Italy's Mafia Has New Look

The 'Godlather' Diversifies Italy's Mafia Has New Look isT.1141' By Claire Sterling Few queslioned the century-old legend epeeist to The Washineton Post of a Mafia that kept the order as a sur- PALERMO, Sicily—Mario Puzo's God- rogate for a negligent slate, and father came back to his ancestral home- a capo land last week, and the natives hardly mafioso who was a "man of respect," . knew him. bound Lo a code of rustic gallantry, dis- Thousands flocking to the film's Italian pensing wisdom far and wide and ruling premiere were enthralled with the story his clan with a firm but paternal hand. as folklore, but they saw little resemb- But if, there was ever a grain of truth in lance between the Godfather's "family" this legend, all Italy knows there isn't and their own Mafia in real life. now. Ten years ago the movie-going public Since 1963 an Italian parliamentary here might have accepted uncritically commission to 'investigate the phenome- what the Corriere della Sera calls "this non of the Mafia" has been collecting dos- implicit attempt to idealize the Mafia and siers and interviewing hundreds of police- give it tragic and heroic connotations." men, criminals, politicians and bankers. In those days Sicily's "Honored Society" It certainly hasn't stamped out the was still wrapped in romantic mystery, Mafia, which not only continues to bleed especially for Italians who didn't happen western Sicily white but has opened to live in Sicily. See PALERMO, A24, Col. 1 PALERMO, From Al sion did get across to the na- the dozen mammasantissimi Mafia clans, goes far beyond tion the fact that in the last (literally "the holiest of branch offices on the main- traditional Mafia pursuits 25 years the Mafia has mur- mothers," in Sicilian par- such as white slavery, illegal land from Calabria to Rome, lance the most vicious of Milan and Turin. dered at least 2,500 men, whiskey stills, cattle rus- Mafia killers) in the group. tling and control of water Nor, say Sicilians in the women and children in Sic- A dapper gentleman of 48, know here, has it come close ily, many of whose bones supplies in outlying rural dressed for the beach in areas, drugs and contraband to understanding the "new" still molder in remote moun- blue linen shorts and im- Mafia that has emerged in tain caves known as Mafia tobacco. Whether by out- maculate white tennis shoes, right ownership or regular the past decade, urbanized, cemeteries. Don Antonio did not care to industrialized, incomparably It also turned up other ab- collections of protection discuss his career: The sub- money, the "honored so- more efficient and deadly sorbing information about ject didn't interest him, he than the old feudal kind. the Mafia's business and ciety" is into everything said. But it interests his from fishing and meat- For all its promises of personnel practices, includ- countrymen. lurid disclosures, the com- slaughtering to ports, ga- ing unusually educational What is fascinating about rages, hotels, bars, retail mission has never faced up biographies of Sicily's top 10 La Barbera's life story is not to the really knotty ques- Mafia leaders. A visit to shops, insurance, banking , so much the itemized list of and practically all local in- tion: Its 2,000-page report some of these capo Mafiosi his known crimes, running sank into oblivion last spring now living in compulsory (If dustry. to four printed pages—kid- In widening their field, when it turned out to con- temporary) retirement on naping, extortion, rape, tain not a single simple dec- the bleak Mediterranean is- younger Mafia leaders like arson, dynamiting, drug run- La Barbera have not only larative sentence explaining land of Linos-a, shows these ning, common theft, scores just how the Mafia can buy Godfathers to be about as grown richer faster than of killings on his own or by their elders—several have enough protection in Paler- paternal as a pit of cobras. the 40-odd gunmen in his mo and Rome to get away Among those presently in become multimillionaires al- clan—as the modern meth. most overnight—but they with systematic murder. exile on Linosa is Antonio la ods he introduced. Nevertheless, the commis- Barbera of Palermo. one of have also shown themselves ; From the time La Barbera to be greedier, more bru- moved into the narcotics tally impatient and incau- trade run by the rival Greco tious. Recalcitrant clients clan, touching off a gang and intrusive Mafia rivals war in Palermo that has are "shot first and reasoned raged on and off for 13 with later," a Sicilian re- years, an "Americanized" porter said. Mafia has closed in on the Membership has been Sicilian capital with stun- opened to trigger-happy ning precision. riff-raff that an old-timer New Pursuits would have nothing to do La Barbera himself hasn't with. And in the last couple been running the whole of years the new Mafia has show by any means, his ac- broken two previously in- tivities being confined violate rules: never to put largely to the international the bite on a client already drug traffic, the city's paying for protection, and wholesale fruit and vegeta- never to lay a finger on a ble markets, and the build- journalist or judge. ing trades. Since 1970, the Mafia has The rest, divided up none kidnaped the sons of tour too peacefully among other extremely wealthy at least two of whom had unknown since the days of a darkly hostile local popu- what, they don't any more. been paying generous pro- Mussolini's fanatic anti- lace. and, weather permit- The whole map of the Mafia tection money for years. Mafia crusader, Prefect ting, a steamer calling in has changed. It might be Nevertheless, they were Mod. twice a week. years before we can fill in obliged to pay ransoms re- A hundred and ten impor- Bitter Mafiosi the new one." portedly running to as much tant Mafiosi and some 700 They don't live so badly. Some authorities go fur- as a million dollars, The lat- smaller fry were rounded up ther. est victim—a muscular in Sicily and on the Italian They can swim and sun- young engineer called Luci- bathe, and pick cactus fruit, "What we're faced with mainland, including a num- these days is still more ano Cassino., who never ber suspected of having had and several—La Barbera moved without a bodyguard among them—have brought squalid and brutalized delin- a hand In De Mauro's and quency than before, if that's and who drove a car Scaglione's deaths-, wives or mistresses and children. But they are bitter all conceivable," a police offi- equipped with radio-tele- Nearly all had been taken phone for just such emer- the same. cer said. "This new crowd to court time and again on "Why don't they send us coming up will stop at noth- gencies—was taken at gun- bloodcurdling charges and ing to grab power, and point in broad daylight last to jail? At least we could acquitted for lack of evi- see television," one com- they're desperate for money. August, an one of Palermo's dence. Evidence is not easily It takes a big cash outlay to busiest streets, Having put plained. come by when witnesses and And they are understanda- keep the drug traffic and to- up a sitff fight, he has not judges are openly and flatly been heard from since. bly nervous. What bothers bacco contraband going, and warned that they and their business hasn't been so good Furthermore; in these them is not so much the families wilt be killed in the law: Though nearly all will lately with top men away. In same two years the Mafia event of a guilty verdict. fact, we hear that your own kidnaped and certainly coming up in yet another The only way to hold mass trial of 114 new ma- Cosa Nostra boys are send- murdered (though the body these celebrated thugs, ing relief checks. was never found) a popular fiosi" in Palermo soon, prac- through a special anti-Mafia tically all such trials in the 'Turthermore, the Mafia and nosy Sicilian journalist law passed In 1965, was to called Mauro de Mauro. Not past have ended in massive needs a lot of money for ex- send them Into "confine," or acquittals. The worrisome tras nowadays. All those long afterward, it machine- enforced residnece, as far as gunned the attorney general thing is who may grab their capomafiasi in exile have possible from their place of power and incomes during three or four expensive law- of Palermo, Pietro Seag- business. Bone. the three or four years of yers. Their legal bills alone If not for that extraordi- Until last year's dramatic their absence, are running to several mil- narily injudicious last move, roundup; most Mafia leaders "In a way, the crackdown lion dollars. Then their fam- men like Antonio La Bar- caught in the police net had has simply made matters ilies have to be supported, bera might still be living it ended up in fairly comforta- worse," a Sicilian editor and witnesses have to be up in expensive nightclubs ble northern towns, from said. "Nobody expects the paid off, and all the other instead of retiring at night- which they could easily dial Mafia to go out of business, usual palms have to be kept fall, after checking in with Sicily for long, untraceable even if practically every one greased.

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