La Cosa Nostra
Mafia is the consciousness of one's own worth, the exaggerated concept of individual force as the sole arbiter of every conflict, of every clash of interests or ideas.
No one involved in "This thing of ours" or la cosa nostra calls it the Sicilian mafia or its members Mafiosi according to those that ratted out the families to the authorities. The members and associates are "running the streets" or "men of honor" doing work assigned by those above them in the family. Mafiosi of equal status in the organization often call each other "compare" or comrade in Italian, and inferiors call their superiors "Padrino" or Godfather. Organizing their clans by "families" is unique to the Sicilian mafia, and one's family membership has a higher authority than territory but each family's territory inside the same city or region must be respected.
Structure
According to Italian law, associazione di tipo mafioso (Mafia-type association) is described as one where:
those belonging to the association exploit the potential for intimidation which their membership gives them, and the compliance and omertà which membership entails and which lead to the committing of crimes, the direct or indirect assumption of management or control of financial activities, concessions, permissions, enterprises and public services for the purpose of deriving profit or wrongful advantages for themselves or others
The actual structure of any family can vary depending on its size and operations, but the concepts are generally the same. Even though the Sicilian mafia is organized into families, they are not often composed entirely of blood relatives. The term is used to suggest the intimacy and bond of the members to one another. Each family is led by a capofamiglia or rappresentante, also known as the boss in the United States, that's voted into power by the rest of the family. Each boss is aided by an underboss, or a capo bastone or sotto capo, and one or more advisors generally known as consiglieri. The underboss then oversees several caporegimes, capodecina, or capo that the family determines is necessary to conduct business who then oversee the family's decina.
Elections for the family's boss generally happen yearly, although violent successions are not unheard of and a boss can be deposed sooner for misconduct or incompetence. A consigliere is also elected annually but must be impartial in all affairs, devoid of conflict of interest and personal ambition. The consigliere ensures the boss and family members conduct themselves as expected, particularly in financial matters, and serves as an impartial adviser and mediator in internal disputes. The underboss is second-in-command to the boss who will take over if the boss is sick, killed, or imprisoned. This position is often chosen from the boss' biological family, such as a son or brother, so the boss feels confident that his underboss is someone he can trust implicitly.
True membership in la cosa nostra is fairly rare, but associates of the mafia are considered to be a part of the business. A candidate for membership can't be a relative of or have close links to law enforcement or a judge, and is almost always of entirely Italian descent. There's no strict age limit for membership, and each candidate is usually required to complete a hit on behalf of the family even if the work he will be doing won't involve murder regularly. The act of murder is generally used to prove the candidate's sincerity and bind him to omertà. If the new member ever breaks his oath, then he will be at risk of facing murder charges.
As a side note, masculine pronouns are used in this article because membership is generally reserved for men although that rule has become more flexible in the modern era. Women have a history of taking over responsibilities for a sick or imprisoned husband, and some have been initiated.
Decina
Decinas are generally formed by a group of 10 soldiers, or soldati, operai, and picciotti that serve under a capo. Soldiers are the first rank one achieves as an infamous "made man" after completing their initiation and taking the oath of omertà. They are recruited from associates who have proven their abilities and loyalty. Soldiers are likely the only men of honor that anyone outside organized crime will ever knowingly meet. The boss sends orders down the hierarchy that get funneled through the underboss to the capos and then to the soldiers to complete the family's tasks. Soldiers are often assigned to commit acts of intimidation, threats, violence, money collection, robbery, and homicide. The primary job of the soldier is to make money, take their cut, and then pass along the rest to enrich the family.
Associates
A family's associates are non-members and outsiders that do business with the family. They can be street criminals auditioning to become made men. They can be legitimate businesses paying for protection services or laundering money on behalf of the family. They can be law enforcement, judges, politicians, or other public figures on the payroll. They can also be other criminal enterprises that pay tribute or provide services for the family or both. Associates have not taken the oath of omertà, but they are considered to be fair game on the streets when it comes to violence when they overstep their bounds. This includes typically off-limits figures like police officers, judges, and politicians because they have crossed the line.
Culture
La cosa nostra came about as the result of the tumultuous political history of the island of Sicily. The long history of naval conquest in the Mediterranean saw the claim of Sicily change hands repeatedly, but resources weren't heavily invested into governing the people there. Sicily was largely seen as a port for resupply and refueling before moving on to the next port or battle. This lack of political stability and local policing, as well as the constant sacking for the island's resources, resulted in a rise of what would normally be considered criminal behavior, in places with laws, and a general distrust for authority. Men of honor began to develop the attitudes and norms of the Mafiosi, who differentiated themselves from the common scoundrels by protecting the businesses and residents in their territory while managing criminal activity. The Mafiosi weren't vigilantes fighting crime as much as they were guarantors of trust for criminals whose authority was based on a willingness to be violent, and this mafia way of being was what precipitated the Sicilian mafia.
In a culture of scarcity and lawlessness, greed becomes a powerful motivation to expand your territory and income. That means you will eventually encroach on another man's territory. However, the Mafiosi mindset had already figured out that cooperation is better than conflict, therefore not all of those encroachments ended with a man dead. If the 2 mafiosi could come together respectfully and negotiate in good faith, the encroaching man might give back what he had taken with a little extra. They might merge their territories to increase their profits and power if they find that they are of like mind. This was likely how the Sicilian "families" formed across the island, these business-minded men of honor partnering together and attracting more members until they had built a complex enterprise. And the security of these enterprises requires mutual trust, integrity, and secrecy.
Omertà
For someone on the street, silence, and secrecy is the first and most important rule. Keeping your mouth shut and business under the table prevents a man of honor from betraying his comrades to the authorities by accident or for his benefit. Endangering la cosa nostra by violating omertà is punished by death and it may also mean that the traitor's family might also be killed if the family doesn't feel that they can be trusted to keep business on the street. Usually, a man's family is entirely off-limits, and his wife must be respected, but omertà comes before the other commandments. Mafiosi are discouraged from consuming alcohol or other drugs as well because a man is more likely to say things he normally wouldn't when he's in an inebriated state. Capos generally look for men with clean habits, a good memory, and more terse and subdued than your average Sicilian. Just as a mafiosi is expected to be careful with his words, and his consumption he isn't allowed to write down family business for any reason. Every written note is evidence when law enforcement inevitably breaks down the door.
Associates are also supposed to follow omertà to a certain degree. Anyone who does business with a family is expected to be discreet. Civilians and businesses purchasing protection shouldn't announce they have done so. Public figures taking money in exchange for services shouldn't be flashy with their new wealth. Drawing attention to la cosa nostra of any kind usually attracts the eyes of law enforcement and endangers this thing of ours.
Public Agenda
The actual agenda of the Sicilian mafia is difficult to determine because of omertà and because it's not a monolith. Each family is an independent organization with their own agenda even if they all share many similarities with the other families. Everyone involved in la cosa nostra is concerned with keeping business from getting so out of control that the family's territory falls apart while maximizing everyone’s profits. Anyone operating in a family's territory is expected to pay a percentage to the family and get approval for any major jobs. Outside of that, things can vary quite a bit. Some families embrace the narcotics trade because of the massive profits, while other families forbid any illicit drugs, including just using, inside their territory because of how detrimental addiction can be, for example. Men of honor generally talk about business because they don't differentiate between criminal business and legal business. Most mob activity in legal business is with labor unions, though some families dabble in corporate affairs. Contrary to popular belief, the mafia are pretty happy when one of their legitimate businesses is legalized because that reduces the risk of legal troubles and allows the families to do business commercially. The legalization of gambling, pornography, and alcohol saw many savvy families reaching a new level of wealth.
If you ask law enforcement, the police and the feds, they will probably tell you that the mafia's agenda is to commit crimes, take what doesn't belong to them, and get away with it. The perception of the Sicilian mafia is that it is something of a monolith or at least some organized criminal council inside a city or region. What law enforcement agents see is the criminal activities that the men on the street get into and that's what they believe is the totality of the mob's agenda. Some of those perceptions change when a police officer or a fed goes on the take, but that is still the image they present to be discreet about their relationship with this thing of ours. Men of honor generally see law enforcement as another family or gang whose job is to catch criminals. Unless that police officer or fed is on the take, they are not to be killed without every concerned family in the area agreeing. Just like when the murder of a made man becomes an ongoing concern. Part of the mafioso's job is to keep their nose clean and stay smart enough that he doesn't get caught for anything they can prove that he has done, after that, the family will get him the right representation.
The people who live in a family's territory have a mixed view of their agenda. The gangsters are criminals. They kill people. They rob people. They commit crimes. At the same time, they keep out other criminals. If someone has a problem and can't go to the police or the police aren't doing anything, they can take it to the local family and they will usually take care of it. There is always a price for solving problems, but the men on the street will provide that service. The families generally exert control over Sicilian neighborhoods in the United States and any operation of high value inside their territory. To put it another way, you might not see the overt presence of the mafia in a historically black or LatinX neighborhood unless they have a major warehouse or port nearby. The people in Sicilian neighborhoods know the culture as their heritage, and they know the Mafiosi want to make money and the services they provide in exchange for that money. The business owners and managers can be problematic if they're not Sicilian operating inside these areas. Men of honor usually see the people inside their neighborhoods as something akin to children or other relatives who need care. They believe they keep everyone's needs balanced to keep the neighborhood clean and safe.
History
Medieval Times
The first version of la cosa nostra arose next to a strange cult sometime in the 13th Century with the original intention of funding the cult's activities. The first families were Sicilian nobles who were promised to retain their lands despite the island shifting under the control of invading nations consistently through the next centuries. The members of the cult also made promises - promises of supernatural power and immortality through selling their souls to otherworldly beings. These promises turned out to be nothing but lies and most of the cult found themselves banished to the underworld. Only the Nefaria family maintained their prominence and wealth through their criminal activities by maintaining their secrecy and ruthlessness in the face of an uncertain political environment around them. The Nefaria family would go on to become the model for the next incarnations of the Sicilian crime families, which would eventually become an international phenomenon.
The Industrial Revolution
As Italy transitioned from feudalism to capitalism, and the mainland unified then annexed Sicily, family succession of wealth and title to the eldest son was ended and 15% of a lord's lands had to be transferred to private citizens. Sicily in particular saw a large share of public and church lands redistributed to private citizens, but there was once again a serious lack of police presence to control banditry, robbery, and other criminal activity. The Nefaria family transitioned fairly easily into this new environment and used their established practices to create a model for the future Sicilian mafia while other noble families left. Other mafiosi began banding together forming their own families and claiming territories. Conflicts happened early on before the families agreed to form the first commission, commissione or cupola in Italian, to provide a non-violent means to settle disputes and promote cooperation between families. By the mid-19th Century, a sect of thieves composed of cattle thieves, smugglers, wealthy farmers, and their guards is noted to be operating throughout Sicily by the Palermo National Guard. The commandments, omertà, the Mafiosi initiation ritual, and the term Mafia came into use by the turn of the century, and Italian troops attempted to break la cosa nostra which was largely a failure.
Within a decade, reports of the fledgling Mafia in the United States hit the New Orleans Times as 7 Sicilian immigrants formed a new family there. They had fled Sicily after murdering 11 wealthy landowners, the chancellor, and a vice-chancellor of a Sicilian province. They arrived in New York then they moved to New Orleans where they began their extortion operations. More Italian immigrants began arriving in New York as the years went by, and anti-Italian sentiment began to build in American politics. A group of gangs calling themselves "The Black Hand" were running small-time extortion rings throughout the Italian neighborhoods and they were originally mistaken for La Cosa Nostra. At the turn of the century, Paul Kelly formed the Five Points Gang became the first real Italian mob, and had members like Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Frankie Yale. The Five Points Gang had notable disputes with the Jewish Eastmans in the same area. Another influential Mafia came up in East Harlem, and the Neapolitan Camorra was active in Brooklyn. Chicago also saw the rise of the Bloody Nineteenth of their violent reputation in the 19th Ward of the windy city. The end of the 19th Century in America marked the first major incident of alleged mob violence when a New Orleans Police Superintendent was executed and Italian immigrants were accused. Hundreds of Sicilians were arrested on mostly baseless charges, with 19 eventually indicted for the murder and all 19 were acquitted. Rumors of bribes and intimidation swirled around the city, and outraged citizens organized a lynch mob and proceeded to kill 11 of the 19 acquitted defendants.
After the turn of the century, as the rise of the Partito Nazionale Fascista began to rise in Italy, immigrants became refugees making their way to the United States and other places. This included Sicilian refugees with Mafiosi among them. This began the building of La Cosa Nostra in the United States even as Mussolini took power back in Italy and began a campaign to destroy the mafia and assert Fascist control over Sicilian life after the Mafia humiliated him on his first visit to the island. The fascists boasted that they destroyed La Cosa Nostra with thousands of arrests and 1,200 imprisoned. The loss of Mafia influence caused a sharp decline in Sicily's murder rates, but landowners raised their legal rents sometimes as much as 10,000 fold and other types of crime exploded. Most of the charges of the Mafia association were levied against poor peasants and farm leaseholders, not against the major landowners and wealthy citizens. Major public figures with Mafia ties were also tried for the show of it. This thing of ours was not eliminated, of course, just suppressed amid conflict with an authoritarian government.
In Prohibition-era America, la cosa nostra found a new opportunity for profit in bootlegging, alcohol smuggling, and speakeasies. A who's who of the Sicilian crime families from all of the major power centers in the United States began using the coasts of Rhode Island to bring in sugar, rum, beer, and wine from Canada, the Bahamas, and Cuba. Before Prohibition and into the early years of bootlegging, the families worked in coordination, sometimes even in partnership, with other organized crime syndicates. Irish mobs rose in power during this era as well as the anti-immigrant sentiment moved from Italian stereotypes to Irish stereotypes. The peaceful coexistence ended when the bootlegging markets were saturated. In New York, the Mafia eliminated the Irish-American "White Hand Gang." In Chicago, Al Capone dominated the bootlegging industry and massacred the Irish-American "North-Side Gang". By the end of Prohibition, New York City and Gotham City were divided up among 5 families each, The Chicago Outfit led by Capone Paragon City in Rhode Island was the first free zone that no family could claim control over so that alcohol imports could flow freely, and the Luciano family was in firm control of Detroit, Michigan. Al Capone was famously convicted of 5 counts of tax evasion and imprisoned for 11 years, but the Mafia continued after him and even after the end of Prohibition.
World War II
In the United States, the years of big business had come to an end as new players moved onto the streets of American cities. These new players weren't men of honor looking to conduct business or even thugs who could provide tribute for the license to operate in territories. No, they carried names like Hydra and the 5th Column and were pushing into German immigrant neighborhoods. The relationship between la cosa nostra and the American government changed, and complicated future prosecution, because the men on the street fed intelligence to the feds on Nazi propagandists, spies, and provocateurs. Men of honor were the first to learn about the operations of the Red Skull in New York City, and that began the long-time rivalry between Johann Schmidt and "Captain America" Steve Rogers. The families worked with Paragon City police to stop 5th Column operatives under the Nazi commander Requiem from sabotaging supply shipments leaving Independence Port for European Allies. On the day of Pearl Harbour, the 5th Column launched a major operation to take hold of all of Paragon City that failed thanks to the hero Atlas who gave his life to hold the Nazis to Independence Port until the Freedom Phalanx could respond. The revelations from these conflicts between Nazi agents and Mafiosi led to the Liberty League bringing down a ring of Nazi spies in Connecticut on their first mission.
After Allied troops cleared Arachnos and il Fascismo forces were pushed out of Northern Africa, American forces invaded Sicily which ended up causing the fall of Mussolini's regime in Italy. Many inmates escaped from prison, banditry returned, and the black market thrived as crime soared in the political vacuum. Partisan politics was banned because of the fears that fascists had infiltrated all parts of the system, and mayors were deposed for their loyalty to Mussolini. The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories appointed people to normally elected offices and most of those appointments were Mafiosi. AMGOT was unaware of this, however. The families stabilized the situation quickly because of their familiarity with local culture, they took care of many of the criminals who were out of control, and the rest of them were taken in as associates. The anti-communist and anti-fascist sentiment among these men of honor made them the perfect partners for Western allies and they secured Allied vessels at port for the rest of the war.
Cold War Era
After the war, the landscape for this thing of ours shifted heavily. The eradication of European fascism led to a battle between Western capitalism and Eastern communism, with socialist politicians winning office in many positions of the new Italian government. The most notable was a communist Minister of Agriculture who pushed for peasants to get larger shares of produce and form cooperatives so that they could take control of badly used land from the leaseholder system. A notorious bandit with possible Mafia backing killed 11 people and wounded 33 during the Portella della Ginestra massacre. This attack failed to stop the reforms and many landowners sold their land to mafiosi, who offered more money than the government. Officials in the local government took control of Palermo's Office of Public Works and used their position in the rebuilding of the city after the war to funnel money and contracts to associates of the local family. Much of the new construction was done illegally, tore down historic sites to put up apartment complexes, and future inspections showed that they weren't up to standard. Crackdowns on narcotics smuggling in the United States and Cuba led to major disruptions in la cosa nostra's network. Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba was the biggest hit because it closed the largest hub of heroin smuggling in the Western Hemisphere. American Boss Joseph Bonanno had to flee the U.S. after the raid at the Apalachin Meeting, and he returned to Sicily where he established a Sicilian Mafia Commission to once again re-establish disputes.
Las Vegas, Nevada was the next city in North America that became a free territory to all families after the war because of the profitability of gambling and a desire to prevent violence in an area with so much emerging business. The second free territory of Paragon City had been a major target by the Freedom Phalanx shortly before the war, and then the conflict picked up again after the war and after the Phalanx prevented the Nemesis gas attacks. Before the end of the 1950s, a commission was put together to break up territory in Paragon City and rebuild la cosa nostra's presence. Most families staked their clams in Independence Port and Steel Canyon, just a few took to the ports of Striga Isle, and the Marcone family went to Port Oakes in the Rogue Isles. Back in Las Vegas, the territory was based solely on deeds and the casino owners were to be respected. Mafia-run casinos were built with loans from union pensions that were provided by the unions that were associated with the families, largely the Teamsters and the Longshoremen. Under the direction of Boss Stefano Mandragora in Sicily, the 5 Families of Gotham ended their longstanding rivalries and battles for territories to form the Gotham Mafia Commission where Giuseppe Bertinelli was named capi di tutti capi or the Boss of Bosses. Giuseppe ruled until 1949 when he retired and passed his family and his position atop the commission. The use of nepotism to pass leadership from father to son created contention among the other 4 families. The presence of the Falcone and Maroni family syndicates who were supported by mainland syndicates meant, however, that accepting the commission as it was was better than the alternative. The relationship between the American government and la cosa nostra became a very complicated thing at this time because many elected and appointed officials were veterans of World War II and had worked with the mob in wartime. Yet, the families did constitute a "sinister criminal organization" that operated inside the nation. Men of honor were subpoenaed by Congress but few testified and none offered any useful information as they continued to honor the oath of omertà. New York State Police eventually found evidence of a meeting among major figures in La Cosa Nostra in Apalachin, New York dubbed the "Appalachin Meeting." State police arrested several most of the attendees and this forced the FBI to recognize organized crime as a serious problem in the United States and changed the way law enforcement investigated it.
The 1950s were a difficult time for this thing of ours but the 1960s weren't any better. A conflict between families in Sicily broke out which was eventually known as the First Mafia War. A mafia boss arranged for a shipment of heroin to be sent to the U.S. He paid 2 other families to refine and package, it and a third to ship it across the Atlantic. When the American associates received the shipment they claimed that the shipment was light and paid the shipper a significantly lower sum than agreed upon. Back in Sicily, a dispute broke out over who was at fault for the missing product and the blame landed on the family who handled the shipping. This wasn't taken lightly and triggered a war that lasted almost a year where the violence spilled out onto the mainland and several military and police officers were killed by a car bomb. This brought about another round of crackdowns from the Italian government where 2,000 arrests were made and the Sicilian Commission was dissolved and didn't reform until the end of the decade. 117 suspects were tried, but most were acquitted or received light sentences. Business in Sicily ceased altogether until the trials were over and they had the room to reorganize. The Nefaria family found itself in a precarious position when the First Mafia war popped off because Count Nefaria, the boss had just partnered with associates in the United States to build a weapon smuggling business that he hadn't approved with the commission. He paid supervillains to acquire things like Iron Man's armor, Captain America's genetic samples, the Doomsmith computer, and other devices which put his business in the crosshairs of the Avengers and the early X-Men.
As the feds began to crack down on organized crime, the first made man ratted on la cosa nostra and turned state's evidence. He began feeding the Department of Justice information about the Mafia's structure, terminology, culture, and practices, which once again changed the game for American law enforcement in how it pursued men of honor and their families. In response to this traitor's testimony, the FBI created the Organized Crime Strike Force. Just as the heat was coming down from the government, the Nefaria Family found itself once again at odds with an Avenger - Iron Man. Majority shareholder of Stark Industries, Tony Stark's cousin Morgan was indebted to the Nefaria Family under its new boss, known publicly as Madame Masque. The price was access to Stark intellectual property and kidnapping Iron Man, which Morgan arranged. Iron Man was able to escape, but the incident put this thing of ours on the radar of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. In Paragon City, a young hood named Harry Frost became a rising star on the street by making deliveries that no one else could make. The Regulators and the Dawn Patrol had teamed up to crack down on the drug trade but somehow Frost always delivered and when he took over the defunct narcotics trade just as some new kick hit the street. It was known as Superadine, and would eventually create the gang known as "The Trolls". In the Rogue Isles, the Marcone Family pushed out or took over any possible rival businesses and established themselves as the controlling family in Port Oakes. It became the central stop-off point for the heroin trade before the shipments were distributed to the Continental U.S.
The 1970s saw a new evolution of the business as the focus became less and less about crime and more and more about money. The legal casinos in Las Vegas, the legal construction businesses, and the legal union contracts didn't bring in as much money as narcotics, prostitution, and pornography and the more regulated businesses made it more difficult to cut corners to squeeze out extra profits. The solution presented itself in cigarette smuggling. The Sicilian Mafia Commission agreed for 2 families on the island to control the illegal trade of cigarettes to places with high taxation on tobacco products, and the first target was Naples. The trade expanded from the island to other places around the Western hemisphere. Heroin came back on the radar in the mid-1970s, with refineries being reopened in Marseilles, France, and then new sites founded in Sicily itself. The demand for illicit narcotics in the United States was far too profitable to leave narcotics entirely to new emerging criminal syndicates from the developing world. Sicilian families didn't have a hard time finding American families to partner with for the narcotics trade, but narcotics were controversial among the families in the U.S. and fueled interfamily conflict across the Atlantic. Before the end of the decade, Boss Nefaria had been released from prison and took back the reins of the family from Madame Masque. He sent more paid supervillains against his superhero enemies using stolen formulae to boost their powers for a short time, but these mercenaries failed. Then Nefaria's researchers figured out how to transfer the supervillains' powers to the boss, and he decided to go after the Avengers himself only to find out that the process was killing him. Boss Nefaria surrendered to the Avengers so they could find him a cure, but Madame Masque came with her enforcers to rescue the boss. Unfortunately, Count Nefaria was killed in the process leaving the Nefaria family without clear leadership.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as the RICO Act, became federal law in the United States in 1970 just as la cosa nostra was recovering from the stumbles of the '60s. Concerns over the health effects of smoking drove higher prices and taxes on tobacco, which created a demand for black-market cigarettes. The Vegas Strip was a top tourist destination in the United States and known as Disneyland for adults, where the money counters were taking stacks of cash off the books before it was reported to return to the boss. Pornography had been legalized just before the start of the decade so that business could be expanded and brought out to the storefront instead of kept in the back rooms. And, of course, Heroin was coming back in from Sicily but that created conflicts within the families. Harry Frost became a made man as the families suffered repeated shakeups as the Paragon City Police Department, the Regulators, and the Dawn Patrol continued to crack down on narcotics. Frost played his cards right, moving up the ranks quickly. After long conflicts with Arachnos and Rogue Isles Police in Port Oakes after the former had cemented their coup d'etat, Lord Recluse recognized Boss Marcone and the Marcone family as the ruling syndicate there. Marcone knew that Port Oakes would remain his only so long as no one else could take it from him, and he flexed his authority hard while exploiting the island's resources for profit as much as he could. The Panessa family arrived in Gotham from Sicily and were introduced to the Gotham Commission by Boss Cassamento and Boss Tomasso Panessa offers his daughter Maria to marry Boss Bertinelli's son Franco for his push for a seat on the commission. Boss Bertinelli denied Panessa and put the Panessa family's operations under his own family's authority, which meant Panessa had to pay Bertinelli tribute. Despite Panessa and Cassamento's resentment of this decision, Bertinelli had a decent justification for this decision because available territory and business were still limited by the domination of the Falcones and Maronis in Gotham. Additionally, Bertinelli knew that the feds were working hard to gear up for major busts coming in the next decade. Before the end of the 1970s the Falcone and the Marone syndicates were eliminated by chaos from within and by amateur third-party actors.
The last 2 decades of the 20th Century was a major reckoning for la cosa nostra in Sicily and the United States. The heroin trade in Sicily was rapidly saturated by the families there and the most prominent figure of that business was imprisoned. He eventually turned the business over to his underboss who began subverting the business of other families and recruiting new members without acting through the new Sicily Mafia Commission. Eventually, the new boss had another family expelled from the commission over false accusations of withholding revenues from the other families and that started a war. Hundreds were murdered including those who were off-limits like family members and public figures, more were imprisoned, and many mafiosi ratted on the Mafia to save their skins. The boss who perpetrated this war and had succeeded in taking over almost all business across Sicily died near the end of the century because of a car bomb. His successor quickly changed tactics, halting hits on rats, their family, and public figures and convincing them to come back by providing legal services. Most of the heroin trade was yielded to the mainland criminal organizations by then, and la cosa nostra found itself largely a regional power again.
After dominating Detroit for almost half the century, the Luciano family is wiped out in a single day by a new criminal organization known as PSI. With the Lucianos and the Purple Gang gone, la cosa nostra never again gains hold inside of the motor city. New York City was the opposite over the same period. Being the world's third largest economy when taken aside from the rest of the United States, and its most populous city, it was the most attractive jewel for organized crime and the major focus for law enforcement looking to bust it. Families changed hands repeatedly as bosses were killed or imprisoned, and some families were completely dissolved because they violated the commandments and omertà. When the 1980s started, 5 Sicilian families were operating in New York - Manfredi, Karneli, Costa, Libris, and Twistelli. They found themselves in contention with the numerous superheroes that made the city their home. Boss Bertinelli took advantage of the power vacuum left by the fall of the Falcone and Marone families 1 and quickly divided up Gotham City between the 5 families on the current commission. The commission still did not grant Boss Panessa his seat or territory. Boss Mandragora ordered Bertinelli killed as he needed to shore up power in Sicily and the Bertinelli family had become a threat, so Cassamento organized the hit but ordered that Boss Panessa's daughter be spared. Due to a misunderstanding, the hitman spared Bertinelli's daughter instead and milled Maria. With Bertinelli dead and Cassamento's mistakes, Boss Galante became capo di tutti capi. Although the heroin trade had mostly been abandoned for Superadine in Paragon City, the fall of narcotics revenue was felt by Frost and the families of Rhode Island as well. Superadine labs were raided by the Regulators throughout Independence Port and Steel Canyon and the equipment returned to the Paragon City Police Department only to disappear because of "national security concerns." The lull in Superadine production was short-lived as labs sprung up in Port Oakes under the Marcone family's watch and then redistributed back into the city.
By the end of the decade the FBI, local law enforcement, and superheroes of all walks of life began to bring down men of honor across the country. Mafia connections were broken from the casinos in Las Vegas, and the corrupt officials in the Paragon City government and police were convicted and imprisoned. Harry Frost and Boss Marcone were also imprisoned, though la cosa nostra still operates throughout the city and in Port Oakes. Emil Marcone, the former Boss' son, took over the Marcone family but this caused a split in operations on the island. A new group calling themselves the mooks led by Boss Verandi began a war with the Marcone family for control over Port Oakes and business in the Rogue Isles and Paragon City. With power waning in Gotham, Boss Inserillo gave up his organization to the Gotham police as war broke out between the Galante family and the Panessa and Cassamento family. Boss Panessa and Cassamento were arrested due to the efforts of the Huntress and Boss Galante was killed. The Manfredi family lost much of its prominence in New York after several encounters with superheroes in New York City, and Boss Manfredi was reported killed as the result of a gang war. The family that killed him was quickly rounded up and busted. No new boss has been named for the Manfredi's though the assumption is that it will be long-time Consigliere Caesar "Big-C" Cicero. The Costa Family was completely wiped out with every member being killed. The Twistelli family nearly met the same fate, but Boss Twistelli and his remaining confidantes fled to Rome. The Karnelli family took prominence in New York after all of this with the Libris family laying low and continuing on their usual course. The once proud Sicilian families found themselves wrangled into paying tribute to Wilson Fisk and his organization as they maintained their presence.
Superhuman Registration Era
Shortly after taking power, Boss Karnelli died and power passed to his son Bruno Karnelli. Bruno turned out to be ineffectual and incompetent at rebuilding the New York Mafia Commision's influence in New York City, and his tactics endangered the business of the only other standing family. Before the Libris could have him eliminated, Bruno made a move that no one had expected. The rumor is that Bruno resurrected the deceased Bosses from the height of la cosa nostra's power in New York City and gave power back to them. Boss Libris has been suspiciously silent on the matter, though she is presumedly still sitting on the commission. The Libris family has leveraged their intact organization to keep the narcotics trade suppressed in the remaining territories of the families and anyone caught dealing might meet an unfortunate end. The Sicilian families have yet to take back their prominence in the criminal world by 2018.
The Beretti family still hangs on in Gotham City, doing the bidding of the Mandragora family in Sicily. Without the big organized crime syndicates, Gotham's criminal underworld has largely devolved into a chaotic nightmare of gimmicky gangs led by psychopaths and their sycophants. Corruption in the city's government and police force is still rampant but harder to conceal when murder happens so blatantly on the streets. The most organized group is run by Oswald Cobblepot, also known as "The Penguin," who was the understudy of Carmine Falcone.
Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have continued to operate as they always have with the interruption of the Rikti Invasion in 2002. The families in Paragon City once again turned their services over to the United States to help get aid into the city after the destruction and facilitate reinforcements for the U.S. military and the Vanguard to get into the city to stop the extraterrestrial forces. Once everything went back to some sense of normalcy, the families went right back to business as usual and did their best to avoid running afoul of law enforcement, Arachnos, and the superheroes operating inside the city.
Legitimate business people have become aware that an organization calling itself The New Purple Gang has come up in Millennium City, formerly known as Detroit. The so-called boss of this organization is a man named Kevin Poe, who seems to have taken a liking to a prohibition-era Italian business in the same area. If this had been done during the Mafia's height, actions might have been taken to do something about these pretenders that frankly make men of honor appear clownish and like cartoon supervillains. The families have largely been hands-off with The New Purple Gang now that they are pulling themselves together after dismantling on both sides of the ocean.
Madame Masque attempted to resurrect the prominence of la cosa nostra and summoned the most powerful bosses in the world to Las Vegas to re-establish it as the epicenter of Sicilian business. They all brought their strongest muscles with them to challenge anyone who might try to rule them out. Many superheroes descended on Vegas and it was practically a riot on the strip as they fought with the men on the street. Things were beginning to look grim and Masque returned to the commission to suggest they bring in more enforcers when the other bosses betrayed her with an attempted assassination. Realizing that they would have probably betrayed her at any moment, regardless, she sabotaged any means of escape and assisted the heroes in capturing the bosses in attendance. Madam Masque, of course, escaped back to Sicily where she shored up her family's territory and was only occasionally heard from again while assisting other organizations in profitable businesses or endeavors that might satisfy her vendetta.
References
- Sicilian Mafia on Wikipedia
- American Mafia on Wikipedia
- Soldato on Wikipedia
- Maggia (Earth-616) on Marvel Database
- Five Families on DC Database
- Antonio Twistelli on Spawn Wiki
- Antonio Twistelli on Image Comics Database
- The Family on The Unofficial Homecoming Wiki
- Mooks on the Unofficial Homecoming Wiki
- The New Purple Gang on Champions Online Wiki
Aliases:
- The Family
- The Mafia
- The Maggia
- The Mob
- The Sicilian mafia
- "This thing of ours"
Founding Date
The Late 19th Century
Comments