Blood Brotherhoods
Read Blood Brotherhoods Online
Authors: John Dickie
Praise for
Blood Brotherhoods
‘[BLOOD BROTHERHOODS] is no dry, scholarly work. Dickie writes with the same distinctive flair that made his book DELIZIA!, on the history of Italian cuisine, so readable.’
—
Daily Telegraph
‘It is almost certainly the most ambitious true-crime assignment ever: to lift the veil of myth, mystery and silence—omertà—shrouding Italy’s notorious criminal organisations. The result is a stunning success; a sprawling, powerful historical narrative that is the definitive story of Sicily’s Mafia, the Camorra of Naples and Calabria’s ’Ndrangheta.’
—
Adelaide Advertiser
‘Both fine social history and hair-raising true crime, this account of the Italian underworld clans tells a grimly fascinating tale.’
—
Independent
‘Exciting and well written, it plays out like a 19th-century Sopranos.’
—
Shortlist
‘Magisterial . . . absorbing . . . ’
—
Scotsman
‘[E]nthralling . . . chillingly charts the birth and rise of all three of Italy’s mafias.’
—Dr John Guy
‘Italians often complain that foreigners are obsessed by the Mafia, turning a localised problem of organised crime into a stereotype that damages the image of a whole nation. Yet as John Dickie shows in this chilling and eye-opening book, the real problem is that the stereotype is correct. . . . A fine book.’
—Bill Emmott,
The Times
(London)
‘Drawn with expertise and mastery of detail . . . [Dickie] combines narrative skills in his description of skullduggery with excellent pen-portraits of striking individuals. His reader-friendly, racy style becomes more sober and reflective when he offers points of analysis, and now no one anywhere writes with such authority on Italy’s criminal gangs.’
—Times Literary Supplement
‘John Dickie’s chronicling of the Italian mafias is both fine in detail and engrossing in narrative sweep.’
—John Lloyd,
Financial Times
BLOOD
BROTHERHOODS
Also by John Dickie
Cosa Nostra
Delizia!
Mafia Republic
Copyright © John Dickie, 2011, 2013, 2014
First half published as
Blood Brotherhoods
in Great Britain in 2011 by Sceptre, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton, an Hachette UK Company; then published as
Mafia Brotherhoods
in paperback in 2012; and second half first published as
Mafia Republic
in 2013
Published in 2014 in the United States by PublicAffairs™,
a Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.
PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected]
.
Maps by Neil Gower and Clifford Webb
Book Design by Linda Mark
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dickie, John, 1963–
Blood brotherhoods : A History of Italy’s three mafias / John Dickie.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61039-428-4 (e-book)
1. Mafia—Italy—Sicily—History. 2. ’Ndrangheta—History.
3. Camorra—History. 4. Organized crime—Italy—History. I. Title.
HV6453.I83M326933 2014
364.1060945’8--dc23
2014001947
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to the memory of Gilbert Dickie (1922-2011)
The blackest despair that can take hold of any society is the fear that living honestly is futile.
CORRADO ALVARO
C
ONTENTS
Maps
The structure of Cosa Nostra
The structure of the ’ndrangheta
Ranks in the ’ndrangheta
Preface to the US Edition
Introduction: Blood brothers
PART I:
VIVA LA PATRIA!
1.
How to extract gold from fleas
2.
Co-managing crime
3.
The redemption of the camorra
4.
Uncle Peppe’s stuff: The camorra cashes in
5.
Spanishry: The first battle against the camorra
PART II:
GETTING TO KNOW THE MAFIA
6.
Rebels in corduroy
7.
The benign mafia
8.
A sect with a life of its own: The mafia’s rituals discovered
9.
Double vendetta
PART III:
THE NEW CRIMINAL NORMALITY
10.
Born delinquents: Science and the mob
11.
An audience of hoods
12.
The slack society
PART IV:
THE ’NDRANGHETA EMERGES
13.Harsh mountain
14.
The tree of knowledge
15.
Darkest Africo
16.
The King of Aspromonte
PART V:
MEDIA DONS
17.
Bankers and Men of Honour
18.
Floriopolis
19.
Four trials and a funeral
20.
The ‘high’ camorra
21.
The camorra in straw-yellow gloves
22.
The criminal Atlantic
23.
Gennaro Abbatemaggio: Genialoid
24.
The strange death of the Honoured Society
PART VI:
MUSSOLINI’S SCALPEL
25.
Sicily: The last struggle with the mafia
26.
Campania: Buffalo soldiers
27.
Calabria: The flying boss of Antonimina
28.
Calabria: What does not kill me makes me stronger
29.
Calabria: A clever, forceful and wary woman
30.
Campania: The Fascist Vito Genovese
31.
Sicily: The slimy octopus
32.
Master Joe dances a
tarantella
33.
Liberation
M
AP SECTION APPEARS BETWEEN PAGES
284
AND
285
PART VII:
FUGGEDABOUTIT
34.
Sicily: Banditry, land and politics
35.
Sicily:
In the Name of the Law
36.
Calabria: The last romantic bandit
37.
Naples: Puppets and puppeteers
38.
Gangsterismo
PART VIII:
1955
39.
The Monster of Presinaci
40.
Mars attacks!
41.
The President of Potato Prices (and his widow)
PART IX:
THE MAFIAS’ ECONOMIC MIRACLE
42.
King Concrete
43.
Gangsters and blondes
44.
Cosa Nostra: Untouchables no more
45.
Mafia diaspora
46.
The mafia-isation of the camorra
47.
The mushroom-pickers of Montalto
48.
Mafiosi
on the barricades
49.
The kidnapping industry
50.
The Most Holy Mother and the First ’Ndrangheta War
51.
A brief history of junk
52.
Mr Champagne: Heroin broker
53.
The Transatlantic Syndicate
54.
The Professor
PART X:
THE SLAUGHTER
55.
Blood orgy
56.
The New Family: A group portrait
57.
Catastrophe economy
58.
The Magliana Band and the Sacred United Crown
PART XI:
MARTYRS AND PENITENTS