Romanticized images of cigar-toting dons and shootouts in pizzerias epitomize our fascination

with the Mafia, but behind the myth of "men of honor" and omertà lies a very real world of

murder, racketeering, and organized crime. Marco Gasparini reveals the real face of the

Mafia in this illustrated history, which focuses on the highly developed criminal organization

both as a cult subject and an important social phenomenon.

From the Mafia's traditional and family-orientated roots in nineteenth-century Sicily,

through the streets of twentieth-century New York, and to the international cartels that rule

the illegal drug and arms trades today, historic photographs and documents chronicle the

secrets of an "octopus" organization that has, until recent years, remained impenetrable.

Infamous Mafia bosses including Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, as well as legendary crime

fighters such as New York police officer Joe Petrosino and similarly ill-fated Italian Judge

Giovanni Falcone, are brought to life through photographs - many previously unpublished -

that reveal the multi-faceted reality behind a phenomenon that has sparked popular

imagination for decades.

Packed with historical documents and photographs, and

penned by an expert in Mafia history, this volume traces

the criminal organization from its origins in the Sicilian

countryside to its current form as a political and economic

power.

From the first glimmers of the Cosa Nostra in the

depths of rural Sicily, to the less traditional and more

ruthless Mafia of today, this book takes readers inside the

Mafia's various branches around the world on a journey of

racketeering, extortion, and drugs and arms trafficking.

From the Black Hand gang in New York to Al Capone's

Chicago "Outfit" or the "Arm" in Buffalo, New York; and

from "Prime Minister of the Underworld" Frank Costello's

criminal realm in New Orleans to the prostitution and

gambling industry in Las Vegas, we discover the greatest

godfathers, underbosses, and "soldiers" as well as the

pentiti (or turncoats) and the most formidable wives of

Mafiosi.

The Mafia's hierarchical structure, unwritten rules,

rituals, and methods have become an international model:

as the Neapolitan Camorra continues its equally bloody

work and the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta advances menacingly

into Europe, the Japanese Yakuza has become the largest

organized crime group in the world today, and the Russian

and Chinese mafias are ever-growing.

Marco Gasparini also traces some of the most celebrated

cinematic achievements that have been inspired by the

Mafia phenomenon, from Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather

trilogy, one of the greatest film sagas ever made, to

Gomorrah , based on Roberto Saviano's book of the same

name, a shocking portrayal of the very real world of the

Neapolitan Camorra.