Blood Brotherhoods

MAFIA. CAMORRA. 'NDRANGHETA.

The Sicilian mafia, known as Cosa Nostra, is far from being Italy's only dangerous criminal fraternity. The country hosts two other major mafias: the camorra from Naples; and, from the poor and isolated region of Calabria, the mysterious 'ndrangheta, which has now risen to become the most powerful mob group active today.

Since they emerged, the mafias have all corrupted Italy's institutions, drastically curtailed the life-chances of its citizens, evaded justice, and set up their own self-interested meddling as an alternative to the courts. Yet each of these brotherhoods has its own methods, its own dark rituals, its own style of ferocity. Each is uniquely adapted to corrupt and exploit its own specific environment, as it collaborates with, learns from, and goes to war with the other mafias.

Today, the shadow of organized crime hangs over a country racked by debt, political paralysis, and widespread corruption. The 'ndrangheta controls much of Europe's wholesale cocaine trade and, by some estimates, 3 percent of Italy's total GDP. Blood Brotherhoods traces the origins of this national malaise back to Italy's roots as a united country in the nineteenth century, and shows how political violence incubated underworld sects among the lemon groves of Palermo, the fetid slums of Naples, and the harsh mountain villages of Calabria.

Blood Brotherhoods is a book of breathtaking ambition, tracing for the first time the interlocking story of all three mafias from their origins to the present day. John Dickie is recognized in Italy as one of the foremost historians of organized crime. In these pages, he blends archival detective work, passionate narrative, and shrewd analysis to bring a unique criminal ecosystem -- and the three terrifying criminal brotherhoods that have evolved within it -- to life on the page.

ISBN-13: 9781610394277

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Publication Date: 04-22-2014

Pages: 800

Product Dimensions: 9.30(w) x 5.80(h) x 2.30(d)

John Dickie is Professor of Italian Studies at University College, London. His book, Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, is an international bestseller, with over twenty translations, and won the CWA Dagger Award for non-fiction. Since then he has published Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and their Food (2007) — now a six-part TV series for History Channel Italia and other networks worldwide. In 2005 the President of the Italian Republic appointed him a Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

Maps xvii

The structure of Cosa Nostra xxii

The structure of the 'ndrangheta xxiii

Ranks in the 'ndrangheta xxiv

Preface to the US Edition xxv

Introduction: Blood brothers xxxiii

Part I Viva La Patria!

1 How to extract gold from fleas 3

2 Co-managing crime 15

3 The redemption of the camorra 21

4 Uncle Peppe's stuff: The camorra cashes in 32

5 Spanishry: The first battle against the camorra 35

Part II Getting to Know the Mafia

6 Rebels in corduroy 49

7 The benign mafia 57

8 A sect with a life of its own: The mafia's rituals discovered 63

9 Double vendetta 69

Part III The New Criminal Normality

10 Born delinquents: Science and the mob 93

11 An audience of hoods 99

12 The slack society 105

Part IV The 'Ndrangheta Emerges

13 Harsh mountain 117

14 The tree of knowledge 121

15 Darkest Africo 127

16 The King of Aspromonte 142

Part V Media Dons

17 Bankers and Men of Honour 157

18 Floriopolis 164

19 Four trials and a funeral 169

20 The 'high' camorra 183

21 The camorra in straw-yellow gloves 189

22 The criminal Atlantic 197

23 Gennaro Abbatemaggio: Genialoid 202

24 The strange death of the Honoured Society 212

Part VI Mussolini's Scalpel

25 Sicily: The last struggle with the mafia 223

26 Campania: Buffalo soldiers 228

27 Calabria: The flying boss of Antonimina 235

28 Calabria: What does not kill me makes me stronger 239

29 Calabria: A clever, forceful and wary woman 242

30 Campania: The Fascist Vito Genovese 255

31 Sicily: The slimy octopus 257

32 Master Joe dances a tarantella 266

33 Liberation 270

Part VII Fuggedaboutit

34 Sicily: Banditry, land and politics 287

35 Sicily: In the Name of the Law 291

36 Calabria: The last romantic bandit 305

37 Naples: Puppets and puppeteers 310

38 Gangsterismo 320

Part VIII 1955

39 The Monster of Presinaci 327

40 Mars attacks! 336

41 The President of Potato Prices (and his widow) 346

Part IX The Mafias' Economic Miracle

42 King Concrete 359

43 Gangsters and blondes 373

44 Cosa Nostra: Untouchables no more 378

45 Mafia diaspora 382

46 The mafia-isation of the camorra 388

47 The mushroom-pickers of Montalto 393

48 Mafiosi on the barricades 404

49 The kidnapping industry 409

50 The Most Holy Mother and the First 'Ndrangheta War 424

51 A brief history of junk 434

52 Mr Champagne: Heroin broker 439

53 The Transatlantic Syndicate 445

54 The Professor 450

Part X The Slaughter

55 Blood orgy 461

56 The New Family: A group portrait 470

57 Catastrophe economy 479

58 The Magliana Band and the Sacred United Crown 489

Part XI Martyrs and Penitents

59 Mafia terror 499

60 The fatal combination 507

61 Doilies and drugs 519

62 Walking cadavers 527

63 The capital of the anti-mafia 535

64 The rule of non-law 542

65 'U maxi 551

66 One step forward, three steps back 560

67 Falcone goes to Rome 567

Part XII The Fall of the First Republic

68 Sacrifice 575

69 The collapse of the old order 580

70 Negotiating by bomb: Birth of the Second Republic 589

Part XIII The Second Republic and the Mafias

71 Cosa Nostra: The head of the Medusa 601

72 Camorra: A geography of the underworld 617

73 Camorra: An Italian Chernobyl 627

74 Gomorrah 633

75 'Ndrangheta: Snowstorm 637

76 'Ndrangheta: The Crime 643

77 Welcome to the grey zone 652

Acknowledgements 661

Illustration credits 665

Notes on sources 668

Sources consulted 673

Index 729

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