Short documentary film "Pasqualina of Springfield" is coming to Springfield, Massachusetts on October 30.
“Pasqualina of Springfield” screening
Omerta in Utica
Though never charged, it’s widely believed that the powerful Falcone brothers were behind the unsolved murders of Pietro Lima and Dominick Aiello.
Ten percent of Mafia wives
Research reveals a common ancestor shared by six Mafia wives, two Mafiosi, and one mafia genealogist. I've identified 101 men who are (or were) known to be involved in organized crime in Corleone. I found them using a selection of primary and secondary sources, in combination with genealogical sleuthing around. News reports, trial records, police blotters, and... Continue Reading →
Legacy of the Rapanzino gang
While most of Rapanzino’s gang was exterminated by the police in the mid-1830s, their legacy continues, with a clear line of descent, all the way to the Five Families of New York and the Mafia in Corleone today. The Rapanzino gang of cattle thieves, active in the early 1830s in Palermo province, were closely related... Continue Reading →
Mamma Mafia and the Little Brothers
"Mafia" is a feminine term that means beautiful and proud. Paradoxically, women are both essential to and excluded from the criminal organization. At the turn of the twentieth century, the mafia in Corleone was led by members of a new agrarian bourgeoisie (“nuova borghesia agraria”) of estate managers for absentee landlords. Author and labor organizer Dino Paternostro... Continue Reading →
Mafia Genealogy 