Lupara bianca (Italian pronunciation: [luˈpaːra ˈbjaŋka]; "white lupara") is a journalistic term for a Mafia murder done in such a way that the victim's body is never found.[1][2]
Typical ways to carry out a lupara bianca include burying a victim in the open countryside or in remote places where their body would be difficult to find, burying the victim in concrete at a construction site, or dissolving the body in acid and throwing the remains into the sea. This last method was widely used by the Corleonesi faction during the Second Mafia War.[3] Other methods included dissolving a body in a wet lye pit, feeding remains to hogs, or pitching the victim (dead or alive) into a steel mill's molten metal. The lupara bianca prevents the family of the victim from holding a proper funeral, and it also destroys evidence that might point to the killers' identities. The term comes from the lupara, a weapon typically associated with the Sicilian Mafia.