Know the Signs of Organized Crime

Mafiosi and their victims have always lived side by side. The same ships that brought honest people to America also brought criminals and a unique culture in which organized crime was practiced. Clues to Mafia activity are not only in the news of their criminal exploits, but in larger patterns discoverable to the alert genealogist. Understand how political and social forces shaped the cultural values of southern Italy, learn to identify the signs of Mafia activity in the genealogical record, and gain new insight into the challenges your ancestors faced, in Italy and the United States, from the oppression and violence of organized crime.