Stefano Bontade
| Stefano Bontade | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
April 23, 1939 Palermo, Sicily, Italy |
| Died | April 23, 1981 (aged 42) Palermo, Sicily, Italy |
| Cause of death | Machine gunned to death in his car during the Second Mafia War |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Other names | The Prince of Villagrazia |
| Known for | Member of the Sicilian Mafia Commission |
| Allegiance | Sicilian Mafia |
Stefano Bontade (April 23, 1939 – April 23, 1981) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He was the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Family in Palermo. He was also known as the Prince of Villagrazia − the area of Palermo he controlled − and Il Falco (the Falcon). He had links with several powerful politicians in Sicily with links to former prime minister Giulio Andreotti. In 1981 he was killed by the rival faction within Cosa Nostra, the Corleonesi. His death sparked a brutal Mafia War that left several hundred mafiosi dead.
Bontade was born in Palermo into a family of Mafiosi. His father and grandfather were both powerful Mafia bosses in the area Villagrazia, Santa Maria di Gesù and Guadagna, which were rural districts before they were absorbed into the city of Palermo in the 1960s. Stefano’s father, Francesco Paolo Bontade, was one of the most powerful mafiosi on the island and a pallbearer at the funeral of Mafia boss Calogero Vizzini – one of the most influential Mafia bosses of Sicily after World War II until his death in 1954.
Stefano Bontade and his brother Giovanni Bontade – who would become a lawyer – studied at a Jesuit college. In 1964, at the age of 25, Stefano Bontade became the boss of the Santa Maria di Gesù Mafia Family when his father, Don Paolino Bontade, stepped down because of ill-health (he suffered from diabetes). The Mafia went through difficult times at that moment. A bloody internal struggle (known as the First Mafia War) culminated in the Ciaculli Massacre in June 1963 that killed seven police and military officers sent to defuse a bomb in an abandoned Alfa Romeo Giulietta after an anonymous phone call.
The Ciaculli Massacre changed the Mafia war into a war against the Mafia. It prompted the first concerted anti-mafia efforts by the state in post-war Italy. Within a period of ten weeks 1,200 mafiosi were arrested, many of whom would be kept out of circulation for five or six years. The Sicilian Mafia Commission was dissolved and those mafiosi who had escaped arrest went into exile abroad or had to hide out in Italy. In 1968, 114 went to trial, though only ten minor figures would be convicted of anything. Bontade nonetheless managed to remain a highly important figure within Cosa Nostra, and he was also one of those responsible for ordering the death of Michele Cavataio by sending two of his soldiers, Gaetano Grado and Emanuele D'Agostino, to kill him in the Viale Lazio massacre.
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