From Publishers Weekly
In a new volume on the inner workings of the Sicilian mob, Longrigg (Mafia Women), a British authority on the Mafia, examines the rise and fall of Bernardo Provenzano, a lowly thug who assumed the post of boss of bosses of the Cosa Nostra. A former enforcer to the Liggio gang, he survived some of the most violent power plays among factions of the Sicilian Mafia, transforming himself from a killer into an effective manipulator of corrupt politicians before the state court banned him from any type of influence over the lawmakers in 1970. The bulk of the book concerns Don Provenzanos unchecked control of major criminal activities for more than 43 years, even while in hiding from the authorities and after his arrest by the special antivice police, as he modernized gangland operations to meet high-tech demands. Arrested in 2006 at age 73, the Sicilian Godfather, Longrigg found, still ruled with an iron hand from behind bars, his shrewdness and resourcefulness intact. This biography of Provenzano rates as one of the most informed, revealing chronicles of a modern gangster ever. (Mar.)
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Product Description
In the 1980s, the broad legal mandate of the RICO act succeeded in crushing much of the backbone of the traditional American Mafia. Across the ocean however, in the ancestral Sicilian homeland of La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia was anything but finished. Possessed of a power thought to rival that of the Italian state itself, for the past decades, the Sicilian Mafia has waged a war on the forces of law and order that has not only left thousands dead, but has created a ripple effect of crime and violence that can be felt on the streets of AmericaΠ²Πβ’s cities today.
Taking us into the eye of this criminal storm, Boss of Bosses tells the story of Bernardo Provenzano, who rose from humble origins to become the head of the Sicilian Mafia, overseeing a deadly empire of corruption so large in scope, the full sweep of its dark reach has yet to be fully accounted. On the run for over 43 years before his arrest, ProvenzanoΠ²Πβ’s life is a testament to Mafia history, and typifies the code of the ultimate gangster.