Sicilian Mafia Put a Hit on Giuliani

The Sicilian mob hated Rudy Giuliani so much when he worked as a federal prosecutor in New York back in the 1980s that it sent a hit man to the US to get rid of him, reports the New York Post. Similar reports have surfaced before, but a mafia turncoat fleshed out the details this week during a trial in Italy. It seems that the head of the Sicilian mafia, Salvatore "Toto" Riina, personally ordered the hit and sent a lackey from Italy to the US with a letter ordering it to take place.

Luckily for Giuliani, the Gambino crime family vetoed the idea, knowing that the feds would strike back hard if one of their own were assassinated, reports the Daily News. Giuliani drew the ire of the mob not only for his own crackdown on organized crime but for his close association with an anti-mafia judge in Sicily named Giovanni Falcone. The judge, incidentally, was murdered by mob hitmen in 1992. Giuliani himself has spoken of such plots before, telling Oprah Winfrey last year that he knew of two contracts against him as mayor. (More Rudy Giuliani stories.)