authorized disclosure may seriously j

eopardize the fundamental interests of the state. The state secret limits the duration of the restriction to 15 years, which may be extended by the President of the Council of Ministers to a total period which cannot exceed 30 years. The events and facts linked to Salvatore Giuliano have had state-secret status for more than 60 years. This theory is presented to the general public, who will have the right to draw its own conclusions. If the state has nothing to fear, it doesn't apply the state-s

ecret status. It has to cover some mistake it has made. I don't know what kind of mistake. But if someone hides something it means there is something they don't want to disclose. Journalist and historian Carlo Ruta has published dozens of books about critical topics in Italy and Sicily, among which, "L'affare Giuliano". It is a collection of approximately 100 documents, which were published on his blog in 2005. After being silenced by the judicial authorities, the author underwent a trial which

lasted 8 years. The first of its kind in Europe. Giuliano's story is a highly emblematic one. It marks, in my opinion, the beginning of a process, a strategy, which, during the 1960's, was called the "strategy of tension". The state-secret status cannot be opposed by a public officer against a magistrate if the prosecuted crime is mass murder. It is a continuous strategy, it started then, but it carried on, it lasted, almost reaching our times. The turmoil of the postwar period forced tens of th

ousands of Sicilians to live in conditions of absolute poverty. After the unification of Italy, many decided to emigrate to Europe, but many more opted for the U.S. The Government ordered the stockpiling of wheat, so that all those who produced wheat were forced to take their harvest to a consortium, which then redistributed it with the use of ration cards. But the amount which was given out was so scarce, it didn't guarantee survival. So people did their best to try and cope. The critical natur

e of the war, and the oppression inflicted on people during the fascist period, led Sicilians, more than anybody else, to start thinking about becoming independent again. 16 NOVEMBER 1922 BIRTH OF SALVATORE GIULIANO Salvatore Giuliano, called Turiddu, was born in Montelepre, a village in the province of Palermo. He spent his teenage years during the Second World War, when people were only allowed a ration of 150 grams of pasta and 100 grams of wheat per day. Whoever skipped rationing was punishe

d very harshly, as was the Giuliano family. He was a young and semi-literate farmer, he left school very early, in the third grade. He helped his father in the fields, his family was poor but wasn't extremely poor. He worked for the electricity company too. And then, he made his first wrong decision, the first of many in his life. He started smuggling. He wasn't the only one at the time, many were involved in wheat smuggling. And he was one of them. There was a raid. Not only did they seize the

wheat, not even giving the family the amount it was entitled to in order to survive, but they took away all the other cereals and stocks too. The family was left in extreme poverty, since it had nothing left to eat. Which is why Peppino Giuliano, the eldest brother, often had to go and buy wheat from farmers who had hidden it better. Turiddu had always wanted to work in aviation, so he knew he had to study. After working in the fields, he used to go to Palermo by bike to attend private lessons f

or which he would pay for with wheat. Giuliano became good friends with his teacher, who, for the first time, spoke to him about "Sicilia e Libertà". Not only did he have the possibility to be part of this political movement, but he could also take part in the training on Monte Pellegrino, where a covert firing range was set up. In April 1942, a new member took part in the movement "Sicilia e Libertà": professor Vincenzo Purpura. The movement then became the M.I.S. Salvatore Giuliano was listed

as number 138 in the register of the province of Palermo. With the unification of Italy, Sicily was stripped of much of its wealth and, like many other Sicilians, he disgreed with the idea of a united Italy. An impassioned dream was taking shape. A dream of an independent Sicily. It was a rebellion, the one chosen by Salvatore Giuliano. In other words, I haven't got the legitimate means, so I'll use illegitimate means, such as violence, shootings and kidnappings to support my cause. And I won't

even recognize the system I'm in, I want to overthrow it. These are the foundations of all separatist movements, of those who want independence, and of the most violent and terroristic ones, too. They are all based on this idea. I don't accept the way the society that I live in is working. So I want to overthrow it. This topic should undoubtedly be studied at school. Unfortunately, the whole history of the 1900s is studied in a hurry or isn't mentioned at all. This is a complex topic and its sto

ry is really important, because Giuliano is a protagonist of these same events which were at the core of the birth of our Republic. 2 SEPTEMBER 1943 Giuliano took the place of his brother, who was ill, and went to a farmer to collect two bags of wheat loaded on a horse. The journey back home changed the fate of the young man, becoming a crucial turning point in his life. On September 2nd, 1943, Giuliano reached a checkpoint, and, on that day, for the first time, he had a weapon. He had a gun wit

h him. He was stopped. He begged them to let him go, because he was afraid that, while searching, they could have found that he had a gun on him. In which case, he would have been taken to the military court, according to a rule imposed by AMGOT, the provisional government under the military rule of the Americans. Meanwhile, a van loaded with wheat passed by. It was clearly driven by powerful men, people involved with the Mafia. The van was stopped, and a lively and friendly conversation started

between the men, the Carabinieri and the guards, who were standing at the checkpoint. Giuliano took advantage of the guards being distracted and tried to run away. This event is extremely important, because it was then that Giuliano started his outlaw career. It was the fundamental crossroads which shaped Salvatore Giuliano as we know him today. Unexpectedly, they turned around and saw he was running away. They shot him. Two of the six gunshots hit him. One of the bullets went through his hip,

while the other stayed in his body and crushed half of his liver. As he collapsed on the ground in pain, he heard one of the guards coming closer. He took his gun out of his boot. It was a fatal shot. This is how Giuliano committed his first murder. From that moment on, he was seen as a born murderer, while his people saw him as a victim of a troubled system. It has to be said that it was a delicate moment, otherwise, we would have to, let's say, count as criminals all the partisans who stood up

against the army and the Carabinieri all over Italy too. So, the situation becomes vaguer and harder to understand. One thing is for sure, there was an armed encounter, Salvatore Giuliano wasn't the first one to shoot. However, it was confirmed that he did shoot back. My uncle had received that gun a couple of months before, from a unit of Yugoslavian soldiers who were heading back home. They were getting rid of all their possessions. So the horse and the gun had been given to him in exchange f

or staple goods, which the soldiers needed. It doesn't necessarily mean that he was planning a crime. He had a gun to defend himself, just like everybody else. The newspaper "Giornale di Sicilia" wrote on its first page: "Sicily, never a traitor, demands its legitimate right to freedom and independence." The party "Sicilia e Libertà" became the M.I.S., the Movement for the Independence of Sicily. There were two great political forces in Italy. The Catholic one which, on the one hand, started to

follow the ideology of the United States, and the Socialists and Communists on the other, whose role model was the Soviet Union. Sicily saw the creation of political space to promote a separatist movement. After a difficult recovery, Giuliano managed to get hold of a musket. Meanwhile, his loyal dog Giulia warned him when she sensed danger. Hundreds of Carabinieri were looking for him in Montelepre. On the night of December 24th, while the inhabitants of Montelepre were going to church to take p

art in the last day of the novena, before celebrating Christmas, the police did a round up and arrested 125 people. One man per family, including Giuliano's father. They beat him up, they punched him, kicked him, they broke his nose, with the only purpose being to force him to speak, to tell them where his son was, because he was the target of the mission. There were proper police searches, which was a strategy which was not born during that period. It had been used many years before. It was use

d by the Carabineri and the whole army, during the period after Italian unification, against any form of brigandage in the south of Italy. When my uncle saw the line of those arrested, and noted that, among them, stood his father, his shirt covered in blood, his own blood started to boil. But then, he saw something else. The officer standing behind his father was hitting him with the stock of his rifle, so that he would walk faster. And at that point he saw red. He exposed himself and shouted to

the Carabinieri: "I'm the one you're looking for. Take me." The Carabineri immediately started shooting, but completely in vain. Giuliano's aim was infallible. He hid behind a wall, he only peeked out three times, and he only fired three shots. And unfortunately, another dead and two injured. This episode cemented Giuliano's position as an antagonist of the police forces. Turiddu was on the run. Alone in his shelter, from the top of the hill of Montelepre, he would look at his house and family,

to whom he would say hello to with the glare of a small mirror. THE GIULIANO BAND LETTER BY HIS COUSIN There were many of them. They hit us. Humiliated us. Arrested us. But we love you. We believe in what you're doing. I've even lost my dignity here. I no longer know what sunlight is. I only see four moldy walls. I can't tell the day and night apart. We're not allowed to speak. And we don't even know why. I used to love being alone. But only now do I really know what loneliness is. It seduces y

ou. It makes you think. In the end, it tricks you and kills you. I was taken by force today. There were four of them. They threw me into a room... If the victims were able to bear what was done to them, they were considered heroes. The best known torture method was the "cassetta". The person was laid out on their back on a crate, hands and feet tied, with a funnel in their mouth, in which water and salt were poured. Consequently, either they talked, or they risked choking. And, sometimes, some e

ven died. Since there were no witnesses, they would say they had died of a heart attack. If a member of the police forces engages in criminal behavior, in other words, if they commit a crime, they are actual criminals. It only took Turiddu one week to take action. On New Year's Eve, disguised as a farmer, equipped with a rope and a blade, he helped eight prisoners break out of jail. Six of them wanted to join him. The original nucleus of the Giuliano band was thus formed. Salvatore Lombardo. And

rea Abate. Tommaso Di Maggio. Antonino Cucinella. Angelo Vitale. Francesco Giuliano. When Finocchiaro Aprile asked him to form his own group, he already had these men, who were partially trained. His brother, Giuseppe, who had served as a gunsmith in the war, taught the others how to use a weapon, how to shoot them, how to disassemble them, and how to clean them. Salvatore Giuliano proved he was capable of coping with difficult situations. What was the real reason that led him to stay on the isl

and and even form his own band? He no longer acknowledged the state of Italy, nor the legitimacy of the Carabinieri, who were the tip of the iceberg. He wanted to rebel, and the first target, the easiest target to reach, was the tip of the iceberg. So, clearly, it was the easiest target, the most direct one, and probably the one that created the most problems for him directly. So he also wanted revenge. It wasn't only about revenge, though. There was a lot more to his way of doing things and to

what he would create later on. At the beginning, he embraced the idea of separatism. Thus he thought he could fulfill his dream of an independent Sicily, as part of the great U.S. He had a traditional background and thought that family and group ties were enough to give power to a leader. He thought that he was a leader, who could free his land from oppression and domination. He deceived himself. So, Giuliano didn't leave, because he believed he could really be a king. In order to be it, he acce

pted many compromises and basically put himself at the disposal of reactionary forces. Giuliano proved he could use weapons very well. Since he was wanted by the police, his life was constantly threatened. He often killed to defend himself, but many thought he was being provocative. Had he been the commander of a legitimate army, he would have been remembered as a great general. His ability to use weapons was obvious, but it was influenced by events as well. It was a part of Giuliano's criminal

scheme. But there were many other elements too. Just as weapons are part of being a soldier. Legend has it that he could intercept the communications of the police forces, so he had fun giving orders, which were clearly fake, making fools of the local policemen. A good question would be, to what extent was he being logical and when did the character of Salvatore Giuliano emerge, now that he was challenging the institutions? You will never catch me, this is my territory, I fight for my people. Of

ten, my grandmother would be surprised when seeing him arrive home not through the door in the back, by the garden, but through the front door, in front of which he knew a patrol would go back and forth. And she used to ask him: "Aren't you afraid that they will shoot you if they see you?" And he'd say: "Mum, they're the ones who should be afraid. I'll tell you why. Because they've got muskets model 1891. In order to reload them, they have to put the rifles over their shoulder, keep them like th

is, pull the lever and reload them. Before they do all this, I've got a machine gun under my raincoat and it hasn't got a safety. All I have to do is lift my arm... Game over." Lieutenant Testa was convinced that capturing Giuliano would be easy. The day before his wedding, he went looking for him on the mountain with 20 Carabinieri. Giuliano killed him. And wrote this about him: "Victim of his own duty". The young Salvatore Giuliano, who was on the run, was slowly starting to really become Salv

atore Giuliano. Salvatore Giuliano was a full representative of a reality called "social banditry". A rural outlaw who was considered a murderer. However, rural society continued to recognize him as a bandit. A hero. Someone who fought for justice. We can say that it was still a pre-political ideology. I mean, it wasn't a feature belonging to bandits. It was a feature of very poor societies, which created the conditions to say, from a political point of view, that you should take from the rich a

nd give to the poor. He internalized this concept. He was very close with the people of his land, Montelepre, and so Giuliano used to give them what he was able to extort from kidnappings. He shared what he had. He was considered the defender of his people. If the Carabinieri asked someone: "Have you seen Giuliano?", if they knew Giuliano had gone right, they would answer left. THE M.I.S. AND THE FORMATION OF THE E.V.I.S. MARCH FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SICILIAN PEOPLE PALERMO, MARCH 30, 2014

Made up of forces of different political ideologies, the Movement for the Independence of Sicily had one aim: giving the island its sovereignty back. At the peak of its existence, more than one and a half million people belonged to it. The M.I.S. was formed by eminent figures, who already had a political influence before the fascist era. For example, Finocchiaro Aprile. He was a liberal of great prominence. However, in that situation of confusion and unrest, he decided to opt for separatism, bec

ause the future of Italy was not clear at all and Sicily risked being seriously jeopardized. The year 1945 was the most crucial one for Sicilian separatism. After the call made at the San Francisco conference by Andrea Finocchiaro for the self-determination of Sicily, the police, following the orders of Commandant Aldisio, raided the main offices of the M.I.S., arrested the people who were found there and searched the Sambucello woods near Messina. A true war had started. E.V.I.S. was created: t

he Volunteer Army for the Independence of Sicily. If we want to tell Giuliano's entire story, we have to understand his relation with the E.V.I.S. and therefore understand the history of the E.V.I.S. From this point of view, he wasn't an actual bandit, he was a bandit who had political views and principals. He developed a political project which he was working on. The E.V.I.S. was made up of two parts. One was managed by Giuliano, the other by the Niscemesi band, which controlled the eastern par

t of the island, while Giuliano was in charge of the western side. After becoming a colonel at the tender age of 22, Giuliano managed to recruit hundreds of men. He assigned large territories to four coordinators and he created the female unit of the army. There was a place near the Case Nuove of Sagana which was used as a firing range. Here, Giuliano's men were trained to shoot. Giuliano would recruit a farmer and make a soldier out of him. Marianna Giuliano, who was always by her brother's sid

e, was a sergeant, and the the head of the female unit of the E.V.I.S. She was in charge of a platoon of 20 women. They were required as a support for the male units, they took care of the injured, but, when needed, they would grab a gun and fire. The E.V.I.S., a covert military force, required substantial financial input. How did the M.I.S. fund its military branch in the guerrilla war for independence? M.I.S. leaders promised they would finance their military branch, buying weapons and offerin

g a considerable amount of money. However, they never kept their promise. They offered only a modest sum of money and some weapons. So they came up with a stratagem to finance their military branch. Giuliano was advised to start kidnapping people. Most of the kidnappings were arranged. They were fake. They were never real. The abductions which were carried out to finance the military actions of the Palermo brigade were not endorsed by Salvatore Giuliano. At the beginning, he opposed them. He was

actually outraged. He wanted them to fulfill the agreement. But there was someone in the band who liked the situation. I'm talking about Terranova, who was one of the most skilled in carrying out such actions. A person who had been abducted told me: "I had one of the best times of my life when I was kidnapped. We got drunk, we played cards, we played music, we sang. The best days of my life". There were rich Sicilians too, who used to pay with voluntary contributions. The sudden death of Profes

sor Antonio Canepa, the founder of the E.V.I.S., who was shot dead alongside three other men, led to a state of confusion within the army. Giuliano created the M.A.S.C.A., the Movement for the Annexation of Sicily into the American Confederation. Sicilian immigrants proposed that, had he been able to obtain the independence of Sicily, there should have been a confederation with the U.S., separating Sicily from Italy and joining it to the United States. At the time there were 48 states, so Sicily

would have become the 49th state. There was an advertising campaign, we would call it media hype today, for the M.A.S.C.A., in which Sicily was shown being detached from the chain that kept it tied to Italy, by a small man, Giuliano, who wanted Sicily to be under American influence. The M.A.S.C.A. had a very short life, because the idea of a confederation of Sicily and the United States came to a halt all of a sudden because of the veto imposed by Russia. It didn't want a U.S. presence in the m

iddle of the Mediterranean, a very strategic place. The American dream was a dream which belonged to the poor, but, we must also admit, was a criminal dream, too. It was well known that you could make a fortune in the U.S., and you could also create a sort of partnership to achieve power. It was seen an an extremely rich country, as a new world. So, in a way, it was idealized. His father travelled back and forth to the U.S. Indeed, he had been mainly raised by his mother. His mother played a cru

cial role in his family, as did his sister, Mariannina. Giuliano and his band were officially charged with 100 murders of policemen and Carabinieri, including 34 attacks on barracks and more than 400 crimes, including murders, robberies and abductions. An encyclopedia wouldn't be enough to collect and register all the murders committed during that period, which, with the indifference and the approval of the police forces, were all laid on Giuliano. He did use some lookalikes to mislead the polic

e during his speedy operations. However, he couldn't possibly have been present in such far away places in such a vast area, Sicily. From being the people's man, he became a hero, just witness the ballads which were composed by the songwriters of the time. I want to sing serenely... Everything Giuliano did, the man who for seven years, not one less made everything he touched quiver. And just to say how important Turi was, they called him the King of Bandits. # The press, only wanting to make new

s, mixed reality and imagination. He became well known abroad, too. They described him as a romantic bandit, a ruthless murderer and, above all, as a symbol of the Mafia. The general impression was that the M.I.S. and the Mafia were the same thing, which is not true, and never has been. In fact, the Mafia thought about looking for other solutions, it wanted its own place in the emerging politics of the time. Giuliano had freedom of action for a while, because the Mafia knew he was crucial for th

e international and political role of anticommunism. The Mafia might have used Giuliano and he, at the beginning, might have tried to covertly use his ties with the Mafia. However, saying he was a mafioso would be completely wrong. We all know about the connivance which emerged then, in a clearer way, between the Mafia and the future Italian state, the Italian Republic. And if I, Salvatore Giuliano, don't recognize the Italian state, and since I know how things work here, and I know about this c

onnivance, I cannot be part of something which, in a way, is part of the state. Consequently, Giuliano started being opposed. The Giuliano band brought in the Passatempo brothers on the advice of Calogero Vizzini. He presumably became a problem for the Mafia too, not only for the state. Nobody believed I was a sincere patriot. Everybody thought I only had personal interests, like saving myself, or gaining some kind of benefit. However, I was convinced that the victory of the separatists wouldn't

have changed my life. My actions were inspired by my own ideology. SICILY'S AUTONOMY Many of the aims of the separatists were reached with the declaration of Sicily's autonomy. Still today, some say that Giuliano had a crucial role in this outcome. In 1946, De Gasperi sagaciously put a halt to the independence movement, by actually conferring a broad autonomy on the island. Clearly, as a consequence, those supporting independence started to settle down, so when Giuliano was at the peak of his c

areer as a colonel, separatism was already coming to an end, basically. From a military point of view he was clearly a great strategist, and let's not forget that at the peak of his outlaw career he was able to organize something like 300, 400 people. He managed to organize them militarily and he was able to operate over a vast area of Sicily waging a guerrilla war, which was comparable to the insurgencies considered highly notable in historiography studies. With the Amnesty Decree, members of t

he M.I.S. and the E.V.I.S. were absolved, since their actions were considered political crimes. The young volunteers went back home, but Giuliano and his band didn't. These bandits were objectively dangerous, because they had tools of extortion which could have been used in the political evolution of the Republic. REGIONAL ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN With Sicily gaining its autonomy, many abandoned the separatist dream, among whom, Andrea Aprile Finocchiaro. The M.I.S. could only count on Nino Varvaro, a

man Giuliano trusted. He asked for support for the electoral campaign, promising Turiddu victory and amnesty. The operation had been planned by Varvaro himself, who, by the way, had moved over to the Communist Party of Italy. All the efforts of Salvatore Giuliano, the economic support and his sister's help had been nullified by the betrayal. Varvaro gave all his votes to his godfather, Girolamo Li Causi, president of the Communist Party. Giuliano wanted to know the reasons behind the betrayal,

so he started looking for Li Causi. It was a set-up he would never forgive. The victory of socialists and communists clearly triggered violent reactions on the part of the DC. They thought they had the upper hand, but then they realized it was the other way around. The Christian Democracy, known as the DC, whose nickname was The White Whale, was represented in Sicily by Bernardo Mattarella, often associated with the then-Minister of Interior, Mario Scelba. They belonged to the same political mov

ement, they represented the strength of the DC in Sicily at the time. Bernardo Mattarella was one of the most powerful politicians in Sicily. He was considered a sort of lord around Palermo. He had an important influence on voters. The Sicilian DC asked for help. It went to the U.S. Department of War, because it feared being outdone by the coalition between the socialists and the communists. They had already sent ten men working for the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, to keep them trained and re

ady to carry out a military action, had it been necessary. After looking for Li Causi in vain, Giuliano finally figured out how he could find him. He organized a meeting with his men to explain his plan. But there were infiltrators in the band. Salvatore Ferreri, also known as Fra' Diavolo, joined the Giuliano band after his father had asked the secret services to contact him. He had a criminal record, so he went back to Sicily, where he was promised that his criminal record would be cleared, ha

d he carried out a covert mission within Giuliano's band, which required extreme loyalty. He joined the band and thereadter behaved like a proper agent for the secret services. Giuseppe Passatempo, another infiltrator who worked for the Mafia, used to send news to Don Calogero Vizzini. My uncle kept him, because he was an extraordinary soldier. He would take on dozens of Carabinieri feeling completely at ease and with the utmost determination. Everybody was interested in what Giuliano did, becau

se they could then use what they saw to further their own aims. MAY 1, 1947 As in the rest of Italy, in Portella della Ginestra, in Piana degli Albanesi, the inhabitants of nearby villages gathered to celebrate International Workers' Day. It was also an excellent opportunity for the communists to celebrate their victory in Sicily. Giuliano thought he could look for Li Causi and confront him, since he was the leader of the Communist Party. And he did, he went to Portella della Ginestra, so that h

e could abduct him or, in any case, so he could teach him a lesson. The gunshots targeting the celebrating crowd lasted around 15 minutes, killing 11 people, including two children, and injuring more than 30 people. How did the Giuliano band organize itself? Some fired from above, causing confusion, whereas others, who were at ground level, had to carry out the abduction. Then, those on the mountain would have gone down to blend into the crowd. Another theory about Giuliano's presence at Portell

a was that he was sent by someone else, a principal, who had suggested the plan to catch Li Causi in a letter. The letter had been sent to Giuliano two or three days before the massacre. Pasquale Sciortino had delivered it. The letter was mentioned at the Viterbo trial and it was suggested it was a message for Giuliano from Mario Scelba. Giuliano and 11 of his men were stationed at the top of Pizzuta Hill, 500m away from the crowd. He kidnapped four hunters whom he had encountered there by chanc

e, and he kept them with him, making them watch the whole scene. At the end of the shooting, he let them go. When they were questioned, separately, the four of them confirmed that nobody could have been shot, or, at least, nobody could have been from Salvatore Giuliano's position. These statements These statements were not taken into consideration at the Viterbo trial. A BLOOD-SOAKED MAY 1 IN PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI STATE MASSACRE PORTELLA DELLE GINESTRE Years and years later, the culprits behind t

he massacre were well known, and yet they were still marvelously hidden. Who was it who fired on the helpless people? Who ordered the massacre? Is it likely that Giuliano accepted the task of shooting in Portella della Ginestra, operating at eye level, firing on people who were close to him? The band was also made up of emissaries of the police and the Carabinieri. Giuliano took on his missions, but, clearly, anyone could do what they wanted, beyond Giuliano's decisions. Giuseppe Passatempo, hel

ped by Ferreri, fired a series of gunshots with a Breda model 30 machine gun. The weapon had the power to reach the target, it could fire at a distance of 1.5 km. So it was perfectly suitable to cover the 500m distance. Simply put, they did so to give a false impression so that Giuliano would be held responsible for the crime. At one point during the shooting, Giuliano shouted out a sentence, saying very clearly: "You idiots! What are you doing? You're killing them!" Even if I do want to make a

statement, which is fine, I've already made statements in the past, and I'm not afraid of using weapons and violence, I would never go against the people who support me. It is hard to think that Giuliano was really planning a massacre. Turiddu ordered his men to fire 20cm over people's heads to scare them off and make a clean sweep, to facilitate the abduction of Li Causi. However, strangely enough, Li Causi never came. There were parallel events to Giuliano's plan. The plan, which was arranged

by the DC, the U.S. intelligence services and San Giuseppe Jato's Mafia, envisioned the murder of people, whomever they were. At the beginning of those tragic moments, the men and women who had gone to celebrate May 1st, thought that there were fireworks. Afterwards, the declassified manuals of the OSS showed that the bombs which were used by the U.S. intelligence services had this feature. In the beginning, they made noises that sounded like a hiss, like fireworks. Then, they exploded into spli

nters. The splinters were indeed found in the bodies of the survivors, too. The investigations conducted by the police and by the Carabinieri, two hours after the massacre, investigations which were always contradictory, nonetheless both confirmed that there were six positions at ground level from which the shots were fired, 81 bullet casings from 9mm machine guns and 800 bullet casings from other weapons. The victims were shot from a horizontal trajectory with 9mm Beretta weapons, used exclusiv

ely by the Italian armed forces. However, Giuliano's shots would have been diagonal, whereas the shots fired at the crowd were horizontal, in other words, at eye level. A commando unit, made up of ten men, all belonging to the Xa MAS, intervened. They went to the airport in Boccadifalco escorted by Gaspare Pisciotta. Obviously, this detail only emerged many years later. It was kept classified, because, otherwise, the great secret of the Republic would have been disclosed. That is, that men who a

ll had ties to the institutions of state had been the protagonists in a massacre. Since the allied landings of 1943, many Italian Americans had joined the occupation troops in Sicily. The Mafia came into play after the landings, assisting in the social control of the island. The intervention of Lucky Luciano was requested by the U.S. He was in touch with local Mafia bosses, especially with Don Calogero Vizzini, who was almost like Luciano's Sicilian alter ego. In the end he was released from pri

son and sent to Sicily incognito to prepare for the arrival of the Americans. He was then definitively released on parole and repatriated to Italy, because Commander Haffenden stated that he had been useful to the American cause. The massacre certainly had political motivations, so, clearly, the Mafia came into play at the right moment for itself. From this point of view, we can certainly say that the Mafia was against Giuliano, and not in his favor. The Xa MAS, the Mafia, the Americans and the

bandit Giuliano were all present in Piana degli Albanesi. But when discussing the massacre, another person was always mentioned: Inspector Ettore Messana. How could Messana not know that a massacre was being planned, if one of his men was there and could have informed him? Messana was not able to answer the questions asked by Li Causi, which is why he resigned. The inspector gave himself away just two hours after the massacre. He let slip the name of the massacre's real culprit. With such a huge

number of armed forces available, what was the motive in sending a letter to Giuliano in order to get him to Portella? They wanted to present the public with a villain: Giuliano and his men were the perfect scapegoat. At that point in time, many newspapers overseas presented Turiddu as if he were a celebrity. The American journalist Mike Stern, who was blindfolded when taken to Giuliano, wrote a book entitled "No Innocence Abroad". He was a genuine spy. He was a friend of Giuliano's and he met

him right after the massacre. He went to the mountains in Montelepre with Pasquale Sciortino and Giuliano's father, too. He took pictures of him and wrote about him in True, Life and other important magazines. The character which emerged was that of a heroic bandit. The bandit sent two letters to President Truman thanks to the journalist, Stern. He never received an answer. We still don't know whether the letters ever got to the President's desk, but the press of the time did write a lot about t

his. He thought that he could speak with the U.S. president eye-to-eye, which gives us an idea of his strength, of the fact that he thought he had authority and power. He told him: "Free us from the foreigners". He addressed a foreigner to ask for guarantees and protection against the other foreigners. This was Giuliano's last resort to try and save himself and especially save his men. Two months after the massacre, there was a raid during which twenty of Giuliano's men were arrested. Francesco

Gaglio was tortured in an inhuman way. As part of the torture, his testicles were twisted and they remained atrophied for life. He was then tortured with the "cassetta" method. Finally, he signed a document in which he declared that he and the other twenty men were the perpetrators of the massacre at Portella della Ginestra. Since he understood the trap he had fallen into, Giuliano banished both Fra Diavolo and Passatempo. He still considered Li Causi responsible for his presence at Portella, so

he took revenge by bombing the main offices of the Communist Party. Carini, Borgetto, San Giuseppe Jato, Monreale and Cinisi. He bombed them all in the dead of night. But Passatempo took revenge. He bombed Partinico at 10 PM, killing one man and injuring five other people. Flyers were thrown with Giuliano's signature on them, but Giuliano never wrote them. The bullets used at Pertinico belonged, once again, to a 9mm machine gun, the same kind of weapon used at Portella della Ginestra. There wer

e still two Giulianos, a real Giuliano, who acted and took responsibility for what he did, and a fake Giuliano, a puppet who was presented to the general public as the culprit of massacres which he had nothing to do with. This was the picture that had been created to make Giuliano's predicament even worse, and, once again, to blame him for Portella, as if Pertinico had been the follow-up of Portella. ITALIAN GENERAL ELECTION Separatism was facing its downfall, and the letters sent to the U.S. go

vernment thanks to Mike Stern had still not been answered. Giuliano was contacted for the general election of April 18th, 1948 by the Christian Democracy, whose representative in Sicily was Bernardo Matterella. He showed up and asked for my grandfather's presence at a political meeting. My granddad went on a balcony with the candidate. Just because my granddad was there with the candidate, who held the political meeting, this person gained more than 1800 votes in Montelepre alone. Clearly, Giuli

ano had to change his behavior. In an opportunistic way, he agreed to campaign for these people. Giuliano was a man who always sided with the wrong people. He hadn't been able to develop a political vision appropriate to the period that he was living in. They used him. In a letter dated June 29th, 1946, shortly after the election of the Constituent Assembly, Bernardo Mattarella wrote: "The electoral battle has been tough and tiring, but it has given a clear sign of the failure of the Mafia. Sepa

ratists and liberals, who cooperated with it, have been defeated miserably". Giuliano was frequently offered the opportunity to emigrate, but he preferred to wait and see the DC keep its promises. They promised rehabilitation to Giuliano, but they were clearly trying to dump him. When he wasn't useful any more, they decided it was time to get rid of him. After the victory of the Chistian Democracy, the police made a clean sweep around Turiddu. They arrested the bandit's whole family and hundreds

of people in Montelepre. Promises hadn't been kept. I went to jail with my mom when I was eight months old, I got out when I was five years old. When the state suddenly felt threatened by Giuliano and decided, in turn, to utilize the same terrorist tactics used by Giuliano, it captured his mother and sister, who were Giuliano's Achilles' heel. Dear Mr. Scelba, you're a real wretch, a man with no decency, You're a bit of everything. Do you think this is the right path? Do you really think we're

like the mafiosi of 1926? We're real men. After arresting our women, do you really think that we'll turn ourselves in? Leave the doors open for us, will you. You poor hairless brute... You swine! I'll tell you one thing. I never give in to wretches like you, who would even fight against women. I'm a man and I act like one with men, especially with armed men. You'll see what I mean. Giuliano attacked a police van full of soldiers as well as various barracks. Antonino Terranova's band resumed carr

ying out abductions of the wealthy. Thanks to the profits from ransoms, they bought munitions and helped the families of the arrested. He became a brutal bandit, the author of attacks and crimes which demonstrated that he really had become a loose cannon, a ticking time bomb. Before the squadron of soldiers came back after yet another sweep, he had placed anti-tank bombs in the road. A tank exploded, and seven Carabinieri died, while many were injured. This was the massacre of Bellolampo. Clearl

y, Giuliano could tell the degree to which the men working for the state had been involved in his raids, the degree to which the men who had freed Italy had contributed to the creation of the conditions that led to the massacre of Portella. At this point, the bandit had become a problem for everyone. The state tried to negotiate using a police mediator, Inspector Ciro Verdiani. There were meetings, negotiations and agreements to meet Giuliano's requests. The first request was the release of my g

randmother and other relatives, as long as he wouldn't carry out any more attacks. TO THE CARABINIERI WHO DIED FIGHTING AGAINST BANDITISM Many men serving in the armed forces lost their lives after following state orders in the search for the bandit Giuliano, who, at this point, had become the most wanted man in Italy. THE END OF THE GIULIANO BAND The Carabinieri seized Giuliano's house and made it one of their barracks. Many of Giuliano's men didn't feel like carrying on, so they decided to emi

grate, leaving from Tunis. Giuseppe Passatempo died during a gunfight, whereas the death of Salvatore Ferreri, a.k.a. Fra Diavolo, is still partially a mystery. He was supposedly killed because he had tried to shoot Captain Giallombardo. While being interrogated by him, Fra Diavolo is said to have taken the captain's gun and tried to shoot him. However, that isn't plausible. Ferreri was already injured, he was in a Carabinieri barracks, with no weapon, his brothers had been killed, his father to

o. He couldn't possibly have kept his cool and had the energy to try and carry out such an extreme action to escape. We can say with certainty that something doesn't add up. Left alone, Giuliano became close to Inspector Verdiani, with whom he increasingly negotiated. He suggested emigration, he offered prisoner exchanges. From that moment, there were no more deaths, no more clashes, so many lives were spared. A bandit is a prey that has to be hunted down and eventually killed. Verdiani was the

one who acted on the orders of the Minister of the Interior, to hunt down that prey and capture it. The mafiosi who were in touch with Verdiani helped out. Inspector Verdiani even suggested that my uncle should make a film about his life. He even found a lookalike, who was the actor during the making of the film. Verdiani got closer to the bandit by convincing him to write an autobiography. Giuliano composed a first draft, in which he wrote certain things, he then wrote a second one, in which he

took responsibility for the massacre at Portella della Ginestra, while in a third draft there was only a faint hint. The autobiographies written by Giuliano and the letters sent from him to politicians via journalists had a writing style which was often called into question. There were obviously different writing styles, indicating there were different authors. We recognize the letters written by the real Giuliano, a very clever young man, but who was, unfortunately, illiterate. Another Giulian

o wrote letters to newspapers, to Li Causi, to Montalbano. The letters were perfect, they had a clear handwriting, and from a stylistic point of view, they were highly refined. Scelba wanted to put an end to the situation. He replaced Inspector Verdiani with Colonel Ugo Luca, the chief of the newly formed C.F.R.B., a unit created for the suppression of banditry. The colonel, who had been injured during the Bellolampo massacre, was the commander of twenty-seven Carabinieri officers, sixteen publi

c security officers, fifteen hundred soldiers and five hundred police officers. The units continuously monitored seventy territories over an area of four thousand square kilometers which was controlled by Giuliano. Giuliano hadn't been caught or properly searched for until his capture was needed for Sicily's international relations. Verdiani was not happy at all with being replaced, so he refused to collaborate and share the information he had. Capturing Giuliano became even more difficult. They

were actually old fossils of the fascist regime, who were, as many others, "rehabilitated" within the new republican institutions. They carried out extremely shady actions. Three journalists published three weekly instalments in Oggi Magazine and in the New York Times in the U.S., a world exclusive. Only they had been able to film Giuliano. They were accused of defending criminal acts. This was probably the most remarkable exposé ever broadcast about a fugitive. A swedish journalist arrived in

Palermo. Her name was Maria Tecla Cyliakus. She visited Giuliano to write an article. She was arrested and, with the diplomatic intervention of Sweden, expelled and labelled as "undesirable". The woman, who was thought to be a spy, was interested in Turiddu in a different way. Indeed, she had written loving letters to Giuliano's family over the years. He was handsome, and the fact that he had power increased his charm. Legend has it that, naturally, in those days, she enjoyed his allure. THE BET

RAYAL The massacre trial was drawing near. Many presumed that Giuliano would be executed. But he hadn't yet played all his cards. Li Causi, secretary of the Communist Party, told him, in the newspaper L'Unità: "Be careful, just say who was with you during the massacre, they will kill you anyway." Gaspare Pisciotta, the friend with whom Giuliano had made a blood oath, betrayed him. He was promised many things, including a certificate of merit signed by minister Scelba. He was persuaded by being p

romised immunity and a part of the bounty if he cooperated to put an end to the case with Giuliano's death. He would walk around Palermo with a weapon, often alongside one Captain Perenze, to whom he was like a host. Either he was double-crossing both sides, or he was fulfilling a counter-espionage role. While working on the film, Ciro Verdiani warned Giuliano about the betrayal. Meanwhile, how did Turiddu want the film about his life to end? The screenplay envisaged Giuliano's death at the end

of the film. It would have been a fake death, with his lookalike, the actor, pretending to die. On July 5th, 1950, shortly before the massacre trial, Giuliano was found dead in the courtyard of the house of a friend, the lawyer Di Maria, in Castelvetrano. Official reports stated he had been killed in a gunfight with a Carabinieri unit the night before. The unit's chief was Captain Antonino Perenze, one of Colonel Luca's officers. The circumstances of the bandit's death immediately showed that so

mething didn't add up. It was always the same story, that is, a conspiracy. The behaviour of Colonel Luca clearly demonstrated it. He let it slip that, during that period, there were strong interrelations between bandits and police forces, which were hidden from the general public. The dynamics behind the sham simply didn't hold water, especially in regard to the bloodstains, which were present on Giuliano's back, but not on the courtyard's floor. If one is killed, and is in that position, the b

lood is supposed to be on the front, not on the back, meaning that he was taken there. Giuliano was wearing a belt, but it wasn't in the right position. His death is a state secret, because the official narrative about his death is absolutely false. This was clear from the beginning. Tommaso Besozzi noted the contradictions and published an article in which he dismissed the official version of Giuliano's death. The journalist ended his life with an odd suicide. It was unmasked at a journalistic

level, while nothing happened at a judicial level. THE VITERBO TRIAL The trial concerning the massacre at Portella della Ginestra moved from Palermo to Viterbo, and began with the announcement of the culprit, who had already died. Those who were charged with the massacre at Portella della Ginestra were all innocent, none of them were present on the scene, except for two people, who were there, but who were innocent. The verdict had been decided upon before the trial. They had already settled the

question of the responsibilities, the principals. The promises made to Gaspare Pisciotta were not kept, either. He was arrested. He declared it was he who killed Giuliano, but his declarations were useless. The bandit was kept in jail, so he threatened to tell the truth. History blames Pisciotta for the murder of Salvatore Giuliano, because he himself declared he was the culprit. However, this too was a procedural strategy suggested by his lawyer, to make sure that the state would give him the

certificate of merit, as was agreed to. He realized that he would have been charged with a massacre he hadn't carried out. He hadn't taken part in it as a member of Giuliano's band. If anything, he had cooperated with the police. Pisciotta had been betrayed, too. He cooperated with the police forces, more precisely, with the Carabinieri, to capture Giuliano. He thought he'd get away with it, he thought he had a free pass which would have allowed him to live the rest of his life freely. Instead,

he was arrested. He threatened the state by saying: "If you do this to me, you'll force me to tell everything that I know." Pisciotta had nothing to lose. During the trial, he gave the names of the perpetrators of the massacre. THE PERPETRATORS OF THE MASSACRE At the Viterbo trial, Scelba's name was mentioned. It was mentioned by Pisciotta and other bandits, too. But the name which was mentioned the most was Bernardo Mattarella. In the end, the judges believed that these weren't useful avenues f

or the preliminary investigation phase of the trial. In Mattarella's case, and even more so in Scelba's case, nothing happened, because it seemed ludicrous to assert that a high government official would negotiate with bandits. THE MYSTERIES Before he could talk too much, Gaspare Pisciotta, who was in a jail cell with his father, was poisoned. Gaspare Pisciotta, afraid of being the target of any kind of attack designed to kill him, asked to be transferred from the Ucciardone Prison in Sicily to

a jail in Calabria. And so he was imprisoned in a cell there. His father was moved there, too. A statement made during the Maxi Trial, made against Andreotti, by the informer Antonino Mammoliti, son of the head of a 'Ndrina, a mafia band, of 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, clarified the situation, often whispered. The poison to silence Gaspare Pisciotta forever was requested by the Sicilian mafia of their Calabrian colleagues, because Pisciotta was in Calabria. The presence of the Mafia became

crucial whenever there was a need to remove all the flaws in the official stories which had formed over time. The massacre at Portella della Ginestra had very evident inconsistencies, so the Mafia played a very precise role. It had to try to cover up the whole affair before making it a state secret, with a series of criminal acts. Apparently, Gaspare Pisciotta's father was summoned and informed about the need to get rid of his son. Not only could he not oppose the decision, but, since he had to

serve a life sentence and he was associated to the Mafia, he had to cooperate. Without serving full life sentence, the father was released from jail after just eight years. He was granted a pardon by the then-president of the Republic, Giovanni Gronchi. There were still people who had to be silenced forever. Over the years, a string of inexplicable and mysterious deaths occured. A couple of days later, someone else was poisoned in jail: Angelo Russo, to whom Pisciotta had revelead his secrets.

He had also told him to tell everything in case anything happened to him. People were killed, people disappeared, there were sudden heart attacks. All these people had clearly been witnesses and had become a problem. Ciro Verdiani, the inspector, died unexpectedly. Judge Scaglione. A long streak of deaths. INVESTIGATIONS OF THE "GIULIANO" AFFAIR In 2010,the historian Giuseppe Casarrubea asked the Palermo public prosecutor's office to reopen the coffin in the crypt of the Giuliano family to verif

y the identity of the corpse. The exhumation included a DNA test, which confirmed a 90% match with the DNA of his nephew, Giuseppe Sciortino. The result was considered satisfactory, so the file was closed again. "Let's check the DNA, we need a tooth, let's take one." "Actually, we need a rib." "Actually, let's cut his shinbone off." For me, it showed a lack of respect. Still in 2010, after the death of Giuliano's friend, the lawyer, a series of shocking statements emerged. The police forces cons

idered them valid. After all, Giuliano was killed in the courtyard of the lawyer's house. In this sense, proof is given by the declarations, made on his deathbed, of the lawyer Gregorio di Maria, from Castelvetrano. He told his story to the nurses who looked after him. It was the story of a hazardous night, which became the biggest regret of his life. Di Maria, over the past sixty years, had always confirmed the official version, because he was concerned about his own safety. As he told me over

the years, he had often been threatened, he had been warned not to tell anything. Di Maria was present when Inspector Verdiani said: "Salvatore Giuliano, if you write that you're the culprit of Portella della Ginestra, I will give you the opportunity to emigrate. Otherwise, no deal." Gaspare Pisciotta was supposed to be part of the negotiations. Giuliano would have left first and Gaspare Pisciotta second. However, the deal wasn't honored. Not only did Gaspare Pisciotta end up in prison, but he h

ad to serve a life sentence, too. Di Maria told me about Stern, too. The American journalist was very interested in Giuliano's story. He had been one of the protagonists of Salvatore Giuliano's escape to America. In regard to Portella della Ginestra, which was a crucial aspect, the lawyer told me it wasn't Salvatore Giuliano. Actually, he had disagreed with the massacre. In the autobiography he wrote for Inspector Verdiani, his friend, a friend of the lawyer too, he wrote he was the culprit. The

reason is that, according to the deal, he had to say he did something he didn't do. Salvatore Giuliano swore to the lawyer that he would return to Sicily and kill all those who burdened him with Portella della Ginestra. But, as the lawyer told me, he knew he would never come back. I asked him: "What did the state do?" and he replied: "What do you want me to say? The Minister of the Interior appointed Messana as chief of police, but he was a war criminal. Nobody said anything, not even De Gasper

i. Scelba, who knew everything about the alliance between the secret services and the Carabinieri and the army, denied that the state had been involved in the massacre. Instead, he blamed farmers and land owners. The night before Salvatore Giuliano was killed, the Carabinieri, the Mafia, and the Lodge all went to his house to arrange everything. Indeed, it was someone else who had to be killed, not Giuliano. The night that Salvatore Giuliano was going to die, someone went to his house: Gaspare P

isciotta. Gaspare Pisciotta wasn't the traitor, the lawyer told me, instead, he was Salvatore Giuliano's friend who had to help him out with the sham. Gaspare Pisciotta went to the house, where the lawyer and Salvatore Giuliano were. As soon as everything was ready, he fired a shot in the air from the window overlooking the courtyard of the lawyer's house. And then the sham started. They got the fake corpse and put it on the floor. Then, the lawyer heard a machine gun firing. They shot him, even

though he was already dead. Giuliano hid underneath the bed, which was an easy hiding place to find out, but since everyone knew, nobody would have looked for him, because, as the lawyer told me, he was already dead. Lawyer Di Maria told me about the poor young man who was killed instead of Salvatore Giuliano. He was from Altofonte and was used as Salvatore Giuliano's double. He even told me his name. He was named Antonino Scianna. JANUARY 8, 2017 In another interview apart from this film, nurs

e Giusto Zito made other statements in which he added to his testimony. He explained that he was afraid, so he didn't give all the information lawyer Gregorio di Maria left. "'Mi votu e mi rivotu" was the song that Salvatore Giuliano listened to in his sleepless nights. As far as I remember, there were many "e" with no accent and verbs were mistaken. In regard to Portella della Ginestra, he would use "your excellencies". Here are the words of the letter the lawyer left me, which I no longer have

, and which, as he told me, was written in his presence before Turiddu left for America. It was signed by Salvatore Giuliano. "I, Salvatore Giuliano, born in Montelepre on November 16th, 1922, swear that I will tell the truth about the events at Portella. I didn't fire at or shoot people. I was tricked. Scelba was the head. Your excellency Mattarella. A friend of the people, of the Mafia or of Mafia-linked politicians? He knows what happened. He will help me leave with the others. My words, writ

ten and signed, pass sentence on all those wanting to deny the truth. I'm entrusting them to a sincere friend, one who has put up with me. He's a brother who will never betray me. I took away bread, bags of wheat, your arrogance and life. As you did to me and my family. To my people. While I write my truth, you cancelled my life. But I will change your lives as usurpers. My people are with me. They are my witnesses. I will not pay for your faults. I've got my own to atone for. I would have rathe

r died, but I can't afford it any longer. One day, I'll be back. And you'll pay. These are my last words. Written and signed. And sworn. Salvatore Giuliano.