Notes to the reader:

This story is about my character's life prior to arriving in the United States - and then will continue to be a defining story to dive further into his operations of his current life.  I will reference other documents, photos and graphs where necessary and for photos, an underline will be listed for the reader to click on to be given a better graphic of what is portrayed. The town of Sicily that I use - Castelloscuro - is purely fictional.  I do not wish to taint any true town of Sicily with what I write as it is purely fictional.  I look forward to your feedback and hopefully your enjoyment.

 

Part I - Introduction

Castelloscuro, Sicily - 1925

La Musica della Mafia

The hot summer sun beat down along the dry dirt ground below.  The bugs echoed in the background as the workers in the field continued to pick the lemons off of the trees and place them into their buckets.  The agricultural economy of the province of Palermo was booming.  Lemons, blood oranges, grapes, figs, grain and olives all bloomed readily to support the sicilian families at dinner later in the evening; or they would be packaged in mass and shipped across the Atlantic to the United States, where they would arrive in cities like New York, Chicago and Philadelphia to be sold in local markets.  

The men and women carrying out this arduous task in the hot weather were poor.  Sticking to peasant-like dishes at home.  Their own form of work provided was to pick these products from the land, sell them to retail markets in the city and just make enough after the middle man was paid accordingly.  Today however, the workers were very rushed.  This latifondo had been robbed by bandits the night before.  Work supplies had been stolen and two men were shot - while they survived, their improverished families were forced to rely on selling their own goods and maybe even their own forms of petty theft to make ends meet.  

On this particular swath of land, the hectares of land were owned by the wealthy land owner, Giuseppe DiCarlo, had left his land at the disposal of Sylvestro Francaviglia the gabelloto while he resided in the capital of Palermo, enjoying the finer things in life amongst the social elite of the western half of the island.  

The gabelloti were unique individuals in Sicily.  During this time of lawlessness, Sicily experienced a large number of revolts from bandits and thieves in the country side - events that were nothing new to the small town of Castelloscuro, which is located in the southern edge of the province of Palermo - near the villages of Corleone and Mezzojuso.  It's in these parts of Sicily that the mountains stick out of the ground in such dramatic angles, one would think that God himself placed his finger into the ground and created the mountains in one swift movement.

The elite, like DiCarlo, would lease out their land to the gabelloto - who intern would rent the land to the various peasants.  In short, he was the middle man.  Allowing people to work and grow their crops for a fee.  In order to keep himself and the workers safe during these trying times, Francaviglia was equipped with the standard lupara - a sawed off shotgun that was notorious throughout Sicily.  This would remain strapped over his shoulder while his .38 revolver would be holstered at the hip.  While chomping down on his cigar, stairing aimlessly into the mountain side nearby, Francaviglia was confident that today everyone would be paying their working fees after what had happened the night before.  The men who shot the workers were hunted down by Francaviglia and his closest friends:

The Ferrara Clan

Liborio Ferrara, Mariano Ferrara and Roberto Ferrara - Liborio Ferrara was a long time friend and confidant of Sylvestro Francaviglia and he too was a gabelloto on another section of land leased by DiCarlo.  He and his two sons, Mariano and Roberto oversaw security there.

The Cardinale Clan

Bruno Cardinale - A tall and muscular man whose fists would break bones.  Bruno worked as a stone mason and used his hands on a daily basis.  Sylvestro witnessed Bruno defend himself against two thieves who attempted to rob him and his wife at knife point.  Needless to say, the two bandits were known hoods in the area who were only identified by the identifications in their pockets - their faces were beyond recognition due to the beating Bruno delivered.  Bruno was welcomed on board into this business by Sylvestro and later introduced his own son,  Salvatore Cardinale into the business of which they were involved.  Salvatore, built much like his father, was physically strong, although not as intelligent as the father.  He was ranked amongst the picciotti.

As the bandits flet the scene, it was the above men who ambushed them on a country side road, on horseback and riddled them with bullets as they tried to make their escape.  Along with them, was none other than new picciotto Vito DiGiorgio, a young boy who impressed Sylvestro at a young age with his confidence and absolute loyalty.

The bodies were dragged into the country side, holes were dug and they were then disposed of - never to be found again.  

At the end of this work day however, the men experienced no issues.  All of the workers even paid them the dues on time as necessary.  Sylvestro praised Vito at the end of the day for his usual hard work. 

Back in the town of Castelloscuro, the men - Ferraras, Cardinales, Sylvestro & Vito would enter Sylvestro's home to count up the earnings for the day from the workers operating on the DiGiorgio estates.  Men like Sylvestro, Bruno and the Ferraras received the largest share.  This was their 
"cut" as they wet their beak accordingly.  Boys like Salvatore Cardinale and Vito DiGiorgio still had to make their way.  Sylvestro's son, Micheli Francaviglia, a younger but not nearly as competent individual as his father, delivered their cut of the money to the local Polizia di  Stato.  As useless as they were to the community, the men knew that they had to do what was possible to keep the police away from them.  Their protection was guaranteed.  Two others would later greet them for dinner.  Rosario Lombardo and Nino D'Aquino all fellow members of this "club" so to speak.  

A dinner was cooked by Salvatore and Vito, only to serve the men for the evening.  A sicilian pesto - consisting of the usual pinenuts, pesto, garlic and olive oil but also with local tomatoes.  Cooked with hand made busiate pasta - crafted by Sylvestro's wife, Giulia.  A glass of nero d'avola poured for each as they enjoyed their dinner at the end of a long, hot day in the country side.  Tomorrow would be another day with more opportunity.

This was the mafia family of Castelloscuro and how they started their way to power in Sicily.