My dear traveller, today I wanted to discuss with you about a phenomenon that many people consider as a typical Sicilian custom, namely the Sicilian mafia. In reality, behind this term, there are many misleading opinions and wrong ideas. First of all, the one according to which the Sicilians would be all members of the Sicilian mafia and the second that the criminal organization called The Mafia is only a Sicilian phenomenon.
In the following paragraphs, I’ll show why these opinions are utterly wrong and what is the difference between the real criminal organization called “Cosa Nostra” and the ancient, rural Sicilian mafia. I invite you to read them, before visiting my beautiful Sicily.
Sicilian Mafia. What is it?
The term mafia means a particular custom that pushes people to give out privileges, protection and benefits in return for money. This custom is outlaw and illegal because treats fundamental human rights as merchandise, such as getting a job, political assignments , medical treatments, business growth and so on. These favours are managed by people called “Mafiosi”. However, they don’t give only privileges in return for money, they force entrepreneurs, shopkeepers and politicians to pay a fee in return for their protection or favours. This illegal fee is called “pizzo” in Sicilian, namely “extortion money”. If people reject the protection by the Mafiosi, they can also be intimidated with violent harassment or killed. Over the years, many Sicilian entrepreneurs have been forced to pay a fee to continue working and getting customers for their shops and firms. Many denounced the money extortion and have been killed, such as the Sicilian entrepreneur Libero Grassi, other people continued denouncing and others not, because they feared to be killed by the Mafia. This fear also caused a despicable phenomenon called “ rule of silence” or “omertà”, in Italian.
The word “omertà” indicates a behaviour according to which those who gained benefits from the Mafia denied to having met it. Indeed, many people who were suspected to deal with the Mafia and arrested often said to the policemen: “ Nenti sacciu, netti vitti” or “ I know and see nothing” , even though they saw their neighbor killed by the Mafia in front of their eyes! That is, in short, a rough description about the criminal organization called “Mafia” . Indeed, this word means bossy, snooty and boaster behavior performed to manipulate others , through menaces and intimidation. Just think that in the ancient time, instead, the word Mafia meant a bold man and a charming and seductive woman. At that time, hence, this word had nothing to do with its current meaning. The modern mafia also relates to a particular mindset of some people who practice arrogance against other people, public officers and legal rules.
The Mafia people despise law and justice and work only for the benefit of their personal interest and of small groups of people affiliated with them. This particular mindset permeates our society globally, by now, and it is not a Sicilian phenomenon. Indeed, economical, social and financial manipulation (in order to gain a personal benefit or interest) is spread all over the world and not only in Italy or Sicily. Just think to international trade agreements, or globalization, those are agreements all made through rules similar to the one of the Mafia, namely made only to foster small groups of people. However, the history of my loved Sicily has been marked heavily by the Mafia crimes committed by the Mafia bosses. But at the early stages of the Sicilian history, the mafia was completely different from this cruel organization. Indeed, in the history of Sicily, we can find two different epochs relating to the Mafia: the one of the rural mafia and the one of the criminal mafia called “ Cosa Nostra”, “ Our Thing”.
Sicilian mafia history
The ancient history of the Sicilian Mafia was characterized by the so called” rural mafia”. The rural mafia was a local phenomenon that was born in the 1860, when Sicily joined the Italian State. Before this date, in the island was in force a feudal and medieval lifestyle arranged by barons and counts who entrusted their lands to their own relatives or trusted foremen. After the unification of Italy, the new State entered the capitalism, namely a new economic pattern where people could sell their lands to private buyers. But these private buyers were unable to protect their lands from thieves. From another side, the new Italian State was unable to provide a sufficient number of policemen to oversight the lands that endured too many robberies.
For this reason, the Sicilian landowners turned to private people available to protect and defend them and their lands from thieves. These people usually worn a typical Sicilian hat and took up a typical Sicilian rifle to intimidate thieves and force them to escape. This is the first description of a person who is globally known as a Sicilian Mafioso. In reality, those were private defenders and protectors of Sicilian landowners. Hence, the one you know as an ancient Mafioso was a defender or land keeper hired by the landowners.
These owners endured too many robberies at that time. Indeed, you must know that after the Unification of Italy, Sicilian people were very poor. They couldn’t to afford basic necessities such as meal and bread and many of them were forced to steal pigs, chickens and grains to landowners. In the past, in Sicily, there was also the misconception that these thieves were the real mafia people. This is the first misconception to dispel. They were poor and desperate people who tried satiating their starvation. They were called simply “chicken thieves”, “arrobba iadduzzi” , in the Sicilian language. The Sicilian Mafiosi were those who defended landowners from chicken thieves.
These defenders became more and more influential and were contacted from other people having any kind of issues. For instance, if one was harassed or offended by his neighbor, he got in touch with a Sicilian defender who, in turn, invited the mischief neighbor to apologize for his bad deed. The ancient Sicilian defenders (known as the rural mafia) were different from the modern Sicilian Mafia. They were people who followed a behavioral code to defend persons in trouble without forcing them to pay in return for protection. Their only rules were to pacify the disputes and cast out outlaws and thieves. Due to primary rule followed by these defenders, namely defending helpless people, they were also called “men of honour”. Groups of Sicilian men of honour also formed the so called “ honoured society” or “onorata società” in Italian. In short, the ancient Sicilian mafia took care about legal issues of common people and replaced policemen and law officers who were lacking in Sicily after the Unification of Italy.
How did the mafia start?
But, then, how did the Sicilian Mafia start their criminal activity or rather, how it turned into the criminal organization called “ Cosa Nostra”? The answer is simple: the Sicilian mafia became the cruel organization called Cosa Nostra because the ancient Sicilian defenders of the landowners became accustomed to replace policemen and this made them develop the idea of impunity for any activities (legal or illegal) they undertook. Due to the growing local influence, they were contacted by many people who turned their attention to them to get any kind of favour, such as customers for their shop, a job, a surgery intervention of a good doctor and any kind of human right that in the Sicilian culture became a benefit or rather a privilege to receive only through the Sicilian Mafia and above all by paying a fee or giving a vote to politicians appointed by the Mafia.
This culture was always fostered by the bad heritage that Sicily found after the Unification of Italy. In the Middle Age, Sicilian people fought to free themselves from many dominations, I suggest that you read the glorious history of The Sicilian Vespers, they weren’t helpless or in need of favours. They had a high idea of dignity and a lot of self-esteem. After the Unification of Italy, Sicily was practically abandoned and treated much differently in comparison to the rest of Italy. It was assigned poor economic opportunities and poor control of the central State about what was happening in the island.
I strongly believe that Sicily would be a great independent island without the rest of the boot, but this is another issue. Even though it is apparently a region with a special statute, in reality Sicily is tied strongly to the rules of Italy. The special statute works only to increase the salary of Sicilian politicians and this bad law can be changed only with a law issued by the Italian Parliament. Hence, the independence of Sicily is actually false or incomplete. But, let’s leave this dissertation and let’s go back to the primary topic, namely to understand why the rural Sicilian mafia started its criminal businesses.
Due to the missing control from Italy, the Sicilian defenders became the most influential people in Sicily. They decided everything in the fullest impunity. They understood that they could manage every economic and social field of Sicily and that they could gain much money from the needs of people, forcing them to pay a fee in return for their protection services.
From this stage, in the early years of the past century, they devoted their lives to smuggle, especially drug, money extortion, public procurement manipulation and vote buying for politicians. They did all this freely without the risk to be imprisoned, because they started menacing those who wanted to escape this racket and forced them to stay in silence and away from policemen. Furthermore, the usage of Justice in Sicily was underestimated from Italy.
From the Sicilian mafia to the American mafia
Since then now, the Sicilian mafia has worked in all the criminal businesses I mentioned in the paragraphs above. This kind of mafia endured a strong halt during the Fascism and the hard repression wanted by Benito Mussolini between 1925 and 1929. At that epoch, Mussolini bestowed the prefect Mori with the power to start a repression against the mafia in Sicily. Tons of mafia bosses were arrested and deprived by their criminal businesses. Many of them were forced to confess through beatings and tortures and those who were still free escaped to the United States. This is the beginning of the American Mafia. Thanks to this strong and effective suppression of the Mafia, the Sicilian landowners received the protection of the policemen for their properties and many mafia men remained practically unemployed. Among these, Carlo Gambino and Joseph Bonanno fled to the USA, while Nicolò and Vito Rizzuto went to Canada.
The famous movie the Godfather, tells just about the rise of the American mafia. This new mafia gained a strong revival in Sicily in the Second World War, in 1943, to be exact, during the Allied occupation. After the fall of Fascism and the destruction of the war, Sicily was without legal control again, without politicians, without buildings and without jobs. The black market grew very much and the American army had to restore a new order from scratch. Since many fascist mayors were deposed, the Allied replaced them with new people who presented themselves as political dissidents and communist fighters.
These new mayors, unfortunately, were Mafiosi. At that time, Sicily ended up in the hands of the Mafia, again. This criminal organization thrived between the 1960 and 1980s the most. It had powerful relationships with the American Mafia and these connections, above all linked to drug trafficking, gave rise to the most famous international investigation and trial against the Mafia called “Pizza connection”, where the most important relationships between the Italian and the American mafia were explored.
Recently, the Italian TV broadcast named “Report” also talked about a powerful, wicked and secretive alliance betwees Sicilian mafia bosses and American agents of CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). This toxic and insane business, called “The Secret Team”, took place after World War II.
It provided that Sicilian mobsters helped these corrupt agents bring atomic weapons (made with uranium) to Libya. In the meanwhile, to facilitate the shipping, uranium depots were even buried in plots near Trapani. The American agent who arrranged this illegal traffic was, later, arrested.
I checked the Italian Television website, but this interesting journalistic inquiry is missing online. To prove what has been reported, I invite you to read the book about this fact, just titled The Secret Team.
The investigation on the ties between Sicilian and American mafia was also followed by the Italian prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, who, along with the colleague Paolo Borsellino, started the most effective fight against the Sicilian Mafia, bringing many mafia bosses to the Maxi trial held in Palermo in 1986. To know more, you can also read the book by Giovanni Falcone, titled Men of Honour: Truth about Mafia, a poignant and detailed memoir on the vicissitudes and the fight of this Sicilian prosecutor against the mafia.
The most influential and dangerous mafia bosses were convicted to the 41 bis prison regime. This was the greatest victory against the Sicilian Mafia and I am proud of this. Due to their indefatigable commitment , Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were murdered by the Mafia in two different attacks in 1992. Before them, other courageous Sicilian men, women, policemen and politicians fought the Sicilian Mafia, their arrogance and their criminal businesses. An ancient history of poverty and indifference of Italy toward Sicily created the Mafia, that is why the Mafia is Italian, not only Sicilian! The Mafia is also in other regions of Italy and in other places in the world, such as China, Mexico and Colombia. For example, in Mexico the Mafia is called Los Zetas.
However, I am forced to admit that the Sicilian mafia has been the only criminal organization in the world to weave close and perverse links with Politics, State and public officers. For this reason, Italy is a country that always goes back and never moves on. The mafia controls, decides and kills, behind silences, secrets and politicians who serves the mafia bosses as submissive kids, in order to be elected!
Beware: bad historical conditions don’t justify the existence of the Mafia. This evil that worked as a cancer to spoil and muddy everything, must always be hated and fought!
The Sicilian Mafia today
My Sicily has been spoiled by the bad customs of the Mafia, but today Sicilian people don’t accept this phenomenon, anymore, such as the ancient landowners. During the economic crisis, Mafia also undertook the business of loan sharks, but many Sicilian entrepreneurs denounced these moneylenders of the Mafia. Furthermore, many properties of the Sicilian Mafia have been seized by the Italian judges and turned into museums and nature parks. They are being used to promote tourism and nature in Sicily. Many of them belong to Sicily region. You can see many of these properties in Palermo, Agrigento and Trapani. The crimes of the Mafia were not able to kill the beauty of my Sicily. Today, many mafia bosses are dead, such as Bernardo Provenzano and Totò Riina, many of them are in prison, such as Nitto Santa Paola, Leoluca Bagarella and Salvatore Lo Piccolo. The latest mafia boss arrested is Matteo Messina Denaro. He was captured in Palermo by the local team of Carabinieri on January, 16, 2023.
Matteo Messina Denaro had been a fugitive mobster for 30 years! He is also responsible for the massacres occurred in Sicily and Italy in 1992-1993. Before being arrested, the so-called boss of Castelvetrano was hospitalized at a private clinic in Palermo because affected by cancer. The disease killed this mafia boss on September, 25, 2023. It is strange that the cruellest Sicilian criminals get always arrested only when they are severely sick!
Today, the Sicilian Mafia is not Sicilian, anymore. We heard about the Mafia in Rome, the Mafia in Milan, the Russian Mafia. As I said, the Mafia is a global phenomenon, now. The most known bosses (dead by now) were Sicilian, from Corleone. Today, this Sicilian village hosts a museum about the fight against the Mafia. I invite you to visit it, because it is an international center of the movement against the Mafia. You can also visit a similar museum in Salemi, a pretty village in the province of Trapani which also has a stunning Norman castle. I am sure you know about the mafia thanks to the movie of the Godfather or because you visited Savoca, the town where the Godfather movie was shot. Unfortunately, Mafia is not a movie, but a reality the Sicilian people have been fighting for years.
They are not members of the Mafia, they are not Mafiosi. Mafia is the most despicable criminal phenomenon that tons of honest Sicilian people( including me) fought firmly. Read my story, to deepen this. Also visit the Saint Domenico Church (see the image) in Palermo , where the prosecutor Giovanni Falcone is buried or the cemetery of Palermo, where you can find the grave of the prosecutor Paolo Borsellino. This grave is not in the monumental cemetery of the city, but in another cemetery called Belvedere , next to a convent. I think these Sicilian heroes deserve your visit as an homage for fighting against the mafia and teaching to people how to refuse this awful criminal phenomenon. I don’t want to talk further about the Mafia, because you can find excellent and comprehensive sources at this link or here.
This is a place to talk about Sicily and I want only to invite you to visit it, because the human cruelty or the Mafia will never destroy its beautiful places and the common sense of equality and justice that the true, honest Sicilians will always have. (Article updated on February, 2, 2024).
And you? What do you think about the Sicilian Mafia?
Leave a comment to reply. Your opinion is very important!
Photocredits in order of appearance:
Corleone Sicily: Luca Lodi – Flickr
The Godfather Scene: Marco Deksen – Flickr
Carlo Gambino – Wikimafia
Salemi Sicily: http://livesicilia.it
Giovanni Falcone Paolo Borsellino http://www.italy24.ilsole24ore.com/art/politics/2015-07-20/commemorating-paolo-borsellino-italian-hero-and-mafia-victim-23-years-on–121854.php?uuid=ACnACOU
San Domenico church: Bartolo Chichi Flickr
Rosalba Mancuso is a freelance journalist born in Sicily. Passionate about her loved island and with extensive writing experience, Rosalba worked as a contributor to the main Sicily’s newspapers and as a bilingual Italian – English writer. Thanks to her skills, she also founded four websites in English. On Sicilyonweb, Rosalba tells every corner of her beloved Sicily. Furthermore, she writes this blog thanks to your help. Rosalba, in fact, earns a small commission, with no cost for you, when you book your travel or buy products through the affiliate widgets or links you find in her posts.
i am obsessed with the information you have just provided but have to remind you, the mafia’s are families they do not kill for the fun of it, they kill those who are bad people themselves and NO i am not excusing their actions at all. But, we as people can not judge the way they are we dont and will never know what they are living.
Sorry Kaela, I disagree with you. The Mafia families are criminals. Full stop! They kill the ones who threaten their criminal interests. I always think they are demons disguised as humans. They are evil and must be fully erased from Sicily and from the entire world.
I didn’t think my note would be published. I thought it was more of an email to you. Please make it private if possible.
Thank you
Just approved and published your comment, Rosalie.
Your testimony is extremely valuable for me and the audience of this blog.
Thanks again for sharing it.
Are you serious? They are murderers and criminals. Give your head a shake.
I really hope, dear Maria, that Kaela was joking.
Unfortunately, I think she was serious.
I repeat that the mafia is evil, and those who defend them are worse than the same mobsters!
In which region of Sicily is the Mafia most active? I’m planning a trip to Enna next year but i will feel kind of bad when there is a lot of mafia activity there.
Hi Marco, the Mafia is active in the entire Europe, by now.
Traditionally, Palermo and Catania were the headquarters of mobsters, but today things have changed.
Feel free to visit Enna next year, it is a quiet town and you’ll enjoy a wonderful vacation.
I have just read the an article about how the mayor of Locana is offering money to get people to live there. Of course there was no mention of why this beautiful place has such dwindling numbers. Does it have anything to do with the mafia?
No, Vicki, this fact has nothing to do with the mafia. That is only a marketing strategy to revitalize tourism in this picturesque village.
I appreciate this article! I just found out I had grandparents and great grandparents from Southern Italy and for one grandparent Palermo was his birth place. The others seem to be from Campania. I’ve always been drawn to Italian culture and people and now I might have a clue why that is. I have been doing my own look at ancient Italian and Greek history (which was woefully absent from my public school education) the ancient world through to medieval times has always captured my interest and I am now looking into a visit! This article helped a lot, to deepen my understanding of the beginnings of the mafia, how they adapted to the changes of joining Italy and the protection piece then morphing into a greedy, violent mob of criminals. Will human ever learn that violence and crime is the worst way to live?
Hi MT,
Thanks for sharing your experience and opinion about this article.
Humans know the detrimental sides of crime and violence, but they pretend to not be aware,
because they are accustomed to taking advantage of the illusory outcomes of misdeeds.
Thank you for your posting. It was very interesting. My grandparents moved from Sicily to the US around 1902 from Prizzi in the Province of Palermo. I have some questions which I would like to communicate with you directly via email.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Carl, for sharing the story of your family on my blog.
You can send me your questions by email at any time.
I’ll be happy to answer you.
Good evening Rosalba. My grandparents were born in Castelvetrano. My grandfather came to the US around 1910. My grandmother followed a couple of years later. She was 18 I believe. They live in Brooklyn, NY. My grandfather was murdered by the mafia in 1925. Left my grandmother with 6 kids to raise on her own. From what I was told, he was in the mafia in NY and wanted to get out. That’s when they murdered him. They came in and took everything my grandmother had (which was a lot). I have their names. I am going to Castelvetrano Sicily in April. I would love to know more about my grandfather but wouldn’t even know where to start! Any help would be wonderful. Thank you!!!
Hi Rosalie,
Thank you so much for sharing your family history with me.
To retrace your roots, you can reach the municipality of Castelvetrano once you have arrived in the town.
Wow my grandparents exact same but they were Patti
My reply was to Carl
Hi Phil, I hope you’ll receive the reply from Carl.
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing a sweet detail about your family.
read cosa nostra,the history of the sicilian mafia by john dickie,,,that tells you all you want to know.
Hi Cole, thanks for the information.
I also suggest that you read “Cose di Cosa Nostra”, the book written by Giovanni Falcone and Marcelle Padovani. Giovanni Falcone was one of the corageous Sicilian prosecutors who fought against the Sicilian Mafia. I talked about him in my post, also.
Ciao Rosalba- my fathers parents came from Riesi and I have been to Sicily about a dozen times spending most of my time in Taormina.I can understand how the Mafia is a “way of life” in Sicily and elsewhere, but I thought that the Mafia had been concentrated on the eastern part of the island and less so than the Messina
side. Has that changed? I plan on going to Sicily next year. I visited Riesi and met the the “Padrone” of that area in 1984 while researching my grandparents property that had been left to my father who was the eldest of 8 children at the time of my grandfather’s death. My grandfather was a rural Mafioso as described above and later emigrated to the US with his wife who was forced to marry him. I’d like to communicate with your more on email to ask some more pointed questions. I also read Blood washes Blood by Frank Viviano which I thought was a fascinating look at the culture and mindset of the Sicilians. Be safe.
Hi Peter, thanks for sharing your life experience with me on my blog.
Nowadays, Mafia is fully different from the past.
It is not only in the Eastern Sicily, but in the entire island, including the province of Messina, as well.
It has connections in the North of Italy and in Europe, in addition to the United Staes.It is not longer rural, but organized and hidden in the key industries of our economy.
Today,it is just the anniversary of the murder of Italian prefect Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, who was killed by the mafia on September,3,1982 along with is wife Emanuela Setti Carraro. Mafia is an evil, as I said, and we must continue fighting it!
I hope you’ll visit my Sicily next year.
Stay safe you, too, meanwhile!
Thank you for your article. I have read books on Falcone. I have watched The tv series la Piovra. If you are not updated you think that Sicily is still like this. Thank you for The information. I d like to visit.
I live in Sweden. Now gangsters are rising here. Not everywhere but in certain locations. There is something to learn from Sicilian history.
Thank you Rickard. I am very happy to hear your heartfelt opinion about the Sicilian history. Yes, it was a hard and sad history, but information must never hide the truth, because, as Mr. Falcone said: “The truth is the heart of the human dignity”.
Hello Everyone,
I have just recently returned from a 8 day stay in Sicily. I visited Modica, Siracussa, Ortigia, Modica and Mount Etna. These were absolutely beautiful places and all the people we met, were kind, helpful and amazing people. So please visit and enjoy the warmth and hospitality of the Sicilian people. I will admit I was very apprehensive about visiting Sicily, due to its history of the past. But I enjoyed and loved every minute of my stay and did not want to leave. I will visit again as soon as I can because it has so much to offer people.
I was also with a group of people who had various disabilities and we were all welcomed and nothing was too much trouble.
Just like the UK, Sicily is an ‘island nation’ and as such, we are very Proud and Adaptable Islanders. So don’t let the problems of the past affect this wonderful island and its people.
Hi Lorraine, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your heartfelt words. Sure, Sicily has very kind and warm people and is always a wonderful place to visit. Rather, tourism and travel are the best way to erase the bad past of my loved island. I am also very happy you appreciated your vacation through the picturesque places of my birthland.
Very interesting article, informative and well written. I am right now spending a few days in Marsala and Trapani. Both fantastic cities, especially Trapani, with very friendly locals and fabulous food.
Thank you so much Daniel, for appreciating this article. It is really encouraging for me that my readers find my pieces well written and informative. I am also happy to know about your wonderful travel to my beloved Sicily. Yes, the Mafia will never spoil the beauties of my island and I am here to bring them to all those who love it!
Hello,
When is the best time of the year to visit Sicily?
Hi Vincent, you can visit Sicily anytime. My island has several points of interests in every season.
Thank you for this article, I’ve been wondering about this information for many years. I found this page while researching a long awaited trip to Sicily. It will unfortunately only be one day so I really want to make the most of it! Your site is helping me to do that so thank you for that too! And BTW, the only other really good information I’ve ever gotten on this topic was at The Mob Museum in Las Vegas Nevada. If you’re ever going, let me know….I’m there a lot!
Hi Jeannie, I am really honoured to hear this from you.
Also glad that my article about the Sicilian Mafia has been helpful for you in order to better understand the history of Sicily before your one day trip to my beloved island. I didn’t know that in your Country, you got information only at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. I would like international newspapers to further deepen this important history. Anyway, I am happy to help my readers with this information.
Sure, if I ever go to The US, I’ll let you know.
Thanks for your article! I am right now visiting Siracusa and startet wondering about the mafia. You gave me a lot of great information
Is the mafia still a thing that common people do not want to talk about?
Best regards Christina / Denmark
Thank you Christina for appreciating this article and for letting me know about your travel to Siracusa.
About your very interesting question, you must also know that there are two kinds of people in Sicily: the corageous Sicilians and the coward Sicilians. If you meet the corageous ones, they will speak up about the mafia and especially about the fight against the mafia! They represent the majority of Sicilians, fortunately.
This is a good read. Having no interest in visiting Italy I’d always wondered about business dealings would get caught up in the Mafia and that stopped me or better yet scared me away.
Lived in a black community that is both rich with culture and great entrepreneurs the stereotype kept people from our communities until 5 years ago when people from high end communities had there homes foreclosed and no jobs they relocated to our community due to obvious reasons but quickly realized the diamond and gold that was right before there eyes, they purchased homes and businesses and now the stereotypes are very bleak. There are hooligans and crime but not the way it was perceived. You are very passionate about your Italy and that is so wonderful.
I agree with you: my island is full of resources that have always been exploited and robbed by the mafia. The Sicilian prosecutors killed by the mobsters once said that if you want to find the mafia you must follow money. Many Sicilian like me always fought against this sick economical system, but other people don’t. They live in a sort of numbness and indifference. That is why the appreciation of readers like you encourages me to keep fighting and writing my blog about my beloved island. Thank you so much!
I stumbled upon this completely by accident and I’m so glad I did, i’ve always been fascinated by Italian history but never delved into Sicilian history or anything Mafia related, I feel foolish it’s taken me this long to read into it!
I’ve been planning on numerous trips to Italy to really cover as much of the country as possible and this has given me a real clear starting point for what I want to explore when I eventually visit Sicily, thank you for this!
Hi Tom,
Thank you so much for sharing your kind opinion about this article.
I am very happy to hear that it has been helpful to you in order to better know an important piece of the Italian history and not only Sicilian. Yes, you can explore my Sicily, first. The island is an important point of starting to discover the entire Italy.
I am much like you Tom, have always been interested in the history of Italy and the Mediterranean in general but never focused in on Sicily until lo and behold I found out through genetic testing that a grandparent and two great grand parents hailed from Palermo! I thought I was mostly French, French Canadian, Iberian and Native American but it turns out I have Italian heritage as well as Cypriot/Greek and Scottish heritage that I never knew about. I am about 25 percent Italian with connections in Southern Italy mostly so I am now thinking of a trip to see some of the places associated with my heritage. This article was most helpful to help us understand how the mafia changed and adapted over the years.Why it was formed to begin with and how of course, humans made it a criminal enterprize with such sad and violent actions. I have been reading about the S Italian and Greek connection as well which is really interesting. Public school just did not teach the depth of history, the peoples, the stories, how and why things occurred as they did and I am so interested in history, world history ancient history, medieval times….I just want to go and walk those ancient roads and take it all in!
I agree with you, MT.
If public school had the courage to teach the true history and the true values,
we would not be in the current moral abyss.
Hi, I have just returned from my first trip to Sicily, what a beautiful island it is. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I have also enjoyed this article, a fabulous factual insight to the history of the Sicilian mafia, well written. I went to the Gambino winery and now hope that they are not connected with the Gambino mafia bosses of history.
Hi Louise, thanks for sharing your travel experience with me and appreciating the beauty of my island.
Hearing that my article about the Sicilian mafia is factual and well written is very encouraging for me.
As regards the winery you visited: don’t worry. There are many families with the same surname in Sicily, but this does not mean that they are all connected to the Mafia.
I must say, as a single woman, I am wary about visiting Sicilia. But it is my heritage and I want to go.
Hi Susan, sure, you must absolutely visit our beloved island.The Mafia belongs to the Italian history, but all this does not prevent you from visiting Sicily.
Go to Sciacca AG. most beautiful town in Sicily.
Hi Joseph, you are right: Sciacca is a wonderful Sicilian town.
As soon as this tragic pandemic age has ended, I’ll return writing travel posts about the beautiful Sicilian villages.
Each of them deserves to be described and showed to the world!
Hello Rosalba. I found your article while researching the “Castellammarese Sicilian criminal organization” and its ties to Salvatore Sabella. The families from Philadelphia, NY, and South Jersey exercised their influence a great deal on the eastern coast of the US during my youth in the 60s and 70s. At that time, everything was low key under the rule of Angelo Bruno, but their presence was palpable. Since then, it seems to have degenerated into ruthless killing even amongst themselves.
Here in America a man named Rudy Giuliani fought an ongoing battle to unseat the authority of what has been labeled here as the mob. The incarceration of the old timers, as important as it has been to fighting crime in the americas, triggered years of ruthless killing by men who no longer had ties to Sicily.
I found your historical links to the need for someone to “police” the property of wealthy rural landowners incredibly interesting. The misuse of power by those who then take advantage of it is so much a part of human history that it can be found dating back to the earliest records of cultures all over the world. It seems that the annexation of Sicily without a strong and localized government of their own, left a power vacuum that was filled by corruption. That too, is commonplace throughout the history of mankind.
The choice of a young man in any culture is to work hard and make a life for himself, or as many have done, join a criminal element that provides instant wealth. Wealth that demands a price of death or prison in the end.
I intend to read the book written by the Sicilian prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Two brave men who loved their homeland and were willing to pay the ultimate price to free their country from the domination of those who misuse power and murder those who oppose them.
My father served with Patton to free your island in WWII. I visited when I served with the Navy 30 years later. Italy is indeed a beautiful country with wonderful caring people.
You are a brave lady. I applaud your willingness to open the eyes of those who do not understand the history of your homeland. There is indeed a powerful key to the knowledge of the past, because as has been said so well, “Those who do not understand their History are doomed to repeat it.”
Please accept my prayers.
Hi Glenn, thank you so much for your detailed comment.
It added a lot to the history of my beloved island.
I remained extremely touched by your heatfelt words, and very happy
you understood the historical sides and meaning of this post about the Sicilian mafia.
Yes, I advise that you read the book written by Giovanni Falcone. He paid a heavy price to free
Sicily from the mobsters. We can never thank him enough for his bravery.
Very nice article Rosalba.
I visit Sicily at least once yearly and really like it there.
How does one become a member of the mafia?
Regards
Thank you Jeff, for appreciating this post along with my
beloved island. As regards your question, when one becomes
a member of the mafia, he signs a sort of pact with the devil.
Mafia men perform a kind of sacred (for them) rite, where a person, who cuts the skin of the hand with a knife, swears eternal loyalty to the mafia, as the blood drops on burning images of Christ or the Virgin Mary.
This rite is like sacrilege and means that a mobster must never betray the sacred family of the mafia, otherwise he’ll be killed!
This criminal career is a pathway to hell. Indeed, mafia men always end up jailed, sentenced to life or killed by their former mafia colleagues. Only the heirs of mobsters or those who committed previous crimes are admitted to the rite to become mafia members.
I hope this information satisfied your curiosity and allowed you to understand that the mafia is the absolute evil for Sicily and the world. As honest men and women, this evil must always be fought!
Nice place to look at. Can’t afford to visit ..lol ..
ahhh..
sigh.
Why are all the nice places on the planet so expensive and violent ..lol …
History says some of the “sea peoples” can be connected to the area ….that seems Fitting.
Sicily… willing to collapse one thing or the other…
ones wallet , Face bones or entire cilvilizations …lol …
ahhh…sigh… 🙂
Corruption loves company …the Olympics gave Italy the 2026 winter games…LOL…..the mob and the oly’s…Justice for capitalism ensues :)))……
Honestly…If someone dropped a nuke on Sicily…the sun would rise the next day …LOL ..
No need to toss gasoline on anyone visiting … then start them on fire in a local alley and walk away 🙂
Take care…LOL
Unfortunately, the power of the mafia in Sicily is also
for the fault of many Sicilians who preferred the shortcut of entrusting
their needs to mobsters, instead of moving on with their own feet.
Conversely, honest Sicilians relocated abroad, looking for a better future.
Other honest Sicilians remained in Sicily, struggling to find a decent job,
confined within their own invisible dignity, the only good you have when the mafia system
took everything away from you.
It is sad to tell, but it is the truth.
“ However, I am forced to admit that the Sicilian mafia has been the only criminal organization in the world to weave close and perverse links with Politics, State and public officers”
The Russian state is the mafia unfortunately. Not only is the Russian mafia boss Semion Moglevich being sheltered by Putin in Moscow, the government is so corrupt it may as well be it’s own big mafia family.
Also, thank you for writing this insightful article. I never thought about the cultural factors of organized crime before.
Very glad, Bella, to hear about your appreciation for this article.
Hi Bella,
I am utterly aware about the Russian mafia and its high connections,
but Sicilian mafia and Russian mafia are different.
Putin is free to decide if protecting mobsters or not.
In Italy, it is the mafia that decides to help politicians…