Creasy's revenge campaign against the Mafia

Creasy's revenge campaign against the Mafia transforms the disciplined methods he first used to guard Pinta Balletto into a personal assault on the network he holds responsible for her death. The campaign is driven not by a single target but by the conviction that everyone who profited from the kidnapping remains answerable. Its progress unsettles both the Mafia leadership and Mario Satta, while its climax leaves Creasy gravely wounded and fighting for his life.

From Protection to Retaliation

Before the kidnapping, Creasy approaches protection as a military problem. He thinks of Pinta as an asset, studies how an enemy might seize her at home, at school, or along a familiar route, and reasons that the road presents the likeliest opportunity. He traces the roads between Milan and Como, marks places where a car would have to slow, and plans to vary the daily route. At Pinta’s school, he examines the spike-topped wall, the heavy gates, the grounds, and the locations of the playing field, running track, and copse. The school itself seems reasonably secure; the danger, in his assessment, lies in the circumstances around the journey.

That professional framework cannot prevent the attack. Pinta is still about forty meters from the car when a black car mounts the curb and Creasy recognizes the abduction in progress. He tells her to run. When the kidnappers block her way, Pinta ducks under a reaching arm and circles behind their car toward him. One man catches her and carries her back while another fires at Creasy. Creasy hesitates to shoot while Pinta is between them, then shoots the gunman in the chest twice. The intervention stops one attacker but does not save Pinta from being taken.

The account of her death makes the failure more than a matter of losing her during the abduction. Guido Arrellio tells Creasy that the ransom had been paid two days earlier and that Pinta was supposed to be released that night. A police sweep for a Red Brigades gang apparently made the kidnappers nervous; they went to ground for several hours instead. In the morning, police found Pinta in the trunk of a stolen car. Her hands and mouth had been taped, and she had choked after vomiting, probably from petrol fumes. The autopsy confirmed the cause of death. The ransom had been paid, yet the delay between payment and release proved fatal.

The Campaign Widens

Creasy’s retaliation becomes visible in the report of Giorgio Rabbia’s death by shooting. The brief newspaper item, noticed by Pietro and shown to Guido on a Saturday in Naples, says Rabbia was believed to have connections with organized crime. In a violent city, the report attracts little public attention, but Guido understands its meaning: the revenge has begun. He responds by telling Pietro to pack and ordering him to leave for Gozo the next day, an immediate practical consequence of Creasy’s renewed violence for those close to him.

The campaign’s scope is made explicit when Creasy confronts Ettore Balletto in the large, elegant room. Asked whether he killed the other people involved, Creasy confirms that he intends to kill everyone who profited. He names two remaining figures: the boss in Rome and the powerful man in Palermo. His declaration makes clear that the objective is not simply to punish the kidnappers who physically seized Pinta. It extends upward to those who benefited from the crime and to the leadership behind them.

Rika Balletto’s response gives the threat a personal and domestic setting. As Creasy speaks, she recalls that Ettore had comforted her and told her they still had each other, that life went on. The reassurance sits uneasily beside Creasy’s account of continuing vengeance. The contrast places the family’s attempt to resume life against a campaign that rejects the idea that the matter can be closed by consolation or by the death of one participant.

A Threat to Mafia Power

The killing of Giorgio Rabbia is also a turning point in Mario Satta’s understanding of Creasy’s intentions. Satta had assumed that revenge would be satisfied with the killing of Fossella and that Creasy would then flee across the border toward a distant country. Instead, he learns that Creasy plans to continue against Conti and Cantarella. Satta had left Bellu to begin criminal proceedings against Balletto and gone to his apartment to think through what the revelation meant.

Satta’s conflict is both legal and political. Creasy’s actions strike at the Mafia’s pride: one man has brought direct danger to its leaders. If he reaches Conti, Satta fears, the damage could be disastrous; if he kills Cantarella as well, the wound could be fatal. The campaign therefore changes the stakes beyond Creasy’s private demand for vengeance. It threatens the standing and authority of the organization itself, while forcing Satta to weigh the consequences of a prosecution against the consequences of allowing Creasy’s assault to continue.

The Attack and Its Cost

Creasy’s attack on Conti is carried out against the protection surrounding Conti’s armored Cadillac. At precisely 2:30, Conti leaves a basement garage with his personal bodyguard; a second car containing four more bodyguards follows. As the cars reach street level, a figure rises across the avenue behind a low wall, wearing goggles and carrying a tube on his shoulder. Two missiles strike in quick succession. The first pierces the center of the Cadillac’s radiator, destroys its engine, and burns everything inside; the second hits below the front axle and throws the five-ton car backward onto the Lancia behind it. Only one person escapes immediate death, crawling out of the crumpled wreckage before turning back toward the ramp.

The campaign’s final assault reaches Villa Colacci. While Don Cantarella stands at a study window, frustrated that people who had long been subservient are beginning to question his power, he draws the curtains and returns to his desk. Seconds later, Creasy floats over the wall under a parachute. He lands near the orchard, cushions the impact, releases himself from the harness, and drags the canopy into the fruit trees. The moment turns Cantarella’s expectation of control into an imminent breach of his own guarded domain.

The assault becomes known as the Battle of Palermo. A month later, Creasy’s funeral is held on a cold winter day on a hill above Naples, with reporters present because they have followed not only the battle but also his fight to survive. He had been given little chance while in intensive care in Palermo, but lived; after two weeks, a special Carabinieri aircraft transferred him to the better-equipped and more secure Cardarelli Hospital in Naples, at Satta’s instigation. The campaign thus ends, in the available account, not with an uncomplicated escape or an immediate death, but with Creasy gravely wounded and the public watching the struggle for his life.