The Mafia isn’t just a snappy-dressed organization of families who argue in Italian and kill people in theatrical, professional manners.
The Mafia, and its various branch groups, is real and still very much active.
As long as there is a way to profit from crime, there will be those who become exceptionally good at organizing themselves together to do it more efficiently.
The Cosa Nostra clan of mafiosos is the infamous root of many movie myths and urban legends.
Most of their lives are hidden in shadow, but every so often, one of them falls and takes the deal to squeal.
One of those men is Santino Di Matteo, a long time informant to the police, who lost his son to the Mafia as payback for his decision.Β
The tale of his son’s death serves as a grim reminder that such evil exists in the world, not just in movies.
10 /10 Sicilian Style
The Sicilian Mafia, at the time, was headed up by Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina. Leading the men was the boss Giovanni Brusca, who Santino was familiar with at the time.
Santino was one of the top men for taking care of problems, an assassin in league with several others.
Whatever the boss wanted to be done, someone would have to do it. Regardless of his family position, he ended up taking orders to assassinate in 1992.
9 /10 Capaci Bombing
The job was simple: a tunnel was dug under a motorway and filled with explosives. The target was the anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.
The bombing was successful, resulting in the target and his family dead. However, soon after, Santino was arrested and was quick to talk about everything.
He gave names of people involved, their roles, their hierarchy, and just kept talking to the officers under the premise of protecting his information. He became a government witness after his arrest in mid-1993.