More than a
year has sped by since, at Premier Mussolini’s orders, the dread Mafia
was hunted down on the island of Sicily,
captured, jailed. For centuries the Mafia protected Sicilians while the
island was under foreign rule. When Italy became unified in 1870, the
Mafia turned brigands and terrorized the
island ruthlessly. Not until the advent of Signor Mussolini and his
Fascist! has any government dared to put down their wholesale
lawlessness, although many half-hearted attempts have been made.Last week in Termini Imerese, Sicily, a strange legal case began
—the trial of the 153 members of the Andaloro-Ferrarello gang. It was
strange because the prisoners were brought into court in iron-barred
cages and arranged around the room like wild animals, guarded by a
small army of colorfully uniformed Carabinieri with fixed bayonets. Interest centred on Giuseppa Andaloro, mother of three sons
and four daughters, together ringleaders of the Andaloro-Ferrarello
gang. She, a toothless, white-haired hag, was called the Queen of the
Mafia gangs. Her word was law. Dressed in a man’s clothes, she was wont
to ride around the country marking out victims for the Mafia. She it
was who ordered murders, robberies, extortions, ambushings, torture,
kidnappings. None dared disobey her commands.Her word was such that
she commanded the members to marry whomsoever she should select.
Without her consent none could marry. Many a match she broke. This she
did in order that her followers might make good marriages,
“good” meaning an accretion of wealth for this and that
gang.She it was who ordered this and that peasant or laborer to
perjure himself before the courts in order to secure the release of a
captured member. She fixed the ransoms and organized their method of
collection. All the fiendish devilry in the gangs was said to emanate
from her.And in one of the iron-barred cages she sat, shorn of her
power, glowering at the court officials, scowling at the
Carabinieri—an old woman, with wrinkled skin, ferocious mien, coarse
features. None doubted that a death, too long delayed, according to
the Sicilians, would be her fate.The trial began with evidence from
Salvatore Ferrarello, notorious chief. He denied that he was ever a
member of the Andaloro-Ferrarello gang. “That is absurd,”
said he. “I have always been their enemy.” He denied, as was
to be expected, all the crimes with which he was accused. Extortion in
particular he condemned as a “frivolous” act. “I
would be ashamed to commit it!” said he. “Although I am the
nephew of Gaetano Ferrarello, [another notorious bandit chief who
killed himself in prison rather than face trial], I am proud to
proclaim that I am an honest man and a perfect gentleman!”The trial continued.
