Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Mafiosi cut stress with family, food Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 16:10:35 EST Message-ID: \SE A \SS (WS) \HD Mafiosi cut stress with family, food \BY Philip Pullella \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT ROME ROME - What does a Mafioso do after a hard day's work extorting money? Some relax by cooking gourmet meals for their friends and fellow clan members. Others like to spend time with the wife and kids, especially on religious holidays. Details of the private lives of Sicilian Mafiosi, along with their rites of initiation and bonding rituals, have been disclosed by "pentiti" - repentant former gangsters. Most of their testimony to magistrates over the years centered on the Mafia's main business of drug smuggling, extortion, protection rackets and murder and the regular outbreaks of clan warfare. But interspersed in this vital testimony has been a wealth of information about the Mafiosi in their daily lives as husbands, fathers and lovers. Cristina Mariotti, a journalist for the weekly magazine L'Espresso, pored over the testimony to produce a picture of the off-duty Mafia man. Other insights came in a recent book by sociologist Pino Arlacchi, "Men of Dishonor," based on the confessions of Antonino Calderone, a major Mafia turncoat. [Yesterday, police in Caltanissetta, Sicily, said they nabbed 75 Mafia suspects in the mountainous interior of Sicily and on the mainland and served arrest warrants on another 80 already in jail in Italy's largest sweep against organized crime since 1984, according to the Associated Press. [State TV and Italian news agencies also reported that two parliamentary deputies were among those formally notified they were under investigation for suspected crime ties, a preliminary move to the possible filing of arrest warrants. [The sweep began in the early hours and lasted through the day as hundreds of police cars, their sirens racing, raced through streets to pick up suspects. [Most of those taken into custody were in the Caltanissetta and Enna area of central Sicily. Others were detained in Tuscany, the northern regions of Piedmont and Lombardy, and central Lazio, where Rome is located, as well as in Calabria, another southern region steeped in organized-crime violence.] In many ways today's Mafioso still seems steeped in tradition. He is expected to be faithful to his wife, stay clear of "loose women" and leave his family out of his business activities as much as possible. One turncoat, Totuccio Contorno, told magistrates that Mafioso Toni Duca was killed because he had an affair with a disreputable woman. Another young Mafioso was ordered to leave the woman he loved because she was the daughter of a boss who embarrassed the "family" by cheating on his wife. Turncoat Marino Mannoia told magistrates his brother, a professional hit man for the Sicilian mob, was ordered to kill a man - not a member of the Mafia - because he was bothering many women in the neighborhood. Tommaso Buscetta - the Mafia's most significant turncoat, whose revelations led to a mass trial of more than 300 gangsters - himself was isolated within the mob partly because of an unstable private life and because he had married three times. Informers such as Buscetta paid a heavy price for violating "omerta," the Mafia's code of silence. Reprisals claimed the lives of 10 members of his family. Contorno lost 30 relatives. Although many Mafiosi marry women from their own or other mob families, they are advised to keep them out of the business. "It never pays to let your wife know about Mafia things," Contorno told magistrates. Giacoma Filippello, the companion of a Mafioso who also turned state's evidence, told magistrates: "The wife of a 'man of honor' must remain silent and never intervene. It's better if she just serves coffee and liqueurs. But I kept my ears open and understood everything." Mafiosi are jealous of their women, sometimes to an extreme. Calderone told of a man who jokingly asked the wife of Mafia boss Nito Santapaola for a kiss because he carried out an errand for her quickly. He paid dearly for the remark: His life was spared, but he was shot in the legs. Mafiosi like big family feasts, particularly at Christmas and Easter and on patron saints' feast days. When he was still at large, Buscetta hired a private plane to fly his extended family from Paris to Palermo on Christmas Eve so they could celebrate with other families. Mafiosi like to eat well. Restaurants are chosen carefully for their security as well as their cuisine. Isolated country restaurants are preferred for their safety and home cooking. But the testimony by the pentiti shows that nearly all bosses are accomplished cooks in their own right - a passion many developed while they were in hiding. The men usually do the cooking at big family reunions while the women look after the kids and the guests, according to the testimony of the turncoats. "It was very, very beautiful," Calderone told magistrates of one such family feast. "So many families together, so many 'men of honor,' more than 50 people, children playing and jumping up and down all over the place. "There was happiness. We laughed and ate until the next morning. No one thought of danger or death." Mafiosi also like to cook at home to relax with their immediate families when they are not out at business dinners. Big, sumptuous meals nearly always precede or follow important interclan meetings or initiation rites - events where outside caterers would not be welcome. Initiation rites have not changed much over the years in Sicily, particularly in rural areas, according to the turncoats. Buscetta, who is living in the United States under the witness-protection program, described one such rite to magistrates. With bosses from various Sicilian Mafia families looking on, the newcomer's finger is pricked and the blood allowed to drip onto a holy-card image of a saint. The image is burned as the new Mafia recruit recites pledges of loyalty and secrecy: "May my weak flesh burn like this holy image if I do not remain faithful to this vow." The men then kiss each other on the mouth as a sign of brotherhood. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. 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