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 Sicilian Mafia's Corleonesi faction during the Second Mafia War, mostly taking place from 1981 to 1984 .[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.