The Wire

Six young men lie dead outside a pizzeria, executed by gunshot – one of them has a holy card in his pocket representing the image of the Arc Angel Michael. Sounds like the beginning of a great Italian Mafia film doesn’t it? In fact this happened in Germany only a few years ago. It was an incident that made Europe take notice of the very real hold the Mafia has – even outside of Italy. John Dickie is the author of Blood Brothers which looks at the rise – but not the fall – of the Mafia. He tells Annie Hastwell about the book and the significance of the holy card.