The rise of the Mafia in Southern Italy has had a significant impact on how the country’s culture is portrayed in the media. The Godfather and Goodfellas are just two of the most well-known films depicting Mafia lords and members of the Italian mob.
The Italian Mafia has been portrayed in nearly every form of visual media — from films and television series to fine art and countless others.
The Italian-American Mafia is often referred to as the Italian Mafia, yet the true origins of Mafia organizations in Italy are unknown to most people. The American Mafia, on the other hand, was merely a byproduct of the Mafia that started in Sicily.
In this post, we will learn about the origins of the Italian Mafia, its structure, and some of the most infamous Mafiosos in history.
Interested in Italy’s most notorious serial killers? Click HERE.
History of the Italian Mafia
The Origin
Throughout its history, the island of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea has been ruled by a slew of different foreign powers. Residents of this tiny island banded together to defend themselves against the invading military and other local Sicilian organizations.
This system of justice and retribution was developed by these groups, which later became known as clans or families. They carried out their actions in secret.
Sicily’s often violent, chaotic environment allowed small private armies known as “mafie” to take advantage of landowners to extort protection money. The Sicilian Mafia was since formed as a group of criminal clans or families.
The Rise
Sicily was made a province of newly united Italy in 1861. As a result, the new Italian government struggled to establish itself on the island.
Sicilian Mafia clans were even urged by Roman officials in the 1870s to help them fight dangerous independent criminal groups. In return, the government would allow the Mafia to maintain its badger games with landowners through blackmail and extortion.
The government assumed the Mafia would only survive long enough to allow Rome to take over. However, the Mafia clans even expanded their operations. People were soon frightened into voting for Mafia-affiliated candidates because of the Mafia’s growing political influence.
That time also saw the Catholic Church allegedly working with Mafia organizations. The Sicilian Mafia was rumored to have been used by the church to keep its vast property holdings in Sicily under control.
It was common practice for Sicilian clans to have initiation rites at which new members were required to swear a secret loyalty oath. The ancient Sicilian idea that no one should ever go to the government for justice or assist authorities investigating any wrongdoing was reflected in the omertà code of conduct, which was of paramount importance to the clans.
The Sicilian Mafia’s influence increased until Benito Mussolini came to power in the 1920s and launched a ruthless crackdown on Mafia members.
When Sicily’s post-World War II building boom was dominated by mob-backed construction enterprises, however, the Mafia reemerged.
The Sicilian Mafia expanded throughout the following decades, broadening its criminal empire and becoming a significant factor in worldwide drug trafficking in the 1970s.
Mafia in America
The American Mafia came to power during the Prohibition, thanks to the success of neighborhood gangs of Italian-Americans in the burgeoning illegal whiskey trade. However, they began in the previous century, when many Italians moved to the United States from southern Italy.
By the 1950s, the Mafia — also known as Cosa Nostra, Italian for “Our Thing” — was the dominant organized crime network in the United States. Along with engaging in loan-sharking and prostitution, Cosa Nostra also infiltrated labor unions and the clothing industry in New York City.
Their capacity to intimidate public officials, business leaders, witnesses, and jurors allowed American Mafia organizations to preserve their secrecy and profitability like the Sicilian Mafia.
Mafia in America is present in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans, as well as Los Angeles on the west coast.
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The Mafia Divisions
The Mafia isn’t a stock-trading, tax-paying organization and therefore does not have a leader. There are many different organizations of criminals who can trace their roots to Italy or Sicily, and the name “Mafia” is used as an umbrella phrase to describe them all.
Mafia groups can be broken down into five distinct categories based on where they operate or where they were born. All five organizations are involved in global criminal operations and have movers in various countries.
The original Mafia is, of course, from Sicily or the Sicilian Mafia. The Calabrian Mafia (also known as the ‘Ndrangheta) and Camorra (or Neopolitan) Mafia were both formed in Italy’s Calabria area. There is a newer organization in Italy called Sacra Corona Unita, which means “United Sacred Crown.” They are from the Puglia region of Italy.
Finally, La Cosa Nostra is most commonly associated with the American Mafia, even though this organization may trace its roots back to Sicilian families and other Italian groups.
The Mafia Family Structure
The following structure refers only to La Cosa Nostra’s structure. Other criminal organizations have a structure that is comparable but with minor differences.
Family
In the Mafia, each family is a unit.
Families might be as few as 10 or as many as over 100. Sometimes, the heads of other families must provide permission for a new family to develop, but in other circumstances a group can break away from another family to consolidate their authority, eventually becoming recognized as a new family.
Each family has its business dealings, but they may merge if they are located close to one another or have common ventures.
Boss/Don
The “boss” or “don” is the family’s top leader. When it comes to making crucial choices, the don is always in charge. This power is used to resolve conflicts and keep everyone in order.
Underboss
The second in leadership, the underboss has varying degrees of authority. Disagreements can be settled without involving the boss in some cases. Some are prepared to take over the boss’s duties if he becomes incapacitated or faces indictment.
Consigliere
The consigliere is a family position that has become legendary in its own right.
Not necessarily a part of the familial hierarchy, he serves as a sounding board and makes choices based on logic and fairness, not on personal grudges.
The family members elected the consigliere rather than appointed by the boss. However, consignees are often selected and not always neutral. A well-known consigliere in pop culture is Tom Hagen, a fictional consigliere to the Corleone family in The Godfather films and the Mario Puzo novel.
Caporegime
Also known as the captain or simply capos, the caporegimes are the subordinates beneath the underboss. As a family grows larger, the number of capos it has increases as well.
A capo is like a lieutenant, in charge of his particular section of the clan. He specializes in a few distinct fields. The domain of the capo can either be defined by location or by the rackets he uses.
Making money is essential if you want to be a successful capo. Some of the money earned by the capo’s rackets is kept by the capo, while the remainder is given to the underboss and boss.
Soldiers
These are the ones who do the dirty work. Soldiers are the lowest-ranking yet important part of the family, but with little power. The number of soldiers under the command of a single capo may vary.
Associates
The Mafia also employs associates in addition to soldiers. Although they do not belong to the Mafia, they collaborate with Mafia troops and capos on a variety of illegal activities. Anyone can be an associate, from a burglar to a drug dealer to a lawyer, banker, police officer, or politician.
The Most Infamous Mafiosos in History
The following are the most infamous mafiosi in history. These are notorious mobsters, the dark aristocracy, an exclusive society founded by pop culture’s most sinister anti-heroes. These mafiosos are the epitome of disrespect for the law, order, morality, or even human life.
1. Al “Scarface” Capone
Image Source: US Federal Prison
Born Alphonse Gabriel Capone in Brooklyn, New York, on 17 January 1899, he was nicknamed “Scarface” for his three indelible facial scars earned from the protective brother of a woman Capone had offended at a bar.
Al Capone ruled Chicago’s organized crime syndicates from 1925 until he died in 1931. The James Street Boys gang was where Capone first met his mentor, Johnny Torrio, in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899.
“Public Enemy No. 1” was a title bestowed upon him for his use of violence to maintain power and the public murder of his rivals in the 1929 Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Capone was convicted of tax evasion in 1931. He lost his mind following his release in 1939 and died of stroke and pneumonia in 1947.
2. Charles “Lucky” Luciano
Image Source: New York Police Department
Lucky Luciano was born in Sicily in 1897 and grew up in New York City.
Luciano is regarded as the mastermind behind modern organized crime in America, thanks to the fact that he established the National Crime Syndicate’s governing body, the Commission, in 1931. During that decade, Luciano rose to the position of head of the Genovese Crime Family, becoming the most powerful mob boss in the process.
Luciano was incarcerated in 1936 and deported to Italy after the war, spending the rest of his life under close Italian police scrutiny. He died of a heart attack in 1962 at the Naples airport, where he was supposed to meet with a movie producer for his bio film.
3. Carlo “Don Carlo” Gambino
A Sicilian-American mobster, Carlo Gambino was the heir apparent and leader of the Gambino crime family. With no warning, he assumed charge of the American Mafia Commission after the 1957 Convention.
A reticent and reclusive individual, Gambino was a household name. In 1937, he was convicted of tax evasion, but his sentence was deferred because of a lack of evidence.
In 1976, at the age of 74, he died of a heart attack while he was in bed.
4. John Gotti
In the 1980s, John Gotti rose to prominence as the most powerful American mobster.
In the media, he was dubbed “The Dapper Don” because of his penchant for designer suits.
Gotti was also known for his recklessness, which he displayed after ordering the killing of Gambino crime leader Paul Castellano in 1985. After the assassination, Gotti assumed control and amassed millions of dollars through a range of illicit operations, including loan sharking, prostitution, illegal gambling, and narcotics distribution.
John Gotti was incarcerated for Castellano’s murder in 1992. He died of throat cancer while in prison ten years later, at the age of 61.
5. Frank Costello
Born Francesco Castiglia in Calabria in 1891, Frank Costello’s family moved to the United States when he was four.
Costello’s criminal career began at the age of 13 in New York City, or at least that was when police first became aware of him. He eventually led the Luciano crime family and was almost killed in 1957.
The failed attempt to kill Costello was planned by Vito Genovese and carried out by Vincent Gigante. Despite this, the encounter was successful in persuading Costello to cede leadership to Genovese and retire.
On February 18, 1973, Costello passed away after a heart attack.
6. Vito Genovese
This mobster rose to prominence during the Prohibition period. In the Castellammarese War, Vito Genovese was an enforcer who operated alongside Lucky Luciano. He had a significant impact on the development of the American Mafia and other facets of American organized crime.
Genovese was renamed the Luciano criminal family, and Vito Genovese served as its leader for 12 years. He was the Boss of All Bosses from 1957 to 1959. It was around this period that the international heroin trade was established by him.
Genovese was also suspected of the 1934 assassination of gangster Ferdinand Boccia.
Genovese was imprisoned for narcotic trafficking in 1959, dying of a heart attack in a prison hospital on the Valentine’s Day of 1969 at the age of 73.
7. Constantino Paul Castellano
Castellano was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1915 and ascended through the ranks of the mob, focusing on infiltrating construction and food businesses with his mob ties.
Paul Castellano, the godfather of New York City’s Gambino Crime Family, was renowned for his business acumen, which led to Carlo Gambino (who was his cousin and brother-in-law) selecting him as his successor.
On 16 December 1985, Castellano and his underboss, Thomas Bilotti, were killed outside a Manhattan steakhouse — a hit ordered by John Gotti, who inherited leadership of the crime family.
8. Joseph “Joe” Bonanno
Joe Bonanno, an American organized crime figure of Sicilian ancestry, rose to prominence in 1931 as the head of the Bonanno Crime Family. He served until he died of congestive heart failure at the age of 97 in May of 2002.
Bonanno played a key role in the establishment of the Mafia Commission, which was tasked with keeping tabs on all American Mafia activity and mediating disputes among the various Mafia families.
Interesting Facts About the Mafia
1. The Five Families
The “Five Families” are the powerful Mafia crime families in the United States. They are the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and the Lucchese Crime Families.
2. The Italian-American Civil Rights League and The Godfather film
The Italian-American Civil Rights League was started by a Mafia don, Joseph “Joe” Colombo of the Colombo Crime Family. He did it to protest the depiction of Italians as Mafia in entertainment.
Colombo disrupted the filming of The Godfather to have the word “Mafia” entirely removed from the movie. He and his mob pals also became extras in the film.
3. The Sopranos
The American crime drama The Sopranos is said to be so realistic that the FBI became interested in the scripts, suspecting that someone on the tream must be connected to the Mafia.
4. Al Capone’s income
Al Capone is said to have had an annual profit of 1.3 billion in today’s dollars. However, a huge chunk of it was used to payroll the police, other gangsters, judges, reporters, and politicians.
5. Mafia’s membership requirements
You cannot join the Mafia if you have relatives in the law enforcement.
When the Mafia was just starting, one had to be a “pure-blood” Sicilian to be able to join. This requirement is no longer enforced, however.
6. RICO and WITSEC
In 1970, the US created the RICO Act, short for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law that allowed the organized crime bosses to be tried for the crimes of their underlings.
Prior to the RICO Act, the mob bosses almost always had a henchman, crony, or family member ready to take the fall for the boss.
Also in 1979, the US established the WITSEC or Federal Witness Protection Program, which allowed the federal government to relocate and protect potential witnesses against the crime bosses.
The Mafia Today
While traditional Mafia presence and activities have waned since the late 1990s, they are said to still exist today, just keeping a low profile.
Although “mob hits” of top bosses are now rare, experts claim that the legendary Five Families still exist and operate in extortion, loan-sharking, racketeering, and gambling.
Today, the American Mafia is said to be involved in various activities with organized crime groups in Italy, such as the Sicilian Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta of Calabria, and the Camorra of Campania.
In Italy, the “capo di tutti capi” (“boss of the bosses” / ” overboss of all overbosses”) of the entire Mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro, has been on the run since the 1992 bombing in Capaci, Sicily.
No one knows what Denaro looks like now or where he is, but some say he’s probably holed up somewhere in his home region of Sicily.