The 1883 "Fratellanza" investigation into the early mafia in Favara, Agrigento, specified that there were two separate, rival organizations in conflict with one another. Previously Angelo and I speculated that this was one Family and these were simply two factions of one organization, possibly appointing their own de facto leadership as we see in other factional conflicts (i.e. Colombo war of the 90s, Bonanno war of the 1960s, etc. where the warring factions appoint their own admin). However, I came across a reference from Nino Calderone where he said during his time there were in fact two separate Families in Favara.
So it appears we were wrong about Favara in the 1880s. Unlike seemingly all comuni outside of Palermo citta, Favara has or had two Families and their separate existence goes back close to ~145 years or longer. I don't know if this arrangement continued after Calderone's time but it seems to have had a long history.
Is anyone aware of other towns in Sicily aside from Palermo citta and Favara that had more than one Family? Maybe Catania (with roots in the Ferlito vs. Santapaola conflict), although I'm not sure the exact formalities and/or geography of the arrangement as originally it was one Family and it can be hard to sort out what is factionalism vs. a "recognized" formal distinction.
Here is what Scagghiuni said:
in Catania province there are 4 Cosa Nostra families: Santapala, Mazzei and the ones based in the towns of Caltagirone and Ramacca, the others
Note he says "province". The Caltagirone and Ramacca Families don't count as those are their own comuni and I'm not sure if there is a geographic separation between the Santapaola and Mazzei Families or if they both occupy the city of Catania. If they do, Catania is quite large so it's not directly comparable to Favara (Catania's population is roughly 10x Favara).
This report from the 1950s on the Sicilian mafia (the FBI sourced it from Italian LE) says other Agrigento towns like Siculiana and Cattolica Eraclea had two competing groups as well and the same report mentions two groups in Favara which could be based on the 1880s investigation but we know it was still true at the time of this report ~75 years later:
I've never heard of Siculiana or Cattolica Eraclea having two borgate each within the town and some of these old reports draw erroneous conclusions so I'm not sure if the basis of these statements all comes from the 1880s investigation or if there was tangible evidence of two Families in other Agrigento comuni aside from Favara.
The 1883 "Fratellanza" investigation into the early mafia in Favara, Agrigento, specified that there were two separate, rival organizations in conflict with one another. Previously Angelo and I speculated that this was one Family and these were simply two factions of one organization, possibly appointing their own de facto leadership as we see in other factional conflicts (i.e. Colombo war of the 90s, Bonanno war of the 1960s, etc. where the warring factions appoint their own admin). However, I came across a reference from Nino Calderone where he said during his time there were in fact two separate Families in Favara.
So it appears we were wrong about Favara in the 1880s. Unlike seemingly all comuni outside of Palermo citta, Favara has or had two Families and their separate existence goes back close to ~145 years or longer. I don't know if this arrangement continued after Calderone's time but it seems to have had a long history.
Is anyone aware of other towns in Sicily aside from Palermo citta and Favara that had more than one Family? Maybe Catania (with roots in the Ferlito vs. Santapaola conflict), although I'm not sure the exact formalities and/or geography of the arrangement as originally it was one Family and it can be hard to sort out what is factionalism vs. a "recognized" formal distinction.
Here is what Scagghiuni said:
[quote]in Catania province there are 4 Cosa Nostra families: Santapala, Mazzei and the ones based in the towns of Caltagirone and Ramacca, the others[/quote]
Note he says "province". The Caltagirone and Ramacca Families don't count as those are their own comuni and I'm not sure if there is a geographic separation between the Santapaola and Mazzei Families or if they both occupy the city of Catania. If they do, Catania is quite large so it's not directly comparable to Favara (Catania's population is roughly 10x Favara).
This report from the 1950s on the Sicilian mafia (the FBI sourced it from Italian LE) says other Agrigento towns like Siculiana and Cattolica Eraclea had two competing groups as well and the same report mentions two groups in Favara which could be based on the 1880s investigation but we know it was still true at the time of this report ~75 years later:
[img]https://i.ibb.co/jbsMBNF/siculiana.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i.ibb.co/PwttDP2/favara.jpg[/img]
I've never heard of Siculiana or Cattolica Eraclea having two borgate each within the town and some of these old reports draw erroneous conclusions so I'm not sure if the basis of these statements all comes from the 1880s investigation or if there was tangible evidence of two Families in other Agrigento comuni aside from Favara.