This spontaneous uprising of the inhabitants of the island of Sicily against the French occupation, called "Sicilian Vespers", broke out in the city of Palermo on Easter, March 29, 1282. But the memory of him has survived for centuries. According to many historians, the motto of the rebellious Sicilians Morte Alla Francia, Italia Anela "Death to all Frenchmen" - calls out Italy ") as an abbreviation has become the name of the Sicilian organized [...]
For a long time, the American mafia "Cosa Nostra" was run by five Italian families. Of these, the most influential was the Gambino family, and the most notorious head of this clan was John Gotti. Being an extraordinary person, he tried to reform the mafia, the traditions of which were carefully and rigidly preserved by the dons of the old formation. John Gotti's reforms significantly increased the income of the mafia and made the crime boss a real celebrity. […]
Salvatore Giuliano is an iconic figure of gangster Sicily. Having lived only 27 years, he became a legend during his lifetime, being Robin Hood in the Sicilian manner and at the same time a bloodthirsty bandit. His name is also associated with the last attempts of Sicily to gain independence. The life story of Giuliano, the last bandit of Sicily, marks the restoration of the power of the mafia, crushed by the fascist regime after [...]
In 1992, the United States was sentenced to life imprisonment "godfather" of one of the five largest clans of the Sicilian mafia in the United States, John Gotti. The decisive evidence at the trial was a videotape on which John whispers to his brother Peter literally the following: "We will make this rat answer." Peter vows to avenge his brother and deal with the "rat". But who [...]
In the ranking of the Italian mafia, the Neapolitan Camorra occupies an honorable third place, right after the Calabrian mafia and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. But in terms of bloodlust and lawlessness, the Camorra is the undisputed leader. On account of her tens of thousands of deaths. Despite the active struggle of the state with the mafia in general and the Camorra in particular, the Neapolitan lads are still very strong. “I don't see anything, I don't hear anything, nothing [...]
In gangster movies, the key phrase is "Sorry, friend, this is just business, nothing personal." An example of this law was the fate of the gangster Roy Demeo - who betrayed friends and eventually betrayed by friends. Membership in mafia families gave criminals not only rights, but also the obligation to obey their superiors unquestioningly. Perhaps the last mobster who allowed himself to spit on the orders of the boss, [...]
During Prohibition in America, in New York, a "alcohol war" unfolded between mafia families. On opposite sides of the barricades, representatives of "Little Italy" converged: the old and the new generation of the natives of the Apennines. The result was the famous "Castellammaret War", which claimed the lives of more than 110 mafiosi. The "Castellammaret War" became a real confrontation between generations: "mustachioed Pitas" - representatives of the first wave of migrants, and young gangsters, [...]
Until the mid-19th century, the concept of "organized crime" was absent in the United States. The first sign was the clash of gangs in New York, about which Martin Scorsese made his famous film. The groups "Swamp Angels", "Dead Rabbits", "Gophers" originated in the basements of old breweries and slums of Irish people who came to the New World in search of a better life. They recruited 10-11-year-old killers into their ranks, arranged doggy [...]
20.09.2014 0 12561
The Mafia is a criminal community that originally formed in Sicily in the second half of the 19th century and expanded its activities to major cities in the United States and other countries. It is an association (“family) of criminal groups with a common organization, structure and code of conduct (omerto). Each group works in a specific area.
In recent decades, the word "mafia", which is not always used in place, has become commonplace. It came to Russian and many other languages from Italy, but even there, in its ancestral home, there are no unambiguous explanations for the origin of the word and the phenomenon it denotes, there are only different assumptions on this score. However, the etymology of the word is not so important as the very essence of the mafia. How to relate to this organization? Is it really that scary and were there really “glorious pages” in its rich history that one can rightfully be proud of?
VIOLENCE INDUSTRY
The adjective mafiusu is possibly derived from the Arabic mahyas, meaning "bragging, bragging." According to the sociologist Diego Gambeta, in the 19th century in Sicily, the term mafiusu in relation to people had two meanings: "arrogant bully" and "fearless, proud". In general, there are many options for decoding this term. The word "mafia" directly in relation to criminal gangs was first voiced in 1843 in Gaetano Mosca's comedy Mafiosi from Vicaria Prison.
And 20 years later, Antonio Guapterio, the prefect of Palermo, first used it officially: in a report to the government, he wrote: "The so-called mafia, that is, criminal associations, has become bolder." Leopoldo Franchetti, who traveled to Sicily and wrote one of the first serious works on the mafia in 1876, described it as an "industry of violence."
He wrote: "The term" mafia "refers to a class of violent criminals who, taking into account the role they play in the life of Sicilian society, claim a special name for themselves, other than just the vulgar" criminals ", as in other countries."
Subsequently, the term "mafia" was also used to refer to any ethnic criminal gangs that partially copy the structure of the classic Sicilian mafia (for example, the Mexican, Japanese, Caucasian, Russian, etc. mafia). At home, in Sicily, the mafia has its own name, Cosa Nostra. But there is no complete identity here: Cosa Nostra is always a mafia, but not every Cosa Nostra mafia. In the same Italy, the USA or Japan there are Camorra, Ndrangheta, Sakra, Unita, Yakuza and other national mafias.
GENTLEMEN OR RIGGERS?
The notorious code of conduct for the mafia, written, according to legend, by one of the "godfathers" of Cosa Nostra, Salvatore Piccolo, consists of 10 commandments. Here are some:
1. No one can come up and introduce himself to one of our friends. He must be introduced by another friend of ours.
2. Never look at your friends' wives.
3. It is your duty to always be at the disposal of the "family", even if your wife is giving birth.
4. Show your appointments on time.
5. Treat your wives with respect ... it. etc.
Agree - it will do as a rule of conduct for a decent gentleman. The commandments of the mafia are by no means advisory in nature; the head of the clan (“family”), Don, is vigilantly watching over their unswerving observance.
Perhaps based on this, and also thanks to the efforts of the authors of Hollywood action films, a stable image of a typical mafioso has developed. Something like this:
He is always dressed in an expensive black suit with white stripes, a wide-brimmed felt Borsalino hat on his head, and black patent leather shoes on his feet;
Clean-shaven or wears a short foppish mustache;
Long cloak, under which you can guess a Tommy machine gun or a pair of Colts;
He drives exclusively on "Cadillac", the engine of which never turns off when stopped.
FROM DIRT TO PRINCE AND BACK
During its almost two-century history, the world mafia has shown the world a whole galaxy of Dons who have gained wide popularity. The first name that pops up in memory when the mafia is mentioned is the legendary Al-Capone, or Big Al. He was born in 1899 in Naples, the son of a hairdresser. As a boy, he went to America with his family, like many poor Sicilian families of those years. They settled in Brooklyn, New York.
The family was in poverty, barely making ends meet. Soon Capone found himself in the ranks of a youth gang. Due to his powerful build, he was very useful in the endless showdowns of street gangs who hunted robbery and robbery. Having reached the age of majority, Al-Capone was noticed by the boss of the New York mafia, Frank Ayala, who a couple of years later transferred the 21-year-old boy to his criminal colleague - the boss of the Chicago mafia Johnny Torrio.
The one in Chicago had serious problems with one of the rival clans. Torrio needed a man who could win the reputation of an outrageous man in Chicago and who would be feared not only by the locals, but also by the enemies of the Torrio group. Al Capone went to Chicago with his new boss. It was there that Big Al was born, who, with his strength and incredible cruelty, brings terror not only to local inhabitants, but also to rival gangsters. He soon dismissed his boss, becoming the de facto king of the underworld of Chicago, and perhaps the whole of America.
It got to the point that the US President called Capone "Public Enemy No. 1". Many murders hung on it, but none of them could be proved - there were no witnesses. Then in 1931, Al-Capone was arrested and sentenced to 11 years in prison, a $ 50,000 fine and confiscation of property for tax evasion.
After five years in the impregnable Alcatraz prison on the island of the same name in the San Francisco Bay, Capone developed chronic syphilis and began to develop mental problems. In addition, in a skirmish with other prisoners, he was stabbed. In 1939, Al Capone was released helpless and sick. Power in Chicago by this time had already been seized by his yesterday's friends. Abandoned by everyone, he died in 1947 of a stroke.
But Big Al is just one of Cosa Nostra's many famous godfathers. No less popular was at one time Vito Casho Ferro, usually referred to as Don Vito. This immaculately dressed stately man with aristocratic manners perfected the hierarchical system of the mafia. He also introduced the concept of u pizzu - the right to trade, which is received from the mafia (of course, not free), not members of the clan. Don Vito gave the mafia an international dimension by traveling to New York in 1901 and establishing ties with local mafiosi.
At the same time, he was so active that after Vito returned to Sicily, a fighter against the mafia, New York policeman Joe Petrosino, also arrived here. However, he was immediately shot to death in one of the city squares of Palermo. Suspicion fell on Don Vito, but one of the members of the Sicilian parliament at the trial swore to Saint Mary that at the time of the murder the accused was at his dinner.
And yet, in 1927, Cesare Mori, nicknamed the Iron Prefect, managed to put Don Vito behind bars for a long time. When Sicily came under aerial bombardment in 1943 before the Allied invasion, the prison was immediately evacuated. By a strange coincidence, everyone except Vito was evacuated, later attributing this to extreme haste. The famous head of the mafia died a week later in his cell from exhaustion.
BENEFIT ABOVE ALL
But the Italian mafia not only robbed and engaged in racketeering. It happened to her to take part in historical events. On May 4, 1860, in Sicily, under the rule of the head of the so-called Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a rebellion broke out against the king. The mafia, which was already a serious force, refrained from participation for the time being, waiting to see where the scales would tip.
It is not known how the fate of both Sicily and the mafia would have developed, if not for Giuseppe Garibaldi, who, at the head of a detachment of "Red Shirts", landed on the island. The rebels, and now the mafiosi, joined him and, jointly overthrowing the ruling island of Francis of Bourbon, brought the national hero of Italy to power. However, the mafia understood that any strong power would hinder its activities. Therefore, occupying leading positions, the mafiosi forced Garibaldi to leave the island and created all the conditions for their subsequent hegemony not only in Sicily, but also in other regions of Italy.
ENEMY NUMBER ONE
In the entire history of the Italian mafia, there was only one person who managed to seriously rein in it and at the same time stay alive. And that man was Benito Mussolini. In 1922, after the famous "campaign on Rome", Mussolini came to power. A fascist regime was established in the country. A year later, Mussolini decided to visit Sicily. He was accompanied by the same Iron Prefect, Cesare Mori.
Arriving on the island and seeing the number of guards ensuring his safety, Duce quickly realized the seriousness of the situation on the mafia fiefdom. At that time, the power here actually belonged to a certain Don Ciccio, who made a big mistake by referring to Mussolini in a familiar manner. The poor man soon found himself in prison. It is obvious that the mafia, being a strong and organized structure, was dangerous for the young fascist state.
At that time, Mussolini could not admit the presence of another force of any kind in the country. As a result of the drastic measures taken, part of the mafiosi was shot, and the escaped bosses sat underground. Only Vito Genovese (aka Don Vitone) managed to get into the credibility of Duce, supplying drugs to his son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano.
But when Vito realized that the Nazis did not have long to be in power, he immediately went over to the side of the American troops invading the country, becoming an interpreter for the colonel of the US Army. And yet he ended his days in prison - a very common career retirement for someone of his kind.
As a result of the persecution of the mafia during the Nazi era, the flow of mafiosi to the United States increased sharply, where many Sicilians settled already at the end of the 19th century, so the newcomers had something to catch on to.
THE WINNERS ARE NOT JUDGED?
It was 1943. World War II is in full swing. Having successfully completed the defeat of the German-Italian forces in North Africa, the Western Allies were preparing to invade Europe. After analyzing the situation, Sicily was chosen as a bridgehead for further advancement inland. The joint operation of British and American troops, codenamed "Husky", was prepared in the strictest confidence in order to ensure the effect of surprise.
Meanwhile, on the territory of the United States itself, the "fifth column" was working with might and main, sabotaging the shipment of military supplies to Europe in every possible way. Back in February 1942, the Normandy transatlantic liner was set on fire. The sabotage was attributed to immigrants sympathetic to the Hitler regime - dockworkers of Italian origin working in the port of New York. Counterintelligence, knowing who was the true owner of the port, turned to Joe Lanza, the famous dock racketeer, for help, demanding that he put things in order in his economy.
He, in turn, hinted that he could carry out an anti-sabotage operation only together with his boss, Charlie Luciano (aka Lucky Luciano), while serving a 50-year sentence in an American prison. The knights of the cloak and dagger had no choice but to agree.
Going to a deal with one of the leaders of the underworld, they hoped to pay off only by transferring Luciano to a more comfortable prison and henceforth not resorting to his help. As soon as the mafia got down to business, everything fell into place. The spies were caught, the guilty were punished, the sabotage was stopped. Everyone was satisfied.
But soon the Americans again had to bow to the leaders of the underworld. To successfully carry out the Sicilian operation with minimal losses, the Allies needed accurate topographic data of the area and the support of the local population. Well, who, if not Sicilian immigrants, could provide such information. And who, if not the bosses of the mafia, could have an impact on the local residents. An offer was made to the lucky man, which he could not refuse. This deal radically changed the course of further events in Europe and the fate of Luciano himself.
With his help, contacts were instantly established with the Sicilian donors, for whom the news of the impending overthrow of Mussolini became a balm for their souls. They connected all the devoted people to the cause. The most accurate topographic maps of the area where the allied troops were to land were drawn, and a network of spies was established.
Even the ruler of all of Sicily, Calogero Vizzini - Don Calo, as he was called, was involved in the case. On June 14, 1943, on the 5th day after the successful landing of the Allies, an American plane appeared in the sky over the town of Villalba, which is not far from Palermo, on both sides of which a huge letter L was inscribed.
She was clearly visible to all residents of the city. A package was thrown from the plane. The people who unrolled it found a scarf with an embroidered letter L, exactly the same as on the plane. It was a sign. A sign that Lucky Luciano says hello to his fellow countrymen and informs them that it is time to act. Thus began the liberation of Sicily from the Nazis and at the same time the revival of the mafia.
In May 1945, a New York State Special Merit Commission released Lucky from prison ahead of schedule and deported him to Italy, a country of a resurgent mafia. There, this professional in his field until the last days of his life led the international criminal "Syndicate", which by the 50s of the XX century entangled the whole world with its threads. And Luciano himself, who lived safely until 1962, was solemnly buried as a national hero.
Anatoly BUROVTSEV, Konstantin RISHES
"Cosa Nostra" - these words made every inhabitant of the sunny island tremble. Whole family clans were involved in mafia crime gangs. Sicily, this blooming garden, was grown on rivers of blood. The Sicilian mafia stretched out its tentacles throughout Italy, and even the American godfathers had to reckon with it.
Returning from the south of Italy, I shared my impressions with one of my acquaintances. When I said that I could not get to Sicily, I heard in response: "Well, for the best, because the mafia is there!"
Unfortunately, the sad glory of the island washed by the waters of three seas is such that its name conjures up not delightful landscapes and unique cultural monuments, not age-old traditions of the people, but a mysterious criminal organization that entangled, like a spider web, all spheres of society. Famous films contributed a lot to this idea of the "crime syndicate": about the commissar Cattani, who fell in an unequal battle with the "octopus", or about the "godfather" Don Corleone, who moved to America from the same Sicily. In addition, the echoes of high-profile trials of mafia leaders in the 80s and 90s have reached us, when the fight against organized crime in Italy reached its climax. However, no success of the authorities and the police in this endeavor can change the postulate that is deeply rooted in the minds of society: "Mafia is immortal." Is it really?
It is generally accepted that the mafia is a rather complex ramified criminal organization with its own harsh laws and traditions, the history of which goes back to the Middle Ages. In those distant times, in the underground galleries of Palermo, people, armed with swords and pikes, hid their faces under hoods - members of the mysterious religious sect "Beati Paoli". The very name "mafia" appeared in the 17th century. The word is supposed to be based on an Arabic root meaning "protection"; there are also other interpretations of it - "refuge", "poverty", "secret murder", "witch" ... In the 19th century, the mafia was a brotherhood that protected "unfortunate Sicilians from foreign exploiters" time of the Bourbons. The struggle ended with a revolution in I860, but the peasants, instead of the former oppressors, found new ones in the person of their compatriots. Moreover, the latter managed to introduce into the life of Sicilian society the attitudes and code of conduct that had developed in the depths of a secret terrorist organization. Criminal orientation quickly became the cornerstone of the "brotherhood", corruption, which it allegedly fought against, was in fact the basis of its existence, mutual assistance turned into mutual responsibility.
Skillfully using the distrust of the official government, traditional for the population of the region, the mafia formed an alternative government, practically replacing the state where it could act more effectively, for example, in such a field as justice. The mafia undertook to solve any problems of the peasant, and - at first glance - for free. And the poor turned to her for protection that the state could not provide them. The peasants did not think that someday it would be their turn to render services to their patron. As a result, each village has its own mafia clan, which administered its own court. And the widespread myth of a secret, centralized and ramified organization with a thousand-year history greatly contributed to the strengthening of the authority of such clans as its "local subdivisions".
Palermo Airport bears the names Falcone and Borsellino, which have become legendary in today's Italy. Prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and his successor Paolo Borsellino worked like no other to cleanse Sicily of the mafia. Falcone became the prototype for the famous Commissioner of Catania.
1861 - an important milestone in the history of the mafia - it became a real political force. Relying on the poor population of Sicily, the organization managed to nominate its candidates to the Italian parliament. By buying or intimidating other deputies, the mafia gained the opportunity to largely control the political situation in the country, and the mafiosi, still relying on grassroots criminal structures, turned into respectable members of society, claiming a place in its upper class. Researchers compare the Italian society of that time with “a puff pastry, in which the connections between the layers were carried out not by official representatives, but by informal ones, ie. by soldiers of the mafia. " Moreover, without denying the criminal nature of such a state structure, many of them recognize it as quite rational. In the book by Norman Lewis, for example, you can read that in the "mafia" Palermo, a housewife could easily forget her purse on the bar table, because the next day she would certainly find it in the same place.
The Palermo authorities have developed a program to combat the mafia, which they called the "Sicilian cart". The "Sicilian cart" is two-wheeled. One wheel - repression: police, courts, special services. Another wheel is culture: theater, religion, school.
Nevertheless, the new, "legal" mafia could not save southern Italy from the terrible impoverishment, as a result of which, between 1872 and the First World War, about 1.5 million Sicilians emigrated, mainly to America. "Prohibition" served as fertile ground for illegal business and capital accumulation, the former members of the brotherhood united again and successfully recreated their usual way of life on a foreign land - this is how Cosa Nostra was born (originally this name was used to refer to the American mafia, although now so often called the Sicilian).
In Italy, the mafia continued to be a state within a state until the Nazis came to power in 1922. Like any dictator, Benito Mussolini could not come to terms with the existence of any alternative power structures, even informal and perverse ones. In 1925, Mussolini deprives the mafia of its main instrument of political influence by canceling the elections, and then decides to finally bring the organization objectionable to the regime to its knees and sends a special prefect, Cesare Mori, to Sicily, endowing him with unlimited powers. Thousands of people have been thrown into prisons without sufficient evidence; Sometimes entire cities were sieged to capture the godfathers, but Mori's tough tactics bore fruit - many mafiosi were imprisoned or killed, and in 1927, not without reason, the victory over organized crime was declared. In fact, the fascist party itself began to play the role of the mafia as a guarantor of public order in Sicily and an intermediary between the government and the peasants.
The most "mafia" Sicilian sweet is cannoli, wafer rolls with sweet filling. They eat like that all the time at The Godfather. Another Sicilian dessert is cassata, an almond-based pastry. And the tourist town of Erice specializes in vegetables and fruits made from colored marzipan.
Those influential mafiosi who managed to escape Mori's persecution found refuge in the United States. However, even here the free life of Cosa Nostra was disrupted: first, by the abolition of Prohibition in 1933, which dealt a blow to the mafia's business, and then by quite successful, although not always legal, actions of the state against the most odious figures of the criminal organization. For example, the infamous Al Capone was jailed for 11 years for tax evasion, and another "America's greatest gangster," John Dillinger, was simply shot and killed by federal agents as he walked out of a movie theater. However, the end of the Second World War was approaching, and the Allies found it tempting to use the authority of the heads of organized crime in the seizure of Sicily. The "boss of the bosses" of the last Lucky Luciano, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison by the US court, acted as an intermediary between the Sicilian and American mafias. Replacing this punishment with expulsion to Rome was, apparently, a good incentive for him - Luciano agreed with his Italian "colleagues" to assist the allies in the landing in Sicily, and the inhabitants of the island met the British and American troops as liberators.
However, there has not yet been a case when society did not have to pay for the services of the mafia. Almost brought to her knees, she suddenly had the opportunity to be reborn in a new capacity. The Dons who distinguished themselves in the fight against the fascists were appointed mayors in the main cities of Sicily, at the expense of the Italian army, the mafia managed to replenish its arsenal, a thousand mafiosi who helped the allied forces were amnestied under a peace treaty. The Sicilian mafia strengthened its position at home, strengthened ties with its American "sister" and, moreover, significantly expanded its possessions - both territorially (penetrating into the previously untouched Milan and Naples) and in the sphere of its criminal business. Since the late 1950s, the heads of the Sicilian organization have become the main suppliers of heroin to America.
The beginning of this was laid by the same Lucky Luciano, who, by the way, lived to a ripe old age and died of a heart attack almost during a meeting with an American director who was going to shoot a film about his life. The efforts of his followers were directed towards both the drug trade and the establishment of links between the mafia and politicians. How much they have succeeded in this over the past decades, can be judged by the report of the Italian Commission on the Fight against the Mafia: “Numerous interconnections have formed between the mafiosi, businessmen and individual politicians, which have led to the fact that government bodies have found themselves in an extremely humiliated position .. The mafia often resorted to threats or direct physical liquidation of people, even intervening in political issues, since the fate of the entire business, the income of the mafia and the influence of its individual representatives depended on them.
Thus, the impression was created that nothing threatened the well-being of the mafia. But this is not entirely true - the danger lay within the organization itself. The structural structure of the mafia is well known: at the top of the pyramid there is a head (capo), near which there is always an adviser (consigliere), the heads of divisions (caporegime), who manage ordinary performers (picchotti), are directly subordinate to the head. In the Sicilian mafia, its unit cells (koski) are made up of blood relatives. Kosks under the leadership of one don are united into a consortium (family), and all consorteries together make up the mafia. However, the romantic version of an organization united by common goals becomes nothing more than a myth when it comes to big money.
The ritual of initiation into the Sicilian mafia is that the newcomer's finger is wounded and his blood is spilled on the icon. He takes the icon in his hand and they light it. The beginner must endure the pain until it burns out. At the same time, he must say: "Let my flesh burn like this saint if I break the rules of the mafia."
Each consortium has its own interests, often very different from those of the rest of the mafia. Sometimes the heads of families manage to agree among themselves on the division of spheres of influence, but this does not always happen, and then society becomes a witness to bloody wars between mafia clans, as it was, for example, in the early 80s. The government's anti-mafia campaign was a response to the drug trade that led to this terrible massacre, and the mafia, in turn, instituted terror, the victims of which were dignitaries, politicians and law enforcement officers. In particular, in 1982, General Della Chiza was killed, who began to unearth the mafia's scams in the construction industry and became interested in the question of who is protecting it in the government. Ten years later, the chief mafioso Tommaso Buscetta, who was arrested in Brazil, said that it was the clan of Giulio Andreotti, who had served as prime minister seven times, ordered to kill Della Chisa. Buscetta is also the author of the so-called "Buscetta theorem", according to which the mafia is a single organization based on a strict hierarchy, with its own laws and specific overarching plans. This "theorem" was firmly believed by the anti-mafia fighter Judge Giovanni Falcone, who back in the 80s conducted a series of investigations, as a result of which hundreds of mafiosi were brought to trial.
After Buscetta's arrest, Falcone, relying on his testimony, was able to start several "high-profile cases" against them. The judge vowed to devote his whole life to fighting the "curse of Sicily", was convinced that "the mafia has a beginning and an end," and strove to get to its leaders. Falcone created something like an anti-mafia committee, the successes of which were so obvious that the committee was ... dissolved by the authorities, dissatisfied with his authority and fame, and possibly fearing revelations. Falcone, slandered and left alone, left Palermo, and in May 1992 he and his wife fell victim to a terrorist attack. However, the murder of Giovanni Falcone and another judge who fought against the mafia - Paolo Borselino - forced the Italian public to wake up. The Mafia has largely lost its former support of the population. The law of "omerta" was violated, which surrounded the organization with a veil of silence, and a lot of "peniti" (repented), i.e. of the defectors who abandoned the mafia activities, testified, which made it possible to send dozens of important Dons to jail. However, the old generation of gangsters, forced to retreat into the shadows, was replaced by a young one, ready to fight both the legitimate authorities and their predecessors ...
So, the fight against organized crime, which was waged with varying degrees of success throughout the 20th century, continues to this day. Mafia sometimes "changes its skin", while always retaining its essence of a criminal terrorist organization. It is invulnerable as long as the official institutions of power remain ineffective, and the officials remain corrupt and selfish. In fact, the mafia is a hypertrophied reflection of the vices of the whole society, and until society has found the courage to fight its own vices, the mafia can still be called immortal.
The culture
The Mafia appeared in the middle of the 19th century in Sicily. The American Mafia is a branch of the Sicilian Mafia that drove the waves of Italian immigration in the late 19th century. Members and associates of the mafia group needed to commit the murder in order to intimidate the prisoners and dissuade them from trying to shorten the term.
Sometimes the murders were committed out of revenge or because of disagreements. Murder has become a profession in the mafia. Throughout history, the mastery of killing has been continually refined. Planning, execution and covering up the tracks were all part of a "trade" agreement with a skilled assassin. However, most of the murderers ended their lives violently or spending a large portion of it in prison.
10. Joseph "The Animal" Barboza
Barbosa is known as one of the worst killers of the 1960s, believed to have killed more than 26 people. He got his nickname during an incident in a nightclub when, after a small disagreement, he "smashed" the offender's entire face. For some time after that, he continued his boxing career, winning 8 of 12 fights under the pseudonym "Baron".
Despite the fact that he nevertheless made several attempts to return to legal life, "nature took its toll", because no matter how much you feed the wolf, he still looks into the forest, so he soon began to engage in crime again. In 1950, he served 5 years in the Massachusetts Correctional Colony, while he repeatedly attacked guards and other prisoners. After serving three years of the appointed time, he escaped, but he was soon caught.
After his release, he immediately joined a gang of gangsters, and started his own business of burglary. At the same time, his career began to develop as a "hit man" within the Patricia Criminal Family. Over the years, the number of his victims grew, as did his reputation as a hitman. His weapon of choice was a silenced pistol, although he also enjoyed experimenting with car bombs.
Over time, Barbosa became a respected figure in the underworld, however, with his reputation, it was impossible not to acquire dangerous enemies. After being sent to prison on murder charges and learning that an assassination attempt was being made on him, he agreed to testify against mafia boss Raymond Patriarca in exchange for protection from the FBI. He was defended for a while under the witness protection program, but the enemies still managed to get him. In 1976, near his home, he was ambushed and killed on the spot with a shotgun.
9. Joe "Crazy" Gallo ("Crazy" Joe Gallo)
Joseph Gallo was a prominent member of the New York-based Profasi criminal gang. He killed mercilessly and was believed to be involved in many contract killings at the behest of boss Joe Profaci himself. Ironically, his nickname has nothing to do with his "murderous" reputation.
Many "colleagues" called him crazy because he liked to quote dialogues from gangster movies and impersonate fictional characters. His reputation grew significantly in 1957, when Joe was suspected (although this was never proven) of being among those who killed the highly influential mob boss Albert Anastasia.
A year later, Gallo assembled a team to overthrow Profasi family leader Joseph Profasi. The attempt was unsuccessful, after which many of his friends and relatives were killed. Gallo was doing very badly, and in 1961 he was convicted of robbery and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
During his time in prison, he tried to kill several other prisoners by politely inviting them into his cell and adding strychnine to their food. Most of them became seriously ill, but none died. After serving 8 years of the appointed term, he was released early.
Upon his release, Gallo was determined to take on the role of leader of the Colombo crime family. In 1971, then-leader Joe Columbo was shot three times in the head by an African-American gangster. However, Gallo is about to face his own tragic end. In 1972, while dining at a fish restaurant with his family and bodyguard, he was shot five times in the chest. The main suspect in the murder was believed to be Carlo Gambino, who did it in revenge for the murder of Joe's friend Colombo.
8. Giovanni Brusca
Giovanni Brusca is known as one of the most cruel and sadistic members of the Sicilian mafia. He claims to have killed more than 200 people, although in reality this is unlikely, even the officials did not accept this figure. Brusca grew up in Palermo, and began communicating with the underworld from early childhood. Eventually, he became a member of the "death squad", which committed crimes on the orders of the boss Salvatore Riina.
Brusca was involved in the assassination of anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in 1992. A huge bomb weighing almost half a ton was placed under the highway in Palermo. When the car passed in the place where the bomb was planted, the explosive device went off, killing, in addition to Falcone, many more ordinary people who were nearby at that fateful moment. The explosion was so powerful that it punched a hole in the road, and the locals thought an earthquake was about to begin.
Shortly thereafter, Bruska began to face numerous challenges. His former friend Giuseppe di Matteo became an informant and spoke about Brusque's involvement in the murder of Falcone. In order to silence Matteo, Brusca kidnapped his 11-year-old son and tortured him for two years. He also regularly sent terrifying photos of the boy to his father, demanding that he withdraw his testimony. In the end, the boy was strangled and his body was dissolved in acid to destroy the evidence.
Bruska was sentenced to life imprisonment, however, was able to escape and became active in organized crime. However, the authorities still managed to get to him, and he was arrested in a small house in a Sicilian village.
The officers who took part in the arrest were wearing ski masks in order to hide their faces from the criminals, because otherwise they would have faced inevitable reprisals. He was convicted of numerous murders and is currently in prison, where he will remain until the end of his days.
7. John Scalise
John Scalis was one of the top hitmen of the Al Capone clan during the ban in the 1930s and 1940s. When he was twenty years old, he lost his right eye in a knife fight, which was later replaced by a glass one. After that, to cement his reputation, he began to take orders for murder from the Gennas brothers (Gennas brothers). He later secretly began collaborating with Al Capone. John also spent 14 years in prison for manslaughter and was severely beaten by inmates.
Perhaps most popular is his involvement in the Valentine's Day Massacre, when seven people were lined up against a wall and brutally shot by gunmen disguised as police officers. Skalis was arrested and charged with the murders, however, was soon released because his guilt was not proven.
Al Capone later learns that Skalis and two other assassins were involved in a conspiracy to overthrow his leadership. He invited all three to a banquet, beat each one almost to death, and the final chord was the bullets fired in the forehead of the cheaters.
6. Tommy DeSimone
The man's family is recognizable, as in 1990, actor Joe Pesci played Tommy in the movie Goodfellas. Nevertheless, despite the fact that in the film he is depicted as a small and short man, in life he was a large, broad-shouldered killer, almost 2 meters tall and weighing more than 100 kilograms. It has been proven that he personally killed 6 people, although, according to some reports, this number is more than 11. Informant Henry Hill (Henry Hill) described him as a "pure psychopath."
De Simone committed his first murder in 1968. While walking with Henry Hill in the park, he saw an unknown man walking towards them. He turned to Henry and said, "Hey, look!" Then he shouted an obscene word to the stranger and shot him point-blank. This will not be his last impulsive murder.
In one of the bars, he flared up over what he believed to be a wrong drink bill. Drawing his pistol, he demanded that the bartender dance for him. When the latter refused, he shot him in one leg. A week later, once again in the same bar, he began to taunt the bartender wounded in the leg, to which he sent him to hell in an impartial way. Tommy reacted very quickly: he pulled out a pistol and killed the bartender by shooting him three times.
After his involvement in the famous Lufthansa robbery, Tommy went to work as a hitman for friend and mastermind of thieves Jimmy Burke. He eliminated possible informants and thereby increased his share of the loot. One of those killed was a very close friend of Tommy Stacks Edwards, whom he was reluctant to kill. Burke told Tommy that he could become a full-fledged member of the mafia by killing Edwards, and De Simone agreed.
In the end, Tommy's irascibility led him to death. In another fit of blind rage, he killed two close friends of the boss John Gotti (John Gotti), who considered it his duty to personally get even with Tommy. According to Henry Hill, the murder process was long, as Gotti wanted De Simone to suffer greatly. He was killed in 1979, and his remains have never been found.
5. Salvatore Testa
Salvatore was a Philadelphia gangster who served as a hitman for the Scarfo crime gang from 1981 until his death in 1984. His father, a highly influential man in criminal circles, was shot in the head in 1981, leaving Salvatore behind several of his legal and illegal businesses. As a result, at 25, Testa was very rich.
Testa was an extremely aggressive person and he personally killed 15 people during his "activity" period. One of his victims was the man who plotted the murder of his father, the gangster and bodyguard Rocco Marinucci. His body was found exactly one year after the death of Salvatore's father. He was completely covered with bullet wounds and had three unexploded bombs in his mouth.
A huge number of assassination attempts were made on Salvatore, however, he always managed to survive after them. The first assassination attempt took place on the terrace of an Italian restaurant, when the Ford sedan slowed down as it passed Testa's table, and a sawn-off shotgun that appeared in the window shot him in the stomach and left arm. However, he survived, and the perpetrators were forced to go underground after he found out who they were.
Testa met his death after being ambushed by his former friend. He was killed at close range, shot in the back of the head. The motive for the murder was the fears of the boss of the criminal group Scarfo that Testa was preparing a conspiracy against him.
4. Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano
Sammy Bull was a member of the Gambino crime family. But he gained great popularity, most likely, after becoming an informant against former boss John Gotti. His testimony helped to put Gotti behind bars for the rest of his days. Throughout his criminal career, Gravano has committed a huge number of murders and contract killings. He received the nickname "bull" because of his size, height, and his habit of fistfights with other mafiosi.
He began his mafia activities in the late 1960s in the Colombo crime family. He participated in armed robberies and other petty crimes, although he quickly moved into a rather lucrative area - usury. He committed his first murder in 1970, it helped the Bull earn respect among the representatives of the underworld.
By the early 1970s, Gravano was a member of the Gambino crime group. He was arrested on suspicion of murder, however, he was soon released. After that, he began a series of serious robberies, which he did for a year and a half. After this period, he had significant weight in the Gambino group. He "signed" his first contract murder in 1980.
A man named John Simon was the leader of a conspiracy, as a result of which it was planned to kill the boss of the Philadelphia criminal group Angelo Bruno, without receiving permission from a special mafia commission, for which he was sentenced to death. Simon was killed in a wooded area, and his body was disposed of.
Bull committed his third murder in the early 1980s after being insulted by a wealthy tycoon. He was caught in the street, and while Gravano's friends were holding him, Bull first fired two shots in his eyes, and then a control one in the forehead. After the tycoon fell, Gravano spat on him.
Gravano later becomes the right-hand man of the boss of the Gambino crime family, John Gotti, and was Gotti's favorite hitman during that period. However, after being charged with various crimes, he offered to provide information on Gotti in exchange for a reduction in his sentence. He confessed to 19 murders, but received only 5 years in prison. After his release, he went underground, however, soon became involved with organized crime in Arizona again. He is currently in custody.
3. Giuseppe Greco
Giuseppe was an Italian gangster who worked as a hitman in Palermo, Italy in the late 1970s. Unlike other hitmen, Greco was on the run from the law throughout his career. He rarely worked alone, hiring "death squads," bandits with Kalashnikov assault rifles, who waited in ambush for their prey and then beat them down. He was found guilty of 58 murders, although the total number of victims, according to some information, reached 80. One day he killed a teenager and his father, dissolving the bodies of both in acid.
By 1979, Greco was a high-ranking and respected member of the mafia commission. He committed most of his murders from 1980 to 1983, during the Second Mafia War. In 1982, Palermo boss Rosaria Riccobono was invited to a barbecue at the Greco estate. After the arrival of Rosaria and his associates, they were all killed by Greco and his "death squad". Greco received the order to kill from his boss Salvatore Riina. No bodies were found and reportedly were fed to hungry pigs.
Greco was killed at his home in 1985 by two former members of his death squad. Ironically, the client was Salvatore Riina, who believed that Greco had become too ambitious and too independent to think to stay alive. When he was killed, he was 33 years old.
2. Abraham "Kid Twist" Reles
This man was the most famous hitman involved with Murder Inc, a clandestine hitman group that worked for the Mafia in the 1920s and 1950s. He was most active in the 1930s, this was precisely the period when he killed members of various criminal gangs in New York. His weapon of choice was the ice pick, which he skillfully used to pierce the victim's head and pierce the brain.
Reles was prone to blind rage and often killed in impulse. Once he killed a valet for the fact that the latter, it seemed to him, parked his car for too long. On another occasion, he invited a friend to dinner at his mother's house. After finishing the meal, he pierced his head with an ice pick and quickly disposed of the body.
While still a teenager, Reles was regularly involved in criminal cases, and soon became a fairly popular personality in the world of organized crime. His first victim was former friend Meyer Shapiro. Reles and some of his friends were ambushed by Shapiro's gang, however, no one was hurt that time.
Later, Shapiro kidnapped Reles' girlfriend and raped her in a corn field, naturally Reles decided to take revenge by killing the offender and his two brothers. After several unsuccessful attempts, Abraham managed to get even with one of his brothers, and two months later with Shapiro himself. A little later, the rapist's second brother was buried alive.
By 1940, Reles was charged with a myriad of crimes and would most likely have been executed if convicted. To save his life, he turned in all his former friends and members of the Murder Inc gang, six of whom were executed.
Later he was supposed to testify against the mafia boss Albert Anastasia, and on the night before the trial he was in a hotel room under constant guard. The next morning he was found dead on the sidewalk. It is still unknown whether he was pushed or tried to escape himself.
1. Richard "Ice Man" Kuklinski
Perhaps the most notorious hitman in history is Richard Kuklinski, who is believed to have killed more than 200 people (none of whom were women or children). He worked in New York and New Jersey from 1950 to 1988 and was a hitman for the DeCavalcante crime group, as well as several others.
At the age of 14, he committed his first murder by beating a bully to death with a piece of a wooden stick. To avoid identifying the body, Kuklinski cut off the boy's fingers and pulled out his teeth before throwing the remains of the body off the bridge.
During his teenage years, Kuklinski became a notorious serial killer in Manhattan, brutally killing homeless people just for the thrill. Most of his victims were shot or stabbed to death. Anyone who opposed him, for a maximum of a year, lost his life. His tough reputation soon attracted the attention of various criminal gangs, who sought to use "his talent for their own good", making him a contract killer.
He became a full-fledged member of the Gambino crime gang, actively participating in robberies and the supply of pirated pornographic videotapes. Once, a respected member of the Gambino group was driving with Kuklinski in a car. After they parked, the man chose a random target and ordered Kuklinski to kill him. Richard immediately complied with the order, shooting an innocent man point-blank. This was the beginning of his career as a hitman.
For the next 30 years, Kuklinski worked successfully as a hitman. He got his nickname "Ice Man" because of his method of freezing the bodies of his victims, which helped to hide the time of death from the authorities. Kuklinski was also famous for using various methods of assassination, the most unusual of which was the use of a crossbow aimed at the victim's forehead, although he most often used cyanide.
When authorities finally found out who Kuklinski was, they found no evidence to convict him of premeditated murder. As a result, they conducted a special operation, after which Kuklinski was arrested and charged with trying to poison a person with cyanide. He received five life sentences after confessing to numerous murders. He died in prison of old age when he was 70 years old.
Therefore, initially, with the appearance of the mafia, in particular in the United States, in the local underworld, Italians were perceived with a grain of irony, since engaged in petty robbery and racketeering, familiar to them in Italy, without any special aspirations in controlling large business structures. At the time, major American cities were dominated by Jewish and Irish crime groups.However, the almost unquestioning loyalty to the code of honor - omerta, immediate vendetta (blood feud) to the offenders of the family, discipline and loyalty to the family and incredible cruelty allowed the Italian group to quickly take leading roles in the American underworld.
To seize and crush almost all spheres of business, to bribe most of the largest judges and officials of the country. To kill competition in many industries, for example, the "twin towers" were forced to pay, controlled by the Italians, a garbage collection company of 1 million 100 thousand dollars a year (in those years it was a huge amount). Moreover, the mafiosi did not do any intimidation, they simply did not allow other companies to enter this market, this company was the only such company in the New York market!
Mafia Gambino family
True to tradition in the Italian mafia
Fidelity to traditions left its bright imprint on the criminal code of honor, so most of the family members were exemplary family men and cases of betrayal were quite rare, even though the mafia controlled almost all entertainment businesses: prostitution, gambling, alcohol and cigarettes. Cheating on his wife was perceived by the family as a slap in the face and was brutally suppressed, of course, everything has changed a lot in the modern age, but this tradition has existed for a long time. Showing attention to the wives of friends and family members was the strictest taboo.Due to the fact that the profession of members of the mafia was accompanied by a certain risk to life, each family member knew perfectly well that in the event of his death, his family would be taken care of financially no worse than with him alive.
Long years of oppression by the Sicilians by an aggressive government led to the fact that the word "policeman" can still be slapped in the face in Sicily. One of the most important points of Omerta is the complete lack of contact with the police, and even more so cooperation with it. A person will never be accepted into a family if his close relative serves in the police, even appearing on the street in the company of police officers was punishable, sometimes by the highest bar - death.
This tradition allowed the mafia to exist for a very long time without any problems with the US government. The US government did not recognize the existence of the Italian mafia until the mid-20th century, due to insufficient information about the structure and penetration of organized crime into business and politics.
Mafia clans in the USA
Alcoholism and drug addiction were considered a vice, but despite the prohibition, many family members were addicted to both, one of the least observed laws is dead, but drunken and stabbed family members, as a rule, did not live for a long time and died at the hands of their own comrades.
No person can enter a family by introducing themselves to a capo or a mafia don, the only way to get into a family is the recommendation of a family member and his willingness to introduce you to the family. There are no other ways.
Strict punctuality, you must not be late for any of the meetings, this is considered bad form. This rule also includes showing respect for any meetings, including meetings with enemies. There shouldn't be any killings during them. One of the reasons that the numerous wars between various families and clans of the Italian mafia quickly subsided, during the meetings, an armistice was declared and often the donors of the families found a common language and solved the accumulated problems.
When talking with any of the family members, even the smallest lie is considered a betrayal, the duty of each family member in response to the question asked to tell the truth, no matter what it is, naturally, the rule applies only to members of one criminal group. The strictness of execution, in fact, was monitored at the lower levels of the hierarchical structure, naturally, in the upper layers of the hierarchy, lies and betrayal existed right up to the murder of the head of the family with the right hand.
Do not lead an idle lifestyle, full observance of moral principles
No family member was allowed to engage in looting and robbery without the approval of the boss or kapo. Visiting entertainment establishments unnecessarily or without direct commission was strictly prohibited. The law also allowed the mafia to be in the shadows, as an intoxicated family member could have blurted out a lot, where this information could cause significant damage to the family.
The appropriation of other people's money without any instructions from the head of the family was a strict taboo. From childhood, young men were brought up within the framework of the laws of loyalty to the family, that it is a great shame to be a renegade, that without a family a person's life has no meaning. In this regard, in the circles of the Italian mafia, "lone wolves" were very, very rare, and if they did, they did not live for a long time, such behavior was punishable by immediate death.
Vendetta - blood feud
As justice for non-observance of the laws of the Omerta, the violator was awaited by a vendetta, which in different clans could be accompanied by various rituals. By the way, blood feud against both a family member and any other offender or enemy of the family should have been quick and without unnecessary torment for the victim, such as a shot in the head or heart, stab wound in the heart, etc. Those. the victim did not have to suffer everything according to the "Christian" canons, but after death the victim's body could already have acted in a barbaric manner and with a fair amount of cruelty to intimidate the enemy or educate other family members.
There were also different traditions in different clans, for excessive talkativeness, a cobblestone was inserted into the mouth of a corpse, a rose was placed on the body for adultery, a wallet with a thorn on the victim's body meant that the murdered one had appropriated other people's money. About this, you can hear many different fables, now it is already difficult to make out where the truth is and where the lie is.
An interesting fact is that the laws omerta fell into the hands of the police and journalists only in 2007 when one of the bosses of Cosa Nostra was arrested by Salvatore La Piccola, they were found among the documents found during the search and poetically named in the press "10 Commandments of Cosa Nostra". Until that moment, there was no documentary evidence of the rules of the code of honor of Italian mafiosi, the criminal network was so secretly organized.
It is not surprising that such an organizational structure has taken root in all countries of Europe, North and South America, but oddly enough, the only European country where the Italian mafia has no serious influence is Russia and the countries of the former USSR. What is the reason for this, it is difficult to imagine, here is the absence of immigrants of Italian origin, the language barrier and slightly different moral norms of the local population and a fairly strong local criminal network.
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