Robert Kintyre, still amateur sleuthing, lists the Italian connections of nearly all the relevant characters. I thought, "Mafia." He comments:
"'Holy Hieronymus,' muttered Kintyre, 'next thing I'll be looking for a Black Hand.'"
A guy I knew who teaches in Sicily and has seen Montalbano filmed said that:
protection money is like tax;
Sicilians who say that the Mafia is a myth are Mafia whereas those who say that of course there is Mafia are not;
when a company receives a phone call saying, e.g., "Your new cleaner stars on Monday," the correct response is "Thank you."
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
The most infamous Black Hand group, to me, was the Serbian terrorist organization, strongly suspected of having ties to the Belgrade gov't, who engineered the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in 1914.
Ad astra! Sean
Actually, only their enemies called the Serb group the "Black Hand"; they called themselves "Unification or Death". They deserved it, though -- Dragutin Dimitrijević was 'sacro egoismo' on steroids.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And the whole WORLD, not just Serbia, had to suffer because of their fanaticism and brutality! I wouldn't weep if I found out Dimitrijevic came to a miserable end.
Ad astra! Sean
He was shot by his own government (then in exile) for treason in 1917. Considering his actions got somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of all Serbs alive in 1914 killed, that was a rather mild punishment.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I looked up Dimitrijevic and I noted, with grim approval, how he was shot by his own people! I also wondered if the Serbian PM, Nikola Pasic, got rid of "Apis" because he either knew too much or was a danger to Pasic.
I'm not weeping for Dimitrijevic! He finally got what his crimes had earned him, beginning with the brutal murder of King Alexander of Serbia down to Sarajevo and WW I.
Ad astra! Sean
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