Dec 23 2008
Roberto Saviano’s life mirrors that of the mobsters who have vowed to kill him: He has gone into hiding, even from his neighbors.
Saviano, 29, is the author who fingered the Camorra mafia in a bestseller. A month ago, Italian police learned of what they call a credible plan to murder him before Christmas. Continue Reading »
Oct 17 2008
Salman Rushdie: I am very disappointed to hear that Random House has cancelled another author’s novel Photo: GEOFF PUGH
Salman Rushdie has said that an Italian journalist who is under an alleged death threat from the country’s feared Neapolitan mafia is in even greater danger than he was under Iran’s fatwah.
The British author said the Naples-based Camorra Mafia has a much further reach than the mullahs of Tehran who called for his assassination. Continue Reading »
Sep 03 2008
Stereotypes become stereotypes because nine times out of 10 they are true. Hear the words “Mafia boss” and you think: olive-skinned with dark, slightly bloodshot eyes and a sharp suit.
Louis Ferrante fulfils some of those preconceptions. He is New York Italian, powerfully built, and was wearing a black shirt when interviewed for HARDtalk by Sarah Montague.
He worked for John Gotti of the infamous Gambino crime family, which pulled off some of the most lucrative heists in American history. Continue Reading »
Jun 12 2008
Joseph Serio’s recently released book “Investigating the Russian Mafia” (Carolina Academic Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2008) is a detailed accounting of his study and personal experience on “Russian Mafia” related issues. He notes that the term “Russian Mafia” comprises elements of several ethnic groups in Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union. Continue Reading »
May 07 2008
Heavily guarded Roberto Saviano is known as the Salman Rushdie of Italy
Heavily guarded Italian mob author Roberto Saviano, 28, poses for a photograph at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 in Toronto. Nathan Denette/National Post
TORONTO -Roberto Saviano, the embattled Italian author of a sensational expose of the calamitous world of the Camorra, the Mafia of Naples, stares with darkly brooding eyes but flashes a mischievous smile when asked what Canada means to the mobsters in his neighbourhood. Continue Reading »
Apr 12 2008
Toby Clements reviews McMafia: Crime without Frontiers by Misha Glenny
The title of this horrifying but gripping book derives not from some criminal variant of the Celtic tiger, but a suggestion that just as McDonald’s fast food outlets have spawned exponentially all over the world since the Nineties, so has the Mafia. Continue Reading »
