Francis Turatello

Francesco Turatello (Asiago, 1944 – Nuoro, August 17, 1981) was an important Italian crime figure and mob boss who operated during the 1970s and early 1980s mainly in the city of Milan.

Driven by a strong personality and a firm ambition to succeed, he rose up in position and increasingly began taking serious roles, eventually becoming the head of a criminal gang consisting mainly of immigrants from Catania, Sicily.

The gang made billions of lire from these rackets, and also participated in several robberies and kidnappings, with the complicity of the Banda dei Marsigliesi, headed by Albert Bergamelli.

[2] Turatello has also been linked to many murky incidents of the history of Italy in the 1970s, including the abduction and murder of former Italian prime minister, Aldo Moro, and some criminal acts carried out by the Banda della Magliana of Rome.

On August 17, 1981, during the open yard exercise in the courtyard of Badu 'e Carros, the high security prison in Nuoro, Sardinia, Turatello was ambushed by the NCO hitman Pasquale Barra, Vincenzo Andraous and the well known assassins from Catania Salvatore Maltese and Antonino Faro.

The murder was probably ordered by Raffaele Cutolo and the death sentence was passed by Carmela Provenzano, the wife of senior NCO figure Pasquale D'Amico, but there are no evidences of that.