The fascists, the ones who’d been given amnesty.
The partisans, thrown out of the newly formed police corps and persecuted by the law courts.
Sugano, victim of a judicial set-up, forced to escape to Czechoslovakia, like many other comrades.
Ettore had also ended up the focus of a few inquiries. Minor stuff, accusations of extortion and looting. He had always been released, but he still had some charges pending.
And the Carlino? It had changed its name time and again, it was still churning out lines as when, on 11 October 1944, it had denied that the massacre of Marzabotto had ever taken place. Ettore had kept the cutting. He had reread it so many times that he knew some passages off by heart.
The usual uncontrolled rumours, the typical product of galloping fantasies in time of war, ensured until yesterday that in the course of a police operation against a band of outlaws, a good 150 people, including women, old men and children, were massacred by German troops mopping up in the town of Marzabotto. So we confront a new ploy by the usual reckless characters destined for ridicule because anyone who had bothered to question any honest inhabitant of Marzabotto, or even a survivor from that area, would have learned the true version of the facts.
Shitheads.
Pain, tears, fear, hatred. But also euphoria, the desire to see an end to the war and to fascism, the longing to create a new Italy. Life had a meaning in those days; it wasn’t just a matter of running from hour to hour, dragging yourself from one day to the next.
Why deny it? Ettore knew: those months in the mountains had been the finest in his life. Afterwards, there had been nothing of real interest.
He didn’t head for home. He turned into Via Lame, and arrived at the Porta. The sky was full of stars, hundreds of stars, maybe thousands.
He had done it a thousand times, and he did it again. He remembered the battle, shot for shot. There was fog, and someone shouted, ‘Garibaldi’s fighting!’ He had yelled with all his might, ‘Red Star is winning!’
Chapter 4
Report produced for the Italian authorities by Charles Siragusa, District Supervisor, US Bureau of Narcotics, on 6 May 1954
In my opinion Salvatore Lucania, alias Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano, comes back under the jurisdiction of Chapter V of the control of Italian Public Security, relating to police internment, and could be destined for the penal colony of Ustica.
He would come under category 3 of article 181, relating to a person who pursues and intends to pursue criminal activities damaging to Italian national interests.
Since his expulsion from the United States to Italy, his activity has been such as to compel the forces of Italian Public Security and customs officials to investigate him thoroughly.
Lucania has maintained contact with the principal American criminals, through various avenues, and in particular through members of the underworld. Proof exists that Lucania has received considerable sums of money from these individuals, given to him personally by gangsters who had come from Italy with that specific intent.
He has already been incriminated in and fined for the illegal importation of American dollars and an American automobile. His name has been mentioned in various important inquiries conducted in Italy concerning the traffic of narcotics and the smuggling of large quantities of heroin into the United States. He has even been discussed by the United States Narcotics Commission.
Unfortunately the traffickers implicated in these investigations would never make declarations damaging to Lucania. This is understandable, given the terror that he provokes among the Italian underworld. Lucania has not been found guilty of the charges relative to the narcotics market; but that is not to say that he is not implicated in the trafficking. It is, furthermore, impossible to explain how he is able to enjoy such a luxurious lifestyle, without having any apparent source of income.
A person with his professional experience does not act in such a way as to have himself arrested by any police force for matters relating to drugs or anything of the kind. He is extremely skilful and surrounds himself only with loyal associates. This makes it difficult to investigate him in any depth.
The presence of Lucania is harmful to Italy’s prestige. Even the communist press has made contemptuous comments about this. By sending him to prison, the Italian government could neutralise Lucania and his wicked international criminal activities. It would be preferable to imprison him for the maximum period contemplated, five years.
Miscellaneous
The secretary-general of Interpol in France has distributed to fifty member nations of Interpol a printed circular about Lucania, as a suspected drugs trafficker of international importance (see ‘Allegation D’). Lucania has been interrogated by the Italian tax police on 5 May 1951 and 15 May 1951 for matters relating to the trial of Frank Callace and Joe Pici for narcotics trafficking.
He was also interrogated by the tax police for the illegal importation of a 1948 model Sedan Oldsmobile, which had been brought to him by a New York gangster, Pasquale Matranga, runner for a certain Willie Moretti, a known gangster from New Jersey, later murdered. Lucania told this to one of my informers. On 7 June 1951 the trial concerning this automobile was held in Naples, and the car was confiscated and he was fined 32,000 lire. He was subsequently interrogated by customs for the illegal importation of 57,000 US dollars. On 27 March 1952, with decree no. 4621 D.G.T. 28853/228/7212, the Naples court found him guilty and ordered him to pay a fine of 2,500,000 lire.
The Public Security officials maintain that Lucania’s two ‘lieutenants’ are implicated in the homicide of Umberto Chiofano, a petty criminal said to have slapped Lucania in public, at Agnano racecourse, last January. They are:
Victor Trimane, forty-three, expelled from the USA in 1949 after being found guilty of manslaughter by battery and four years’ imprisonment in Riker’s Island, New York State.
Stefano Francis Zollo, alias ‘Steve Concrete’, alias ‘Steve Cement’, thirty-five, originally from New York, already close to the Anastasia criminal family. Has lived in Italy since 1951. There are no extradition procedures currently under way for him.
Numerous confidential sources have declared that Lucania has been rigging the results of horse races in Naples by paying sums of money. A jockey, Vittorio Rosa, double-crossed Lucania when a race was being run. Lucania had paid Rosa for a certain horse to win. Instead Rosa made the horse lose. Lucania is then said to have threatened to kill Rosa. Rosa escaped to Mexico. On his return he was interrogated by Lieutenant Oliva, on 20 September 1951.
Among the people mentioned by Rosa as involved in the confidence tricks is Gennaro Iovene, forty-one, racecourse veterinarian.
Although he is not officially its owner, Lucania possesses a building at no. 484 Via Tasso, Vomero, Naples. Lucania paid 100 million lire for the building. He occupies one of the two luxurious top-floor apartments. The registered title-holder is a certain Carlo Scarpaio, but he is not in fact the owner. Lucania has been living there since June 1952.
In March 1952 it was learned from a reliable source that Lucania had 100,000 US dollars in a suitcase at his home.
Lucania also possesses a property at no. 184 Via Aurelia, at Santa Marinella, 2,000 square metres in area. He also owns 10,000 square metres of land and a small villa near the railway track, to the south of Via Aurelia.
Lucania receives secret telephone calls from Italy and the United States on telephone number 20738, a line registered to Salvatore Scarpati, Via Grandi Grafici, Naples. It was the headquarters of a carpet company, now closed.
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