Paranoid padrino: inside the mind of the mafia

They are obsessed with secrecy and symbolism, arcane codes and structures, they have messianic tendencies and are prone to extreme violence. Clare Longrigg asked psychiatrist Corrado De Rosa, don’t you need to be a bit mad to be a Mafioso? ‘Ask Giovanni Brusca what he was thinking when he pressed the button to blow up …

Faking it: madness and the mafia

The mafia uses madness both as a get out of jail card, and to discredit their enemies. Psychiatrist Corrado de Rosa has studied several cases for his book, Mafia da Legare (Mafia Fit To Be Tied), and notes that a smart boss can make capital from looking a fool. In March 2012, prison guards watched …

Why mafiosi make good neighbours

Whatever Domenico Rancadore may have done in his career in organised crime, his neighbours in suburban London considered him an exemplary chap. He wore good suits, after all, so he must have a job. And he drove such a variety of high performance cars, they thought he might be a chauffeur. The only person living …

Going on holiday in southern Italy?

Here’s how to avoid supporting the mafia with your holiday cash. If you’re travelling to southern Italy this summer, you might occasionally wonder whether the bar where you’re enjoying your apero is owned by the local boss. Now you can make sure that your holiday budget doesn’t got straight into the mafia’s pocket. Five years …

My Dearest Love: letters from the boss

After they’d been hunting him for 43 years, his wife's letters led the police to the rustic hiding place of mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano. A bemused police observer had watched a farmer fix up a TV ariel on the roof of a disused outbuilding. Then a surveillance camera had picked up the image of an …

The devil’s lawyer

Criminal defence superstar Rosalba Di Gregorio is a well-known figure in Sicily’s legal circles – and the subject of much salacious gossip. An attractive blue-eyed woman representing members of a staunchly male organisation inevitably exerts a peculiar fascination and she is not shy of drawing attention to herself. She’s nearly 60, though looks and dresses …

The journalist challenging the mafia’s ‘normality’

Sicilian journalist Lirio Abbate, 42, has been threatened more than once for his investigations into the mafia. He has also received warnings for founding the very successful antimafia literary festival in Lamezia Terme, Calabria, where we meet on a hot June afternoon. Most people who have been threatened by the mafia normally back down. But …