Marko Bennett a handsome young marine recently returned home from two and a half years in the Special Services, in the front line in Afghanistan, fighting against the Taliban. Complete adrenalin junkie, spoilt rich kid who enjoys hanging out with Head of the Crips, Leroy Brown reputed L.A. gangster. Racing Nascars for his big name sponsors, stealing expensive luxury sports cars, Marko street races for Leroy and is linked with the gambling syndicate doing cocaine deals on the side. He winds up in trouble with the law and is sent to New York, by his father the head of the LAPD, who has firm ties to the mafia. Edward Martin, Head Attorney for the Mafia, based in New York, takes young Marko under his wing setting him up as personal assistant to his wife Alessandra who has a label in the Fashion Industry. He has a steamy romance with their daughter Georgia who also works for the massive Fashion Enterprise. He becomes a made man hanging out with hard core mobsters and now enjoys very close relations with Ciro Pistone, (The Don), Frankie Napatano, (Underboss) and other core gang members. Actively entrenched in the Mafia as activities and hanging out with the Cartels son, he becomes involved with the Cartels daughter Francesca and falls madly in love. A twist of fate leads him back to New York on a revenge fuelled rampage of murder and bloodshed linking all the way to the White House. Now a Captain with the mob, he is fully entrenched in the day to day activities of the mob, Jet setting to Sicily, Ibiza and Monaco living the life of a movie star, doing arms deals with the Bosnians and contract hits for the mob. A powerful story full of action, murder, extortion and romance as Marko becomes one of the untouchables, but will he survive to rise up the Mafia ranks

In a Mafia crime family, loyalty is everything, and snitches get stitches. Omertà is a code of silence; keeping it means protection, but the danger is real and unpredictable. This collection of heartfelt poems takes a deep dive into how growing up in a Mafia crime family is marked with trauma, love, hate, loyalty, betrayal, and fear. A world is turned upside down in an instant. A life and one’s character are shaped by external forces, and fortitude is forged through survival.

Johnny Valenti is a hit man as well as a man committed to ethics. True, the standard he abides by is somewhat different from traditional ethics, yet he is a man of principle. His uncompromising commitment is to omertá - the code of silence. He believes when you are involved in murder, arson, extortion, and other such crimes, you keep your mouth shut, no matter what. So living up to his beliefs, Valenti takes the rap for a murder he did not commit, and serves eighteen years in prison. When he gets out, using his professional skills, he takes care of the rat that framed him. Finally free, he tries being a law abiding citizen but he simply can't cut it. He's had very little training, indeed none, on the right side of the law. Thus, he returns to his roots, working for a powerful organized crime family led by the brutal boss of bosses. He performs well, getting excellent job performance reviews, but as in most jobs, office politics is killing him - so to speak - and he clashes with the boss. Given his skills as one of the best in the murder-for-hire business, he smells that he may be the target of the boss of bosses, but Valenti turns the table on him. With the help of a mole in a special U.S. federal crime fighting unit, he outwits the boss, and devises an ingenious plan that assures he can live with his true love in anonymity and peace. He disappears leaving no forwarding address.

The Sicilian Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, is one of the most intriguing criminal phenomena in the world. It is an unparalleled organised criminal grouping that over almost two centuries has been able not only to successfully permeate licit and illicit economy, politics and civil society, but also to influence and exercise authoritative power over both the underworld and the upper-world. This criminal phenomenon has been a captivating conundrum for scholars of different disciplines who have tried to explain with various paradigms the reasons behind the emergence and consolidation of the mafia. Challenging the Mafia Mystique provides an analysis of the changes the Sicilian mafia has undergone, from legitimisation to denunciation. Rino Coluccello highlights how, from the very emergence of the organised criminal groups in Sicily, a culture existed that was protective and tolerant of the mafia. He argues that the various conceptualisations of the mafia that dominated the public and scientific debate in the nineteenth and more than half of the twentieth century created a mystique, which legitimised the mafia and contributed to their success. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of organised crime, Italian politics and Italian literature.

NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES The electrifying, untold story of the women born into the most deadly and obscenely wealthy of the Italian mafias – and how they risked everything to bring it down. The Calabrian Mafia—known as the ’Ndrangheta—is one of the richest and most ruthless crime syndicates in the world, with branches stretching from America to Australia. It controls seventy percent of the cocaine and heroin supply in Europe, manages billion-dollar extortion rackets, brokers illegal arms deals—supplying weapons to criminals and terrorists—and plunders the treasuries of both Italy and the European Union. The ’Ndrangheta’s power derives from a macho mix of violence and silence—omertà. Yet it endures because of family ties: you are born into the syndicate, or you marry in. Loyalty is absolute. Bloodshed is revered. You go to prison or your grave and kill your own father, brother, sister, or mother in cold blood before you betray The Family. Accompanying the ’Ndrangheta’s reverence for tradition and history is a violent misogyny among its men. Women are viewed as chattel, bargaining chips for building and maintaining clan alliances and beatings—and worse—are routine. In 2009, after one abused ’Ndrangheta wife was murdered for turning state’s evidence, prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti considered a tantalizing possibility: that the ’Ndrangheta’s sexism might be its greatest flaw—and her most effective weapon. Approaching two more mafia wives, Alessandra persuaded them to testify in return for a new future for themselves and their children. A feminist saga of true crime and justice, The Good Mothers is the riveting story of a high-stakes battle pitting a brilliant, driven woman fighting to save a nation against ruthless mafiosi fighting for their existence. Caught in the middle are three women fighting for their children and their lives. Not all will survive.

How do mafias work? How do they recruit people, control members, conduct legal and illegal business, and use violence? Why do they establish such a complex mix of rituals, rules, and codes of conduct? And how do they differ? Why do some mafias commit many more murders than others? This book makes sense of mafias as organizations, via a collative analysis of historical accounts, official data, investigative sources, and interviews. Catino presents a comparative study of seven mafias around the world, from three Italian mafias to the American Cosa Nostra, Japanese Yakuza, Chinese Triads, and Russian mafia. He identifies the organizational architecture that characterizes these criminal groups, and relates different organizational models to the use of violence. Furthermore, he advances a theory on the specific functionality of mafia rules and discusses the major organizational dilemmas that mafias face. This book shows that understanding the organizational logic of mafias is an indispensable step in confronting them.