They say that Bernardo Provenzano (known as Binnu) had begun to lose it, that he started raving over the last few years. It's easy to forget that that he had been the Godfather of the Corleonesi faction. Even when he was arrested, he was wearing an old-fashioned handkerchief around his neck and had chicory boiling in a pan in his stable hide-out; not exactly the image of a man in the top ranks of the notorious Cosa Nostra. The same could be said of his longtime crony and ally Toto Riina (Salvatore Riina), who at least managed a silent and ferocious expression for the police photographers. Binnu was instead carted away wearing a foolish grin, although it was accompanied by the legendary phrase he uttered as the handcuffs were slapped on his wrists: "You don't know what you're doing."
When a godfather dies, there is always someone who breathes a little easier. And Bernardo Provenzano, despite his silence and recent ravings, has certainly been a source of anxiety for more than a few men inside and outside of the government; namely those privy to that secret of secrets, which is protected by a verdict that did not constitute a crime: the lack of a police search of Totò Riina's house after his arrest. Eighteen days were lost in January of 1993, during that period of time the Cosa Nostra organized the emptying and cleaning of the house without a single camera or Carabinieri (Italian military police) to record the activity in the residence of a man who once brought the country to its knees with endless massacre and murder.
That lingering questions: Was Riina's arrest a deal with the government? And was Provenzano the one to make the deal? These questions are still part of an ongoing, albeit vague, legal procedure.
But one thing is certain: after the transfer of power from one godfather to another, that is, from Toto' "Shorty" Riina and Bernardo "the tractor" Provenzano, the Cosa Nostra assumed a new, more comfortable, relationship with the government, one resembling that of a friendly, but divorced couple. In some ways, this change was also related to the economic crisis that dried up the flow of money that the Corleonesi faction had used to build much of its fortune. Enough massacres: the new strategy was integration and survival. Both the mafia and the government minded their own business, despite the constant interference of some officials who came and went like a series of bothersome colds.
Massimo Ciancimino, son of old-school mobster Vito Ciancimino, recalled Provenzano's visits to his father's house in Piazza di Spagna in Rome. He would go pick Provenzano up around the corner from the subway stop like he were an elderly uncle and bring him to his father, Don Vito. The two would then discuss Riina's infamous list of demands to the government in exchange for an end to the recent bombings, deciding that "Shorty" was crazy and needed to be taken down a couple of notches. Whether Ciancimino's story is true or not (and it is very likely true), Provenzano presented a much more accommodating image. He was the behind-the-scenes godfather. And in the end, on that day of his arrest 10 years ago, that boiling pot of chicory only helped to cement that image.
When a godfather dies, many secrets die with him. And whether figurehead or not, raving or silent by choice, "Binnu u tratturi"(Binnie the tractor) remained true to his reputation. Someone will breathe easier tonight. Everything else isn't personal, just strictly business.
This post first appeared on HuffPost Italy. It has been translated into English and edited for clarity.