Word: castagna
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...whose 100-odd mud-floored houses swarm with flies, black pigs and naked children, the Mafia leaders, in his telling, were a loutish collection of bullyboys dedicated to thievery, twisted honor and senseless violence. But the ritual they practiced was ominous with medieval significance. One night in 1941 Serafino Castagna was taken to a dimly lit hut for induction into the order. His arm was ritually slashed and his blood sucked by all the members present. With his wound still throbbing, he took the oath: "I swear by our noble ancestors, the Spanish Knights Osso, Mastrosso and Carcagnosso...
During the next year in prison, Castagna did what he could to make amends, by giving the police a full account of his life in the Mafia. As a result, 19 of his former friends were jailed. Last week, gripping the bars of their cells with white-knuckled hands, they stared in cold hatred at their betrayer as he was led off to tell more of his story in court. "I'm innocent!" screamed one. But Serafino Castagna, on trial for murder, only shrugged. "We were all innocent," he said, "when we sucked our mother's milk...