Egy nápolyi bíró a XIX. századi szicíliai szervezett bűnözés nyomában

After the Sicilian revolt in 1837, king Ferdinand II decided to continue the traditional policy of the Bourbon dynasty, based on the further centralization of the island. Nicola Parisio (1781-1848), Minister of Justice in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies sent Pietro Calà Ulloa (1801-1879), the illustrious and talented Neapolitan magistrate, essayist, politician to the island. In 1838, he arrived to Sicily, more specifically to a town, called Trapani, having received the task to investigate the conditions of the Sicilian jurisdiction. Calà Ulloa announced extraordinarily precious information in his reports on the delinquency as well. Therefore, these observations are also relevant from the point of view of the history of mafia. The cronological aspects of its birth are still uncertain but a great majority of the researchers are convinced that the Sicilian mafia began its criminal activity only after 1860. Since we already have clear evidences of this kind of delinquency from the period of the unified Italian Kingdom, that is the reason why its dawn is counted in this manner. The curiosity and the importance of the just now analyzed report, written by Pietro Calà Ulloa on the 3rd of August 1838 is that it can modify this almost dogmatic opinion. Because the above-mentioned document raises the possibility that the Sicilian Honoured Society had already existed in 1838, namely during the Bourbons’ period.