Blood Brotherhoods
Page 80
Looking back from today over the history of Italy’s relationship with the mafias since the Second World War, and indeed since the very origins of the mafias in the nineteenth century, the single biggest and most positive change is that the police and magistracy are, at long, long last, doing their job.
Now it is over to the Italian people to do theirs.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LACK OF TIME IS A MAJOR REASON WHY NOBODY HAS EVER BEFORE TRIED TO WRITE A chronicle of organised crime in Italy from its origins to the present day. Blood Brotherhoods is the result of a long period of research and writing that it would have been impossible for me to begin, let alone complete, without the support of two institutions. My heartfelt gratitude goes to both the Italian Department, University College London, where my colleagues have created an encouraging and lively environment for teaching and research, and to the Leverhulme Trust, which awarded me a Research Fellowship between 2009 and 2011—a crucial period in the development of the book.
Thanks must also go to my editors and agents who have waited as my submission deadline receded into the distance. My fondest hope for this book is that it constitutes some kind of reward for the saintly patience of Peter Sillem, Rupert Lancaster, Giuseppe Laterza, Haye Koningsfeld, Catherine Clarke and George Lucas. I would also like to thank Kate Miles and Juliet Brightmore at Hodder & Stoughton for their cheerful support. Copy editor Helen Coyle had a much greater influence on the development of the typescript than her official responsibilities imply.
Cosa Nostra, the camorra and the ’ndrangheta show Italy at its worst. Yet the greatest privilege that comes with studying mafia history is that of meeting some of the extraordinary people who dedicate themselves to fighting the mafias, and thereby show Italy at its uplifting best. I would like to thank them for their invaluable help and input of all kinds. The list starts with Nicola Gratteri of the Direzione distrettuale antimafia in Reggio Calabria, who impressed me with his courage, energy and rigour—and sent me away laden with fascinating documents. My particular gratitude goes to Michele Prestipino of the Direzione distrettuale antimafia in Reggio Calabria: conversations with him have been among the most fascinating moments of my quest to understand and explain the ’ndrangheta. Capitano Giuseppe Lumia of the Carabinieri was endlessly resourceful, and colonnello Jacopo Mannucci-Benincasa, head of the Arma’s Ufficio Criminalità Organizzata, extremely insightful. In the final stages of writing the book, I was lucky enough to talk at length to Alessandra Cerreti (Direzione distrettuale antimafia, Reggio Calabria), Catello Maresca (Direzione distrettuale antimafia, Naples), colonnello Claudio Petrozziello and capitano Sergio Gizzi (Guardia di Finanza), vice questore Alessandro Tocco and commissario Michele Spina (Polizia di Stato), colonnello Pasquale Angelosanto (Carabinieri), colonnello Patrizio La Spada, tenente Angelo Zizzi, and the men of the Squadrone Cacciatori in Vibo Valentia. My encounters with servants of the rule of law like these were both hugely encouraging as well as extremely useful in confirming or qualifying what I thought about the state of the mafias today. I should stress that they cannot be blamed for any misinterpretation I may have made of their words and that what I have written in these pages reflects my own views.
The many debts I owe to other academics and historians are set out in the notes that follow. But I have also had a number of extremely fruitful personal exchanges with a number of Italy’s leading experts in the field. It is rare to find a historian who is as open-handed with his time and knowledge as Enzo Ciconte. Enzo sent me some documentation I had had trouble finding and scrutinised an important chunk of the manuscript, making valuable suggestions. I discussed some of the ideas in Blood Brotherhoods at length with both Marcella Marmo and Gabriella Gribaudi. The book is much better as a result of their consideration and their profound understanding of the camorra. In Palermo, Salvatore Lupo and Nino Blando have always been willing to be mined for interesting ideas.
In Blood Brotherhoods I have tried to reach out beyond academia to explain to as broad a readership as possible what we can (and cannot) know about the history of the mafias. From my fellow academics, I can only crave indulgence for sacrificing many conventions of academic writing in this cause. As always, I have called on a team of friends to read drafts of the book in the hope of making it more readable. The following deserve special recognition for their selfless commitment to that arduous endeavour: Nino Blando, David Brown, Stephen Cadywold, Caz Carrick, John Foot, Robert Gordon, Prue James, Laura Mason, Vittorio Mete, Doug Taylor, Federico Varese.
Very many archivists and librarians have assisted me during the course of my work, but some of them were especially kind: Maria Pia Mazzitelli and the staff at the Archivio di Stato di Reggio Calabria, Salvatore Maffei at the marvellous Emeroteca Vincenzo Tucci in Naples, Maresciallo Capo Salerno and Col. Giancarlo Barbonetti at the Carabinieri Archive, Linda Pantano at the Istituto Gramsci in Palermo, and the staff in Humanities 2 at the British Library.
A number of people in Campania helped me during a field trip to many of the places mentioned in this book: Alfonso De Vito, Marcello Anselmo, Egidio Giordano, and Vittorio Passeggio. My friend Fabio Cuzzola was also my go-to guy in Reggio. His generosity extended far beyond the intellectual and even involved his developing an appreciation of Rory Delap’s throw-ins and Ricardo Fuller’s footwork. The great Nino Sapone was invaluable to me in many different ways. He knows his way around the Archivio di Stato di Reggio Calabria like few others, and he has a documented feeling for Aspromonte, its people and history; I will never forget our visits to Amendolea, S. Stefano, Montalto, and the Sanctuary at Polsi. Joseph Condello was an extremely helpful and friendly guide when we toured the Plain of Gioia Tauro together. I would also like to express my thanks to Chiara Caprì, one of the founders of Addiopizzo in Palermo, and to the inspirational Gaetano Saffioti in Palmi for his patience in being interviewed twice.
A long list of people have helped me with advice, or by locating sources; some of them also chipped in with good ideas: I would have been lost without Salvo Bottari, Mark Chu, Vittorio Coco, Nicola Crinniti, Fabio Cuzzola, Azzurra Fibbia, Joe Figliulo, David Forgacs, Patrick McGauley, Francesco Messina, Manuela Patti, Marcello Saija, Nino Sapone, Diego Scarabelli, Fabio Truzzolillo, Chris Wagstaff, Thomas Watkin. Since the very earliest stages of my research into the ’ndrangheta, I have been having exceptionally useful exchanges with Antonio Nicaso. Antonio also read a section of the manuscript, patiently and insightfully. Nick Dines deserves a special mention for his astute and creative research on my behalf. Fabio Truzzolillo not only hunted down some important material for me but contributed positively to the content of the book: I hope by now that he has found the right home for his passion for research. For certain localised but important aspects of my research I relied on the help of David Critchley, Tim Newark, and Eleanor Chiari. Christian De Vito was particularly insightful on the history of the prison system. Roger Parker found out what Silvio Spaventa went to see at the opera. Peter Y. Herchenroether generously sent me the results of his research into early Calabrian mafiosi in the United States. Alex Sansom, UCL’s resident expert on early modern Spain, helped me find out more about Cervantes and the Garduña. Jonathan Dunnage was the source of some very useful prompts on the history of policing. My friend and colleague Florian Mussgnug generously surfed the German press on my behalf. A number of people in Australia offered tips on studying Calabrian organised crime in their country. David Brown was remarkably generous in letting me see his collection of material on the same subject: I regret only that I was not able to analyse that area properly in Blood Brotherhoods.
I owe a special debt to Lesley Lewis for allowing me to consult her late husband Norman’s diaries—the notes he drew on while writing his profoundly compassionate and yet disillusioned observations in Naples ‘44.
Laura and Giulio Lepschy were for me, as for so many Italianists in the UK, an endless source of linguistic wisdom. Maria Novella Mercuri helped me work out some of the trickier, ungrammatical passages in som
e manuscripts.
I have had the great boon of being able to consult a number of journalists who are immersed in the subject of organised crime on a day-to-day basis. In Sicily, Lirio Abbate, Attilio Bolzoni, Salvo Palazzolo, and Dino Paternostro offered advice, material or both. In Calabria, Pietro Comito passed on a rare copy of Serafino Castagna’s autobiography. Peppe Baldessarro knows as much about the ’ndrangheta as any journalist: it was enriching to chat with him in the course of several visits to Calabria. Several of these names are among the all too many courageous and professional Italian journalists who have had to face death threats from the clans.
Yet again my biggest thank you goes to my wife, Sarah Penny. I am constantly astonished by her ability to juggle work, family and my seemingly endless demands for time. She has my gratitude and my love, always. The book is dedicated to her, to our two children Elliot and Charlotte, and to their baby sister, Iris.
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
ImageSource
page
xxxivAbove: © Corbis / photo Ina Fassbinder Below: photo Armin Thiemer
xxxviPrivate collection
8Illustrated London News, 1859
9A. De Blasio, Usi e costumi dei camorristi, 1897
17© The British Library (from F. De Bourcard, Usi e costumi di Napoli e contorni descritti e dipinti, vol. II, 1858)
18© The British Library (from F. De Bourcard, Usi e costumi di Napoli e contorni descritti e dipinti, vol. II, 1858)
22L’Illustration, 1860
24A. Comandini, L’Italia nei cento anni del secolo XIX, vol. 3
25L’Illustration, 1860
26© The British Library Newspapers, Colindale (from Il Mondo Illustrato, 1860)
29A. Comandini, L’Italia nei cento anni del secolo XIX, vol. 3
31© The British Library Newspapers, Colindale (from Il Mondo Illustrato, 1860)
33Illustrated London News, 1860
36Illustrated London News, 1859
51Illustrated London News, 1860
71© Corbis / photo Armin Thiemer
80Private collection
96A. De Blasio, Il tatuaggio, 1905
98A. De Blasio, Usi e costumi dei camorristi, 1897
100Biblioteca Nazionale ‘Vittorio Emanuele II’, Naples, reproduced by kind permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Italy
103Above: © Getty Images. Middle and Below: private collection
104Museo Pitré, Palermo, reproduced by kind permission of the Comune di Palermo
109C. Del Balzo, Napoli e i napoletani, 1885
111© The British Library Newspapers, Colindale (from Le Monde Illustré, 1893)
122© John Dickie
136© John Dickie
143E. Morselli, Biografia di un bandito, 1903
150Above: Reproduced by kind permission of the Archivio di Stato di Reggio Calabria. Middle and Below: E. Morselli, Biografia di un bandito, 1903
151Illustrated London News, 1902
152Illustrated London News, 1902
159Private collection
170L’Illustrazione Italiana, 1899
171L’Illustrazione Italiana, 1901
172L’Illustrazione Italiana, 1901
174Private collection
191Il Mattino, 1911
203La Scintilla, 1911
206La Scintilla, 1911
207A. De Blasio, Usi e costumi dei camorristi, 1897
208Illustrated London News, 1911
210La Scintilla, 1911
246E. Morselli, Biografia di un bandito, 1903
256© Getty Images
261Reproduced by kind permission of Istituto Luce, Rome / Archivio Fotografico
264Above left and right, below left: Private collection. Below right: Top-Foto Topham Picturepoint
268Left: reproduced by kind permission of Gazzetta del Sud, 1986. Right: private collection
302Courtesy of Archivio de L’Unità
307Lux Films / RGA
308Private collection
309Private collection
322© Bettmann / Corbis
331Private collection
348© Getty Images / Mondadori
349© Bettmann / Corbis
364© Enzo Brai / Pubblifoto, Palermo
374© Getty Images / Gamma-Keystone
385© Enzo Brai / Pubblifoto, Palermo
395Courtesy of archive of Pasquale Capellupo
405© AP / Press Association Images
413Archivio Carabinieri, Palermo
416© AP / Press Association Images / Raul Fornezza
418© Getty Images / Popperfoto
422© Alberto Roveri / Rosebud2
425© Eric Gaillard
432© ANSA
441Alessandro Fucarini / Agenzia Fotografica Labruzzo, Palermo
451© Contrasto / eyevine / Angelo Palma
474© ANSA
475Private collection
488© ANSA
510Left: courtesy of Centro di Studi ed Iniziative Culturali Pio La Torre, Palermo. Right: Archivio Fotografico Pietro Oliveri, Corleone
516© ANSA
517© Contrasto / eyevine / Shobha
518© ANSA
526© Corbis / ANSA
553Alessandro Fucarini / Agenzia Fotografica Labruzzo, Palermo
557© Rex Features / Contrasto
561© Tony Gentile
576© Getty Images / Gamma-Rapho
579© Corbis / Antoine Gyori / Sygma
582Archivio Carabinieri, Palermo
609© AP / Press Association Images / Luca Bruno
612Archivio Carabinieri, Palermo
619© AP / Press Association Images / Italian Police
622© John Dickie
630© AP / Press Association Images / Salvatore Laporta
635© AP / Press Association Images / Salvatore Laporta
640© AP / Press Association Images / Adriana Sapone
646© AP / Press Association Images / Adriana Sapone
I would like to thank the following for their help in sourcing photographs:
Chiara Augliera of the Cineteca di Bologna; Maggiore Antonio Coppola of the Carabinieri’s Nucleo investigativo–reparto operativo, Palermo; Fabio Cuzzola; Nick Dines; Cecilia Ferretti of the Archivio Unità; Capitano Giuseppe Lumia and the ROS in Gioia Tauro; Vito Lucio Lo Monaco of the Centro Pio La Torre, Palermo; Gabriele Morabito; Nino Sapone; Fabio Truzzolillo.
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the copyright holders, but if there are any errors or omissions, PublicAffairs will be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent printings or editions.
NOTES ON SOURCES
FOR SOCIOLOGISTS IT HAS BECOME COMMONPLACE TO TREAT ITALY’S MAJOR CRIMINAL organisations as different aspects of the same set of problems. Historians have been slow to catch up. All the major historians of organised crime in Italy have made often very insightful comparative asides. Yet sustained comparison is very rare indeed. Blood Brotherhoods is intended to explore what we can learn by letting the histories of the three mafias run in parallel to one another. It is a task that has presented many challenges, notably at the level of narrative organisation. But the goal is fundamentally a simple one, all the same: a chronicle.
Blood Brotherhoods is also intended for readers beyond Italy, as well as within its borders, for whom the word ‘mafia’ conjures up visions of Al Pacino before it does the faces of Luciano Liggio, Raffaele Cutolo or the De Stefano brothers. What I hope to do is dissipate some of the confusion generated both by films like The Godfather, and by the catchall word ‘mafia’. In an effort to make Blood Brotherhoods as accessible as possible, I have not used footnotes or endnotes. Those of us who are university lecturers and therefore lucky enough to read for a living all too easily forget the huge efforts that many people have to make to find the time to read—and to read non-fiction in particular. Perhaps the least we can do to meet such readers halfway is to produce a narrative unencumbered by references, nods to obscure academic debates, and the nam
e-dropping of academic allies and opponents.
That said, footnotes fulfill many duties and afford many pleasures. The following pages can be but a poor substitute for them. My hope is that they will at least serve as a stimulus to further reading, a recognition of my many intellectual debts, an indication of what sources I have used to formulate and substantiate my arguments, and a clue to interesting issues that I did not have time to explore or treat fully. Some of the sources cited are not referred to or quoted from explicitly in the text, but I have included them here all the same, generally for one of two reasons: first, because they make points that I did not have the space to explore and illustrate in the text; second, because they add evidential weight. Blood Brotherhoods, as a comparative history, can have no pretentions to being an encyclopedic account of the camorra, the Sicilian mafia and the ’ndrangheta. My approach has been to choose stories that I consider to be exemplary. By including the full range of my archival sources on the picciotteria, for example, I hope to show that my choice of exemplary stories has a broad foundation in firsthand research, whether by me or by other people.
My particular gratitude and admiration must go to those who, before me, have written narrative syntheses of the history of Italy’s individual criminal organisations. These are the books that have been my constant companions while writing Blood Brotherhoods. Salvatore Lupo’s Storia della mafia (Rome, 1993) is one of the books that anyone interested in the mafias must read and re-read. (If you don’t know Italian, be warned that an already dense text is badly served by a very poor English translation: History of the Mafia, New York, 2011.) Lupo’s more recent Quando la mafia trovò l’America. Storia di un intreccio intercontinentale, 1888–2008 (Turin, 2008) provides a unique and perceptive ‘transatlantic’ history of the mafia in both Sicily and the United States. In several chapters here I have tried to follow Lupo’s cues about the many-faceted relationship between the two branches of Cosa Nostra and have also profited from his insights into the long-lasting dialogue of the deaf between Italy and the United States when it came to mafia matters. The ‘Transatlantic Syndicate’ is my coinage for what Lupo, drawing on firsthand sources, calls the ‘third mafia’. Given that there were already three mafias in my story, I thought it best to choose another moniker in order to avoid confusion.