The Ballad of Luciano Leggio

Luciano Leggio (1925-1993)

Excerpts from “The Ballad of Luciano Leggio”, Pt. 1:

“Liggio has even had the honor of being the subject of a ballad called ‘The Prince of the Mafia’.  In it we find the usage of the word ‘Killer’, by now adopted by the Sicilian dialect  whenever referring to the Mafia:

‘Signori miei, voglio raccontarvi la complete storia del capo mafia siciliano Luciano Leggio (dento Liggio):

I.

Quanno muriu Calogero Lo Bui

Lu cupu di la mafia lucali

a Corlionici fu un fui fui

pp’acquistari ddu titulu . . . riali:

ma cci appi cchiu putiri e fermu pusu

dori Micheli Navarra, mafiusu

II.

. . .  Luciano Liggiu ancora era un mucciusu

un carrusiddu a chinnicianni appena

siccu arruganti, agili mpignusu

di pruvatu curaggiu e longa lena

ca spurtusava, ccu la so pistol

un palancuni ca nta l’aria vola

III.

Ma la so puverta’ non lu consola

e cuminciau la vita di banditu

ccussi’, a vint’anni, dopo bona scola . . .

addivintau assassin rifinutu

ed ammazzu la guardian giurata

Calogeru Calajanni numinata

(Il Colajanni fu ucciso perche’ aveva denuncito Liggio per un furto di covoni di grani e l’aveva fatto rinchuudere in prigione.)”

Corleone (Sicilian: Cunigghiuni), Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy, pop. 12,000.

Translation:

“Good people, I want to tell you the complete story of the Sicilian head of the Mafia, Luciano Leggio (called Liggio):

I.  When Calogero Lo Bui, head/of the local Mafia died/at Corleone there was a rush/to conquer the ‘royal’ title:/but  the one who had real power and strength/was Don Michele Navarra, the Mafioso./

II.  . . . Luciano Liggio was still a boy/a youngster of fifteen only/lean, arrogant, agile and overbearing/of great courage and energy/who killed with his pistol/a bird which flies in the air./

III.  He was not consoled by his poverty/and started the life of a bandit/and so, at twenty, after a good school/he became a refined murderer/and killed a guard/called Calogero Colajanni/

(Colaganni was killed because he had denounced Liggio for a theft of wheat and had him locked up.)”

Michele Navarra (1905-1955) aka "'u patri nostru" ("our father").

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