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

Lupara

A SELECTED MAFIA GLOSSARY (SICILIAN)

In Corleone, Sicily (see "Rassettarsi la testa" below)

Ammonizione:  Judicial proceeding which imposes specific  restrictions on offenders or potential offenders.

Anonima Sequestri:  Incorporated kidnappings.

Associazione  a delinquere:  A charge “invented” by Prefeto Mori  especially for the mafiosi.

Campiere:  Overseer, field-guard (see below)

Canziarsi:  To go into hiding (from the police).

L'Ora(1900-1990) (see below)

 

Compare, compa`, commare:  Old Italian words for someone who is close to the family.  (The Merry Wives of Windsor is, in Italian, ‘Le allegre commari di Windsor’).  It comes from ‘cum matrem cum patrem’.  In Sicilian compare or commare are witness to a marriage of godfathers  and godmothers, a practice used by the cosche to expand the family network.

Cosa bianca:  Heroin.

Cosa carica:  A considerable quantity of drugs.

Cosa bianca (see above)

Cosca (plural cosche)—cacocciula:  Referred etymologically to artichoke (in Sicilian cacocciula) to indicate a clique of Mafiosi.  Capocosca = the leader of a cosca.

Cosche map (see above)
 

Garantire:  To guarantee, to protect and give one’s word for a ‘smaller’ man.

L’Ora:  Palermitan evening daily started in 1900 by Ignacio Florio.

Lupara and Pallettoni (see below)

Lupara:  Sawn-off shotgun.  Meant for shooting wolves and used by Sicilian criminals for its compactness.  It is an ordinary shotgun sawn off at both ends , so that it becomes a kind of long revolver, but a more lethal one, since its bullets contain many lead pellets.  It is a fearful and graceful object; some of the shotguns are ornately worked, but most are just smoothed on both sides, the wooden and metal ends.  The belt for the bullets has a beautiful quality and obviously  enhances the sense of power of the man who feels its weight.

Mandante:  Principal.

Mandatario:  Agent in a Mafia crime.

‘nfamita:  An infamy – for a Mafioso, breaking the Mafia ‘code’.

‘ntisu:   Someone whose opinion is listened to and is important – a mafioso.

Pallettoni:  The lupara’s pellets.

 

Pupi in Palermo

 

pupi:  Sicilian puppets (representing the paladins of the court of Charlemagne).  

Rassettarsi la testa:  Mafioso slang for keeping quiet.

Anti-police graffiti in Palermo  

Sbirro (pl. Sbirri):  Southern pejorative for policemen.

Sfregio:  An offence to the authority of a Mafioso, which has to be punished.

Sgarro:  An offence punishable by death.

Sucivita`:  The society – the Mafia.

Vendetta:  Revenge.

Vossia:  Comparable to the English ‘thou’ and no longer used in current Italian.  The Sicilians only use it to address people of respect like the mafiosi.

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