Romanzo Criminale takes my award for the most interesting and realistic portrayal of gang culture in the 70’s and 80’s albeit it in Rome because of the mixture of fiction with historical reality. I still find it odd to describe events during my life as historical. It is not my serial of year which goes to the second season of Tremé.
I write this having lost the draft which was written in preparation for the season finale last night after I gone to bed but for once there is not usual frustration at having lost the work possibly by overprinting a second piece of writing. I did not know the outcome of the season unlike the second season of the Boardwalk Empire which is shown a week earlier in the United States before the broadcast on the splendid Sky Atlantic channel.
Previously I explained that two gangs of small time Roman criminals came together as a collective to kidnap a wealthy businessman and then used the ransom to commence a drug distribution network across the greater part of the city. Originally they were supplied by an established criminal group who also demanded a percentage of the profits but later they eliminated the leader and cut a deal with the Mafia for supply and who were willing to leave distribution to the new arrivals. The gang gradually took over all Rome through a process of intimidation except for one sector which remained under the control of someone who had raped the girl friend of one of the leaders. Eventually the culprit was isolated and murdered.
The former Leader of one of the groups Liban or Libanese had lived with his mother who throws him out because she feared he would be killed one day because of his criminal activity. He lives in an isolated a caravan until the money begins to roll in and he first buys an expensive apartment and eventually a city villa. Returning to the caravan he finds contact from the girl who was raped and has a romantic interlude but quickly learn that she had been put up to this by her boyfriend who steals his flash car and cleans out his safe before attempting to disappear. They are found and killed as the body count mounts. One episode closes with Liban sitting on the beach where he had the relationship past and present with the girl, on his own wrapped up the fur coat bought for his mother but rejected by her.
Libanese is never satisfied with the position of the gang and branches out to a casino where the gang members lose mini fortunes to the house. They also invest in stock market speculations and other legal enterprises to build up funds for their rainy days.
The gang is pursued by a young senior police detective with an old and wiser associate who work to a judge/magistrate. He has a sister who has become a revolutionary socialist at the time when the official communist party had gained considerable influence in Italy to an extent that a former Primer Minister Alberto Morro planned a deal which would bring them into power.
This was anathema to the right wing who still mourned the departure of the regime of Mussolini. Just before the end of the twentieth century I made a visit to Italy staying outside of Rome but making two visits to the capital city for the first time in some thirty five years. I was part of an organise tour where the guide, born I suspected in the 1970’s was a devotee of the Duce pointing to the successes under his regime and showing contempt for Italian politicians and their post war history of frequent changes.
Alberto Morrow was kidnapped and executed by a left wing brigade although there was evidence at the time that government supporters, especially in the Italian Secret service, were unenthusiastic about finding him alive because of his political intentions. The government had contacted the criminal underworld for information but then changed its mind but the link was made.
As the first of the two seasons of this Italian made and language series approached its climax there is the second historically accurate development included, the terrorist bombing of the train station at Bologna on 2nd August 1980 which killed 85 people and wounded 200 others. A right wing terrorist organisation Nuclei Armati Rivolutionari was implicated with some 50 member’s arrested and eventually several leaders were imprisoned after long process of investigations and trials which went until 2004 when a man who had been 17 years at the time received a 30 year sentence for his role and upheld as recent as April 2007. He had been charged with the assassination of Judge Mario Amato in June 1980. However the two leaders persisted their innocence after trials and retrials with stretched from 1988 through to 1995.
It is also alleged the organisation received direct help with weapons, explosives, hideaways and passports from the real Romanzo Criminale. A cash of NUR weapons was found in the basement of the Ministry of Health and in the series the gang hired the vacant basement of a government department to use as a store at one point and to conduct official business.
In series the man who planted the bomb is killed with a gun which is traced back to a gun used in the original kidnapping which enable the gang to enter into drug distribution. His body happens to found in the district where the senior Detective who had been investigating the Roman crime gang had been posted. Previously it emerged that the Italian Secret Service had been keeping watch on the Detective in part because of the activities of his sister. Senior officers of the services with right wing political links had established contact with the gang via the Mafia at the time of the search for Alberto Morro. The same individuals appear to have been involved when crucial evidence, a tape recording which linked the gang to the original kidnapping disappeared and resulted in their release from prison when they had been held for a bank robbery which they did not committed and which had led to the deaths. Because of his ongoing inquiries the detective had been blackmailed into resigning and moving to another job outside of Rome. His assistant had been moved into archives and the judge/magistrate who had overseen their investigation had received a warning about his future after he had been given the papers which the Detective and his assistant been working on.
The detective now discovered that the murdered young man on his patch had a train ticket which indicated he had arrived or left the Bologna train station before the explosion. Then a check on the bullet in the victim revealed that it appeared to have been used by the same gun involved in the original kidnapping which appeared to tie in the gang to the latest murder and the bombing. The magistrate/senior officer to whom the Detective was working then advises that the papers are being handed to the investigation team from Rome and then the Detective sees one of the Secret Service men who ordered his departure handed the papers from his latest discoveries.
It now time to remind of a number of other characters in this impressive series and how they have become linked into the fictional and historically linked story. The first is Dandi a young man with a passion for the latest clothes and stylish lifestyle and for the prostitute Patrizia, a woman also of culture and good taste as well as determined commercial brain. Dandi comes to the attention of the police detective because he uses some of the marked ransom money to purchase the favours of Patrizia and the Detective attempts to persuade Patrizia to cooperate with information in turn to protection from prosecution for her occupation and use of the ransom money. He also becomes obsessed with the woman finding it difficult to resist her attempt to corrupt with use of her body. As a skilled actress it has not been clear if she fancies him as much he fancies her. In fact we left the series as the Detective went with another prostitute, a part time woman who worked at a bar frequented by the Assistant to the Detective who first suggested that maintaining contact with a prostitute or two was a good way of building up an information network.
Because of Dandi’s reckless preoccupation with Patrizia Liban and the other former head of the second group who formed the initial alliance, know as the Cold, or Ice decided to finance the establishment of a high class brothel which Patrizia would run and enjoy an income greater than her previous earnings and thus be available exclusively available for Dandi.
Then through their watch on the Detective and their general interest in the gang the two State Security men blackmail Patrizia gay male friend (who was found with an underage age youth) to locate and gain entry to the brothel where they demand a room in order to listen and record conversations with clients. Liban and Dandi with another lay wait for the security men and warm them to keep away. Almost immediately the three gangsters involved are returned to prison and kept apart so they and those on the outside do not know why. It is then revealed that they have been arrested by the Security men who demand that the gang now effectively works for the Secret Service. Previously the hand had come across a policeman who enjoyed gambling and using prostitutes. They do not kill him on the understanding he is their inside man. He comes up with the idea of stealing a stash of drugs from the police. This appeals to Liban and they carry out the raid without knowing they have been set up by the Secret Service men
They explain that they are a collective and they cannot agree to the position without consulting, especially The Cold. They are released on a temporary basis and on the understanding that if they fail to persuade their colleagues to cooperate they will be brought back
Before this Dandi had beaten up the gay friend of Patrizia for leading the Security men to her. While the trio are incarcerated rumour sweeps through Rome that the skids are under the gang.
A feature of all the members of the group is that with wealth and power they have reached the point of being unable to survive without drugs, drink, women and gambling all to excess undermining their ability to function and keep their expenditure below their income. One of the group loses 30000 lire to Dandi who insists on payment. While Dandi is in prison the colleague who is in a drug and drunken stupor most of the time visits the brothel and makes a play for Patrizia. She passes him on two sisters who believing he has passed out and incapable make negative comments which he hears and badly beats up one of the girls and is only stopped from doing likewise to the other by Patrizia with a gun ordering him out.
He then takes on all comers at a local bar he and colleagues frequent and sent away with his tail between his legs told that the whole lot are finished and that the whole of Rome is looking forward to their downfall. On their release although he has offended Dandi it is recognised that they cannot have their authority challenged in this way and the man with Dandi and Liban execute the offender burying where several other bodies have been hidden beforehand. Patrizia insists that Dandi apologises to the gay friend. Dandi visits and insists that if the young man does not want to be beaten up again he must a report to him all that happens at the brothel and what Patrizia says and does.
The story of the Cold has previously been covered and how he detests his father from catching him cheating on his mother when a young man and starting out at a delinquent for a raid on the store/bar of his father’s mistress. He has used a lot of ill got gains to support his brother’s education but then falls for his brother’s girlfriend and her for him. This alienates the brother. In these final episodes of the season his father approaches to say the brother has gone missing and his mother cannot sleep with worry. The Cold arranges for a trusted new friend to find the brother who is located living with some hippies. The brother is persuaded to return home but also the Cold recognises that it is time for the brother to leave home.
The girl friend rejected The Cold because he did not tell her he was a gangster, but not because he was a gangster. This had badly affected The Cold who appears the most intelligent of the trio and at one level the most sensitive and conscience stricken. His new friend is a young loner bank robber who committed crime which led to Liban, Dandi and others being arrested at one point. The young man cooperated to ensure that the gang members were released without identifying himself. He has a passion for fast motorbike rides as the Cold but whereas The Cold will only kill for good reason this young man does it for the thrill. It is at this point and before I attempt to knit the various strands and interests into the grand finale that I return to historical reality. Just before the Bologna bombing a leading Magistrate Mario Amato was assassinated by Luigi Ciavadini then a young member of the NAR. The magistrates had been investigating the activities of the far right.
In the series I think it is the Mafia drug suppliers who ask for a magistrate to be murdered and it is The Cold’s new companion who carries it out. When the Detective discovers that his work on the Bologna bombings has been handed to the Secret service agents he returns to Rome to give the information to the magistrate Judge who had supervised his work and despite the threats to both of them the decision is taken to reunite the Detective with his assistant and to continue their inquiries but this time with the involvement of the Secret services in the Bombing and the protection of Romanzo Criminale very much in mind.
The detective learns that The Cold has decided to cash in his savings and flee the country with his girl friend for a new life. They book the first long haul flight available in a couple of days a one way ticket to Rio. The Cold says farewell by to his friends but he is picked up on a minor possession charge by the Police Detective and held in prison with the offer of release if he explains about the tie up between the gang and the Secret Service.
Liban has become increasingly paranoid and drug crazed himself. He understandably flips his lid when one of his closest associates attempts to kill him because the colleague believes that Liban has ordered the death of his younger brother who was trading in a small quantity of drugs. Liban orders everyone check out for the missing drugs and inspects everyone’s books. There is a complicated trail which I did not fully understand but it appears that another colleague had found the financial pressures from his extended family too great to fund from his drug earnings and had set up a loan sharking service as a profitable sideline. The younger brother had been involved as were two others who carried out the killing and who been caught celebrating the arrest of the trio when also in jail. Liban beats them up and ensures they now work for him, The Cold felt sorry for the colleague who had attacked Liban and releases him. Despite his paranoia, obsessions and bad trips Libanese appreciates the reasons why The Cold wants out and uses his Secret Service connections to get him out of jail and to arrange for a false passport when The Detective blocks his lawful passport to prevent him leaving the country.
As part of his delusions Liban is haunted by a killing and persuades the Secret Service to release to him the weapon involved in a previous killings which he believes will stop the daymares. It is when The Cold presses Liban to also cut and run with his earnings that his colleagues admits he is now tied to the Secret Service which only underlines the need for The Cold and his girl to get away.
There four other storylines indicating the potential disintegration of the gang. As is normal which such groups and a feature of the Sopranos, there is an interest in horse racing and fixing races. There is concern when their supported horse comes second and someone else makes 300000 lire. The source is tracked down! And persuaded to hand over half the winning and 60% from future winnings.
The Mafia suppliers become concerned when the arrests commences and then when there is a delay in making the payment for the next supply. This requires a liquidation of assets at a loss because the current kitty has been extended because of the extravagances of the collective.
Liban continues to be ambitious and becomes interested in a new apartment block which he is told he can purchase at a considerable premium. He is not pleased when the asking price is raised when his interest becomes known. He therefore arranges for some forty families living in squalid conditions to move in. This forces down the price to below what he was originally prepared to pay but he then uses force to evict the squatters. Having turned to him for help Godfather fashion, those involved are very angry.
The fourth strand is down to The Cold, at one level and takes us back to the tie in with the extreme right and Secret Services. Because of the pressure on the gang The Cold requests for some of the guns kept in security, including the Italian made easily concealed Beretta. When the weapons are retrieved those assigned to the task realise that the Beretta(s) have been replaced and because the Cold does not check the horde when they are returned he misses the exchange. It is one of these guns that killed the man who placed the Terrorist Bomb at Bologna station.
Liban becomes more and more crazed and talks in terms of placing everyone on wages thus alienating even more people. He attempts to visit his mother shouting out that he is now the King of Rome and wealthy and that she can now be proud of him. If she is home she does not answer his call. A motorcycle with two young people faces hidden with their helmets approaches and the passenger whose hair and build suggest a girl shoots Liban several times dead in the pouring rain outside the home of his mother. Quickly the news spreads and the rest of the gang assemble one by one to look on. This includes The Cold just before his planned departure and Dandi who has also suggested packing up and moving elsewhere with Patrizia for which she shows no enthusiasm.
The Secret Service men had reported to their boss their concerns about Liban but he had suggested they use him as far a possible. They had decided that with the departure of the Cold they should focus on Dandi.
I look forward to seeing how the story unfolds in its second season.
There is a further footnote on the historical reality. It is true that the Italian Secret Service was implicated without proof in the Bologna Bombing, in the assassination of the Magistrate and the extreme right. What is established that the NUR had close links with the Banda della Magliana which controlled he Roman criminal underworld in the 1970’s through to the 1990’s, Its is also established that the Cosa Nostra and the Camorra and they that were also involved with the Nato secret and illegal anti Communist organisation Operation Gladio which in turn was sponsored by the CIA. There was also involved with the notorious secret Catholic Masonic organisation the P2 Propoganda Due among whose members was Silvio Berlusconi and whose grand master, Licio Gelli was said to be involved in various criminal activities and unsolved matters. A search of his villa produced a document for the rebirth of Italy, a new Constitution and the suppression of Trade Unions. The organisation was involved the Pope’s bank Banco Ambrosiano where it’s Chairman Roberto Calvi fled to London and was then found hanging below Blackfriars Bridge, seen as a warning killing. There is therefore plenty of scope for the second season continuing at various levels.
I write this having lost the draft which was written in preparation for the season finale last night after I gone to bed but for once there is not usual frustration at having lost the work possibly by overprinting a second piece of writing. I did not know the outcome of the season unlike the second season of the Boardwalk Empire which is shown a week earlier in the United States before the broadcast on the splendid Sky Atlantic channel.
Previously I explained that two gangs of small time Roman criminals came together as a collective to kidnap a wealthy businessman and then used the ransom to commence a drug distribution network across the greater part of the city. Originally they were supplied by an established criminal group who also demanded a percentage of the profits but later they eliminated the leader and cut a deal with the Mafia for supply and who were willing to leave distribution to the new arrivals. The gang gradually took over all Rome through a process of intimidation except for one sector which remained under the control of someone who had raped the girl friend of one of the leaders. Eventually the culprit was isolated and murdered.
The former Leader of one of the groups Liban or Libanese had lived with his mother who throws him out because she feared he would be killed one day because of his criminal activity. He lives in an isolated a caravan until the money begins to roll in and he first buys an expensive apartment and eventually a city villa. Returning to the caravan he finds contact from the girl who was raped and has a romantic interlude but quickly learn that she had been put up to this by her boyfriend who steals his flash car and cleans out his safe before attempting to disappear. They are found and killed as the body count mounts. One episode closes with Liban sitting on the beach where he had the relationship past and present with the girl, on his own wrapped up the fur coat bought for his mother but rejected by her.
Libanese is never satisfied with the position of the gang and branches out to a casino where the gang members lose mini fortunes to the house. They also invest in stock market speculations and other legal enterprises to build up funds for their rainy days.
The gang is pursued by a young senior police detective with an old and wiser associate who work to a judge/magistrate. He has a sister who has become a revolutionary socialist at the time when the official communist party had gained considerable influence in Italy to an extent that a former Primer Minister Alberto Morro planned a deal which would bring them into power.
This was anathema to the right wing who still mourned the departure of the regime of Mussolini. Just before the end of the twentieth century I made a visit to Italy staying outside of Rome but making two visits to the capital city for the first time in some thirty five years. I was part of an organise tour where the guide, born I suspected in the 1970’s was a devotee of the Duce pointing to the successes under his regime and showing contempt for Italian politicians and their post war history of frequent changes.
Alberto Morrow was kidnapped and executed by a left wing brigade although there was evidence at the time that government supporters, especially in the Italian Secret service, were unenthusiastic about finding him alive because of his political intentions. The government had contacted the criminal underworld for information but then changed its mind but the link was made.
As the first of the two seasons of this Italian made and language series approached its climax there is the second historically accurate development included, the terrorist bombing of the train station at Bologna on 2nd August 1980 which killed 85 people and wounded 200 others. A right wing terrorist organisation Nuclei Armati Rivolutionari was implicated with some 50 member’s arrested and eventually several leaders were imprisoned after long process of investigations and trials which went until 2004 when a man who had been 17 years at the time received a 30 year sentence for his role and upheld as recent as April 2007. He had been charged with the assassination of Judge Mario Amato in June 1980. However the two leaders persisted their innocence after trials and retrials with stretched from 1988 through to 1995.
It is also alleged the organisation received direct help with weapons, explosives, hideaways and passports from the real Romanzo Criminale. A cash of NUR weapons was found in the basement of the Ministry of Health and in the series the gang hired the vacant basement of a government department to use as a store at one point and to conduct official business.
In series the man who planted the bomb is killed with a gun which is traced back to a gun used in the original kidnapping which enable the gang to enter into drug distribution. His body happens to found in the district where the senior Detective who had been investigating the Roman crime gang had been posted. Previously it emerged that the Italian Secret Service had been keeping watch on the Detective in part because of the activities of his sister. Senior officers of the services with right wing political links had established contact with the gang via the Mafia at the time of the search for Alberto Morro. The same individuals appear to have been involved when crucial evidence, a tape recording which linked the gang to the original kidnapping disappeared and resulted in their release from prison when they had been held for a bank robbery which they did not committed and which had led to the deaths. Because of his ongoing inquiries the detective had been blackmailed into resigning and moving to another job outside of Rome. His assistant had been moved into archives and the judge/magistrate who had overseen their investigation had received a warning about his future after he had been given the papers which the Detective and his assistant been working on.
The detective now discovered that the murdered young man on his patch had a train ticket which indicated he had arrived or left the Bologna train station before the explosion. Then a check on the bullet in the victim revealed that it appeared to have been used by the same gun involved in the original kidnapping which appeared to tie in the gang to the latest murder and the bombing. The magistrate/senior officer to whom the Detective was working then advises that the papers are being handed to the investigation team from Rome and then the Detective sees one of the Secret Service men who ordered his departure handed the papers from his latest discoveries.
It now time to remind of a number of other characters in this impressive series and how they have become linked into the fictional and historically linked story. The first is Dandi a young man with a passion for the latest clothes and stylish lifestyle and for the prostitute Patrizia, a woman also of culture and good taste as well as determined commercial brain. Dandi comes to the attention of the police detective because he uses some of the marked ransom money to purchase the favours of Patrizia and the Detective attempts to persuade Patrizia to cooperate with information in turn to protection from prosecution for her occupation and use of the ransom money. He also becomes obsessed with the woman finding it difficult to resist her attempt to corrupt with use of her body. As a skilled actress it has not been clear if she fancies him as much he fancies her. In fact we left the series as the Detective went with another prostitute, a part time woman who worked at a bar frequented by the Assistant to the Detective who first suggested that maintaining contact with a prostitute or two was a good way of building up an information network.
Because of Dandi’s reckless preoccupation with Patrizia Liban and the other former head of the second group who formed the initial alliance, know as the Cold, or Ice decided to finance the establishment of a high class brothel which Patrizia would run and enjoy an income greater than her previous earnings and thus be available exclusively available for Dandi.
Then through their watch on the Detective and their general interest in the gang the two State Security men blackmail Patrizia gay male friend (who was found with an underage age youth) to locate and gain entry to the brothel where they demand a room in order to listen and record conversations with clients. Liban and Dandi with another lay wait for the security men and warm them to keep away. Almost immediately the three gangsters involved are returned to prison and kept apart so they and those on the outside do not know why. It is then revealed that they have been arrested by the Security men who demand that the gang now effectively works for the Secret Service. Previously the hand had come across a policeman who enjoyed gambling and using prostitutes. They do not kill him on the understanding he is their inside man. He comes up with the idea of stealing a stash of drugs from the police. This appeals to Liban and they carry out the raid without knowing they have been set up by the Secret Service men
They explain that they are a collective and they cannot agree to the position without consulting, especially The Cold. They are released on a temporary basis and on the understanding that if they fail to persuade their colleagues to cooperate they will be brought back
Before this Dandi had beaten up the gay friend of Patrizia for leading the Security men to her. While the trio are incarcerated rumour sweeps through Rome that the skids are under the gang.
A feature of all the members of the group is that with wealth and power they have reached the point of being unable to survive without drugs, drink, women and gambling all to excess undermining their ability to function and keep their expenditure below their income. One of the group loses 30000 lire to Dandi who insists on payment. While Dandi is in prison the colleague who is in a drug and drunken stupor most of the time visits the brothel and makes a play for Patrizia. She passes him on two sisters who believing he has passed out and incapable make negative comments which he hears and badly beats up one of the girls and is only stopped from doing likewise to the other by Patrizia with a gun ordering him out.
He then takes on all comers at a local bar he and colleagues frequent and sent away with his tail between his legs told that the whole lot are finished and that the whole of Rome is looking forward to their downfall. On their release although he has offended Dandi it is recognised that they cannot have their authority challenged in this way and the man with Dandi and Liban execute the offender burying where several other bodies have been hidden beforehand. Patrizia insists that Dandi apologises to the gay friend. Dandi visits and insists that if the young man does not want to be beaten up again he must a report to him all that happens at the brothel and what Patrizia says and does.
The story of the Cold has previously been covered and how he detests his father from catching him cheating on his mother when a young man and starting out at a delinquent for a raid on the store/bar of his father’s mistress. He has used a lot of ill got gains to support his brother’s education but then falls for his brother’s girlfriend and her for him. This alienates the brother. In these final episodes of the season his father approaches to say the brother has gone missing and his mother cannot sleep with worry. The Cold arranges for a trusted new friend to find the brother who is located living with some hippies. The brother is persuaded to return home but also the Cold recognises that it is time for the brother to leave home.
The girl friend rejected The Cold because he did not tell her he was a gangster, but not because he was a gangster. This had badly affected The Cold who appears the most intelligent of the trio and at one level the most sensitive and conscience stricken. His new friend is a young loner bank robber who committed crime which led to Liban, Dandi and others being arrested at one point. The young man cooperated to ensure that the gang members were released without identifying himself. He has a passion for fast motorbike rides as the Cold but whereas The Cold will only kill for good reason this young man does it for the thrill. It is at this point and before I attempt to knit the various strands and interests into the grand finale that I return to historical reality. Just before the Bologna bombing a leading Magistrate Mario Amato was assassinated by Luigi Ciavadini then a young member of the NAR. The magistrates had been investigating the activities of the far right.
In the series I think it is the Mafia drug suppliers who ask for a magistrate to be murdered and it is The Cold’s new companion who carries it out. When the Detective discovers that his work on the Bologna bombings has been handed to the Secret service agents he returns to Rome to give the information to the magistrate Judge who had supervised his work and despite the threats to both of them the decision is taken to reunite the Detective with his assistant and to continue their inquiries but this time with the involvement of the Secret services in the Bombing and the protection of Romanzo Criminale very much in mind.
The detective learns that The Cold has decided to cash in his savings and flee the country with his girl friend for a new life. They book the first long haul flight available in a couple of days a one way ticket to Rio. The Cold says farewell by to his friends but he is picked up on a minor possession charge by the Police Detective and held in prison with the offer of release if he explains about the tie up between the gang and the Secret Service.
Liban has become increasingly paranoid and drug crazed himself. He understandably flips his lid when one of his closest associates attempts to kill him because the colleague believes that Liban has ordered the death of his younger brother who was trading in a small quantity of drugs. Liban orders everyone check out for the missing drugs and inspects everyone’s books. There is a complicated trail which I did not fully understand but it appears that another colleague had found the financial pressures from his extended family too great to fund from his drug earnings and had set up a loan sharking service as a profitable sideline. The younger brother had been involved as were two others who carried out the killing and who been caught celebrating the arrest of the trio when also in jail. Liban beats them up and ensures they now work for him, The Cold felt sorry for the colleague who had attacked Liban and releases him. Despite his paranoia, obsessions and bad trips Libanese appreciates the reasons why The Cold wants out and uses his Secret Service connections to get him out of jail and to arrange for a false passport when The Detective blocks his lawful passport to prevent him leaving the country.
As part of his delusions Liban is haunted by a killing and persuades the Secret Service to release to him the weapon involved in a previous killings which he believes will stop the daymares. It is when The Cold presses Liban to also cut and run with his earnings that his colleagues admits he is now tied to the Secret Service which only underlines the need for The Cold and his girl to get away.
There four other storylines indicating the potential disintegration of the gang. As is normal which such groups and a feature of the Sopranos, there is an interest in horse racing and fixing races. There is concern when their supported horse comes second and someone else makes 300000 lire. The source is tracked down! And persuaded to hand over half the winning and 60% from future winnings.
The Mafia suppliers become concerned when the arrests commences and then when there is a delay in making the payment for the next supply. This requires a liquidation of assets at a loss because the current kitty has been extended because of the extravagances of the collective.
Liban continues to be ambitious and becomes interested in a new apartment block which he is told he can purchase at a considerable premium. He is not pleased when the asking price is raised when his interest becomes known. He therefore arranges for some forty families living in squalid conditions to move in. This forces down the price to below what he was originally prepared to pay but he then uses force to evict the squatters. Having turned to him for help Godfather fashion, those involved are very angry.
The fourth strand is down to The Cold, at one level and takes us back to the tie in with the extreme right and Secret Services. Because of the pressure on the gang The Cold requests for some of the guns kept in security, including the Italian made easily concealed Beretta. When the weapons are retrieved those assigned to the task realise that the Beretta(s) have been replaced and because the Cold does not check the horde when they are returned he misses the exchange. It is one of these guns that killed the man who placed the Terrorist Bomb at Bologna station.
Liban becomes more and more crazed and talks in terms of placing everyone on wages thus alienating even more people. He attempts to visit his mother shouting out that he is now the King of Rome and wealthy and that she can now be proud of him. If she is home she does not answer his call. A motorcycle with two young people faces hidden with their helmets approaches and the passenger whose hair and build suggest a girl shoots Liban several times dead in the pouring rain outside the home of his mother. Quickly the news spreads and the rest of the gang assemble one by one to look on. This includes The Cold just before his planned departure and Dandi who has also suggested packing up and moving elsewhere with Patrizia for which she shows no enthusiasm.
The Secret Service men had reported to their boss their concerns about Liban but he had suggested they use him as far a possible. They had decided that with the departure of the Cold they should focus on Dandi.
I look forward to seeing how the story unfolds in its second season.
There is a further footnote on the historical reality. It is true that the Italian Secret Service was implicated without proof in the Bologna Bombing, in the assassination of the Magistrate and the extreme right. What is established that the NUR had close links with the Banda della Magliana which controlled he Roman criminal underworld in the 1970’s through to the 1990’s, Its is also established that the Cosa Nostra and the Camorra and they that were also involved with the Nato secret and illegal anti Communist organisation Operation Gladio which in turn was sponsored by the CIA. There was also involved with the notorious secret Catholic Masonic organisation the P2 Propoganda Due among whose members was Silvio Berlusconi and whose grand master, Licio Gelli was said to be involved in various criminal activities and unsolved matters. A search of his villa produced a document for the rebirth of Italy, a new Constitution and the suppression of Trade Unions. The organisation was involved the Pope’s bank Banco Ambrosiano where it’s Chairman Roberto Calvi fled to London and was then found hanging below Blackfriars Bridge, seen as a warning killing. There is therefore plenty of scope for the second season continuing at various levels.
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