HIGHBURY He is tall and handsome, and coupled with his thick beard and hair, he is even more "awe-inspiring" to today's people. Admittedly, no one could tell from his appearance that he was an almost illiterate and murderous mafia leader. His "prestige" has reached its peak. High-status local officials also paid homage to him; the best hotels regarded it as an honor to entertain him for free. If he patrols within his own sphere of influence, the chief executive wherever he goes will wait for him far away from the city gate. The Vito Cascio Ferro recorded here is Don Vito, who was "famous and powerful in all directions". He was an important member of the Mafia in the 1920s and the "encyclopedia" of the Mafia. He inherited and carried forward the tradition of the Mafia in a new form. 1. Tracing back to its roots. Don Vito Cacio Ferro can be called the elder of the Mafia, but long, long before he appeared, the ancient and far-reaching roots of the Mafia can be traced back. A big foot wearing a high-heeled boot extends from the vast European continent into the vast Mediterranean Sea. This is Italy, a peninsular country in southern Europe. On the toe of this boot, there is an island that looks like an underinflated football - Sicily. Although Sicily has always been part of Italy, it has had countless differences from that boot-shaped peninsula since ancient times. A variety of Mediterranean indigenous people live here, and they coexist with the first Italian immigrants - the "Siklos". Beginning in the 5th century BC, Greeks, Pannicians, and Romans invaded this Mediterranean island again and again. They were always like passing tourists, burning, killing, looting, and then leaving. It is the Arabs who inject the everlasting blood into Sicily. The Arabs, who are good at crossing desert mountains and crossing oceans, are brave and aggressive. It seems that their mission in this world is to kill and fight and take revenge for the world. More than 1,200 years ago, the Arabs established a large empire that spanned Asia, Europe, and Africa, and it flourished for a while. The Arab conquest of Sicily marked the pinnacle of the Arab Empire's expansion in Europe. In 827 AD, the Arab Empire sent an expeditionary force starting from Tunisia and embarking on a mighty Eastern Expedition. This was a huge army with more than 600 large warships and more than 4,000 soldiers. Three days later, the Arab Expeditionary Force arrived at Mazara on the east coast of Sicily. The brave and capable Arabs quickly climbed onto the steep coast and defeated the Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans stationed there overnight. Using Mazara as a beachhead, Arabs continued to enter Sicily. After a month, they became the masters of the entire Sicily. During their 250-year rule, the Arabs turned Sicily into an Islamic federation, and Palermo, the capital of Sicily, became the glorious center of Muslim culture. Although Christianity later gained the upper hand in Sicily, the Christians on the island were at heart the heirs of Muslim culture. About 900 years ago, the history of Arab rule in Sicily was gone forever. The iron hooves of the Anglo-Saxons stepped into Sicily. The German emperors used the pretext that the Arabs were pagans and brutally suppressed them. A large number of Arabs After being captured, killed, and exiled, the Saxons also used a cruel instrument of torture on the Arabs-caserta, which was an iron box filled with boiling water, and then stuffed the man's genitals into it. The Arabs who survived fled into the mountains and remote wilderness, and the flames of revenge were carried to every corner of Sicily by these exiles. Who would have thought that this raging hatred has been burning for thousands of years, and it is getting stronger and stronger. Italians have created brilliant achievements over the past many centuries, but this nation has been troubled by disasters. She has been invaded, ravaged, plundered and insulted in every century, and each time she has no ability to defend herself and can only be trampled upon. When Napoleon led his army and marched straight into Rome, the Roman government could only send weak envoys to beg for peace. However, the war madman and military genius not only did not buy it, but also had a strong hatred for the envoys who knelt down to beg for peace. anger. Historical records record: Napoleon threw his hat on the ground and trampled on it angrily. He pointed at the name of the Italian peace envoy and cursed: "This country of bitches of yours has never been qualified to be raped." The bloodshed in Italy The wars were by no means fewer than those of her illustrious neighbors France and Germany, but they often fought under foreign flags. Many more of their people died than foreigners, civilians were massacred by foreign armies, and soldiers were overwhelmed by superior enemy forces. They occasionally won a few battles, but those were mostly Italians fighting each other. For thousands of years, the blood of Italians has flowed like a river, but they have never been able to complete national unification and establish a central government like other European countries. In more than 1,000 years before this century, at least 200 kings, emperors, grand dukes, generals, tribal leaders, and religious leaders proclaimed themselves rulers of Italy on the Italian peninsula. So, what about Sicily? This place has never had its own history. The foreign rulers of the Roman regime were far away from each other and changed frequently. In the bloody struggle for power, they had no time to care about Sicily's "order", such as law, government, and army. For most Sicilians, it was all from Something new that has never been heard of. But no matter which foreign ruler occupied Rome, he would never forget to exploit the Sicilians, because this island was Italy's wheat-producing base and was known as a barn.

The Romans, Normans, French, Germans, Spanish, and the Roman Catholic Church all did their best to exploit the island's "talking tools." Successive governments have appalled the persecution of Sicilians: seizing the fruits of their labor, raping their wives and daughters, and murdering their leaders. Even the rich are not immune to this kind of oppression, and the Holy Catholic Church can deprive pagans of their property at will. The power of revenge and vendetta in the Sicilians' bones cannot bear all this. The Mafia sprouted. The Mafia is spelled "Mafia" in English, which means "place of refuge" in Arabic. The Sicilian revenge group originally chose this word to express itself. When the assizes sent by Rome refused to try a Norman nobleman for raping a peasant woman, Mafia would kill the nobleman; if a police chief used Caserta to torture a Sicilian, he would be exposed in a few days. Streets, and the genitals are gone. This group of vicious and ruthless people gradually became a second government that was larger than the official government. When ordinary people want to redress their grievances, they will no longer go to the police, but to the local mafia leader, who can mediate and solve your problems. In Sicily, anyone who reports the Mafia's activities to the authorities is bound to die. Therefore, Sicilians learned to remain silent, and this silence was later called "Umota". After centuries of development, "Umuta" has become a rule of the Mafia, that is, never cooperate with any judicial department, and violators will be punished with death. Therefore, even if Sicilians themselves are violated, they will never report it to the police. In this way, the government will no longer be able to get any clues from the people, and even children will know not to talk to strangers. Almost a century ago, hundreds of lives were lost in a vendetta between two Sicilian mafia families, Stoppaglier and Fratuzzi, over control of a nearby water source. D'Amico, of the Fratucci family, came home one evening and when he opened the door, he almost fainted. All 13 of his parents, brothers, sisters, wife and children had their heads chopped off, and the lower body of the female corpse was exposed. The frantic D'Amico became a whistleblower. He rushed to the police station overnight and confessed everything he knew. But at dawn, D'Amico suddenly screamed like a madman: "What did I say? I didn't say anything!" For two days in a row, he had nothing to eat and muttered to himself: "The Mafia will Neither you nor the entire police force in the Kingdom of Italy can save my life." Eleven days later, the police found D'Amico in a heavily guarded prison with bullet holes all over his body and a cork in his mouth. , with an image of the Madonna on his chest: this was an assassination attempt by two rival families, Stoppaglier and Fratucci, because the cork and the Madonna were the symbols of the two families respectively. Although the two families are at odds with each other, they have one thing in common: informing the authorities is a grave sin for all Mafia members and must be punished. "Only in hell can he remain silent and only kill him without others knowing why he died. That means he is still alive." In the next 100 years, the Mafia never changed its ways. And Don Vito, an important member of the Mafia in the 1920s, was like an encyclopedia of the Mafia. He inherited and carried forward the tradition of the Mafia in a new form. 2. Charisma and magic Don Vito Cascio Ferro is a legend of the Sicilian Mafia and a spark for the American Mafia that later dominated the world. He is still admired by the older generation of Mafia gangsters all over the world. Respected and remembered. He was perhaps the most unprecedented leader of the Mafia. He ruled the Mafia from the end of the last century until the early 1920s (and then the bloody massacre of General Mori and the era of Don Vizzini). Like Don Vizzini after him, Don Vi was born near the city of Palermo, a small town more than 70 kilometers south of Palermo - Pisaquino. His father was also an illiterate farmer. Don Vito had a typical Mafia career - renting and subletting land to tenant farmers from landowners who moved to the city, and making a living by exploiting it. In order to maintain his position, Don Vito once organized a fraternity with dozens of people participating. The core of the brotherhood is the male relatives of Vito, and then his core power is expanded to the female relatives through marriage. Don Vito used both hard and soft tactics to draw many farmers within his sphere of influence into his group. Among them, the outlaw spirit of living and dying with others and not fearing death is promoted among them. Those who are timid and weak will be insulted at least, and killed to punish others at worst. It was generally impossible to leave his group alive. Don Vito's power grew rapidly. Not only did he have the right say in his group, but the surrounding farmers and landowners also had to obey him and obey his orders: if he set his sights on any family's land, the owner of the original land would be The owner had no choice but to hand it over; if he asked any landowner to pay "security tax" according to his standards and "introduce" a certain supervisor to him, then the landowner would never dare to violate his will. Anyone who dares to raise doubts will first throw a dog or sheep with its head cut off in front of the door. If he does not immediately express his "realization", then the next thing that will follow is the destruction of his family. Don Vito also worked hard to legitimize his position. In 1913, Italy amended its electoral law to stipulate that every adult man had the right to vote. In this way, the Don Vito Group is a decisive force in the Palermo area.

La Pudetta Vassallo, a member of the Popular Party (renamed Catholic Democratic Party in 1944) in the Palermo City Council, was Don Vito's agent. Don Vito certainly wanted to keep him on the city council this election. However, the Cassini family, which has always had a problem with Don Vito, plans to elect a Liberal to Congress as the spokesperson for their own interests. This pissed off Don Vito. He was determined to meet the Cassini family. The Cassini family saw that the other party was coming fiercely and regretted that they should have stung a hornet's nest. Hurry up and hang up your no-war card. But after sending his agent Lapreeta Vassallo to the city council, Don Vito had an important figure in the Cassini family killed. During his arrogant 20 years, Don Vito committed nearly 200 murders. Among them, some cases are not prosecuted at all, and even if some cases are prosecuted, the case is often dismissed due to "insufficient evidence." However, unlike other mafia leaders, Don Vito did not resort to excessive use of force. He relied more on the awe of others and his own superior nature. Don Vito's awe-inspiring appearance helped him a lot: although Douda couldn't read half a basket of characters, he was tall, thin, and well-dressed and elegant. His long white beard makes him look like a sanctimonious saint, a New England preacher or a respectable judge from the last century. His manner was gentle and his manners were courteous and dignified. People seemed to "love" him. He is very generous by nature: he never refuses when others ask for help; he lends 100,000 or 1 million yuan to others or even gives it away for free, giving charity widely. He took the trouble to personally resolve people's problems and redress their grievances. When Don Vito travels, the village chiefs of each village dress up at the entrance of the village to greet him, bow and kiss his hands, and pay tribute to him. He is like a king. Under his rule, peace and order were maintained. Of course this is mafia-style peace and order, not peace under official rule, but all living beings are indiscriminate. Don Vito rose to prominence very early, and he seemed to have a natural aura of majesty: all kinds of people couldn't help but obey him, and they had to seek his advice and approval on everything. Don Vito was the first person to adapt the idyllic antiquity of the Mafia to the complex life of modern cities in the 20th century. He organized all the criminal activities, from the largest transactions to poaching and even stealing a few coins from the church alms box. All criminals have their henchmen. He generally has an account in his mind, and all criminal activities must be approved by him; nothing can be done without the approval of the "glorious society" he rules, or without paying the customary tribute to the mafia. Crime all over the world is carried out in chaos, and it is easy to fish in troubled waters. But in Don Vito's orderly world, criminal behavior must be governed by the law, guided, and paid taxes. All criminals must obtain a mafia license to conduct business, pay tribute to the mafia, and must be recruited to defend the interests of the mafia when necessary. At the beginning of this century, for the first time in Palermo, even beggars were no longer bullied and extorted by hooligans. Beggars are organized into certain organizations, and like all businessmen, they pay a certain percentage of their income to the mafia "friends" in charge of their area every day. Don Vito's "society" was very disciplined. If a "respected person" from the countryside, a dignitary from Rome, or a foreign guest visiting Sicily is stolen out of misunderstanding in his jurisdiction, as long as he gives an order, it won't take more than a few seconds. Suitcases, travel bags, watches or ladies' jewelry were sent back. This was a good talk throughout Italy at that time. In people's eyes, Don Vito has magical "magic". 3. A fly in the ointment But there were two accidents, one of which actually became the trigger for Mussolini’s bloody suppression of the Sicilian Mafia. If Jiuquan had known better, Don Vito would still have regretted that incident. In the autumn of 1923, Mussolini visited Palermo for the first time after becoming President of Italy to discuss some urgent local issues with the authorities. That day, Mussolini and Sicily's chief executive, police chiefs, and celebrities held a long meeting in the chief executive's office. This loquacious dictator actually gave a long lecture for six hours without any chance for others to interrupt. The mafia bosses present were furious, and they all set their sights on the "old man" Don Vito. Although Don Vito was also fed up, he suppressed it and did not show it, nor did he lead the Mafia leaders to leave. He watched Mussolini quietly and listened hard. Mussolini dressed like a noble diplomat on the racecourse, wearing shoe covers, morning coat, and carrying a civilized stick. In order to open the eyes of the Sicilian country bumpkins, he gave a long speech while pacing back and forth in front of the seat, knocking the floor with a civilized stick to draw people's attention to his beautiful clothes. But at the end of the meeting, Mussolini could not find his hat - a tall black top hat, and the Sicilians present burst into laughter. Don Vito certainly understood what was going on, but he was unwilling to serve this guy who claimed to be the "leader". The leader's hat was never found, it had been stolen by a high-level thief or souvenir hunter allowed by the "Society". For this reason, Mussolini dropped two precious Persian vases after returning to Rome. When he was publicly humiliated by Mayor Cucia again in Sicily (Mussolini came to Palermo for the second time in May 1924) ), he decided not to be polite to the Mafia anymore.

The night he returned to Rome, he convened the Fascist Congress and loudly announced to his members: "I will launch a full-scale war against the group of kidnappers in Sicily!" What followed was the purge of General Mori. Another exception occurred when the British girlfriend of Prince Lanza of Trabia lost an expensive fur coat while traveling in Sicily. The prince tried his best to comfort his girlfriend, and personally found Don Vito that night and asked him to help find the coat. The Lanza family is a prominent family in Sicily. The family arrived on the island 1,000 years ago and fought on the side of King Frederick II of Sicily and Emperor of the Hohenswein dynasty in the 13th century. The Lanza family has been advisers, governors, generals and naval commanders to kings and emperors for generations. The family owned thousands of hectares of land, entire towns, rivers, castles, mansions and villas. They can be said to be absolutely "respected people" in Sicily. Don Vito humbly apologized to Prince Lanza for the incident and quickly took out all the fur coats he had stolen in Palermo during the past few days. But the English lady's fur coat was not there: it had been stolen by an unknown straggler. This man is definitely from outside Sicily, and he doesn't buy into his "friends"'s fault. 4. There was only one person he killed with his own hands. In his long life, Don Vito only killed one person, just one. It was not for money, but for honor, prestige and the defense of his "glorious society." That man provoked the entire mafia, and Don Vito could only kill him with his own hands, not through the hands of his subordinates. Don Vito was a visionary. At the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, he realized that the "new world" on the other side of the ocean, the United States, would become another paradise for the growth of "glorious societies." Therefore, when immigrants from all over the world poured into the United States like a tide, it was natural that the passionate and romantic Italians were among them. In 1900, Don Vito organized a large number of Sicilian Mafia to take advantage of the situation and come to the United States to explore. He lived happily in this "new world" for several years. One day, homesickness came over me, so I drifted back home. Just like a sower, Don Vito left an organization called "Black Hand" (BLACk HANd) on this land. Therefore, Don Vito is the earliest and most famous Mafia in the American criminal world. He is well-deserved as the organizer. In less than 10 years, the "Black Hand" has been well-known in the United States. These Sicilian desperadoes have quickly gathered strength here and committed all kinds of evil, which shocked the American authorities. In panic, the American police quickly turned their attention to Sicily: there was a lot of evidence that the Sicilian gangsters in the United States were too closely related to their compatriots in their hometown. In February 1909, Giuseppe Pietro, the captain of the Italian squad of the New York Police Department. Sino was sent to Sicily. Perhaps it was a bad thing for the New York press, because it reported in an inconspicuous newspaper: "Petrosino was trying to gather intelligence on Italian criminals who had immigrated to the United States. Yes, Petrosino must work with the Italian police to investigate not only the past criminal activities of the Sicilian gangsters who migrated to the United States, but also the connections between the Mafia still on the island. Petrosino thought he was safe, Because no one except the police knew about his arrival. However, he had only been in Palermo for five hours and had not yet clearly distinguished the southeast, northwest and northwest of this beautiful city. He was on the street in Plaza Marina in front of the courthouse. On this day, Petrosino arrived in Sicily. Don Vito was having lunch with a Sicilian member of the Italian Parliament. He suddenly stopped when he heard the news. He got up, left the table, and came to the door of the Palermo court in lightning speed (the court was holding a hearing on Mafia crimes at the time). He used a revolver to beat Petrosino, who had just settled in Italy, all over his face, and then like As if nothing happened, he took the congressman's car back to the congressman's official residence to continue his lunch. Afterwards, Don Vito was also accused of being the murderer, but he easily evaded prosecution because he had a reliable alibi. Evidence: The Palermo local councilor testified for him and swore that his guests had never left his official residence at the time of the incident. At that moment, they were admiring a touching statue of the Madonna. The councilor was impressive. The unquestionable testimony turned the hundred-page indictment against Don Vito into useless paper. It was also from this time on Don Vito that the "Black Hand" had formed a "transnational giant network." And it firmly attached its shadow to some government officials. 5. After General Mori came to Sicily, Don Vito didn't pay much attention to him at first. But soon, he saw that Mori didn't care about anything. First, he was arrested and killed indiscriminately. He immediately became anonymous and traveled through East and West Sili, preparing to cross the Sea of ??Azov for sightseeing and refuge in Greece. However, the spies under the treacherous Mori were not vegetarians either. When Mori arrived at the port of Catania in East and West Sicily, Mori's subordinates were already waiting on the luxury cruise ship he was going to take: "Now is not a good season for traveling, so please go back to your hometown and enjoy the charming scenery of your home." of flowers and plants. "For the first time in Don Vito's life, he was ridiculed like this. He hoped that some mafia minions would come to rescue him, but until he was taken back to Palermo, he didn't hear any news: Mafiosi, big and small, had already been captured by Mori. The general's artillery and armored vehicles frightened him to death.

Don Vito did not despair. He said to the prosecutor under Mori: "Maybe I have committed many crimes, but you can't produce any evidence to prove it. The only thing you can prove is that I am not guilty." Don Vito ·Vito quickly established supreme authority in the entire prison, like a general mixed among soldiers. Although they were imprisoned together in the concentration camp, the general was still a general after all. For the first time, order and discipline reigned in the prison. He settled all quarrels and helped close friends with their personal difficulties. He sent subsidies to the families of poor fellow Mafia prisoners and generous gifts to the daughter of a friend who was about to get married. All this is in preparation for one day making a comeback. The Tao is higher and the devil is higher. The experienced General Mori was not angry when he heard what Don Vito did in prison. He just ordered his subordinates to make some small changes to Don's arrangements: Mori would conduct an inner battle to mentally defeat this gangster. The party spirit is defeated. The warden of Mori arranged Don Vito into a single cell, so that he would not see his relatives, friends, companions, or minions all day long. There were no more compliments, no more laughter, and even letters sent to a few close relatives and friends inviting them to visit were coldly rejected. In fact, those letters that refused to visit were written by Mori's men who forced Don Vito's relatives and friends to write. A leader leaving his followers is like a fish leaving water. He finally couldn't bear the loneliness and became overly sad. He died in prison six months later. Only then did Mori decide to come to prison to see his opponent's face after death. "It is indeed extraordinary." Mori admired. But when he saw a line of small words that Don Vito carved on the wall of the prison that did not make sense: "Prison, disease and poverty reveal the truth", he couldn't help but mock: "A cliché." But this sentence has been ignored by countless mafia gangsters. Party members are engraved in their hearts. In the future, prisoners in prison would frequently nod in approval when they read this sentence. To this day, an imprisoned Mafioso feels a great sense of honor if he happens to be in the workshop cell where Don Vito spent his final years. This fierce battle in the 1920s was the only time in hundreds of years that the extremely vicious Mafia suffered a disaster. The arrest of the world-famous Don Vito marked the collapse of the Mafia society that had been separated from Sicily for generations. It was not until the collapse of the fascist regime during World War II that the "Glorious Society" "returned to its glory" in the hands of Don Vizzini.