First 8 weeks of in class lecture notes PDF

Preview

Summary

These are the in class notes I took from every class before the midterm. The teacher was Carl Ipsen. These notes are directly related to the reading material that we had to do out of class. They cover all material that is needed for the midterm....

Description

Mafia notes 9/14  

Cesare Lombroso believed you could identify criminals by simple physical attributes (inaccurate) Giuseppe Pitre would go around the city and record household, cultural, ritual, and rural practices all around the city. His work was very important for understanding more about that period in Sicily. He gained a great insight on the mafia by doing this.



Italy in the 1890’s are characterized by a period of economic crisis, a rise of socialism came from this (calls for some form of economic equality). Marshall law in was enforced in Sicily During a colonial adventure they were defeated by Ethiopia, huge victory for Ethiopia Ermanno Sangiorgi o Appointed in 1898 to Chief of police and creates a huge report on the mafia finding more information on them than anybody before him o He had been involved on a few previous Sicily crime investigations o His report is the first complete picture of the mafia, he points out the bosses, underbosses, ranks, code of silence, trials, murders, and much more o He tries to use a law on criminal association to prosecute the mafia o His report was a lost opportunity because ultimately it will be forgotten Fondo Lagana was the store owner who kept dealing with people trying to use fake money, a military policeman trying to date her daughter (having friendly relations with police is bad in Sicily because the mafia runs that town). o Those mafia men who had been producing the counterfeit money had been busted and rumor was that she tipped off the police about them. o They shot her twice (didn’t kill her) and her daughter once (killed her) in her store o Buscemi is brought in for questioning and gives up another mafioso for the murder o Mafia holds a trial and finds that Buscemi didn’t do anything wrong. This shows the mafia used the police to get rid of an individual that they might have had an issue with but didn’t want to directly kill him Audrey Whitaker is kidnapped and the mafia demands a ransom, the Whitakers pay the ransom and get her back o The Noto brothers (mafia men) divided up the money to the two carriage drivers (lower rank mafia men) involved and they don’t think the cut was fair so they rob the Villa Florio and steal art and objects. The Villa Florio was a house that the Noto brothers were paid to protect it o This was an insult to the mafia o The wives of the men killed go to Sangiorgi to help testify against the mafia Mafia war (1897-99), from Sangiorgi) o Antonino Giammona (first mafia boss we learned about) vs. Francesco Siino o They go back and forth until Siino’s cousin is gunned down? (I think) o Siino fleas from Sicily o Siino because a huge witness for sangiorgi because he has evidence from all three events described today

IV.2

  







o o

Some of the witness’ changed their testimony, there’s political change, and ultimately Sangiorgi only gets a handful of the men he should’ve arrested Results in Siino getting up and changing his testimony too, he figured if it wont provide a concrete case then why put his family in danger

V. 1    





Liberal period 1860-1922 Italy expanded the group/amount of people that could vote 1890’s crisis period- ‘92 bank crisis, ’84 croackown on socialists, ’96 disaster in Ethiopia, and ’98 attack on socialists in Milan and Pelloux as prime minister June 1900 Pelloux falls and left wing Giolitti comes to power and dominates for next 20 years Don Raffaele Palizzolo o Worked for a bank o Did many favors for people in exchange for votes o Could help with many different things o Many things point to him being corrupt/possible mafia connections Emanuele Notarbartolo o Mayor of Palermo in the 70’s o Landowner (like palizzolo) o He was nemesis of Palizzolo because they were opposite, he was very honest and did things the right way while Palizzolo was shady and corrupt o Notarbartolo shut down some of Palizzolo’s corrupt operations. Causing conflict o 1882 he was kidnapped most likely by Palizzolo because he wanted him to stop coming after his corrupt operations. Never found out for sure who did it o Notarbartolo led investigation on Palizzolo with the banking/NGI stock scheme o 1893 He is murdered on the train to Palermo Notarbartolo murder trial o Took seven years to get to trial o Two train workers are accused at first, then Leopoldo (Notarbartolo’s son) gets on the stand and accuses Palizzolo of killing his father o Prime Minister Pelloux lifts Palizzolo’s parliamentary immunity so that Sangiorgi can arrest him (1899) o pro notarbartolo demonstration (Nov-dec 1899) o Mafia is in its death thrones o Arrest of Giuseppe Fontana (Villabate mafioso, man in the train possibly) by Sangiorgi, protection by a Sicilian prince. Eye witness did identify Fontana as being a person he saw on the train during the time of the murder o June 1900 Palizzolo fails at re-election o Second phase of the trial is in Bologna, defendents are palizzolo and Fontana o Palizzolo claims hes a victim to the political/mafia plot to ruin his reputation o Fontana has an alibi saying he was in Tunisian (Africa) o Jury at bologna convicts Palizzolo and Fontana of the murder and they are both sentenced to 30 years in jail

o o o o o

The bologna phase was basically declared a mistrial because of a small thing not followed by all the rules Fontana commits suicide before the third trial, many believe this could have been a murder that was staged to look like a suicide so that he could not testify on stand When Palizzolo is greeted by thousands when he returns to Palermo in 1904 However he never gained another political position Leopoldo gives up after third trial ends

V.2 in class notes  

     



Italy in 1900 experienced a lot of economic and demographic change Industrialization o steel, rubber textiles o automobiles- Pirelli and FIAT o from 1896 to 1908 the industrial output doubles a lot of people left Italy in the 1890’s to go get better jobs Socialisms goal was to form some type of economic equality/level things out This can be achieved through- raising taxes on the rich, eliminating private property, minimum wages, ect. There are minimalist reformists who want small changes and moderate change There are revolutionary maximalism who want big fast change and often with extreme ideas Bernardino Verro o Socialist, he made many speeches and claimed there was injustice o Fasci in 1893-1894 and had the interview with Rossi in 1893 o He achieved new contracts for the peasants o He joined the Fratuzzi (mafia) because he was in fear of his life. Mafia wanted control of who was going to come into power. So they offered to help him but they wanted to have influence on him when they needed to o State cracked down of fasci in 1896 and Verro tries to flea but is arrested and put in jail o Story jumps to 1907 and fasci have been eliminated but socialism is still around. The main power in places allows more of what the fascist wanted to happen. o The development of cooperatives allowed for loans to go straight to peasants, cutting out the middleman (often Mafiosi). Verro ran a very successful cooperative o This was basically going against the mafia (which he is in) and they try to kill him o Verro flees Corleone but comes back and is elected mayor in 1914 because suffrage had been expanded and almost all men can vote o He is murdered by the mafia in 1915, nobody was convicted and it didn’t make it to many big news stories due to World War I being a majority of the news and worry Bombolo o Story takes place in Sicily (in the country side/rural sicily) o Bombolo is Turkish o His scheme is with his group called The League and he gets peasants to steal cattle from the landowners. So then the landowners knew to go to Bombolo because he was the man that

o o o o o

could “search and find” their cattle, they would then pay Bombolo for getting their cattle back. The landowners know what is going on and don’t go to the police because they are unreliable Bombolo doesn’t make money off of this, he just wants to get peasants paid more money Bombolo is in some sense both mafioso and socialist, but in some ways he is not related to either Eventually the workers finally get paid more so Bombolo retires and is finished stealing cattle After, his league continues to steal cattle even though they are getting paid more from landowners for normal/legal work

VI.1 : Fascism and Mafia 







Fascism o Political movement founded by Benito Musssolini in Milan in 1919 o Was a dictatorship, emphasized the rule of the state. With the idea that fascism would control/regulate every aspect of life. (work/schools/activities/personal life) o After the declaration of a dictatorship Mori and the government made a strong crackdown on mafia o Mussolini signed a treaty with the Catholic Church so that the relationship with the church and state would remain friendly o In 1925 Mussolini decides to take on the mafia and fight against them. He does this because The Great War (1914-1918) o Italy was apart of the Triple Alliance with Austria and Germany. But in May 1915 Italy did not join in the fight (Austria and Germany went into this fight together without even telling Italy) o Mussolini went from revolutionary socialist to nationalism and interventionism o At the end of the war Italy was on the winning side but suffered many deaths and slight humiliation o It was after this war and time period that Fascism would appear and emerge Post-war decade o Socialism was gaining power the two years after war. Known as the Red biennium (because the color associated with socialism was red) o A lot of fascist land/factory owners feared there might be a revolution of socialism and turned to violence on the socialist supporters in their city o In 1922 the King invites Mussolini to create a government (fascist government) o In January 1925 he established a dictatorship and created a totalitarian society and took control over every aspect of life Cesare Mori o Started out as a cop, became the prefect of Palermo and fought the war on the mafia o Still in Sicily during WW1 when the draft takes 400,000 Sicilians to go fight. Quite a few men kind of ran off into the hills to prevent going to war o These men often resorted to illegal activities in order to make extra money off the war (steal cattle because they know the military needs meat) o He comes into conflict with the Fascist because fascist starts doing illegal activities

o o o

In bologna the fascists end up kicking him out of office because of his conflict with them Returns to Sicily and becomes prefect of Palermo in 1925 He contained the town of Gangi and trapped mafia men in their and slowly found and arrested over 400 people there who they accused of being in the mafia

Tuesday class  Review:  

  









Giovani Brusca- not going to appear as ID on the test ID’s- need to go as deep as possible, not always people, could be place or event or story like Bomolo (what did they do? When did they do it? (what decade not exact year), what position did they have (mafioso, victim, etc), and what significance came from the person or event) Look into rustic chivalry, made into an opera, and how Dickie uses it to reference how Italians are big tough guys, not going to the police and doing things on their own Review the sangiorgi report and how it showed the relationship between the mafia and state Favaro region – near the south coast of Italy, theres a battle between to mafia coscas there, leads to a killing and results in the two mafias working together to take over the Sulphur business there. They are investigated and arrested and it was in the end a success against the mafia. Significance of strategy of tension- elements in government or forces of order are fermenting terror in order to crack down on types of terror in society. Example is the stabbings that happened all at the same time and nobody was every caught. Significance of Tajani’s speech- after unification in 1860 the historical right comes to power. Liberals believed certain things should be free and people should have many rights to make their own choice. On the right some people want some of those freedoms limited. First 15 years the right is in power. Prime Minister, then Minister of Interior- he appoints prefects in all providences. Lots of corruption came about this. In this debate in the 1970’s the right is trying to say the left is filled with Mafiosi, the left is saying there is no such thing as the mafia. Dioni gets up tells the left that denying the existence of the mafia is like saying theres no sun. and tells right that while in sicily he saw that mafia had influenced the right so much that the police were helping/working with mafia. This convinces left and right to abandon this argument. Format of exam- get a blue book, get 8 ID’s, and we have to choose 4 of them and write down whatever we can. (who what when where how why and significance). Then we are given 4 eassays and do 2 of them. ID’s are 5 points each, essays are 15 points each. A page for an ID and 2-3 pages for an essay. Florio and Whitakers- Florio were one of the wealthiest families in Italy. As described in the Sangiorgi repor. A young daughter of the Whitakers is kidnapped by the mafia and they pay the wanted ransom and get their daughter back. A couple members of the mafia group felt they didn’t get paid enough of the ransom for doing the job. The Noto brothers insult the mafia by stealing from the Florio’s, which the Florios use the mafia for protection. Mafia says they will pay them more, they just need to bring the things they stole back. They bring the things back and end up dead. When it comes time for the trial, the Whitakers deny that their daughter was ever kidnapped and the Florio’s basically just deny to go to the stand.

   



Strategy- think of your own essay questions- ex: tell me about Franchetti’s and the investigation into the violence industry and the connection with the mafia and the state Lemon groves Bernardino verro The violence industry- Franchetti apparently not trusting in the laws situation, they carry out an investigation on their own and go through Sicily to gather info on their own. They come up with a theory that the transfer from the barrons (princes and other titles) to the state was never able to occur. He believed that an element of violence played into the growth, production, and sale of products. The mafia uses this violence as a form of capital in order to basically take over companies or industries and run them through the threat of violence. Nicotera was the minister of interior in 1876 after the left comes to power, he was famous for managing elections like nobody before him (had huge victories), he cracked down on the mafia and claims they have defeated the mafia, what seems what really happened is he struck a deal with the mafia to keep the violence to a minimum and he would turn a blind eye to the illegal activity. He doesn’t stay in power very long but the model he made with a relationship between state and mafia will stick around for awhile....