Free Republic

The Italian government on Thursday dissolved four town councils due to evidence of mafia infiltration. The affected towns were Laureana di Borrello, Bova Marina, and Gioia Taura, all located in Reggio Calabria at the toe of Italy’s boot, as well as San Felice a Cancello in Caserta, Campania. […] Government-appointed commissions will take over council duties, the ministry said, and local elections scheduled for June 11th will no longer take place in two of the Sicilian towns. […] In 2016, the government disbanded the local council of Corleone because of suspected mafia infiltration of the Sicilian town which helped inspire...

A bishop in Sicily has banned known mafia criminals from acting as godfathers at baptisms in churches in his diocese. Michele Pennisi, bishop of Monreale, near Palermo, said Friday he had issued a decree to that effect in a bid to challenge any notion that the bosses of organized crime have a paternalistic side to them. “The mafia has always taken the term ‘Godfather’ from the Church to give its bosses an air of religious respectability, whereas in fact the two worlds are completely incompatible,” the bishop told AFP. Pennisi’s diocese includes Corleone, a vendetta-haunted village inland from Palermo which...

The Italian government believes Mafiosi have infiltrated the local administration of Corleone, the Sicilian town which inspired the fictional crime clan’s name in “The Godfather” novel and movie. Premier Matteo Renzi’s Cabinet on Wednesday dissolved Corleone’s municipal government and put its City Hall under temporary control of the interior ministry. …

SAN DIEGO –  The Roman Catholic archbishop-elect of San Francisco was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence, San Diego police said Monday. The Rev. Salvatore Cordileone was taken into custody after being stopped early Saturday at a police checkpoint near the San Diego State University campus, said Detective Gary Hassen, a police spokesman. He declined to comment on whether Cordileone took a sobriety test or reveal his blood-alcohol content. The stop was made at 12:26 a.m. on the outskirts of the campus, an area populated by college housing, modest restaurants and low-slung apartment buildings. There was no record...

Village of Corleone lives

CORLEONE, Sicily - Decades before Mario Puzo borrowed its name for his novel about a ruthless Mafia family and Marlon Brando brought "The Godfather" to life with a throaty voice, Corleone — the town, not the don — had its own bloody story. For generations, this medieval mountain town overlooking rolling fields where sheep and horses graze has been home to the murderous Corleonesi crime clan. The capture this month of Bernardo Provenzano, reputed chieftain of the Corleonesi crime family and No. 1 boss of Cosa Nostra across Sicily, ended one shameful chapter in the town's life. While breathing a...

Bernardo Provenzano's arrest, on the day Silvio Berlusconi lost power, provoked a storm of speculation The head of the Sicilian Mafia, Bernardo Provenzano, nicknamed "The Tractor" for the way he once mowed down his rivals, was arrested without a struggle yesterday after 42 years on the run. The 73-year-old was found in a small farmhouse near his home town, Corleone. A small earthquake shuddered through the hills minutes before the police arrived.At first he denied being the world's most wanted Mafia fugitive. But after an on-the-spot DNA test, he confessed: "Yes, it's true, I am Bernado Provenzano."He was then...

Bernardo Provenzano, the chief of the Sicilian Mafia who has been on the run for more than four decades and was Italy's most wanted man, was arrested near Corleone in Sicily on Tuesday, officials said. It was the state's biggest success against the Mafia in more than 13 years. Provenzano, known as the "Phantom of Corleone" after the hill town in Sicily made famous by the Godfather films, has been running the Mafia since 1993, when former "boss of bosses" Toto Riina was arrested in the Sicilian capital Palermo. The last known photograph of mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano taken in...

ROME (Reuters) - Police have arrested Bernardo Provenzano, the head of the Sicilian Mafia who has been on the run for more than four decades and is Italy's most wanted man, Italy's Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

<p>CBS 5 News has learned Marlon Brando passed away Thursday in Los Angeles.</p> <p>Brando may be best known for his roles in "The Godfather" and "On the Waterfront". He won oscars for his work in those 2 films.</p> <p>The cause of death is still unknown.</p>

ROME (Reuters) - Quick. What comes to mind when you hear the word Corleone? If you said Mafia, some people in the Sicilian town think that may be part of the problem and not the solution. Local lawyer Antonio Di Lorenzo began a signature drive on Tuesday to change the name of the hill town south of Palermo made famous by "The Godfather" books and films of the 1970s. He thinks enough is enough and wants the city's name changed to protect the innocent, so to speak. But not everyone agrees. "Some people come all the way from countries such...

CORLEONE, Sicily - This is bloodied land, stained by murder and torture during years as the private property of Sicily's most notorious Mafia boss, a man they call "The Beast." Today, however, after years of association with Italy's ugliest products, the Mafia, this turf yields one of its tastiest: pasta. Young farmers have taken confiscated mob land and turned it into fields of grain for pasta — finally harvesting good from towns such as Corleone and showing that Mafia culture can be defied. "Ten years ago, something like this would have been unimaginable, impossible," says the pasta project leader, Gianluca...