11. The Italian government and the Mafia
Organized crime in Sicily developed in the nineteenth century. Known as the Cosa Nostra (our thing), it permeated Italian life, developing black markets and corrupting officials. Few people in history possessed a greater loathing for organized crime than Mussolini, and the Italian government during his regime was aggressive in fighting what is known as the mafia, a word which translates loosely as meaning “manly”. In 1924 Mussolini dispatched Cesare Mori to Palermo as prefect with the expressed mission of destroying organized crime in Sicily and the southern portion of the Italian boot. “Your Excellency has carte blanche,” Mussolini informed his prefect, “the authority of the State must absolutely, I repeat absolutely, be re-established in Sicily”. Mussolini told Mori that if existing laws hindered his efforts he, Mussolini, would change the laws.
Mori fought the mafia using tactics he adopted from their own. He not only sought arrests, but he executed them in a manner which brought public humiliation. Mori revealed to Sicilians that the government under Mussolini was as strong as the mafia, and that Sicilians co-operating with organized crime could no longer rely on them for protection. He also unveiled links between organized crime and the Italian government, including many Fascist members of the Italian bureaucracy. During his campaign, when more than 11,000 arrests were made, Mori successfully suppressed the mafia in Sicily, but he did not eradicate it entirely. In 1929 Mussolini recalled his prefect, under pressure from elements within his own government. During the campaign against the Sicilian mafia, many criminals fled Sicily for the United States, including Carlo Gambino and Joe Bonanno, both of whom became powerful mob bosses in New York.