Secret Societies: Inside the World's Most Notorious Organizations by John Lawrence Reynolds

Author:John Lawrence Reynolds [Reynolds, John Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, History
ISBN: 9781559708265
Google: 59dOoQK7dsoC
Amazon: 1559708468
Goodreads: 649718
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Published: 2006-05-14T12:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

THE MAFIA AND COSA NOSTRA

WISE GUYS AND BUSINESSMEN

NOTHING DISTINGUISHES THE MAFIA FROM OTHER SECRET societies more than omerta, its rigid code of silence. And nothing more clearly tracks the decline in the Mafia's discipline and status, in America at least, than the contrasting actions of two high-level members: Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, head of a notorious gang of hired killers, and 400-pound Joseph (Big Joey) Massino, don of New York's once-powerful Bonanno crime family. Buchalter died in 1944, seated stolidly in an electric chair. Sixty years later Massino dealt his own organization a potential death blow in a manner that would have driven the short-fused Buchalter into a state of apoplexy.

Between them, they trace the fall of one of the world's most powerful secret societies from a zenith of authority and dominance down to a band of disorganized thugs, many of whose exploits would be humorous if they were not so deadly.

Omerta, like the Mafia itself, was born not from the machinations of a criminal mastermind but out of the desperate necessity of middle-class Sicilian families seeking control over their own lives. Like triads and Templars, the appalling behavior of the Mafia and its various progeny is actually rooted in good intentions.

The most easily recognized country in any atlas of the Mediterranean region is Italy and its boot-shaped peninsula. The toe of the Italian boot ends barely twenty kilometers from the shores of Sicily, making the island appear as a distended soccer ball being eternally kicked across the sea. The image is apt; due to its strategic location, Sicily was the object of invasion, colonization and exploitation by powerful outside interests for hundreds of years. Sicily proved vital to Mediterranean trade and colonization, an important port for merchants and military expeditions traveling to and from North Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Adriatic.

Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, Sicily endured a chain of invasions, each leaving an indelible mark on its people and culture. The spread of Islam brought Arab raiders to its shores in ad 826. The Muslims proved relatively tolerant of the existing society, permitting non-Muslims to practice their own religion, and their influence on Sicilian culture lies at the root of two Mafia qualities maintained to this day.

One was the position of women in society. Until the arrival of the Muslims, Sicilian society functioned much like others living under Judeo-Christian influence, with women playing a relatively important role in family decision making. In comparison, Islamic law subordinated women. After their arrival, decisions within the family and within the culture generally were made by men, an attitude that took deeper root in Sicily than in other Christian nations that experienced Islamic influence, and one that continues down to this day.

The Arabs also brought a sense of internal justice. Lacking a system of enforcement to deal with criminal acts, Islamic forces depended upon personal responsibility to avenge crimes. These two qualities—limited rights for women and an obligation to seek vengeance for personal redress—remained imbedded in Sicilian society long after the departure of the Islamic invaders.

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