Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, also known as Salvuccio, the son of the infamous former boss of Cosa Nostra, Totò Riina, has returned to the spotlight after a long interview given on Lo Sperone Podcast, where he spoke openly about the figure of his father and his perception of the Italian mafia. Unlike his father, who sought to stay away from the public eye, Giuseppe Salvatore often appears provocative and ready to attract debate. After publications on social networks with tones of love for his father and the auction of his portraits, the young Riina does not hesitate to defend the figure of Totò Riina, sentenced to dozens of life sentences for mafia crimes and assassinations.
"My father never ordered the murder of little Giuseppe Di Matteo. When Giovanni Falcone was killed, he was no longer a problem for the Mafia or Totò Riina, but for others behind the scenes," he declared during the interview, receiving applause from the speakers present.
Riina Jr. also made direct accusations against the anti-mafia movement, which he called a “caravan that only wants attention,” citing the cases of judge Silvana Saguto and entrepreneur Antonello Montante as examples of the failure of public figures who appeared to support the anti-mafia. Faced with questions about his father, he showed no distancing or remorse. “He was a great man. A person who always fought the system. Serious, honest, kept his word and thought about his family. I have never seen him commit an act of violence or return home with a gun in his hand and covered in blood,” said Giuseppe Salvatore, ignoring the reality of Totò Riina’s numerous convictions.
The speakers let him speak at length, allowing him to present the image of a Totò Riina devoted to his family and presented as a victim of an unjust system. According to him, his father was arrested only because he was a “nuisance” to those with power and money. “Like Bernardo Provenzano and Matteo Messina Denaro, my father became unnecessary at some point, because he no longer served the state that really held the mafia’s money. The real mafia is not in Sicily, but in Rome,” stressed Riina Jr.
In an attempt to compare his life with difficult international experiences, he also focused on the children of Gaza: "Like the little Palestinians, I have always experienced things as if I were in a constant state of emergency. When we had to flee from one shelter to another with my father, for me it was a celebration because I got to know new places and people," he confessed. According to him, he has never been isolated, on the contrary, even his birth took place in a well-known clinic in Palermo, "with the name and surname of my father, who everyone knew."
The interview also included references to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the two magistrates killed by orders from Cosa Nostra in 1992. But the young Riina, repeating the version denied for decades by his family, insisted that his father had nothing to do with those assassinations. "The instigators were others, perhaps someone who wanted to stop investigations into money laundering or mafia contracts," he said, casting doubt on other forces of the state. Giuseppe Salvatore Riina's statements have sparked numerous reactions, reviving the debate over the attempts of some mafia heirs to rewrite history and rehabilitate the dark figures of Italian organized crime.
