Giuseppe Guttadauro
Giuseppe Guttadauro (born August 18, 1948 in Bagheria, Palermo province of Italy) is an Italian Mafia boss and a high-profile surgeon from the Rocella neighbourhood in Palermo.[1] Born in Bagheria, he became the regent of the Brancaccio mandamento after the arrest and subsequent incarceration of the Mafia boss Gaspare Spatuzza in 1998.

According to Antonino Giuffrè, a pentito collaborating with the state, Guttadauro was an ally of Bernardo Provenzano in his attempts to reverse his former ally Totò Riina’s strategy of violence against the Italian state. “To initiate the process of remodeling the image of Cosa Nostra,” Giuffrè explained, “Guttadauro made contacts in business and started a debate on how best to apply peacefully the process of silent reconstruction of Cosa Nostra.”[2]

Guttadauro’s grand Palermo villa served as a meeting point for both mafiosi and the people that counted in public life. According to prosecutor Roberto Scarpinato: “… first of all members of the military Mafia would come to receive instructions regarding protection rackets, drug trafficking, and other crimes. Then, almost as if Guttadauro was doing a double shift, members of the city’s bourgeoisie would arrive, including doctors, lawyers, and politicians. These would fine-tune regional and national political strategies that were invariably designed to subjugate public institutions to the predatory interests of the friends of friends. This was achieved by bloodless, but effective, methods involving financial backing and collective resources of every type.”[3]

Guttadauro also had business acumen. He planned the vast development of a shopping centre and multiplex in Brancaccio, selling his own land, but making sure he would be the guarantor for protection of the site. This way he could guarantee the employment of a significant amount of mafiosi.[2]