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Fascinating Facts About the Birth of the Italian-American Mafia

Khalid Elhassan February 13, 2025 17 min

Mafia - Lucky Luciano, who midwifed the birth of the modern Italian-American Mafia — Lucky Luciano, who midwifed the birth of the modern Italian-American Mafia. The Mob Museum

12. It Took World War II to Inadvertently Bring the Mafia Back to Life in Italy

Mafia - Italian Mafiosi rounded up by the Fascists — Italian Mafiosi rounded up by the Fascists. Okruchy Historii

Mussolini bypassed the criminal justice system and sent in the army and Black Shirts to round up Mafiosi, killing any who resisted. Mafiosi had long intimidated civilians, strutting as scary tough guys. They discovered that soldiers were scarier and tougher. Fortunately for the Italian-American Mafia, Mussolini’s crackdown in Italy forced many Mafiosi to flee. The push factor at home coincided with a pull factor in America, where Italian-American crime families were booming. Thus, Italian Mafiosi fleeing Italy swelled the ranks of America’s Mafia just when their services were most needed. It was not until World War II and the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy that the Camorra and Sicilian mafia were reborn, when the US Army employed their remnants to help administer the occupation. Wartime exigencies required the use of whatever was at hand to help win and save American lives, and the Mafiosi were committed anti-Fascists, after all.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.