The Ballad Of Luciano Leggio, Part 2

Luciano Leggio

IV.

Ppi ddu dilittu non cci vinni data

nudda cunnanna ca non cci fu prova

e Luciano fici la so entrata

nta la famigghia di la mafia nova

suttapostu a Navarra, lu dutturi,

comu killer, fidatu esecuturi.

V.

In cuntrata Strasattuintantu, mori

Stanislau Punzu, un ottimu camperi

siccu allampatu ccu ncorpu a lu cori

e l’assassinu e’ ignotu fucileri;

Luciano Liggiu vosi, ad ogni costu

Susiturirlu e ottinni lu so postu

Placido Rizzotto, sindiclista

VI. 

L’inicaricu trimedu cc appi tostu

di Micheli Navarra, lu piccotu,

di siquisttrari e teniri nascostu

lu paisanu Placidu Rizzottu:

nascostu, si’, ma ca non fussi vivu

nt’on lucali d’entrata affattu privu.

VII.

E Lucianu Liggiu, sinsitivu

e a la so capu sempri ubbidienti,

sense mancu sapirilu mutivu

e Rizzotto ammazzu, immediatamenti

e a lu so corpu sipultura tocca

nta na spacca profunna di la Rocca.

Murdered kidnapping victim, Palermo, Sicily

Translation:

IV.  For this crime he did not get/any sentence, as there was no proof/and Luciano made his entrance/into the family of the new Mafia/under Navarra, the doctor,/as a killer, trusted executioner./

V.  At the locality of Strassata then/Stanislao Punzu died, an excellent campiere/lean, thin, his heart in the right place/and the murderer is an unknown gunman;/Luciano Liggio wanted it at all costs/to substitute for him, and got the job./

VI.   Soon the picciotto had the terrible mandate/from Michele Navarra to kidnap and keep hidden/Placido Rizzotto [1], the peasant/yes, hidden, but that he should not be alive/

VII.  And sensible Luciano Liggio/always obedient to his chief/without even knowing the reason/killed Rizzotto at once/and it happened that his body got/inside the deep hole of the Rocca./

La Rocca, Cefalu, Sicily 

[1]  Placido Rizzotto (January 2, 1914 – March 10, 1948) was an Italian socialist peasant and trade union leader from Corleone, who was assassinated by Sicilian Mafia boss Luciano Leggio. Pieces of Rizzotto's mutilated body were discovered two years later at the bottom of a cliff with his limbs chained up, and a bullet hole in his head. When he was killed, Rizzotto was doing activist work with farm laborers, trying to help them take over unfarmed land on large estates in the area.

From Gaia Servado:  Mafioso.  New York, Dell, 1976

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