Vito Cascio Ferro “Don Vito”
(January 22, 1862 - 1945)
The first “capi di tutti i capi” (boss of all the bosses)
Born in 1862 in Palermo, Cascio Ferro grew up in traditional peasant surroundings and as a young man was hot headed, illiterate and rebellious. In short he was a natural candidate for the life of Cosa Nostra, and by his early twenties he had been ritually enrolled into the organization as a man of honour.
Cascio Ferro was among the thousands of immigrants who got into U.S in the period before the strict quotas were introduced in the twenties. On his arrival into the U.S Cascio Ferro moved in with his sister over a shop on 103rd street, New York. He had skilfully hidden his criminal record, which began in 1894 with a charge of assault and extended through 1899 when he was accused of kidnapping Baroness di Valpetrosa, and so he fled New York to escape trial.
Before fleeing New York, Don Vito was credited with establishing a sliding scale of local tax `protection’ which was paid to him and other lesser bosses, within 3 years Don Vito had perfected his system as every business man in his area became a victim of the illustrious `Black Hand’. Don Vito also became a man who would act as a local arbitrator, sorting out the disputes of the many people under his protection. Joe Petrossino a New York detective soon began to take a big interest into who Don Vito was, as by 1904 the New York police had linked the Don to a number of crimes, including the murder of an Italian who’s body was found stuffed into a barrel. So Petrosino was sent to Sicily in an attempt to trace the elusive Don Vito Cascio Ferro. His visit was supposed to be a secret, but by the time his ship sailed into Palermo Don Vito had his men watching for the arrival of Petrosino.
After a visit to the American consul in Palermo Petrosino was to be introduced to informers. As he waited for the arrival of the informers, Joe Petroso was shot twice as he sat on a fence, patiently waiting the for two informers to show up. Don Vito was arrested on the 3rd of April 1909, but he had a solid alibi, a local v.i.p. who stated that Don Vito was at his home in Palermo at the exact time of the murder. In the remaining years of the pre Mussolini era he had established a major criminal network. Always keeping in touch with his associates in New York, kidnapping, extortion, murders, and smuggling all headed the statistical charts in Palermo between 1921 to 1925.
In January 1925 Mussolini took control of Italy. Mussolini would bring the first real attack on the Mafia, with Cesare Mori who was appointed the police prefect and ordered to clean out the Mafia presence on the island of Sicily. Hundreds and thousands were rounded up many of them merely associated with the men of honour, but numbers would prove results as Cesare Mori turned his attentions to the bigger bosses. In 1927 Don Vito was arrested for murder, something that he got used to over the years as he was arrested on suspicion of murder 69 times but would always be acquitted, thanks to there not being enough evidence and no witnesses who were deranged enough to testify against a Mafia boss. Ironically though this time Don Vito was innocent the evidence was fixed by Cesare Mori and his fascist dictator Mussolini who set out to get him at all costs. So the first boss of bosses had been taken down, sentenced to life imprisonment in Palermo he continued to run his empire from his luxurious prison cell where he died peacefully in 1945. His prison cell thereafter became reserved for v.i.p. prisoners only.
