23. The Mafia’s Misfortune in Fascist Italy Was a Stroke of Good Fortune for the Italian-American Mafia in the US
Benito Mussolini might have been a farcical clown, but he had successfully curb-stomped Italian organized crime. It was not until WWII and the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy that the Camorra and Sicilian mafia were reborn. Wartime exigencies required the use of whatever help was at hand to win and save American lives. The Mafiosi, especially after what Mussolini had done to them, were committed anti-fascists. So American authorities used the crime syndicates’ remnants to help administer the occupation of Italy.
The Fascists’ suppression of organized crime in Italy had an unintended consequence: it turbocharged the rise of organized crime in the United States. Luckily for the Italian-American mafia, Mussolini’s crackdown on their peers in Italy forced many of them to flee. The push factor at home in Italy coincided with a pull factor in the US, where Italian crime families were experiencing an unprecedented boom. So Italian Mafiosi fleeing Italy swelled the ranks of Mafiosi in America, just when their nefarious services were most needed.
Also Read: Life in Italy Under Benito Mussolini.
