page_title: Salvatore Giuliano
section_title: End of the career
hierarchical_section_title: Salvatore Giuliano / Biography / End of the career
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of L'Europeo of July 1950 about the mysterious death of Salvatore Giuliano
context_page_description: Salvatore Giuliano was a Sicilian bandit, who rose to prominence in the disorder which followed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. In September of that year, Giuliano became an outlaw after shooting and killing a police officer who tried to arrest him for black-market food smuggling when 70% of Sicily's food supply was provided by the black market. He maintained a band of subordinates for most of his career. He was a flamboyant, high-profile criminal, attacking the police at least as often as they sought him. In addition, he was a local power-broker in Sicilian politics between 1945 and 1948, including his role as a nominal colonel for the Movement for the Independence of Sicily. He and his band were held legally responsible for the Portella della Ginestra massacre, though there is some doubt about their role in the numerous deaths which occurred.
  The widespread international press coverage he attracted made him an embarrassment to the Italian government, and throughout his banditry up to 2000 police and soldiers were deployed against him. He was murdered on 5 July 1950.
context_section_description: In January 1950 a Sicilian carabiniere, Giovanni Lo Bianco, coerced Giuliano's treasurer, Benedetto Minasola, into betraying the bandit. Minasola set up band members to be captured by the authorities one at a time until April, when Giuliano had no more active operatives. Minasola was then able to persuade Aspanu Pisciotta to betray his closest friend—Pisciotta was an easy target, having long doubted Verdiani's plot to get himself and Giuliano out of the country.
  On 19 June, Pisciotta met with Colonel Luca and agreed to work with him to eliminate Giuliano. After deliberation and intrigue among Luca's command, it was decided to kill Giuliano on the morning of 5 July in Castelvetrano. Pisciotta would lure Giuliano out to the street, and a squad of Carabinieri led by Captain Perenze would assassinate the bandit chieftain. Unfortunately for Luca, one of Verdiani's partisans was at the planning meeting, and Verdiani sent Giuliano a letter warning of Pisciotta's betrayal. When Aspanu arrived at the de Maria house after midnight on 5 July, Turi confronted him with Verdiani's communique—somehow, Pisciotta convinced him that he was more trustworthy than the policeman but didn't dare to suggest they leave the house for the ambush. After both men laid down, ostensibly to sleep, Pisciotta waited until Giuliano was asleep. He then shot him twice killing him instantly. Aspanu ran outside, told a waiting Perenze what he'd done, and was spirited out of town. Perenze and his squad hauled Giuliano's corpse to a nearby courtyard, shot it with several rounds, and with Luca concocted a story of an informer, Giuliano's plan to flee the country by plane from Mazzara del Vallo, and the bandit's death in a running gun battle.
  The next morning, Luca and Perenze repeated the story to the press in the courtyard, while visitors traipsed through to see Giuliano's body. Many observers, especially locals who'd heard rumors that didn't coincide with the official account, were skeptical of the official story. In the afternoon after the body had been moved to the local morgue, Maria Lombardo arrived. She fainted upon seeing the body, was revived, and identified her son. She insisted on kissing the bloodstains on the ground where he had lain in the courtyard.
  Thanks to official wrangling, the body remained in Castelvetrano until 19 July (allowing hundreds of locals to view it in the interim). The burial in Montelepre that afternoon was private, on official orders to prevent publicity.
  The official story was unraveled by Tommaso Besozzi of the Milanese weekly L'Europeo. In the 16 and 24 July issues, he named Pisciotta as the murderer, but substituted misleading initials for Minasola. In spite of later official testimony by Pisciotta, de Maria, and Perenze confirming Besozzi's reportage, the concocted story remains as the official account.
  Aspanu Pisciotta remained at large until 5 December when he emerged from a concealed space in his family's home and was arrested. He had been hiding there since shortly after Giuliano's murder, when the Carabinieri command, who couldn't grant the amnesty he sought, turned him loose.
caption: Cover of “L'Europeo” of July 1950 about the mysterious death of Giuliano
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