Epic history of Italy’s mafia organisations

Blood Brotherhoods: by John Dickie published by PublicAffairs I am often asked, Why does Italy have the mafia, and why can’t the state get rid of it? This book goes a long way to answer both questions, showing how seismic shifts in Italy’s rickety administration allowed the mafia to slip into the gaps and exploit …

Finally, an antimafia priest. Reader, they shot him

Padre Pino Puglisi, or 3P as he styled himself for his young followers, was murdered with a bullet to the back of his head, twenty years ago, at the door of his parish church. Confronted by his killer in the street, he didn’t try to run. He responded simply: ‘I was expecting you.’ Don Puglisi …

The courage to rebel

Lea Garofalo has become one of the celebrated rebels against the ‘Ndrangheta. Tragically, during her short lifetime, no one celebrated her rebellion. The authorities found her information unusable and kicked her out of the witness protection programme. Her husband vowed to murder her for telling family secrets. Marika Demaria is a campaigning journalist on the …

Sleeping with the enemy

After her husband was shot dead by a rival mafia clan in Palmi, Concetta Managò went to make peace with his killer – and ended up moving in with him. This extraordinary story of love and revenge reveals the drama of women’s lives as they struggle to survive in the most dangerous part of Italy. …

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 woman who testified against her husband

For years, Carmela Iuculano played the dutiful wife to a boss in one of Sicily’s crime families. But after they were both arrested, Iuculano did the unthinkable: she testified against him. Clare Longrigg met her at a secret location in Italy, where she agreed to be interviewed – but was afraid to have her picture …