Salvatore Riina was a Hero

Or so many seem to believe

So, what would you do if you were the child of a notorious criminal? The question has often been asked, and one answer is to be found in the careers of the children of Hitler’s inner circle. They have been the subject of numerous books, and quite a lot of academic research. Briefly, it goes one of three ways. One way is to change your name and adopt a very low profile; the other is to keep your name, admit your father was a monster, and devote your life to trying to atone for your father’s crimes in order to make the world a better place. And finally there is the third option: to be defiantly unrepentant, to claim your father was a hero, and to revere his memory (a difficult, if not illegal, task, in post-War Germany.) It is this third option that seems to have been taken by Salvuccio Riina, son of the notorious Salvatore Riina, boss of bosses, know as U Curtu (‘Shorty’) or La Belva (‘The Beast’).

Riina senior, a particularly bloodthirsty man by many accounts, has been dead for seven years. On his anniversary his son posted this on Facebook.

‘He lived, he lives and will always live in Us and with Us’ is what it says. The likes are extraordinary as are most of the comments, which are favourable, indeed adulatory. Some of them are very negative, but a lot salute ‘Uncle Toto’ as a great man, a Sicilian hero, and so on. I won’t quote, but I am a little shocked. One notes that Mr Riina junior uses the capital letter for Noi/Us: it is a way of designating the tribe to which he belongs and with which the favourable commentators also feel an affinity.

This is hugely interesting because in Sicily, and in Italy generally, people claim either that the Mafia does not exist, or that they strongly disapprove of it. So these more than a thousand who are sending likes and hearts are a sample of those whose voices are unheard, those who admire, love and support the men of honour, people to whom Riina senior is zio/uncle. One would just love to know who they are. But I feel I do not have the energy to look at a thousand Facebook profiles and work out an identikit of your average Riina fan.

But we do know quite a lot about the leader of the fan club. He is forty-seven, and recently married a lady from Spain. He has written a book about his father, and he lives in Corleone. He has done time in prison (eight years and a bit) for the usual offences of extortion, and money-laundering and being a member of the Mafia. His elder brother is serving a life sentence. He has a book to sell, hence his presence on social media and his provocative post which is meant to garner publicity and has succeeded in doing so. He has done quite a lot of publicity tours for the book, including one in Bulgaria just recently. His book, according to his website, explains what it was like to be the son of man who lived under a false name, moving house several times a year, and never going to school. The confessions of the son of a Mafia boss, especially the boss of bosses, would be interesting reading, but I do not know if this is that book, and I do not propose to find out.