......It is hard to imagine but not long ago this tranquil little farming town had one of the worlds highest murder rates. During just four years of Boss Luciano Liggio�s rise to power there were 150 known murders in and around Corleone. But that�s nothing compared to �The Beast� Riina who left behind a trail of 800 corpses. For the past 9 years Corleone has been murder free.
The arrest of Salvatore Riina in 1993 turned out to be the beginning of the end of the Mafia in Corleone. It was also the year that Giuseppe Cipriani was elected mayor on his firm anti-Mafia stance. This soft spoken 31 year old not only talked tough but immediately began chipping away at Mafia control. He plugged up the leaks and spruced up the town by renovating public buildings and squares. He even went as far as confiscating Riina�s villa which has since been converted into a school
But perhaps the single most recognized change came in December 12, 2000 when UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visited Corleone and standing beside Mayor Cipriani inaugurated the world�s first Anti-Mafia center and museum. The center, open to law enforcement, academics and the general public, functions as a data base of information towards the study of organized crime and their opponents.
The Mafia or Cosa Nostra (Our Thing) historically has its roots in the fight between peasants and the landowners who oppressed them. In order to run his farm the landowner employed a tough peasant called a �campiere�, a type of middle man who grabbed from both ends. Anyone trying to improve the peasant�s stock was ruthlessly dealt with.
Some historians add a more noble beginning by connecting the Mafia to a peasant defense league fighting oppression by their feudal landlords. But most Corleonese will passionately disagree. �The fact is,� spouts Laura Di Rosa from the Mayor office, � they have always been criminals! In reality the Mafia has always defended nobody but herself. �
Just as long as there has been Mafiosi in Corleone there have been courageous men and women who opposed them - till a bullet or bomb silenced them. These often forgotten heroes are finally honored along the walls of the center museum.
�The media briefly mentions the victims to the Mafia and they are always quickly forgotten, but they never stop talking about their assassins,� explains Laura Di Rosa in the museum before an enlarged 1992 photograph depicting the devastation of a car bomb that killed Paolo Borsellino, one of Italy�s top anti-Mafia Judges.
Opposite hangs a portrait of Mafia fighter Placido Rizzotto who was gunned down just after World War II. Also killed was a 13 year old shepherd boy who witnessed the murder - silenced after a doctor was summoned to calm his rattled nerves... Some of the photographs on display are more graphic like that of the shop owner who refused to pay protection. The photograph shows him face down in a pool of blood just outside the door of his business.
One of the museums most famous photographs is that of the present �Capo Di Tutti� taken over 40 years ago. Adjacent to his last known photograph hangs an age enhanced image of how he might look today. Though no one really knows what he looks like or where he is, everyone knows his name, Bernardo Provenzano. He is another famous Bernardo from Corleone - but he�s no saint. END