Australians Helped Dismantle A Mafia Utopia

In 1971, the Italian government exiled high ranking members of the mafia to Filicudi, a small island off the coast of Sicily, as an Alcatraz style punishment.

But for the mobsters, it was far from a harsh prison setting — rather they enjoyed a sea-breeze holiday. In Goodfellas style fashion the “inmates” were free to walk around the villages, eat fresh seafood and drink Malvasia wine at the local restaurants and lounge in boats along the coast. At the end of a long day of imprisonment they could retire to their frescoed king size bedrooms with private terraces tiled with renaissance Majolica paintings.

The locals eventually revolted with a protest that, according to Rome magazine, led to “the first Sicilian revolution against the mafia.” Enraged by the prisoners opulent lifestyles, locals decided to protest by abandoning Filicudi until the exiled mobsters disappeared. There were no shops, restaurants or bartenders. They boycotted their own land successfully.

That in itself is pretty amazing. But gets even juicier when you realise it was —funded by Italian-Australian migrants in Australia. Reflecting on the event, local Historian Pino La Greca wrote: “It was Italy’s first anti-mafia war, supported at a distance by Australia. Relatives already settled there sent money back home to help organise the resistance.”

One of those Italian-Australian migrants was Frank Biviano, a laborer who returned to Filicudi for the protest. Wand when asked, by The New York Times, why he came backreturned he quipped, “I like it here. It is a good place. It is my home.”

Many of those Australians that sent money to family have been welcomed back on the Island, some of whom have bought holiday homes and restored heritage buildings.

Among the 17 mafia bosses who were sent to Frank’s home was Giovanni “John” Bonventre: an underboss in the New York Bonanno crime family, who ran a cocaine syndicate between South America, the United States and Sicily. Another was Don Tano Gaetano Badalamenti, who ran a $2.1 billion heroin operation dubbed The Pizza Connection and instigated the First Mafia War.

Although, it wasn’t all bad. Vincenzo Amastasi, owner of the Hotel Le Canne, told News.com that the “prisoners had tonnes of cash in their pockets. I was a teenager and my dad headed the local post office, so when I brought them their mail the would tip me each time.”

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