Calogero Vizzini, The Vallone Options

[manos]

Calogero Vizzini was born on July 24th 1877 in Villalba, Caltanissetta province. This edge of middle Sicily, known as “Vallone”, was a sour and poor area, where people lived of subsistence agriculture. The father of Calogero was a farmer, and his brothers Giovanni and Giuseppe were both priests; Giuseppe became the bishop of Muro Lucano; On the contrary Calogero was semi-illiterate and didn’t finish the elementary studies. He was under protection of Francesco Paolo Varsallona, a fugitive criminal, reputed “man of honour”, who was the means by large landowners and bandits, around the lands of the village; he supplied manpower to nobles in order to repress farmers’ revolts. When Varsallona was arrested in 1903, the young Vizzini was already a real “gabellotto”, in friendship with barons and marquises, and he was going to climb Honoured Society’s ranks. In 1917, he was sentenced to 20 years in first level for fraud, corruption and murder, but he was absolved thanks some friends which exculpated him; he was becoming richer and richer, and in 1919 he already owned a lot of fields, shops and sulphur mines. In 1931, during Fascist dictatorship, he was sent for a few years far from Sicily because suspected member of the mafia; according to police he was involved in several crimes and he had connections with other sicilian bosses and also around United States. He returned to Villalba in 1937, received and respected by the entire village. In 1943, Calogero Vizzini drove the American army, ran by Charles Poletti, from Gela to Caltanissetta; most of the soldiers had sicilian origins and they knew the local dialect. Vizzini was designated mayor of Villalba because of his help, and a lot of bosses were released from prison; that was the end of the Fascism and the new rise of the mafia.

In 1949 Vizzini and italo-american boss Vito Genovese opened a factory in Palermo, which police suspected was a cover for heroin trafficking. Later he was photographed with Salvatore “Lucky Luciano” Lucania in front of a Palermo’s hotel; the photograph was beat but he never denounced the fact. His tentacles around United Stated arrived to Philadelphia, where he was in friendship with the future family boss Angelo Annaloro, known as “Angelo Bruno”, born in Villalba. He died on July 10th 1954; hundreds of people took part in his funeral, included Mussomeli boss Giuseppe Genco Russo.