Summary of John Dickie's Cosa Nostra

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Italian kingdom, which encompassed most of southern Italy, annexed Sicily in 1860. The island had a long-standing reputation as a revolutionary powder keg. The incorporation of 2. 4 million Sicilians into the new nation brought about an epidemic of conspiracy, robbery, murder, and score-settling.

#2 The Italian government tried to pacify Sicily by using the military, but the situation failed to improve. In 1866, there was another revolt in Palermo, similar to the one that had overthrown the Bourbons. It was quelled, but it took ten more years for Sicily to become part of Italy.

#3 The mafia began in the 1860s, when the Italian government heard about it for the first time. The mafia and Italy were born together, as the Italian government discovered the name and used it to describe the phenomenon.

#4 The mafia was not born in the 1800s, but in the 1860s. It was developed in an area that is still its heartland, in the dark green coastal strip near Palermo.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822526211

IRB Media

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Insights on John Dickie's Cosa Nostra

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Italian kingdom, which encompassed most of southern Italy, annexed Sicily in 1860. The island had a long-standing reputation as a revolutionary powder keg. The incorporation of 2. 4 million Sicilians into the new nation brought about an epidemic of conspiracy, robbery, murder, and score-settling.

#2

The Italian government tried to pacify Sicily by using the military, but the situation failed to improve. In 1866, there was another revolt in Palermo, similar to the one that had overthrown the Bourbons. It was quelled, but it took ten more years for Sicily to become part of Italy.

#3

The mafia began in the 1860s, when the Italian government heard about it for the first time. The mafia and Italy were born together, as the Italian government discovered the name and used it to describe the phenomenon.

#4

The mafia was not born in the 1800s, but in the 1860s. It was developed in an area that is still its heartland, in the dark green coastal strip near Palermo.

#5

The mafia’s methods were honed during a period of rapid growth in the citrus fruit industry. The mafia was born not of poverty and isolation, but of power and wealth.

#6

The Fondo Riella, a lemon and tangerine fruit farm, was a centerpiece of the inheritance Dr Galati took on in 1872. The previous owner had died of a heart attack following a series of threatening letters from the warden, Benedetto Carollo.

#7

Dr Galati’s son went to the police station to report the family’s suspicion that Carollo was behind the murder. The inspector ignored this lead and arrested two men who had no connection with the victim. Three weeks passed before he took Carollo and his son into custody.

#8

The Uditore mafia based their power on running protection rackets in the lemon groves. They could force landowners to accept their men as stewards, wardens, and brokers. Their network of contacts with cart drivers, wholesalers, and dock workers could either threaten a farm’s produce or ensure its safe arrival at the market.

#9

The attack on the warden brought Dr Galati’s first stroke of luck. He was able to identify his attackers, and the case against them was dropped. The police only responded by increased surveillance.

#10

The mafia was a secret association from the outset, and its initiation ritual was similar to the one still used today. It was led by a boss who would prick the would-be mafioso’s arm and tell him to smear blood from the wound on to a sacred image.

#11

The rules on introductions were explained to Brusca that day. No one is allowed to introduce themselves as a mafioso, but a third party must do so using a formula like You two are the same thing as me.

#12

The mafia’s initiation ritual was borrowed from the Masons. It was a modern organization that created trust among its members because it was a sensible way of putting up the price of betrayal.

#13

The first study of the mafia was written by a Sicilian nobleman named Nicolò Turrisi Colonna in 1863. He wrote that organized criminals were a powerful force in Sicily, but that the new government’s tough measures had only made the situation worse.

#14

The Turrisi Colonna report, which was published in 1860, described the Mafia as a group of thieves that was protected by everyone in the countryside. The report