Michele Greco (Italian: [miˈkɛːle ˈɡrɛːko]; 12 May 1924 – 13 February 2008) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia and a convicted murderer.

He and his brother Salvatore "The Senator" Greco operated low profile and were able to enter into relationships with businessmen, politicians, magistrates and law enforcement officials through their membership of Masonic lodges.

[4] Many of those notables were invited by "The Pope" and "The Senator" to wine and dine and take part in hunting parties at his estate La Favarella.

[8] Michele Greco was nominated the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission (Cupola) in 1978, after Gaetano Badalamenti was expelled.

Through his position within the Cupola, Michele Greco assumed indirect control of Stefano Bontade's Mafia family after his murder.

[12] He narrowly escaped death during an ambush by a Corleonesi hit squad led by Pino Greco "Scarpuzzedda" and Giuseppe Lucchese.

Contorno's revelations in his letters to the police were the first time the authorities had really learned of Michele Greco's high-ranking membership of the Mafia.

[3] Michele Greco was arrested on 20 February 1986, and he joined the hundreds of defendants at the Maxi Trial, which had started just ten days previously.

At the end of the trial, on 16 December 1987, Greco, then aged 63, was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life imprisonment.

[19] Greco was quickly rearrested in February 1992, and put back behind bars to serve his freshly reinstated life-sentence.

In 1995, in the trial for the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Russo, Greco was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Bernardo Provenzano, Salvatore Riina, and Leoluca Bagarella.

[20] The same year, in the trial for the murders of Piersanti Mattarella, Pio La Torre, Rosario Di Salvo and Michele Reina, in which he was given a further life sentence together with Bernardo Provenzano, Bernardo Brusca, Salvatore Riina, Giuseppe Calò, Francesco Madonia and Nenè Geraci.

[17][23][24] According to historian John Dickie, Greco "was the very archetype of a mafia capo: unsmiling, taciturn, given to speaking only in maxims and allusive parables.