SICILY'S BANDITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23121, 20 August 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

SICILY'S BANDITS

A Notorious Secret Routed by Intre VISITORS to beautiful Sicily find it difficult to believe / that the island was a hotbed of gangsterdom and racketeering up to ten years ago. . , Yet if they consult Signor Francis M. Guercio s "Sicily: the Garden of the Mediterranean," published by Faber, they will find not only an erudite, well-written guide to all the natural attractions, the picturesque customs and traditions of the people, but a detailed account of the notorious mafia secret society and its recent suppression by Police Prefect Cesare Mori, with Mussolini's help.

THE mafia was a law unto itself, implicating almost everyone from parliamentary deputy and rich landowner to hill bandit and street-corner tough; it victimised, blackmailed, robbed, avenged, murdered, protected according to a code which reached its illogical limit m the American-Italian gangster; it was so feared that no one would give information to the police ; and, _lik e most of the world's worst iniquities both in peace and war, it was manrun to the rigid exclusion of women. Signor Gucrcio quotes a typical description of the common young mafiusu: — He wears his hat upon the left side, his'hair smoothed -with plentiful pomatum and one lock brushed down upon his forehead; lie walks with a swinging motion of the lnps, a cigar in his mouth, a heavy knotted stick in his hand, and he is frequently armed with a long knife or revolver. He stares disdainfully at every man he meets with the air of challenging each comer to speak to him if he dare. "Man of Honour" Add tlie wearing of gold or silver rings and the use of creaking shoes, Signor Guercio says, and you have the complete "man of honour." Mori set about his antiseptic job in earnest; he reorganised the police,

dishonoured by a few hundred male, factors." . Mori concentrated on the Madonie part of the Sicilian Apennines, a mafia stronghold where some 130 bandits operated from secret hiding-places near their houses, sallying out on armed raids and exacting levies from landowners. ' He encircled the wholp district, then closed in ou Gangi, the headquarters town, sequestered many cattle farms belonging to the banditti and theftr supporters, ordered them to come out of hiding and give themselves up within twelve hours, even occupied some of their houses and sold certain of their cattle in the open square at ludicrous, prices. Defeated at• Last The people of Gangi now began'' to laugh at these terrible bandits who, laden with rifles and cart- : ridges and renowned in the past for their prowess against the police, remained in their wcrrens like rabbits and could not even show fight when their own proi>erty was attacked ! ... One bv one they crept out of their holes and gave themselves up. greeted by the uproarious laughter of the police and the entire population of Gangi. Released at last from fear. the people furnished information, and over 200 arrests were made in the Caronie district alone. Signor Guercio adds that all the swaggering and swashbuckling which went into the mafia cult now f;oes into football and other sports where it is socially innocuous. ■

turned mafia nominees out of semiofficial posts, taught tho people to trust and rely on him instead of being intimidated bv touphs. "Five million hard-working patriotic Sicilians," said Mussolini, "must 110 longer be harassed, taxed, robbed or