After countless movies, books, and series, the concept of Mafia culture and history has captivated our imagination, drawing us into its violent yet strangely fascinating world.
All this publicity has served another purpose though—that of providing invaluable insights into the workings of these secret organisations.
For instance, few people would have known that a Mafia boss is called godfather before the eponymous movie by Coppola.
What else do we know about the Mafia? Here are some facts about the Mafia.
The Many Names of The Mafia
There are five main Mafia groups in Italy: Cosa Nostra based in Sicily, Camorra from Naples, Ndranghetta in Calabria, Stidda, also based in Sicily, and Sacra Corona Unita of Puglia.
Although the last two groups are relatively new, the first three began operating sometime between 1500-1800.
Today we use other names to refer to the Mafia, for instance, the mob.
The term "mob", once a label for societal chaos, evolved into an emblem of structured criminality, further intertwining with the Mafia identity.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary the word “mob” entered the vocabulary in the 1680s as the “disorderly part of the population, rabble,” and went on to mean a “gang of criminals working together” in 1839, and from there “organised crime in general” in 1927 in the US.
After 1927, the mob became synonymous with the Mafia.
History
Many legends have arisen regarding the Mafia’s origins and it has proven difficult to separate myth from fact.
There is the belief that the word Mafia began circulating in Sicily during a revolt against the reign of the Capetian House of Anjou in 1282; in that context, the word Mafia was the acronym for the battle cry “Morte Alla Francia, Italia Avanti” against the foreign invaders.
They have also been depicted as protectors of the people and Robin Hood types, however most historians have now discarded these theories.
Rebel heroes or opportunistic predators: who truly were the forefathers of the Mafia?
A more feasible theory is that the mafia is a child of feudalism and its social structures, such as the guilds, banditry and the gabelloti, the estate managers working for local landlords.
The mafia strengthened itself with Garibaldi, Italian unification and the Risorgimento, and rose to economic and international prominence at the end of World War II with the rebuilding of Italy.
Money-Spinners
“The love of money is the root of all evil.”
The Bible, 1 Timothy 6:10
The Mafia began its business activities charging protection money but later on found more profitable endeavours with extortion, drug trafficking, prostitution, smuggling, white slavery, illegal rubbish disposal and arms sales, among others.
The Mafia’s economic ventures are expansive, rivaling and sometimes surpassing global corporate behemoths.
Confesercenti, the Italian small and medium sized business association, estimates that Ndranghetta alone made €53 bn in 2013 year alone, more than McDonalds and Deutsche Bank combined, while the combined turnover of the three major Italian mafias would add up to €200 bn, more than the European Union’s annual budget.
With €65 bn in liquidity and an urge for new business, the mafia has also filled the void left by Italy’s banks in the harsh economic crisis, becoming the prime lender for troubled businesses in the country.
Silence is Golden
The Mafia’s code of silence is called Omertá, a word that can be traced to the Spanish hombredad, mutated by the Sicilian dialect.
Omertá is the total and strict prohibition of cooperation with or even speaking to the authorities under penalty of death, either for the “rat” or his family, even when the person in question is not the guilty party.
Even though the code has reigned supreme for centuries with mafia structures, it has been broken a few times.
Enveloped in an enigmatic cloak of secrecy, the Mafia's Omertá is both a symbol of loyalty and a deadly oath binding members in silence.
The two most notable Mafiosi who broke their blood oath were Italian-American gangster Joe Valachi and Sicilain Mafioso Tommasso Buscetta. Valachi testified before the US Congress in 1963 on the Mafia, revealing many details of its existence and operations.
Buscetta was a state witness in Italian judge Giovanni Falcone’s investigation of the Mafia and its inner workings.
Falcone was later murdered in a spectacular car bomb attack that left him, his wife and three bodyguards dead.
Violence
“You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun then you can with a kind word alone.”
Al Capone
Certain crimes, like theft, burglary and kidnapping are forbidden by the Mafia, though they have probably been approved by senior members and carried out diligently at some point.
However, this does not extend to cold-blooded murders and savage Mafia wars.
Most murders carried out by the Mafia are committed on competing Mafia family members by soldiers within their ranks; rarely do they go outside their organisation to find a hitman.
Power, prestige, or pure terror: what fuels the Mafia's dance with violence?
The Mafia’s power comes from its reputation to commit violence, particularly murder, against virtually anyone.
A Mafioso’s reputation deters their enemies and enemies of their clients.
It allows them to protect a client without being physically present, which in turn allows them to protect many clients at once.
Mafia’s expansion beyond Sicily
With well over 250,000 associates worldwide for all four Mafia groups, there is certainly no lack of manpower in organised crime, and membership requisites for each organisation varies.
Membership in Cosa Nostra, for instance, is open only to Sicilian men who are not related or linked in any way to policemen or judges and there is no strict age limit, with teenagers sometimes working for the organisation.
The Mafia boasts a vast network of associates, with each faction having its unique membership criteria rooted in loyalty, bravery, and discretion.
Qualities valued in a prospective Mafioso include obedience, discretion, courage, ruthlessness and skill at espionage.
As part of his initiation test, he is always required to commit murder as his ultimate trial.
Murder provides the definitive proof of sincerity (i.e. he is not an undercover policeman) and binds him to silence (i.e. he cannot break omertà without convicting himself).
Mafia Initiation Secrets
For obvious reasons, there are few sources depicting the initiation into the Mafia, and the ceremonies are probably different among the four different crime groups.
However, there have been rare glimpses into these thanks to members who have written about it or simply confessed.
One of these is Giovanni Brusca, who described his initiation ceremony after his arrest.
Bound by blood and fire: what price is one willing to pay for a place in the Mafia's inner circle?
He stated that he was brought to a banquet in a country house where several leading members of the mafia were present. On a table there was a gun, a dagger and the image of a saint.
His loyalty to the mafia was challenged and his feelings towards murder and criminality were questioned, to which he affirmed his commitment and criminal record.
Afterwards, the then head of Cosa Nostra, Salvatore Riina, pricked Brusca’s finger and smeared his blood over the saint’s image.
As Brusca held the image in his hands, Riina set it alight and said to him: “If you betray Cosa Nostra, your flesh will burn like this saint.”
The Ten Commandments for Mafia Members: Salvatore Lo Piccolo’s Code
Discovered alongside mafia leader Salvatore Lo Piccolo in his Sicilian hideout in November 2007, the “Ten Commandments of Mafia Life” are thought to serve as guidelines for honorable, respectful, and good conduct within the Mafia.
Etched in the annals of Mafia lore, these Ten Commandments serve as a sinister reinterpretation of age-old morality, tailored for the treacherous landscape of organized crime.
- No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
- Never look at the wives of friends.
- Never be seen with cops.
- Don’t go to pubs and clubs.
- Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty – even if your wife is about to give birth.
- Appointments must absolutely be respected.
- Wives must be treated with respect.
- When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
- Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
- People forbidden from Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn’t have any moral values.
The Seductive Pull of “Mafia Lifestyle Guidelines”
The Mafia: it’s like the reality TV show you know you shouldn’t watch, but you just can’t look away.
So let’s salute the architects of our imaginations in Hollywood and pop culture, who’ve given us this wonderfully warped view of organized crime.
“Mob lifestyle guidelines” should clearly be a trending hashtag or a glossy spread sandwiched between ‘The Best Vegan Restaurants’ and ‘How to Feng Shui Your Home.’
A tip of the hat to the captivating trivia that helps us conveniently ignore that we’re celebrating a syndicate of crime.
Forget humanitarian legends; the true heroes are those resourceful individuals who’ll offer you a loan when your credit score fails you, all for the bargain price of eternal loyalty and perhaps your soul.
The Ten Commandments?
Pfft. Our new ethical touchstone is clearly mob boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who sadly missed the memo on ‘Thou shalt not kill, except for a profitable enterprise.’
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