THE END OF THE MAFIA

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3444, 12 November 1932, Page 2

THE END OF THE MAFIA

HOW MUSSOLINI WIPED OUT A DREADED SOCIETY. It has been suggested that an Italian, Giovanni Garretto, who was murdered in his market garden at Werribee, Australia, was a victim of the Mafia, but it is doubtful if this infamous criminal society carries on its activities in the Commonwealth. In fact, owing to the vigorous measures adopted by Mussolini against the Mafia in Sicily, the island of its bii'th, it has practically ceased to operate even there, says the Melbourne "Age." The Mafia has been described as the most amazing secret society the world has ever known. It began as armed bodyguards maintained by Sicilian landowners for the protection of their lives and property in turbulent times. These bodyguards were officially disbanded early in the nineteenth century, but they survived and developed into a secret organisation. The Mafia instituted thoughout the island of Sicily an unofficial sort of home rule. Practically everybody in the island, from the lowest to the highest, belonged to it. It established its own police and secret service, and even created courts of law. It maintained order and severely repressed rival forms of delinquency. Its most active members were artisans, workmen, small tenant farmers, and peasants. They controlled all elections, sent a solid phalanx of deputies to Parliament, and controlled the local governing officials. With the establishment 'of organised government in a united Italy, the Mafia was driven underground, and became identified with crime, its activities covering murder, blackmail, brigandage, smuggling, cattle stealing, and the protection of criminals from the law. It falsified electoral rolls in order to secure the election of its chosen members to Parliament; when any of its members were brought to trial on serious crimes it produced numerous false witnesses to establish alibis; it secured the removal of incriminating documents from official files, it intimidated witnesses for the prosecution, and compelled them to retract sworn statements they had previously made; it compelled accusers to withdraw their accusations; it even provided applause in the theatres for actors and singers who paid in blackmail, and hissed the performance of those who refused to pay. When a murder was committed by the Mafia the friends of the victim as well as the friends of the assassin, conspired to mislead the

authorities. The friends of the victim were afraid to disclose what they knew, because disclosures would bring down on them the vengeance of the Mafia. "When the Mafia sentenced anybody to death, the most ingenious precautions were always taken," writes Mr. Herbert Vivian in his book, "Secret Societies." "The chosen executioner was always somebody far above suspicion. The dagger or revolver would be slipped into his hand at the last moment, and snatched away immediately after the deed was clone, and then passed from one to another with the nimbleness of professional conjurers. And if guilt could be brought home, no jury would ever condemn. Or if an adverse verdict was found it would be against some innocent person whom the Mafia wished to put out of the way." Many murders were committed openly, but the assassins were never captured. Spectators of such crimes dared not denounce the assassins or bear witness against them.

In recent years mutinies occurred within the ranks 'of the Mafia, and rival bands of brigands set up in business for themselves, and sometimes came into conflict with one another. The leader of one of these bands was a woman named Giuseppina Salvo, who had three villainous sons to assist her. She terrorised the neighbourhood, levying blackmail on all sides.' She appointed herself arbitrator in all disputes between peasants about bargains and land boundaries; she superintended cattle raids, and compelled the peasant girls in the villages to marry members of her band of brigands. Another leader of a band was Gaetano Farrarello, who was captured in February, 1926, after having lived by blackmail and brigandage for three years. The town of Gangi, in the province of Palermo, was the headquarters of several bands of brigands, including those of Giuseppina Salvo and Gaetano Ferrarello. It is built 3300 feet above the level of the sea on the slope of a mountain which stands by itself. All the houses have two entrances, one at the basement and the other through the roof leading to a road higher up the slope. There were numerous underground passages and tunnels in the mountain to provide the brigands with means of escape, and the houses were fitted with secret cupboards and cabinets, and with concealed rooms between the ceilings and the roofs.

Towards the end of 1925 Mussolini began the task 'of suppressing the Mafia. A force of a thousand men, with the aid of experienced guides, rounded up some of the bands, captured those who were

gathering taxes from the people on behalf of the Mafia, arrested the womenfolk of the bandits, took possession of their flocks and herds, and finally drove the bandits into Gangi for refuge. They surrounded the mountain and they lay siege to Gangi with armoured cars. Cesare Mori, the Prefect of Palermo, called upon the bandits to surrender within twelve hours, otherwise extreme measures would be taken by the besiegers. The bandits surrendered without a shot being fired. In another raid the soldiers captured over 300 members of the Mafia, whose crimes included 40 murders, 20 attempted murders, 160 thefts, and 80 cases of incendiarism. Among a batch of 147 prisoners whose trial concluded in January, 1928, seven were sentenced to imprisonment for life, with hard labour; eight to imprisonment for 30 years, five to terms varying from 20 to 25 years, 43 to terms between 10 and 20 years, and the remainder to imprisonment for four to ten years.