How easy is it as a foreigner to study the mafia, coming in from the outside, how willing are people to talk to you, how willing are publishers to take on something like this?
What is different, I think, is that writing about the mafia is tense. There’s a legacy of people who have sacrificed their lives in this cause, and you can’t take that on lightly.
The fear of getting something wrong is not just one of your academic prestige, it really feels like you’re doing something harmful to a cause.
Roberto Saviano wrote an article recently for the Guardian in which he said that if 500 people had read Gomorrah he wouldn’t have been in any danger, but that as soon as it became very popular, he became a target. Is that something that is of concern to you?
I’m different in that I’m a historian. My material is not an immediate threat. If anything, I suppose, Mafiosi are curious about their history.
at the end of Mafia Republic you talked about how things are looking better. One of the reasons you gave for this is that record numbers of Mafiosi are currently serving jail sentences and a record number of convictions are being made. How much does this actually slow the mafia down in terms of their ability to communicate with the outside world?
These days things are different, because the big bosses, the most dangerous Mafiosi, are sent into a special prison regime, one that was introduced as a result of the murders of Falcone and Borsellino, so called carcere duro.
And has the mafia never tried to infiltrate the national investigating commissions, the anti-mafia magistrate pools etc…?
CULTURA E SOCIETA
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Italian director Sabine Guzzanti tweeted something a few months ago about how Mafiosi such as Shorty Riina also deserve their rights, in response to this carcere duro.