I know next to nothing about any of them, is there a list or something of all of them? Are they structured the same as american ones? And which ones are supposed to have american ties? Thanks people.

Structure wise it’s a lot more clannish - small groups called coschi - which is something to do with artichokes - and it’s much more territorial. Clans generally control areas, which can be anything from a few streets in a small village to a decent chunk of a whole city.

I think the artichoke reference is actually pretty apt because, whereas the American mafia works top down, I always think of the Sicilian groups as being circular, working around a central hub. It definitely feels more 'in it together' than the way it appears to work in the US.

The whole boss (cappo famiglia) / underboss (capo bastone) / consigliere / captain (caporegime) and solider (soldato) system is in place in the Sicilian groups but how they actually employ that is completely dictated by the clans itself. If the group is really small, or based in a fairly rural location, or if the boss is particularly open, it seems fairly common for soldiers to report directly to the boss, with no in between figures and just a consigliere to help resolves disputes.

This works firstly because there's no Rico-esque statute in place, so local bosses don't have to hide away and buffer themselves so much, and also because the idea of omerta is still very strong, among citizens as much as mafiosi, and people would still rather settle disputes themselves, rather than in a court of law or with the help of police / authorities.

It also works because bosses are, officially at least, directly elected by the soldiers - usually on a yearly basis. Obviously, as in any autocratic system, the guy in power almost always flexes his muscles to ensure he’s re-elected but genuine power shifts do happen. Part of the reason Toto Riina had to be so ruthless in the 80s was because there were so many potential power shifters around that could challenge his grip on the Corleonesi clan. He basically couldn’t get the total power he wanted until everyone was dead, so he just killed everyone. But yeah, bosses are, officially at least, elected by the soldiers every year. Being the boss isn’t really like being boss in the US though. There’s less all infallible power over the soldiers for a start – with consigliere more involved in holding the boss to account. That said, there is also a greater respect for the boss’s authority so you’re more likely to find guys obeying out of genuine respect for the position and structure than in America where respect is built more of sycophancy and fear.

The underboss is appointed by the boss, not elected, and basically just acts as his aide. He’s a senior figure but not particularly crucial to operations. Like Joe Biden though, he’ll have to step up and become boss if the boss is killed, until the next election anyway.

The consigliere is vital to Sicilian families. They are also elected every year and by their nature they need to be independent figures, waggling the rule book in everyone’s face. They often command greater respect than the boss and are often people that have previously been bosses but stepped back from that role. In fact that’s the way I think you could define it; the boss has the power, the consigliere generally has the respect, the soldiers do the work. If the balance is disrupted; someone steps out of line, or the boss is squeezing people too hard or whatever, it’s the consigliere’s job to use the respect he’s garnered to bend the boss or the soldiers back into shape.

The capo and soldier situation is basically the same as in the US, although the crews (or decina as they are called) are often a bit smaller and more closely knit than in the US.

There are roughly 90-110 coschi or clans in Sicily alone and as I said it is way more territorial than in the US. In terms of how they operate in a wider context, three neighbouring clans make up a mandamento. There are roughly 30 mandamento in Sicily. Some are fairly remote and connect three individual villages, others, particularly in Palermo directly border another mandamento. Somehow (and on this I’m not really sure exactly how) one of the three bosses of each mandamento’s clans is elected Capo Mandamento – ie head of the local region. I’m not sure if the Capo Mandamento has any particularly heightened authority of the local area, but it appears the main reason the role exists is so each region has a representative who can sit on the Commission.

There are both provincial Commissions – so each ‘state’ of Sicily can settle its personal business without needing to bother the bigger Sicily-wide Commission – known as the Cupola. The only areas of Sicily without regional commissions are traditionally Ragusa, Messina and Siracusa but when I was in Modica recently I read there are now thought to be small Commissions in Ragusa and Siracusa now too.

The larger Sicily wide Commission is basically just an extension of the Palermo provincial commission. Basically, almost everything you’ll ever read on the mafia in Sicily takes place in Palermo or Agrigento provinces, and the bulk of the power has always been with Palermo. Essentially what’s good for Palermo province is good for Sicily as a whole when it comes to the Mafia, with certain manadamenti within the Citta di Palermo itself having considerably greater power and influence than the entire Commission of some provinces.

Every goddamn town or village has a family in Sicily

Not really, but in Palermo and the surrounding area it sometimes seems like it.

In the east of the island (Catania excepted) there is very little mafia activity at all. In fact in the extreme north east and extreme south east (where my relatives comes from) you'd be hard pushed to find much activity mafia at all. When something very occasionally does happen its usually overspill from Catania, and when it does the papers go nuts about it.

Organised crime in the south east is usually not related to cosa nostra, its more people trafficking or non cosa nostra drug smuggling and various other coastal / smuggling crimes. Large stretches of remote coastline encourages that..

yeah in western sicily every town/village/neighbourhood has a family or at least a decina/crew
in the east there are less family but they run the towns with no mafia
for example the mafia clan in calatabiano next to catania run giardini and taormina towns

Thanks johnny and m2w! Great info! Is there a list of them or a place i can look online?

who runs Alia or Marineo? anyone kno?

I'm wondering whether the tradional hierarchy was first introduced in America or in Sicily. In America it was introduced by Maranzano, who supposedly based this concept on the Roman legions. But if this concept already existed in Sicily Maranzano's idea wouldn't have been original at all.

Hey Skinny, I've definitely seen a clan list somewhere. Will try and hunt it down for you. in the meantime here's a rough list of the madamenti in Sicily. Keep in mind each madamento is made up of 3 separate families.

Palermo City commission
Puorto Nuovo
Brancaccio
Boccadifalco
Passo di Rigano
Santa Maria di Gesù
Noce
Pagliarelli
Resuttana e S. Lorenzo

Palermo Province commission
Corleone
Partinico
San Giuseppe Jato
Villabate
Belmonte Mezzagno
Gangi – San Mauro Castelverde

Agrigento province commission
Agrigento
Porto Empedocle
Canicattì
Cianciana
Ribera
Sambuca di Sicilia (the sciaccia family are semi autonomous but theoretically make this a 4 family mandimento)
Casteltermini
Palma di Montechiaro
Campobello di Licata

Trapani province commission
Trapani
Castelvetrano
Mazara del Vallo
Alcamo

Caltinesetta commission
Gela (the non cosa nostra organised crime group 'La Stidda' also operate here. They're basically a bunch of smelly, stupid guys the real CN would never employ.
Vallelunga
Riesi
Mussomeli

Catania province Commission
(no mandamenti as there is only one, very large family active in the province)
Santapaola

Gela (the non cosa nostra organised crime group 'La Stidda' also operate here. They're basically a bunch of smelly, stupid guys the real CN would never employ.

I'm going to correct you on Stidda. Although, I agree with your description of them, most have now been absorbed into Cosa Nostra today. They have been working together now for some years.

Ciro, I'm reasonably sure theres no single family in Alia. Any activity there is likely to be a spin off from one of the villabate clans. This is based on a couple of remarks made in Giornale Di Sicilia articles. No idea about marineo I'm afriad, but given the towns location id imagine its a real mafia stronghold. Why do you ask about these towns soecifixally? do you have relatives there. My bro lived in Bolognetta near marineo for around 5 years in the late 90s.

Thanks johnny! Id appreciate that!

Grazie Carm!! Apologies. Im sure youre right. I switch off whenever Stidda are mentioned!! Ive been to Gela twice. reluctantly. it is hell on earth. plus i crashed a hire car there!! was going to mention you as a Agrigento / caltinesetta expert. AG has always interested me, but i never known where to begin. My mums family are from scicli in Ragusa but my half brother has lived in and around Palermo my whole life, so i tend to look at Sicily through those filters!!

I'm right with you. I do too. But look at this, I was at a wedding in 2010, in Porto Empedocle, AG, between the son of a Cosa Nostra boss killed by Stidda right in front of him in 1986, and the sister of current boss of Stidda in Porto Empedocle.
And it was HER very family that killed her new husband's father in '86. This makes my head spin, but, as I said, they have more or less united to make stronger mafia ties.

lol about the car you crashed. Don't get me started on the driving. You must have rented anything bigger than a fiat.

Wow, that's pretty incredible. My mum jokes that Sicilians 'marry like medieval people' - meaning getting hitched primarily for political or financial reasons. Your story sort of proves her point!!

I've always found driving in Sicily to be OK to be honest. I fly from London to Palermo a couple of times a year and always make the long drive all the way down to Scicli - right through the centre of the island - usually in a small Fiat ot Nissan or something. The roads are great and Scicli itself has nice wide roads as the whole town used to be under wAter like Venice. A nearby damn blocked he river flow but they tarmaced the river beds and turned them into roads.

The accident is Gela was all my fault though. I was chatting to my girlfriend and didnt realise the street getting narrower and narrower. Eventually i just heard a horrible metallic sound as my poor car scraped along the outside of someone's house. I panicked and swerved and hit the wall on the other side!! Worst of all i couldn't reverse out the street and it was way too narrow to turn around, so i added another bunch or scratches as i made the tightest left hand turn to take my battered car back to the main road!! :-((

I hope you left a note god damn it.

Dam carm you know sum people huh?

the pizzaboy of sicily!

the hierarchy was formed in sicily it's full of reports about mafia families in the middle and end of XIX century
maranzano just used the old sicilian structure

in palermo city yes but in other places mandamenti have more than 3 families
there are 65 families in palermo province and 20 in trapani according to police
in catania there is a very large family (santapaola)with decinas in all the province and other smaller separate families in caltagirone and other towns catania run all east sicily included separated families in other eastern provinces that answer to catania
it's like the chicago outfit that used to run western families in the states lol

I've read 90+ to 150 clans.

In Sicily there are about 160 families, about 6,000 made members and 60,000 associates.

Nick Gentile talked about capo decinas and consiglieres being in place in Sicily, before Maranzano took over. Gentile also talked about Saverio Pollaccia and named him Masseria´s consigliere. So it looks like the traditional hierarchy was in place already before Maranzano.

So the limited activity I've heard about in Ragusa/Modica/Scicli is likely to be linked to the santapaola? I didnt realise they had such a long reach. Makes sense though.

Does Bagheria also have its own cosca?

Yes, as far as I know. Antonino Mineo (killed in 1989) was a member of the cupola and was considered one of those who pulled the strings behind Michele Greco (the chairman of the cupola, but in fact a sort of puppet, or at least the informants say so). Then there was Leonardo Greco, also a very powerful one, now serving life sentences.
I also read there was a conflict between 2 bosses of Bagheria - Pietro Lo Iacono and Giuseppe Scaduto in 2009. Scaduto hired a hit squad headed by Michele Modica (the one that was shot in Toronto in 2004, a bystander was hit and paralyzed).

So the Greco clan was active in Bagheria?

yeah and it's among the most powerful

Does anyone know current state of Corleone Crime Family,who is current boss,after arrest of Gaetano Riina in 2011?

isn't it Rosario Lo Bue?