Michele Navarra
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Dr. Michele Navarra (1905 - August 2, 1958) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was a qualified physician and headed the Corleonesi Clan from the town of Corleone.
Biography
Michele Navarra came from a middle class background; his father was a teacher and landowner. However, Navarra drifted in the Mafia when he married a woman who had many relatives within that criminal organization. He became the boss of the Corleonesi in the 1930s.In 1943, the US Military granted Navarra the right to collect the military vehicles abandoned by the Italian army following the allied invasion of Sicily in World War II. Navarra used these to start a trucking company, which was vital to some of his operations involving the theft of livestock.
Navarra became the top doctor at the hospital in Corleone after his predecessor, Dr. Nicolosi, was conveniently murdered. One of the most notorious crimes Dr. Navarra was involved in was that of a youth who witnessed a mafia murder. The boy went to a police station to make a statement but was understandably shocked at what he had witnessed. The police asked Navarra to give the boy a sedative to calm him down, but instead Navarra injected the youth with poison, killing him and thus eliminating a witness.
Navarra and his close ally Luciano Leggio went into hiding after that crime. The pair eventually fell out. Leggio was a young and ambitious mobster who had plans to take over the Corleonesi family himself. Navarra tried to have Leggio killed but the hitmen hired for the task did a poor job and Leggio escaped with just a minor injury, as well as the knowledge that he was as good as dead if he didn't strike back.
A few weeks later, on August 2, 1958, Dr. Navarra and a fellow doctor (who was unconnected with the Mafia) were both shot to death in Navarra's car as they drove home. Leggio thus became the boss of the Corleonesi. It is thought that one of Navarra's killers was Bernardo Provenzano.
References
- Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers (1995), Vintage ISBN 0099594919
- Alison Jamieson, The Antimafia (2000) Alison Jamieson, MacMillan Press Ltd ISBN 033380158
External links
- [Biographies of Mafia bosses (in Italian)]
- [American Mafia article on the Corleonesi]
- [Biography with photos]
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