[1] As well as setting the Corleonesi on track to become the dominant Mafia clan in Sicily, he became infamous for avoiding convictions for a multitude of crimes, including homicide, before he was finally imprisoned for life in 1974.

The two eventually became accomplices in crime after Riina's release, as did two other young local criminals, Calogero Bagarella and Bernardo Provenzano.

The following year, two men confessed to helping Leggio kidnap Rizzotto, who shot the victim and dumped the body in a 15-metre-deep (49 ft) cavern.

Immediately after the trial, which ended in 1969, a determined Italian magistrate named Cesare Terranova appealed against Leggio's acquittal for the Navarra slaying.

After hearing of his indictment to stand trial once more, Leggio checked into a private health clinic in Rome to have treatment for Pott disease, which he had suffered from most of his life and for which he had to wear a brace.

[10] Leggio was linked to the murder of the General Attorney of Sicily, Pietro Scaglione, who was shot dead on 5 May 1971 with his police bodyguard Antonino Lo Russo.

[13] Leggio had ordered the 1979 killing of Judge Terranova as a revenge for the insult at the interrogation in the 1960s; the murder was approved by the Sicilian Mafia Commission.

[14] Leggio was charged with ordering Terranova's murder, but was acquitted for lack of evidence, both in the first trial, which was held in Reggio Calabria in 1983, and three years later, in 1986, in the appeal process.