Leonardo Vitale entered the Sicilian mafia at the age of 19 when he killed the head of a rival clan. He continued his violent mafia career for the next 12 years until his arrest in 1972 and his transfer to a maximum security prison where, after 7 days of isolation, he began to self-harm and show signs of depression.
Overwhelmed with remorse for the crimes he had committed, Vitale had a nervous breakdown. The former boss felt "guilty" and "unclean" to the extent that after he was released from prison a year later, he voluntarily went to the police station in Palermo where he confessed to two murders. He also named many other bosses involved in criminal activities.
After the doctors diagnosed him as suffering from reduced capacity and schizophrenia, he was placed in a psychiatric hospital. When he was released, the mafia had already sentenced him to death. Vitale was killed by two bullets to the head on December 2, 1984.
During my research, I had the opportunity to meet a Sicilian mafia hitman from the Marchese clan. He lived in a secret location, in a small village far from Sicily. He suffered from depression and insomnia. He killed over 100 people and strangled 50 of them. He had huge hands. However, when he told me that his only friend was a dog, I felt sorry for him, said Lo Verso
Vitale's case is the first of its kind to be studied by Professor Giralomo Lo Verso, a psychotherapist and writer who two decades ago began teaching a course on mob psychology at the University of Palermo, in the heart of a city once heavily loomed over by the shadow of Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian criminal organization. . Today, dozens of students attend his lectures, and research has been conducted that highlights the psychiatric consequences experienced by current and former members of the mafia, their relatives and victims.
"The Mafia is not just a criminal organization," said Lo Verso, adding that when entering, members distance themselves from their own personality and begin a psychological process so that they are not subject to remorse. "New members are taught that the only thing that matters is the rules of the clan. Everything else, including state rules, does not apply. "Becoming a member of Coza Nostra is like joining a sect where members have to leave their identity behind," he said. "As long as they are members of the mafia they feel no remorse or regret. They don't feel pain or sorrow, even when it comes to murders”.
He said that the aim of the lecture at the university, the first of its kind in Italy, is to "deeply deal with these topics, to investigate the damage that the mafia causes to the brain, in order to better understand it".
When something disrupts the lives of mobsters, everything changes, Lo Verso said. "As long as they are integrated into the mafia family, the bosses do not show any kind of psychological suffering," he said. “Their identity is suppressed because they identify completely with the mafia, and their thoughts are aligned with the clan. However, the situation changes when there is a break, a separation from the mafia, for example, when an arrested mobster decides to cooperate with the authorities.
"Then a mobster, like for example Vitale, is forced to face himself and the problems that arise after spending his life as a criminal. The former mobster then has an identity crisis. He experiences himself as weak, deprived of value".
Those who decide to testify against the mafia, the so-called "repentants", are the ones who suffer the most of all the mobsters: transferred to secret locations in the north of Italy and cut off from their previous lives, the psychologists who worked with them described them as the most damaged people they had met . Alone, rejected and branded as traitors by their former clan, many are drug addicts.
"During my research, I had the opportunity to meet a killer of the Sicilian mafia from the Marquese clan," said Lo Verso. “He lived in a secret location, in a small village far from Sicily. He suffered from depression and insomnia. He killed over 100 people and strangled 50 of them. He had huge hands. However, when he told me that his only friend is a dog, I felt sorry for him".
However, the impact of mafia violence on mental health is most felt by the victims and their relatives: mothers, brothers and sisters, those who lost husbands, children and fathers due to the brutality of the mafia.
"These people remain trapped in these tragedies and struggle to continue with their lives," said Cecilia Giordano, an associate professor in the field of psychology at the University of Palermo. "I met a woman whose son and husband were killed by the mafia. She suffered from dissociative disorders. Their traumas affect future generations, and the saddest thing is that the Italian state does not provide any psychological support to those people who desperately need it.
Psychiatrists and psychologists have also noticed that an increasing number of mafia family members suffer from mental illness. When in the 1980s and 1990s the Italian state began to crack down on clans and prosecute their members, their children began to experience a deep existential crisis. Their fathers are no longer, according to the mafia code, considered honorable men, but callous criminals who are forced to run from the police or are in prison for decades without the possibility of seeing them.
"In the mid-1990s, we noticed that dozens of patients with mental illnesses, who were children, wives or relatives of mafia bosses, began to come to Sicilian hospitals," Giordano said. "They had symptoms of identity crisis and personality disorder. Many of them were very young, and their fathers were either on the run or in prison. We also noticed that the phenomenon of mob psychology greatly influenced the role of the mother. If the mother also comes from a mafia family, it will be very difficult for the son of a mafia boss to avoid the trap of the mafia mentality".
As for the bosses themselves, Lo Verso and Giordano cannot imagine any of them seeking the help of a psychotherapist as long as they are members of the clan. They say that the actions of mob bosses such as Tony Soprano from the TV series "The Sopranos", played by James Gandolfini, who went to a psychotherapist for depression and panic attacks, or Paul Vitti, played by Robert De Niro in the movie "Mob under stress", who relies on a therapist whose character is portrayed by Billy Crystal, are just part of the Hollywood imagination.
“They don't need it. Bosses, as long as they are in control or play a role within the organization, even in prison, do not suffer from mental problems," said Lo Verso. According to psychologists, their lives are characterized by pure psychopathology, especially the illusion of their omnipotence and a lack of trust in others.
Mob bosses who claimed to suffer from mental illness, including entering courtrooms in straitjackets, were often found to be faking it in order to be acquitted or released from prison. Toto Rina and Bernardo Provencano, two Sicilian mafia bosses who underwent a psychiatric evaluation, spent their last days in prison.
The Palermo research also looks at the mafia's impact on society as a whole. "Even today there are places in Sicily, where the mafia is talked about cautiously, in a hushed voice," said Giordano. "Omerta is one of the many psychological consequences that the mafia has on society. Understanding these aspects of Cosa nostra can help us recognize it and, ultimately why not, fight it".
Translation: NB
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