The US Italian Mafia got its start in New Orleans when Italian immigrants were being vamped on by the local rednecks as a form of southern hospitality directed at their new wop and dago neighbors. They were a protective association that settled anti-Italian matters in the Sicilian “Black Hand/Carbonari manner. Staten Island is a well known Mafia home town where you want to stay on the good side of the venganza brigade.
vendetta is Italian.