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Understanding the Mafia: A Quiz on Cosa Nostra

Test your knowledge about the Sicilian Mafia, its history, key figures, and significant events with this engaging quiz.

#Mafia #Cosa Nostra #Sicilian Mafia #organized crime #Italian history #criminal organizations

1 ________ (1928 – 2000), a mafioso who turned informant in 1984.

2 [66] In 1977, the Corleonesi had ________ expelled from the Commission on trumped-up charges of hiding drug revenues.

3 The Mafia (also known as "Cosa Nostra") is a Sicilian criminal society which is believed to have emerged in late 19th century ________, and the first such society to be referred to as a mafia (although it is not the first organized criminal society to appear in Italy).

4 It is widely believed that its seeds were planted in the upheaval of Sicily's transition from feudalism to capitalism in 1812 and its later ________ by mainland Italy in 1860.

5 In 1956, two Mafia-connected officials, Vito Ciancimino and ________, took control of Palermo's Office of Public Works.

6 Nonetheless, in many Italian publications the term "Cosa Nostra" is used to distinguish the Sicilian Mafia from other criminal networks that are also sometimes referred to as "mafias" (such as the ________, the "Neapolitan Mafia").

7 ________ (1923 – 2004), boss of the Mafia Family in Cinisi

8 ________ (born 1962), considered to be one of the successors of Provenzano.

9 Because Leggio was imprisoned in 1974, he acted through his deputy, ________, to whom he would eventually hand over control.

10 In the early 1980s, the magistrates ________ and Paolo Borsellino began a campaign against Cosa Nostra.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • Sicilian Mafia boss Giuseppe Falsone has been on the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy since January 1999, a list of criminals considered extremely dangerous by the Polizia di Stato.
  • Andy "The Bull" McSharry, who was jailed for banning hillwalkers from his land, compared his opponents to the Mafia and patrolled his farm on a quad.
  • Jimmy Fratianno was the highest-ranking member of the Mafia to become an informant for the U.S. government until Sammy Gravano in 1991.
  • Salvatore Cardinal Pappalardo broke the code of omertà in 1992, becoming the first senior Sicilian clergyman of the Catholic Church to openly condemn the Mafia.
  • Roman Catholic priest Giuseppe Diana was killed by the Camorra for resisting their mafia-like rule.
  • North Sea ferry TS Leda (pictured) was rebuilt as a cruise liner, then became an accommodation vessel at a penal colony for Mafiosi, and ultimately was the scene of a Greenpeace demonstration.
  • bugged conversations with surgeon-crime boss Giuseppe Guttadauro revealed how the Mafia funded the 2001 election campaign of Sicilian President Salvatore Cuffaro.
  • Italian mafioso Antonino Calderone (pictured) was the first pentito to provide details on Mafia operations in Catania.
  • Mafia turncoat Baldassare Di Maggio claimed that Cosa Nostra boss Totò Riina respectfully kissed former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti at a meeting.
  • Mafioso Totò Riina eulogised Giuseppe Calderone as a great peacemaker, despite having been allegedly responsible for ordering his death.
  • Cosa Nostra boss Gerlando Alberti, on his arrest in 1980, claimed that he thought that Mafia was a kind of cheese.
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