Fons et origo of the Italian Mafia

It is a beautiful country with beautiful art, magnificent architecture and a delicious cuisine, Italy, and the Italians that I have met have all been warm, friendly and kind, but it is, as you probably know, plagued by criminal gangs.

These gangs have influence in the highest levels of government and society and they corrupt whatever they touch in their ruthless pursuit of money and power.

These gangs are secret societies that are selective in membership and require would-be gangsters to swear oaths of allegiance and to go through initiations to serve in a hierarchical organization through which they can advance through grades and ranks. Criminals who join these gangs are expected to keep what they do and how they do it secret. These gangs often do not allow their members to leave alive: Once you are in, it is for life.

The Mafia of Italy is perhaps the most famous criminal gang.

Linguists think that the word Mafia comes from the adjective mafiusu in the Sicilian language which comes from the Arabic word mahyas which means “to boast” or “to brag.” Other scholars say it means “guts” or “bravado.” Mafiusu is usually translated as “to swagger” and used to refer to someone who is proud or arrogant.

Other scholars say that Sicilian men who wanted to be seen as tough guys started to call themselves Mafiosi after a popular play called I mafiusi di la Vicaria which means ‘The Mafiosi of Vicaria prison’ was performed in 1863 in the city of Palermo which is the capital city of Sicily. Another translation of I mafiusi di la Vicaria say it means “The Beautiful People of Vicaria,” but either way the story takes place among the gangs in a Palermo prison during the 1850's.

Mafiosi as a word began to be used by officials of the Kingdom of Italy to refer to organized criminals around the same time. This shows you the impact that popular culture can have.

Mafiusu as a word became even more popular in 1890 when an opera by the composer Pietro Mascagni called Cavalleria Rusticana which means “rustic chivalry” became very popular and featured proud swaggering men who were prickly about their honor because of their supposedly wild and romantic Saracen blood who were all called “Mafiosi.”

A more romantic story is that during the revolution of 1848 two Spanish soldiers raped and murdered and dumped the body of an innocent Sicilian girl in a church. When the mother of the girl saw her daughter’s body she ran out into the street and shouted:

“Ma fia! Ma fia!”

“Ma fia” means “my daughter.”

The mother of the girl supposedly went to the dons of the island who were rich and powerful men who saw to it that local disputes were resolved and she demanded justice. The dons had the two Spanish soldiers assassinated and then they supposedly used “Ma fia!” as their battle cry as they retook Sicily from the Spanish.

Gangsters also started to call themselves “men of honor” and this was first put in a police report of the prefect of Palermo in 1865.

Mafiosi claimed that they descend from a medieval brotherhood of caped avengers called the Beati Paoli. The Beati Paoli first appeared in a fictional tale by the Sicilian writer Vincenzo Linares which was published in 1836. The Beati Paoli was supposedly a mysterious brotherhood who met before a statue of the goddess Justice in a grotto under a church in piazza San Cosimo in Palermo during the 1600’s to judge and punish anyone who abused the weak and the innocent.

The Beati Paoli story was so popular that in 1873 authorities in Palermo renamed piazza San Cosimo to piazza Beati Paoli. Mafiosi held their own tribunals in a cellar just off piazza Beati Paoli which was said to be the headquarters of the Beati Paoli in the story making fiction become fact.

Mafiosi swore as late as the 1980s that the Mafia and the Beati Paoli were the same organization. Mafiosi did not refer to their organization as the Mafia, but as “La Cosa Nostra” which means “Our Thing” or “Our Affair.”

The three main Italian gangs all developed in the south of Italy. The south of Italy was known as the Kingdom of Two Sicilies before the unification of Italy and it was governed by the Spanish Bourbons. The gangs share a common origin story because they all developed under the rule of the Spanish Bourbons. The origin story begins with three Spanish knights: Osso, Mastrosso, and

Carcagnosso. In a slightly different version of the story gangsters of the ‘Ndrangheta gang claim one knight came from Spain, one knight came from Palermo, and one knight came from Naples.

Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso were supposedly part of a secret society in Toledo called the Garduña which translates to “marten” which is a small weasel-like creature that was hunted for its fur.

Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso supposedly murdered someone who had wronged their sister and then fled to Italy where they landed on the small island of Favignana off the western coast of Sicily in the year 1412. Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso stayed on Favignana for twenty-nine years where they kept out of sight in a network of caves while they worked on the social rules which would become the code of conduct of the criminal clans that would become the Mafia.

Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso left Favignana after twenty-nine years and Osso supposedly went to Sicily where he created the Cosa Nostra, Mastrosso traveled to Campania to create the Camorra, and Carcagnosso hotfooted it to Calabria to create the ‘Ndrangheta gang.

The ‘Ndrangheta say the three knights form a tree. The Spanish knight Carcagnosso is the trunk of the tree and the boss. The Palermo knight was the oldest and he was the masterbone, Mastrosso. The knight from Naples was the bone, Osso.

The other gang members are the branches and the leaves. Young men who aspired to become full members of the gang are the flowers.

The ‘Ndrangheta also claim that Osso represents Jesus Christ, Mastrosso represents Saint Michael the Archangel, and Carcagnosso represents Saint Peter.

Others associate Osso with Saint George, Mastrosso with the Virgin Mary and Carcagnosso with Saint Michael the Archangel or the Archangel Gabriel.

Gangsters may do the Devil’s work but the Devil’s work is dangerous work so they cling to the Catholic faith and occult practices to pray for protection and help from the divine.

This is similar to the Mexican and Hispanic gangsters in the United States of America who pray to “saints” like Jesús Malverde who is a mustached marauder whose mythological deeds are loosely based on the real-life exploits of a bandit from Sinaloa which is one of the thirty-one states of Mexico named Jesús Mazo. Mazo died in a hail of bullets but today he is fondly remembered as a modern-day Robin Hood, the legendary English outlaw who supposedly stole from the rich to give to the poor. Mazo became a symbol of defiance, honor, and bravery for the gangsters and he supposedly became an intercessor between the gangsters and the powers of life and death.

Death itself is personified as “Our Lady of the Holy Death” or Santa Muerte. Santa Muerte is the true patron saint of the Mexican gangsters. She is shown as a skeletal female figure as if the Madonna which is the Catholic version of Lady Mary the mother of Jesus, had too little to eat and starved to death. Gangsters make offerings and have sacrificed animals and even humans to Santa Muerte to curry her favor and they pray to her to protect them from harm. Santa Muerte might be a manifestation of the primordial goddess who has been worshiped in many forms for millennia like Isis and Hecate although some occult practitioners have pointed out to me that Isis and Hecate are not the same. Hecate supposedly has a much darker energy and presence than Isis. But does it get darker than Lady Death? I doubt it.

The Catholic Church does not sanction the veneration of Jesús Malverde or Santa Muerte.

The story of Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso may not be true but it contains strong symbols. The fact that the three men in the story are knights emphasizes that the gangs have noble origins. The Spanish origins of the three knights allude to the Spanish Bourbons and the themes of revenge, killing, honor, family, secrecy, and rules all resonate with the mobsters. There was an infamous penitentiary on the island of Favignana which would not be lost on the lawbreakers. Does it point to a true origin in prison? Does it mean that the three knights spent twenty-nine years in prison? Since the three knights are each associated with a saint the story mixes the sacred and the profane and encourages the gang members to look for strength and protections from the Catholic faith and its holy saints.

The story of Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso contain everything a good gang member should aspire to be so gang members are forced to memorize this myth as part of their initiation into the secret society of crooks.

Yet another theory of how the Sicilian Mafia developed was that since the Bourbons neglected the governance of society in Sicily in nineteenth-century it forced ordinary people to turn to powerful men, the men of means, the dons, to arbitrate disputes and dispense justice. Soon these dons became a parallel government but they became corrupt and started to abuse their power. Sicily was famous for its orange groves and some of Sicily’s powerful landowners hired young men and armed them with shotguns to protect their oranges. Some of these powerful landowners started to use these young men armed with shotguns to flaunt the law and steal and extort tributes from the poor peasants.

The poor peasants rose up in revolt and the landlords used their young henchmen to intimidate the peasants. The peasants formed their own secret societies to protect themselves and to exact revenge. The Mafia supposedly emerged from this mess when either the young men with shotguns kept doing the bidding of the powerful dons or turned on the dons and started to extort money for themselves or when the peasant organizations turned criminal to take revenge on the dons.

Others say the Mafia was created when the Italian revolutionaries recruited some of those young men armed with shotguns to help them in the fight to unite Italy. The French Revolution inspired idealistic Italians to dream about creating a constitutional and democratic government and to unify Italy into one nation. Those revolutionaries supposedly taught the young men with shotguns how to organize themselves like the Freemasons.

The Mafia organized themselves along clan or family lines and created a governing body called the “Cupola” which met in Palermo. Palermo’s families were the most powerful.

The truth of where the gangs came from is probably much more sordid. The gangs seem to have seeped out of prison. The Bourbons were pretty lax in how they governed the south of Italy and prisons were ruled by gangs which suited the King’s men just fine.

Duke Sigismondo Castromediano was one of those dreamers who wanted to unite Italy and he took part in the revolts of 1848–49 but they failed. Duke Castromediano was thrown into jail where he came face to face with the gangsters that ran the prisons, the camorristi. The cammorristi were common criminals of the worst kind who were found in jails across the southern part of Italy and they called themselves the Society or the Honored Society.

Duke Castromediano hated them. He called them:

‘the spawn of hell’

and

‘one of the most immoral and disastrous sects that human infamy has ever invented.’

Duke Castromediano had good reasons to think so.

The camorristi extracted payment for almost anything the prisoners did. Prisoners had to pay a tax to supposedly keep a lamp burning in front of a small altar to the Virgin Mary.

The prisoners had to pay a tax to eat, to dress, and even to sleep. The prisoners had to rent the piece of ground where they slept. This sleeping place was called a pizzo and today pizzo means a bribe or payment for protection.

The prisoners who did not want to pay the pizzo were insulted, beaten up, slashed with a razor and sometimes even murdered.

The prisoners who complained to authorities outside the prison were said to commit treason and they were duly punished by the camorristi. Duke Castromediano met a brave man who wrote to the government to complain about the corruption and for his efforts the camorristi forced his hands into boiling water.

The camorristi had a saying;

‘Facimmo caccia’ l’oro de’ piducchie’ which means:

‘We extract gold from fleas.’

The camorristi also had guards on the payroll which allowed the gangsters to extort the other prisoners and charge them extra for favors like wearing their own clothes, sleeping in a separate cell, eating better food, getting medicine, writing letters, finding and reading books, and using candles, everything which was available for a price.

The camorristi controlled what goods came in and out of the prison. The camorristi business model consisted of extortion and contraband commerce. When the camorristi branched out to the outside world they followed the same model and they still do so today.

The camorristi created a kind of shadow state, administering the prison, extracting ‘taxation’ and dealing out “justice.”

The camorristi did not just extort and abuse the noblemen who found themselves in their ambit but also learned from them. Many of the noblemen were members of the Freemason. The camorristi adopted Masonic-style rituals and organized themselves along similar lines to the Freemasons. The camorristi referred to local chapters or gangs as “lodges.”

Initiates usually had to murder someone before they were accepted into the gang.

In the 1850s the Camorra gang of Naples made initiates swear an oath of loyalty over crossed knives and then made them take part in a dagger fight with a gang member or another initiate. The camorristi wrapped the blade of the dagger in rags or string to leave only the tip of the weapon exposed. As soon as one of the gangsters drew blood from his opponent the camorristi stopped the fight and embraced the initiate as a new member of the criminal society.

The ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, which is the region that forms the “toe” of the boot-shaped southern peninsula of Italy, also dueled with knives just like the Camorra and just like the Camorra they divided their gangs into a “Minor Society” and a “Major Society” with the lower ranks filled by “Honored Youths” called picciotti which translates as “boys” who aspired to become part of the inner group of senior camorristi.

The Sicilian Mafia had a slightly different initiation. There are slight variations of their initiation ritual but it generally went like this:

Three “men of honor” who were full members of the gang usually brought the initiate to a dark, candle-lit room where the don of the family sat in silence.

On the table there was usually a knife and a gun to represent the deadly tools of the Mafioso’s trade. There might also be a photo of the founder of the family and perhaps even a skull as well as a picture of a saint.

The oldest “man of honor” would remind the initiate that they are bringing him into the family to protect the weak from the strong.

(I call “bullshit!”)

The oldest “man of honor” or the don would cut the finger or the lip of the initiate and let his blood drip on the card of the saint. The ceremony is called Punciuto which comes from the verb “to prick” and it refers to this practice of pricking the initiate to extract his blood.

The initiate then smears the card with his blood and sets it on fire. The initiate passes the burning card from hand to hand until it turns into ashes. While he does so or when it is done, he swears:

“May my flesh burn like this saint if I fail to keep my oath.”

The oath of the initiate refers to the oath of loyalty and the oath of Omertà, which is a promise to never betray the secrets of the criminal sect. The initiate knows that if he breaks his oath it is as good as a death sentence.

The Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta would punish their members for lesser transgressions by smearing the culprit in urine and faeces which is a punishment they call tartaro which refers to Tartarus which is the deepest place and the darkest abyss in the world, even deeper than the underworld in Greek Mythology and a place of punishment, despair and decay or “Hell.”

The senior “men of honor” would kiss the new member on both his cheeks and welcome him into “the family.” That seals the deal. The initiate has made a pact with “the devil” and sold his soul to the sect.

Some scholars thought that the differences between the gangs point to different origins but all three of the main confraternities of crime claim that they are part of the ‘Honored Society.’ ‘Ndrangheta even means “The Honored Society” and its members are known as ’ndrinu. All three gangs also teach new initiates the myth of Osso, Mastrosso, and Carcagnosso.

The Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta both made money from prostitution and gambling and both groups slashed their victims’ faces with razors. The Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta members both blew their booty on booze and lavish feasts. The Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta members liked to dress in good quality and flashy clothes like flared trousers and they doused themselves in bling like gold watches, gold chains, gold earrings and chunky gold finger rings while Sicilians preferred a more conservative look in plush black clothes.

All three gangs shared the same jargon to try to conceal what they are talking about. All of this is a sign that these three gangs came from the same prison system.

These three gangs are not the only gangs plaguing the “Bel Paese” which is another name for Italy and means “The Beautiful Country” which is an apt description as anyone who has ever been lucky enough to visit Italy knows.

The Sacra Corona Unita which translates as the United Sacred Crown is a newer gang that operates from Apulia which is the region that forms the “heel” of the boot-shaped southern peninsula of the Italian mainland. The Sacra Corona Unita seems to have their strongest bases in the cities of Brindisi and Lecce and they seems to make most of their money by smuggling people, cigarettes, drugs and arms into Italy.

The Stidda is another new gang that rose up in the southeast of Italy. The Sicilian Mafia clans fought a vicious war against each other for supremacy between 1981 and 1984 when the Corleonesi clan led by a vicious man named Salvatore Riina tried to exterminate the rest. The Corleonesi clan also waged war against the policemen and magistrates and judges who represented the state at the same time. There was a saying in Sicily that cops, magistrates, and judges were either on the Mafia payroll or in their gun sights. This soon changed to either on their payroll or dead. Riina and his henchmen were so successful that many “men of honor” fled from the mayhem and became members of the Stidda. The Corleonesi even turned on their allies when they were no longer needed and also waged war on the Stidda, killing more than a thousand of them. Stidda means “star” in the Sicilian language and members who are known as the stiddari have a tattoo of five green marks in a circle that look like a star. The star is the symbol of their creed which is i punti della malavita, which means “the points of the criminal life.” The Stidda is sometimes called “the Fifth Mafia” because of this five-pointed symbol.

The Mala del Brenta is yet another gang. They are also called la Mafia del Brenta or Malavita del Brenta and they operate out of Venice but they also originally came from the south of Italy.

Gangsters are not a southern Italian problem caused by southern Italians in the south of Italy alone. I write as someone who fell in love with a Sicilian girl and followed her there, only to fall in love with Sicily herself. Sicily is still my favorite place in the world for its beauty, its weather and its wonderful food. All the people I met there were friendly, warm, and welcoming.

I wanted to write a post about the origins of the Mafia and their relationship with Freemasonry and also the state which can be complex at times, but I realize that this is enough for now and I will write the rest soon.

There is a lot more to say. Some people think that organized criminal groups step in to form a sort of alternative government when the state is weak but organized crime seems to flourish in even the most powerful states. The Italian gangs clearly learned a lot from the Freemasons and as you will see the Freemasons sometimes used the gangs to do their dirty work. The Masonic lodge known as Propaganda Due even became a meeting place for a group that acted as a shadow government. At times governments persecute the gangsters but when it suits their purposes they use the gangsters to do their dirty work. Some government agencies like the American Central Intelligence Agency have even acted like an organized criminal gang by taking part in the drug trade.

I initially wanted to do my Master’s thesis on organized crime so I read a lot about the gangs and recent events have rekindled my interest. Despite all the glamour the girls and the gelt the gangsters have to constantly worry about the police, other gangs and even members in their own gang who might want to replace them. Despite all their “success” they will never have inner peace. Despite all their swagger and fancy cars and fancy bikes and fancy clothes and bling the gangsters must know deep down in their heart of hearts that they are parasites who prey on those people who are productive and try to lead an honest and good life. You could argue that the gangsters provide goods at a cheaper price for consumers because they cut out the tax on products like cigarettes but mostly they destroy lives by providing drugs and they prey on the weak by forcing women into prostitution and on the whole they are a menace.

But…

Are the gangsters and their extortion really that different from the doctor in my hometown who tells his patients that they must buy their medicine from him instead of from the pharmacist because they will get sick again and if they don’t he won’t treat them?

Are the gangsters and their skimming really that different from the army drill instructor who came into the bungalow every morning and passed around a little book into which he expected the recruits to give him a little “tip?”

Are the gangsters and their skimming really that different from the two bosses I have worked for who both proclaimed to be Christians, one praying piously before every meal while the other one had a picture of Jesus hanging from the cross as his screensaver on his cell phone while they kept money from their employees, paying them late, letting the funds fester in their own bank accounts so that they can skim the additional interest while forcing their employees to scramble for money to pay their own bills? One even supposedly “kept the money safe so that if people leave they can pay them an extra month’s pay to tie them over until they find new employment.” Sometimes the employees were and probably still are not paid the right amount and on time like you would expect from a decent workplace. Sometimes employees had to beg for the money they earned.

Are the gangsters and their scheming really that different from the so-called security company that sends its employees to break into the houses they are paid to protect so that they can be sure there will be a demand for their services?

Are the gangsters and their scheming really that different from the so-called security guards that shoot the rhinos they are paid to protect just so that they can collect the additional money for smuggling the horn along with their pay?

Are the gangsters and their scheming really that different from the government that forces its citizens that it is paid to protect to take an unproven vaccine while limiting their ability to travel and earn a living if they don’t?

Did they make us an offer we could not refuse?

Are the gangsters and their scheming really that different from the government that over-taxes its citizens? With its system of compulsory taxes a government can turn into the ultimate extortion racket. If criminals take control of the government they can do that extortion “legally.” Isn’t that what socialism it?

My point is that sometimes we cannot trust and look for decency and just treatment from our own kith and king, our fellow citizens, nor even from our doctors, “big men,” or even the government. All of this is why I argue for limited government. Not lax government, but limited government.

So where can we look for help?

I would argue for God, the Bible and the Christian faith — particularly the Protestant type. You know, the God that commands:

“Thou shalt not kill” which can be better translated as “Thou shalt not murder.”

“Thou shalt not steal.”

The God that says:

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

That is of course much easier said than done.

This is the best information I could find on the origins of the Italian gangs but if you know more or you know better you should please let me know. I am fascinated by them. I hope you find it fascinating too.

If you like what you just read, please follow me on Medium and share this with your friends. If you did not, I thank you for reading this far and I hope you will like my next post.

Thank you.

Bibliography

Axelrod, A. (2010). The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the New World Order. New York: Alpha

Dickie, J. (2014). Blood Brotherhoods. New York: Public Affairs

Hodapp, C. & Von Kannon, A. (2008). Conspiracy Theories & Secret Societies for Dummies. Hoboken: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Serenata, N. (2014). The ‘Ndrangheta and Sacra Corona Unita. Auburn: Springer

Spence, R.B. (2019). The Real History of Secret Societies. Chantilly: The Teaching Company

Spence R.B. (2022). Secrets of the Occult. Chantilly: The Teaching Company

Valentine, D. (2017). CIA as Organized Crime. Atlanta: Clarity Press, Inc.

Williams, P.L. (2015). Operation Gladio. New York: Prometheus Books