Filippo Marchese

Filippo Marchese
Filippo Marchese (undated photograph)
Born	11 September 1938 Palermo, Italy
Died	January 1983 (aged 44) Palermo, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Criminal charge	Multiple murder
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment (sentence in absentia and post mortem)
Allegiance	Cosa Nostra

Filippo Marchese (Palermo, 11 September 1938 - Palermo, January 1983) was a leading figure in the Sicilian Mafia and a hitman suspected of dozens of homicides. Marchese was one of the most feared killers working for mafia boss Vincenzo Chiaracane, closely related to the Giuseppe Greco family which was in control of the Ciaculli neighbourhood of Palermo.

He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Corso dei Mille neighbourhood in Palermo.

Marchese ran what became known as the Room of Death, a small apartment along the Piazza Sant Erasmo. Victims who stood in the way of the Corleonesi, the Mafia clan from the town of Corleone, were lured there to be murdered, usually by being garrotted. Their bodies were either dissolved in acid or chopped up and dumped out at sea. As many as 100 people – mafiosi who stood in the way of the Corleonesi bosses, Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, and their associates – were killed there during the Second Mafia War.

Like most mafiosi, Filippo Marchese was very elusive, and the primary source of information about his career in crime comes from Vincenzo Sinagra, an informant. Sinagra was not a member of the Mafia but just a common criminal who, in 1981, made the mistake of stealing from a mafioso. He was given three choices; leave Sicily, die or become a gofer for the Corleonesi. He opted for the third option and ended up working with Marchese in the Room of Death.

Sinagra was arrested on August 11, 1982 when he was caught red-handed carrying out a contract killing, and after a year in custody he decided to become an informant and cooperated with the anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino. He testified at the Maxi Trial of 1986-87, along with Tommaso Buscetta. Sinagra claimed at the Maxi Trial that it was invariably his job to hold the feet of those who died in the Room of Death while Marchese strangled them with a length of rope. Sinagra even claimed that Marchese masturbated whilst snorting cocaine and watching victims being tortured. By the time of the Maxi Trial, however, Filippo Marchese was dead.