Italy's Scourge

We in the North of Europe often forget how pervasive the Mafia grip on parts of Italy really is ...

Enrico Alfano Was One Of The First
Publicly Known Mafia Figures In Italy.

 ...  we sort of assume that its a minor presence on the Italian state.

Wives, Lives and Automobiles

Talking about selling your husband on eBay as a joke raised the possibility that people had tried to sell others on the Internet in perhaps a more serious manner.

Selling Your Life on eBay Has Hazards .....

Perhaps unsurprisingly given our modern morality it was evident quite quickly that they had. This blog had previously picked up on the apparent sale of a black male as a slave (which may of course simply have been a spoof), and usually it's simply disguised as "workers", as is the case with the 'maids' sold in Asia and the Middle East.

Tough Pasta

Salvatore Riina, aka 'The Beast' ('La Belva'), was known to have ordered the murders of magistrates, policemen and scores of rivals (numbering several hundred) throughout the two decades he was the head of the Corleonesi faction of the Sicilian Mafia ....

Salvatore Riina aka 'The Beast'

..... he was alleged to have personally killed 40 men. He was captured after 23 years on the run near Palermo in May 1993