Leoluchina Sorisi (1919 - 2011)

Born 19 Feb 1919 in Corleone, Palermo, Italy

Died 23 Oct 2011 at age 92 in Corleone, Palermo, Italy

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Biography

Leoluchina Sorisi is the daughter of Pietro Sorisi and Giuseppa Costanza, born in Corleone on 19 February 1919.^[1] Leoluchina has five brothers and four sisters.^[2]

By 1948, Leoluchina works as an elementary school teacher and is in a relationship with her future fiance, Pasquale Criscione.

It is reported that Leoluchina was engaged to the trade unionist Placido Rizzotto and that when his body was found, she said, "I will eat the heart of whoever killed him." Rizzotto’s parents claim that their son was never involved with her. In a later interview, she tells Dino Paternostro that she and Rizzotto were acquaintances. Her nephew, Ludovico Benigno, was a close friend of Placido's and a fellow socialist party member.^[2]

Leoluchina Sorisi shelters Luciano Leggio, who is alleged to be behind Rizzotto's murder. They are both arrested on 14 May 1964 in the home at via Orsini, 6, in Corleone that Leoluchina shares with her sister, Maria Grazia.^[2]

Leoluchina is charged with aiding and criminal conspiracy^[3], and sentenced to two years confinement in the Benedettine Convent in Palermo. At the Corleonesi trial in Bari, in 1969, her sentenced is annulled.^[2]

Leoluchina is acquitted in September 1972.^[2]

Leoluchina tells Dino Paternostro in 2005 that Vincenzo Benigno, Ludovico's son, was with Rizzotto the night he was murdered, in 1948. He was threatened with death if Leoluchina did not offer Leggio shelter.^[2]

After 1972, Leoluchina becomes a maid to a rich woman in Palermo, and lives in England, Germany, Switzerland, then Genoa, working in a variety of jobs, including as a waitress.^[2]

She marries an older man in Italy. He dies after two years.^[2]

She returns to Corleone in 2005 at age 86.^[2]

Leoluchina dies in the new hospital on 23 October 2011, at the age of 92. ^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Zingales, Leone. "Provenzano: Il Re di Cosa Nostra." Accessed online 24 January 2016.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Thom L. Jones. "La Primula Rossa: The story of Luciano Leggio (Part 1)." Accessed http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/la-primula-rossa-the-story-of 30 September 2015.
3. ↑ Senato della Repubbblica VII Leglislatura. Documentazione allegata alla relazione conclusiva della commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul fenomeno della mafia in Sicilia. P. 193. Accessed http://legislature.camera.it/_dati/leg08/lavori/stampati/pdf/023_001011.pdf 13 May 2016.