He was considered to be the right-hand man of Cosa Nostra boss Totò Riina and sat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission.
[2] He was sentenced to life for the killing of general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, the prefect of Palermo, appointed to crack down on Cosa Nostra in 1982.
[3] Riina appointed him to the Sicilian Mafia Commission in 1983 for the Noce mandamento after Ganci killed his own boss Salvatore Scaglione.
During the day Raffaele Ganci and his sons Calogero, Stefano, and Domenico attended clients, while they went on killing sprees at night.
[5][6] Raffaele Ganci was involved in the decision to kill the Antimafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and he and his sons participated in the execution of the bomb attacks.