Rinella bosses sent to trial for the murder of trade unionist Mico Geraci
"They did a favor to Bernardo Provenzano" THE PROCESS by Riccardo Lo Verso 3 min read November 22, 2024, 4:25 PM
PALERMO – Twenty-six years later, two bosses ended up on trial for the murder of Mico Geraci, assassinated on October 8, 1998 in Caccamo.
The preliminary hearing judge Lorenzo Chiaramonte sent the brothers Salvatore and Pietro Rinella to trial. The Trabia bosses allegedly killed the unionist to do “a favor” to Bernardo Provenzano.
The request of the deputy prosecutor Marzia Sabella and of the substitutes Giovanni Antoci and Bruno Brucoli was accepted.
The civil parties The wife and children of the murdered trade unionist , assisted by the lawyers Giuseppe Crescimanno and Armando Sorrentino, the Uil with the assistance of the lawyer Ettore Barcellona, ??the Municipality of Caccamo , represented by the lawyer Fabio Trizzino, the Pio La Torre Study Centre with the lawyer Francesco Cutraro, and the Sicilian Region have joined the civil action.
The investigation by the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Operational Findings of the Provincial Command, would have revealed that the mafiosi of Caccamo asked Provenzano to get rid of the UIL trade unionist who was hindering the interests of Cosa Nostra : from building permits to agricultural contributions, from the regulatory plan to water distribution.
Geraci was about to run for mayor – after leaving the DC and becoming close to Francesco Dolce and Beppe Lumia of the Ulivo – and his election was seen as a risk to the interests of the mafia that controlled the municipal machine.
Giuffrè overtaken Provenzano would have the green light to organize the ambush, bypassing the head of the Caccamo district, Nino Giuffrè. The latter had opposed because he feared the reaction of the police. "They did it without my knowledge", said the boss when he became a collaborator of justice.
In recent years, the statements of three other collaborators of justice have been added: Emanuele Cecala, Andrea Lombardo and Massimiliano Restivo.
The Tale of Cecala Cecala reported having received some confidences about the murder from an uncle of Giuffrè in 2004: “My son is capable of knowing nothing at all (referring to Giuffrè, ed.) because they were people from Trabia… the Rinella brothers, Pietro and Salvatore … The instigators, they were orders that came from Bernardo Provenzano, who felt they had carte blanche and could do something like this in another district… He told me that the Rinella brothers were 100 percent involved”.
“Political things” “Immediately after the murder of Mico Geraci, Diego Guzzino told me – added Lombado – that another murder had taken place in Trabia. As he said, the Geraci murder had been committed in concert between the Caccamo family and the Trabia family, the Rinellas, Rinella Pietro… The reasons, he spoke of political things, that perhaps there were mayoral candidacies” .
The role of the killers Restivo confirmed the role of the killers: “In Trabia there were two boys who have now been killed who spoke to me about a murder, that they had to do a favor to the people of Caccamo, that this favor had to be done by the Rinellas and they hired Filippo Lo Coco, who is dead, and Antonino Canu… Both Lo Coco and this Canu gave me an appointment in Santa Rosalia, in Trabia, telling me if I wanted to take part in the murder, that they were making us the leaders of Trabia .”
The Rinellas allegedly chose Filippo Lo Coco and Antonino Canu as their killers. They waited until Geraci returned home in the evening to shoot him six times with a rifle. A few years later, Lo Coco and Canu were also murdered. They were considered two loose cannons.
