Cosa Nostra: An Illustrated History of the Mafia, by Massimo Picozzi

 

Christopher Hirst
Thursday 12 July 2012 17:20 BST
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Many subjects are pictured in shiny black pools on the parquet floors of restaurants.

In 1957, Francisco Scalice was shot in his Bronx greengrocery under an advert for oranges: "Fresh for health!" Banker Roberto Calvo wears the noose from his "faked suicide" at Blackfriars Bridge. Gang boss Carmine Galante, hit in Brooklyn, still has his cigar clamped in mouth. Picozzi, Italy's "leading expert in criminal profiling", provides learned commentary on this compulsive gallery of heroes and villains. Bernardo "The Tractor" Provenzano looks harmless, Toto "the Beast" Riina quite the reverse.

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