Word: sicilianism
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...moonless night in the Sicilian city of Palermo, a night filled with the sirocco, a torrid, noisy wind that blows in across the Mediterranean from the Sahara, moaning through the city's narrow streets and driving its inhabitants indoors. Few if any residents noticed as squads of armored cars raced through the streets and gun-toting officers cordoned off the city into three sections. Nor, except for the street cleaners, who were just beginning their rounds, did anyone see the law men begin rousing out of their beds and hustling off to jail the men whose names appeared...
...told quite a tale. Buscetta, who is being kept under close guard in a secluded villa on the outskirts of Rome, had not only reportedly fingered the gunmen responsible for more than 100 murders, including that of Italy's leading Mafia fighter, but documented the existence of a "Sicilian connection" that operated outside established American Mafia organizations to supply much of the heroin that entered...
...first trial of Nevada Federal Judge Harry Claiborne ended in a hung jury in April because the jurors gave little credence to the testimony of Joe Conforte, a thrice-convicted felon, former international fugitive and once owner of the Silver State's most notorious brothel. The raspy-voiced, Sicilian-born Conforte resembled a character in a Mario Puzo novel as he related how he had given Judge Claiborne $85,000 in bribes to fix cases for him. Defense Attorney Oscar Goodman tore his testimony apart, offering evidence that Conforte was wrong on crucial dates and times. Claiborne was later...
...considering loosening the church's prohibition on artificial birth control; Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, head of the Vatican Bank, who is said to have been scheduled for immediate removal; Roberto Calvi, president of Banco Ambrosiano, who faced ruin if his trickery with Vatican funds was discovered; Michele Sindona, the Sicilian banker who knew about the Vatican Bank's alleged laundering of Mafia money; Licio Gelli, grand master of P2, which is supposed to have boasted some 100 Vatican members; and last but not least, the late John Cardinal Cody of Chicago, who had been tipped off that he would...
...evidence by wiretapping some 300 telephone conversations. According to court documents, important calls were exchanged from phones in or near Al Dente pizzeria in Queens, New York, owned by Catalano and a frequent meeting place for lieutenants in his faction of the Bonanno family. The smugglers spoke in obscure Sicilian dialects and in code. Shipments of heroin were called "cheese" or "tomatoes." U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani says the bust was part of a larger assault on the Mafia. "We can substantially crush organized crime," he said. "And we are doing just that...