"In Blood Brotherhoods John Dickie examines the myths surrounding the three largest and most violent mafia groups in Italy--the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, and 'ndrangheta--divulging the secrets, histories and documents of the real stories behind the Honored Society's most brutal crimes. Each of these brotherhoods has its own methods, its own dark rituals, its own style of ferocity and corruption. Yet violence is only the beginning. The mafias have corrupted Italy's institutions, drastically curtailed the life-chances of its citizens, evaded justice, and set up their own self-interested meddling as an alternative to the courts. The staggering reach of organized crime in Italy hangs over a nation racked by debt, political paralysis, and widespread corruption. The largest mafia factions control much of Europe's wholesale cocaine trade and about three percent of Italy's total GDP"--