Canicattì massacre

{{Infobox civilian attack

| location = Canicattì, Sicily, Kingdom of Italy

| date = July 1943

| fatalities = 8

| perpetrators = United States Army soldiers

}}

The Canicattì massacre (or Canicattì slaughter) was a massacre that occurred in Canicattì, Italy following its capture by American forces. During the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, eight unarmed Italian civilians were killed by U.S. troops. The town of Canicattì had already surrendered when U.S. troops entered, following heavy German bombardment during their withdrawal.

History

Upon arrival, U.S. troops received a report that civilians were looting a bombed factory and filling up buckets with the factory's products: food and liquid soap. At around six o'clock in the evening, Lieutenant Colonel George Herbert McCaffrey, the military governor of Palermo, and some military police arrived at the factory. McCaffrey fired into the crowd after it had failed to disperse. At least eight civilians, including an eleven-year-old girl, were killed though the exact number of casualties is uncertain.Giovanni Bartolone, [http://www.canicatti-centrodoc.it/nuovocentro/sezI/storia/BartoloneGiovanni1/AltreStragi/index.html Le altre stragi: Le stragi alleate e tedesche nella Sicilia del 1943-1944] {{in lang|it}}Ezio Costanzo, George Lawrence, The Mafia and the Allies: Sicily 1943 and the Return of the Mafia, Enigma, 2007, p.119

McCaffrey, 63, died of a heart attack in New Jersey on January 25, 1954. He'd been undergoing treatment for tuberculosis at the time of his death.{{Cite news |date=1954-01-26 |title=Article clipped from Nashville Banner |pages=13 |work=Nashville Banner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner/91118378/ |access-date=2023-12-02}}

The incident remained virtually unknown until Joseph S. Salemi of New York University, whose father witnessed it, publicized information about it.Giovanni Bartolone, [http://www.canicatti-centrodoc.it/nuovocentro/sezI/storia/BartoloneGiovanni1/AltreStragi/index.html Le altre stragi: Le stragi alleate e tedesche nella Sicilia del 1943–1944]George Duncan, [http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres_axis.html#Italy Massacres and Atrocities of World War II in the Axis Countries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303194232/http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres_axis.html#Italy |date=3 March 2016 }}