Osso, Mastrosso and Carcagnosso. The origins of the Mafia and Cosa Nostra

London – The mafia is a criminal organisation. As defined by Leonardo Sciascia, the mafia is “a criminal association with the sole purpose of producing illegal profits for its members, who impose themselves with violent methods as a parasitic intermediation between property and work, between production and consumption and between the citizen and the State.”  

There are different theories about the origins of the Mafia, which include the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the ‘Ndrangheta from Calabria and the Camorra from the Campania region, which are the oldest and most eradicated types of organised crime in Italy, though not the only ones.

The Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia and the Roman Mafia, which is currently being investigated, are also based in Italy.

One of the stories that attempt to explain the origins of the mafia in Italy is that of Osso, Mastrosso and Carcagnosso, three Spanish knights who, in the XV century, spent 30 years on the Favignana Island. During their 30 years stay in the island, they organised a secret society, with its own rules and values.

At the end of their stay, Osso went to Sicily and formed Cosa Nostra, Carcagnosso went to Calabria to form the ‘Ndrangheta and Mastrosso travelled to Campania and established the Camorra.

The story has different versions; some believe it is the true story of the origins of the Italian mafia, whereas others think it as a myth, especially due to the inconsistencies amongthe different versions of the story. According to some versions, the three knights escaped from Toledo, Spain, in 1412 because they were part of a secret society of criminals (the Garduña) and, as such, they were wanted by the State. Other versions instead claim that the three knights had killed a man to avenge their sister’s honour and were condemn to spend almost 30 years on the Island of Favignana.

According to both versions, the fortress of Santa Caterina is the place in which they established the ‘social rules’ of their new society. Some versions claim there were seven social rules, whereas others claim it was eight, like those followed by the Garduña.

The rules were:
1) Good eye, good hearing, good legs and a ‘small’ tongue (avoid speaking to outsiders);
2) Protect women who are persecuted by the Justice System;
3) New members cannot open their own business during their first year of ‘membership’;
4) Murderers will have the biggest businesses and profits;
5) Thieves will receive a third of their profit and leave the rest to the souls of the Purgatory (future generations of Mafiosi);
6) The concealers will receive 10% of the whole sum;
7) Prostitutes will be the gifts for the nobles;
8) The ultimate rule will be ‘martyrs before confessors’.  

Despite the fact that the story is a myth, it has been handed down through the generations, especially among criminals affiliated to the ‘Ndrangheta. In fact, during the ‘baptise’ of a new picciotto (new member), who will be ‘formally’ introduced to the criminal organization in front of five of his peers and an elder, the latter will say these words: ‘I baptise this saint place, sacred and inviolable, in the same way as it was baptised by our ancestors from whom we descend: the Spanish knights Osso, Mastrosso and Carcagnosso. If this place was before now a public place, it has now become a saint, sacred and inviolable one. If somebody will fail to recognise it as such, they will pay with five stabs on their spine, as written in the social rule.’

Whether the story is a myth or partially true, the first official document that testifies the presence of a criminal organisation in Italy dates to 1838 and was written by Pietro Cala’ Ulloa, the Trapani (Sicily) attorney general for the Bourbons.

He wrote: “There is not a single state worker in Sicily who is not victimised by a bully and who has though about benefiting from their office. This general corruption has led the people to resort to extremely strange and dangerous remedies. In many towns there are fraternities, sects that call themselves parties. They do not have meetings and they don’t have any link except for being dependant from a boss, who is a landowner in one town and an archpriest in another. There is a common fund used for different needs: to exempt, to procure, to protect an official or to blame an innocent person. The people have come to an agreement with the ‘bad’ (criminals). As soon as there is a theft, mediators appear immediately offering transactions for the stolen items. Many magistrates safeguard these fraternities with an impenetrable protection.”  

In 2014, not much has changed. Rather the phenomenon has only expanded across the peninsula.   “Maybe the whole of Italy is becoming Sicily.

It goes up like the mercury needle of a thermometer, this line of palms, of strong coffee, and of scandals: higher and higher across Italy, and it is already beyond Rome.” (Leonardo Sciascia, 1961, Il Giorno della Civetta)

Tania Miscebuzi

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Scritto da Tania Miscebuzi on 27 January 2015. Filed under Headlines, Latest news, Stop Mafia - Learn to fight Cosa Nostra. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry