| Ciaculli massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo |
| Date | 30 June 1963 |
| Target | Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission |
Attack type | Car bomb |
| Deaths | Mario Malausa, Silvio Corrao, Calogero Vaccaro, Eugenio Altomare and Mario Farbelli from the Carabinieri, Pasquale Nuccio and Giorgio Ciacci from the Army.[1] |
| Perpetrators | Michele Cavataio, the Mafia boss of the Acquasanta quarter of Palermo |
The Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission and the boss of the Ciaculli Mafia family. Mafia boss Pietro Torretta was considered to be the man behind the bomb attack.
The Ciaculli massacre was the culmination point of a bloody Mafia war between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s—now known as the First Mafia War, a second started in the early 1980s—for the control of the profitable opportunities brought about by rapid urban growth and the illicit heroin trade to North America.[2][3] The ferocity of the struggle was unprecedented, reaping 68 victims from 1961 to 1963.