Riina and the Corleonese were like “terrorists” against their fellow mafiosi in that they respected no one, and committed mass killings across Sicily, bombing, torture, etc., and tried their best to subject the other families and mafiosi from other towns and districts into subservience..... creating such fear and havoc that sometimes brother went against brother, compare against compare, just in hopes of “surviving” their campaign of terror! Horrible!Dwalin2014 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:52 pmBy then, all the rules of the "old" mafia (if there really were any) in Sicily were fucked up by Riina and his gang of "terrorists" who took control over everything. Buscetta never rejected the idea of the old-fashioned "traditional" mafia, but Riina and company weren't "mafia" anymore by those standards, they broke every possible rule themselves. Buscetta broke 1 rule (informing), but they broke countless other rules of the mafia, they turned the organization into something it wasn't before. At least, that's how I understand Buscetta's reasoning.bert wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:38 pmDwalin2014 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:36 pmHe had no "firepower" or allies to take revenge by that time. Testifying was the only thing he could to to harm the killers of his family; if he retired and accepted it, that would mean he didn't care about his family. If he had enough "soldiers", he would likely have tried to retaliate, but by that time almost all his allies were killed, he had no means to take revenge.bert wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:12 pm Tommaso Buscetta was justified by out standards, if he went by the ones he lived by he was supposed to kill the people who killed his people, or retire and accept it. I know it makes no sense to us, but he lived by that code, or was supposed to. I wonder how they view what he did in Sicilian Mafia circles?
It would not mean he did not care about his family, it would mean he accosted it as were the rules he lived by up till then. No way he did not care about his family (I assume)
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As an example, the Buccellato Family (both the Cosca and personal Family members) of Castellammare del Golfo, were slaughtered, one by one, until there was no one left in that town of any prominence and influence.
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The Corleonese then installed their own “puppet” leader as “representante”, almost completely “enslaving” or subjugating their Cosca membership! They repeated this technique across the Island..... by the time the smoke cleared, hundreds if not several thousand had perished at the hands of Riina and his followers.
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THIS is what Buscetta faced. He was not alone! Tano Badalamenti, Stefano Bontate and all the other decades long bosses across Sicily were often blindsided, ambushed or lulled into complacency, then eliminated. As Riina became more powerful, it was impossible to fight him.
Even established mafiosi could not trust or conspire with their “compare” for fear of betrayal.... so Buscetta, Badalamenti and others either died or fled to other countries; Germany, Argentina, Canada, America..... etc.,
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THIS for me, is one of, if not the prime reason for the “breaking” of the Sicilian Mafia. Even the State, which had always conspired with the Cupola, backed up amid worldwide embarrassment and LE pressure after the public bombing campaigns and massive slaughter that ensued! ...... they had had enough!!!
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The ultimate result, was that even after Riina and the Corleonese had been jailed and finished, towns like Castellammare del Golfo became headed by “third string”
(Not even second-string) leaders. Without the historical knowledge, knowhow, connections and entrenched rackets.... and a much more hardened (LE) Carabiniere and state attitude against the Mafiosi because of all the state terror previously perpetrated against Italy..... that today these families are a shadow of their former selves!
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And I guess the same could be said of the American CN as well for much of the very same reasons minus the bombings and terror against the government