Word: nostra
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...lira from Europe's exchange-rate mechanism told Italians that their economy was not as resilient as they once thought. Then they were forced to confront the power of the Mafia. And for 18 agonizing months they have been discovering that the crooks are not confined to the Cosa Nostra but reach right into the country's political establishment...
...first and most famous Mafia turncoat, Tommaso Buscetta, was brought back to Italy from the U.S.,where he has lived since his testimony in the 1986-87 "maxi-trial" helped convict 338 mafiosi. Buscetta told the national Anti- Mafia Commission what many Italians have long suspected: that the Cosa Nostra controls many of the country's politicians. He claimed that the current campaign of arrests had decimated the Mafia and persuaded many to break the code of silence known as omerta. National police chief Vincenzo Parisi promised that squealers will get a new home -- outside Italy...
Nowhere across la Cosa Nostra is there a leader with the clout and thuggish charisma of John Gotti. Following the verdict, Gotti's distraught daughter, Vicki Agnelli, hurled an angry comment at reporters: "My father is the last of the Mohicans. They don't make men like him anymore. They never will." Law- enforcement officials surely hope she is right...
...said on the witness stand last week, his enemies are more likely to start calling him by a new moniker, "Sammy the Rat." In five days of often chilling testimony, the former Gambino family underboss calmly described the secret inner workings and rituals of La Cosa Nostra and provided gory details of the 19 killings he admitted taking part in. Most of all, he tried to hammer nails into the legal coffin of John Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime family, who is on trial in Brooklyn for racketeering, gambling, tax fraud and murder. Known as the Teflon...
...Cosa Nostra as a whole, Gravano's decision is the latest blow in a decade's worth of prosecutions and internal backstabbings. While some experts foresee the Mob's impending collapse, the situation may be more akin to the wave of turbulence and consolidation facing the legitimate side of U.S. industry. Four of the five New York families that dominate the national network are in such disarray that "there is talk of mergers and acquisitions," says William Doran, who runs the FBI's criminal division in New York. The fireworks may produce unusual new alliances, but Doran declares that...