He’s in a dark suit, with waistcoat, pocket square and mother-of-pearl tie, she’s in a low-cut white dress made with lace fabric and a bouquet of red roses. The golden couple of families mafia Palermo, Tommaso Lo Presti, known as “the big one”, to distinguish him from the homonymous one called “the long one”, and his wife Teresa Marino, celebrated in style, with friends and family the anniversary of 25 years of marriage on April 15th. They both celebrated their silver wedding anniversary in Pantheon of the illustrious Sicilians, the Church of San Domenico, which houses the remains of Giovanni Falcone. A sacred place for the people of Palermo, here where the funeral of Giovanni Falcone, his wife and magistrate Francesca Morvillo and the men of the escort, who were killed in the Capaci massacre of 1992, was held. The Church of San Domenico ten years earlier in 1982 was It was also the site of a state funeral for the prefect Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa.
Silver wedding
The boss Lo Presti had recently been released from prison after a dozen years in prison, and with his wife, also convicted of mafia charges, he had decided to celebrate his twenty-fifth, first with a Mass in this evocative and symbolic place and then with some neomelodici in a private villa. The top roller couple active in the Porta Nuova mafia gang. “I think that the silver wedding of Boss Lo Presti with his wife celebrated in front of my brother’s tomb was an offense towards both my brother Giovanni and the entire city of Palermo: San Domenico is twice sacred, for the church and for the community because the most illustrious people of Palermo rest here and are an example for everyone. Mafiosi are murderers and ruthless criminals and if the bosses try with arrogance and bad taste to gain credibility in the eyes of the community, we will clearly respond with culture and commitment. The religious of San Domenico did not realize the mistake they were about to make. However, I always believe in the good faith of the Dominicans, who are very cultured and attentive to the value of memory. This very ugly page will close on May 23rd with a very crowded, beautiful and heartfelt religious function in San Domenico to remember the victims of the Capaci massacre and ideally all the victims of the mafia”, said Maria Falcone
The rector: “I didn’t know who they were”
The rector of San Domenico, Father Sergio Catalano, assures that he only found out later, reading only in Palermo Today who the couple was and that the offer received from the boss will not be returned, but used to “do good to those in need “. “The checks are not up to us – he adds – there are institutional bodies that have to do it”. But this doesn’t seem to be enough for those who felt hurt and there are those who speak of “serious disfigurement to the memory and to the city” and also points the finger at certain sectors of the Church whose behavior is not yet clear.
The boss and the problems with the law
After the arrest of Lo Presti, 48, in the Iago operation in 2014, investigators discovered the role of his wife which the judge who sentenced her described thus: “Teresa Marino during the period of her home detention (in conjunction with her husband’s prison time), received at her home all the prominent exponents of the Porta Nuova mafia district and gave them her own and her husband’s instructions and directives, sharing their criminal strategies .
Furthermore, the mafia associates of the organization also turned to the woman to resolve issues and tensions within the association”.
