Is the mafia real?

Why, yes! It is.

Most of us have a particular idea we’ve created over the years about the mafia because of movies we’ve seen and books we’ve read. You know the big names–Capone, Bugsy, Siegel, Lucky Luciano, and Gotti–among others. But what is legend and what is real?

How about I bring some clarity to it? I’ve got you covered.

When I started writing the Code of Silence Series, I did a lot of research on the subject and even watched some super shocking documentaries. Crazy stuff. I kind of had a mythological idea of it and wasn’t sure what was true and what was fiction. I also thought that maybe the mafia was long gone because we rarely hear anything about it.

In this article, I’m going to focus on what the mafia is and what its origins are. Then I’ll write more on the subject in the next few weeks. It’s quite fascinating really. Like really–did you know that many of the big mafia names died from heart attacks? Yeah. Sounds kind of suspicious, doesn’t it?

So, where the heck did the mafia come from?

The mafia originated way back in the 1700s in Sicily, an island off Italy at the that time. The inhabitants got tired of being conquered and put under the control of one foreign entity or another over and over again. They started to band together to fight invaders’ control.

As they grew in number, they banded together and decided on a common structure and code of conduct that protected each other from those outside forces. This was the beginnings of the Sicilian Mafia. They had formed the groups to protect themselves from the often-hostile invaders and then formed their own systems of justice and retribution which they carried out in secret.

By the 1800s when invasions started to slow, they had organized into big clans or families and started extorting the wealthy landowners for protection from invaders. Near the end of the 1800s, Sicily had become a part of Italy, but was still very lawless.

The government asked the clans and families to help with achieving order. The government had no idea just how adept at political corruption and intimidation these clans and families could be. To further their power, they started holding secret initiation ceremonies using Umirta, that required oaths of secrecy and loyalty and they continued to gain power until Mussolini came into power.

Mussolini led a war against the mafia in 1920s and until 1950, the mafia remained for the most part, in control. The mafia was limping by this time, but survivors hid and waited for an opening. With the advent of international narcotics trafficking, they found that opening and there was a resurgence in their power in 1970.

So how did the mafia end up in the U.S?

 There are signs of mafia presence in New Orleans as early as 1869 as immigration steadily rose, but it surged in prohibition days.

This mafia was not considered linked to the mafia in Italy, although only Italians were allowed membership.

Impoverished Italian immigrants banded together in New York and other big cities like Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Chicago in the 1920s during prohibition, and created a booming bootlegging business. They had seen how successful the mafia’s tactics in Italy had been and decided to set up their business using the same formula of secrecy, brute force, and intimidation.

By the 1950’s, they had branched out to prostitution and loan-sharking. They didn’t stop there. They also infiltrated the labor unions and legitimate industries such as construction and New York’s garment industry.

Secrecy reigned with the code of Omerta (Umirta in Italy) as well as their ability to bribe and intimidate public officials, business leaders, witnesses and juries. Their influence in courts and politics was immense.

They operated relatively untouched until 1970 with Rico and 1989 when tough anti-racketeering laws were used to convict top-ranking mobsters.

But what about the 21^st Century? Today? What influence do they continue to have, if any?

Next week I’ll go beyond the 20^th Century when the mafia was quite powerful. I’ll bring us right up to today. Maybe it will give you some insight into Kate’s story in the Code of Silence series.

If you haven’t jumped into the Code of Silence series yet, now’s the time. And if you love great clean suspense, you definitely won’t want to miss it. Click here to grab your copy of the un-put-downable book.