Stefano Botade (whose surname sometimes appears as Botate) was a powerful and connected figure when it came to the mafia landscape of the 1960s and ’70s, and per Italy On This Day. Botade was even believed to have been close to former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.
Botade was known as il Falco — which doesn’t take much knowledge of the Italian language to correctly surmise means The Falcon — and it was his death in 1981 which is often marked as the event that kicked off the Second Great Mafia War.
Michele Greco, a Mafioso who operated in the Sicilian city of Palermo, and Salvatore Riina, of the Corleonesi crime family, made a pact to work together to take over the heroin trade in Sicily. Greco was known to be a rival of Botade’s, but Riina had formerly been an ally.
Botade was assassinated as he drove home for his own 42nd birthday party. The man pulling the trigger was Pino Greco, Michele Greco’s nephew and a noted hitman. Riino and Greco also orchestrated the murder of many of Botade’s friends and associates. This was a misstep on their part, as it tipped law enforcement off to their involvement, leading to the arrest of some members of their drug trafficking operation.
