Calogero Vizzini
Calogero Don Calò Vizzini (July 24, 1877 – July 10, 1954) was the Mafia boss of Villalba in the Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. Vizzini was considered to be one of the most influential Mafia bosses of Sicily after World War II until his death in 1954.
Don Calogero Vizzini was the archetype of the paternalistic "man of honour" of a bygone age, that of a rural and semi-feudal Sicily that existed until the 1960s, where a mafioso was seen by some as a social intermediary and a man standing for order and peace. Although he used violence to establish his position in the first phase of his career, in the second stage he limited recourse to violence, turned to primarily legal sources of gain, and exercised his power in an open and legitimate fashion. In the media he was often depicted as the "boss of bosses" – although such a position does not exist in the loose structure of Cosa Nostra, and later Mafia turncoats denied Vizzini ever was the boss of the Mafia in Sicily.
Vizzini is the central character in the myths about direct Mafia support for the Allied Forces during the invasion of Sicily in 1943. After World War II he became the personification of the reinstatement of Cosa Nostra during the Allied occupation and the subsequent slow restoration of democracy after the repression under Fascist rule. Initially he supported the separatist movement, but soon changed allegiance to the Christian Democrat party.
Source: encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com
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