Salvatore Contorno (Italian pronunciation: [salvaˈtoːre konˈtorno]; born 28 May 1946), called Totuccio, is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned into a state witness (pentito) against Cosa Nostra in October 1984, following the example of Tommaso Buscetta.
They went on to eliminate other members of the Santa Maria di Gesù family that were lured to the estate of Michele Greco where they were wiped out.
[5] On 25 June 1981, Contorno narrowly escaped a murder attempt by Pino Greco (Scarpuzzedda, little shoe) and Giuseppe Lucchese — the favourite hitmen of the Corleonesi.
[6] The Corleonesi employed a scorched earth policy to hunt down Contorno, killing his relatives and friends, to prevent them from hiding him.
Despite this approach, they were unable to find him, which earned Contorno the nickname Coriolano della Floresta, a kind of popular Sicilian version of Robin Hood.
[7] While in hiding from both the authorities and the Corleonesi, Contorno sent anonymous letters to the police, revealing information on the Mafia, its members, the various factions and the violent turmoil it was undergoing.
Police Superintendent Antonino Ninni Cassarà developed a relationship with Contorno as an informant, code-naming him Fonte di Prima Luce (Source of First Light).
[9] When he was captured, police found several weapons, two bulletproof cars, tens of thousands of dollars in cash, 140 kilograms of hashish and two kilos of heroin.
Working closely with Judge Giovanni Falcone, two months later the police unleashed a dragnet roundup of 162 Mafiosi wanted for drug trafficking and homicide.
[12] Information provided by Tommaso Buscetta, plus the evidence of Salvatore Contorno, led to the first Maxi Trial which involved 475 defendants which ended in December 1987, 22 months after it began, with 338 convictions.
He testified in a rapid, often incomprehensible specific Palermitan dialect and Mafia jargon that had to be translated for the official record.
[14] The affair became a scandal in July 1989 when anonymous letters signed by "il corvo" (literally "raven", but meaning "provocateur") claimed that prosecuting judge Giovanni Falcone and his close collaborator, police inspector Gianni De Gennaro, had organised Contorno's secret return from protective custody in the US to Sicily to start a state sponsored vendetta against the Corleonesi.
[1][19] In January 1997 Contorno was arrested again, because of his involvement in dealing 2 kilograms of heroin in the early 1990s, which resulted from the investigations into the bombing attempt.