Author(s): Tim Newark

True Crime

The Mafia is one of the most feared and powerful criminal organizations the world has ever known. It was also, briefly during World War II, America’ s ally— a fact that had a profound effect on the fortunes of the Fascists, and on those of the Mafia, whom Mussolini had effectively crushed. This book brings to light a little-known chapter in the history of World War II, and of organized crime. It tells how Cesare Mori, deputized by Mussolini to “ cauterize the sore of crime in Italy, ” waged all-out war on the Mafia in the name of fascism; and how the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 (Operation Husky) gave the Mafia an opening to regain its strength— and its hold on political power— in the vacuum created by the Fascists’ defeat. A provocative account of how the rise and ultimate defeat of fascism in Italy affected the world’ s largest and most notorious criminal organization, Mafia Allies" also illuminates a dark truth about the unexpected long-term consequences of wartime alliances of convenience.