All Blog Posts Tagged 'Sicily' (49)

By David Amoruso

Posted in 2006 - Updated in 2013

Copyright © www.gangstersinc.nl



Bernardo Provenzano was born on January 31, 1933 in Corleone, Sicily. After the second World War Provenzano joined the Mafia Family of boss Michele Navarra and became an enforcer for Luciano Leggio in that Family. In a short time Provenzano and another young man named Toto Riina, who would later become known as one of the most vicious…

By David Amoruso

Are Italian authorities too harsh on imprisoned Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano? His lawyer and family say yes. In video clips aired by Michele Santoro’s Servizio pubblico, or public affairs program, on television network LA7, viewers see an old and vulnerable Provenzano, who is unable even to use the prison…

By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto



Italian organized crime, divided in Cosa Nostra, ‘Ndrangheta, Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita, is a rich and powerful criminal enterprise with a lot of connections and branches around the world. According to authorities it has about 21.000…

By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto

No one is untouchable. Of course, others are easier to touch than others. In Italy this is being proven each and every day as Mafiosi and corrupt politicians escape justice by abusing one of the many loopholes the law offers them.

One of the men who managed to escape justice, according to many judges, pentiti,…

By Thom L. Jones

I imagine a scene, long ago, in the town of Corleone, in the heartland of Western Sicily.

I see Doctor Michele Navarra (right). A classic valetudinarian; a sensitive and haunted expression playing across his features. The face of a man who had sold his soul to the Mafia and the devil for an excellent price, as English author Norman Lewis…

Mussomeli, Sicily, once home of the legendary godfather Giuseppe Genco Russo

By Carl Russo

After the spectacular capture of Corleone capomafia Bernardo Provenzano by police in 2006, Sicily braced for a blowback. If history is an indicator, observers warned, a Mafia war will break out. And it will take the form of either an…

Author and mafia expert Carl Russo is working on an illustrated travel guide about the Sicilian Mafia and needs our help!

In the story below (and the video above) Carl will explain everything. For those that want to contribute but are in a hurry and have no time to read the whole story, simply go to …

By Thom L. Jones

Top end of Cypress Avenue, Ridgewood, right on the Brooklyn-Queens boundary line. Friday evening, November 10th 1967.

It’s a quiet Jewish, Italian community. Like every neighborhood or district in the biggest city in America, it has stories to tell if you listen hard enough. Tongue-numbing Dutch names like Onderdonk jostle for space with simple…

By Thom L. Jones

In his government photograph, Antonino Burrafato (photo, below right) has something of the look of actor Jon Cryer, wearing a uniform and a funny hat. His lips are pursed as though he is about to ask the man behind the camera to get on with it. The eyes are steely and piercing, someone who does not suffer fools gladly. He looks more like a Jefe than simply a…

By David Amoruso

The underworld of Montreal is at war. Several high profile mafia bosses have been murdered and yesterday Bonanno family boss Salvatore Montagna was the latest victim as he was shot to death in a suburb near Montreal.

When paramedics arrived on the scene, they found Montagna laying in a river. They pulled him out of the cold water, into the even…

By Thom L. Jones



It was bloodletting out of all proportion, even for the men who ran the Mafia in Sicily.



Eight men killed for eighteen horses.



The worst day of mass killing in its history since May 1947, when 11 people were shot dead and 33 wounded by Salvatore Giuliano’s bandit gang at Portella della Ginestra, near San Giuseppe Jato; an…

Part One - Part Two - Part Three



By Thom L. Jones



Following Leggio’s acquittal in the second trial, although he was subject to…

By Thom L. Jones



Part One - Part Two



Through 1958 tensions rose and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Doctor Navarra and Luciano Leggio were heading for a showdown. Navarra, despite being well educated and a man of the…

By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto

Posted on December 29, 2011



The Mandamento within the Sicilian Cosa Nostra



Sicilian Cosa Nostra is organized crime at its most organized. The mafia families on the island all work together through so-called…

By David Amoruso

Posted on December 24, 2010



Merry Christmas everybody! And may Santa bring you all the gifts you wished for.



It seems Santa is already hard at work. Yesterday, an Italian police officer dressed up as Santa arrested a member of the…