The Mafia is an organized crime organization that has been around for an extremely long time. The honored society developed back in Western Sicily and Palermo (The Mafia Homepage, www.geocities.com). In the ninth century, Arab forces occupied the small island of Sicily. The Sicilians were oppressed and took refuge in the hills of their homeland. As they spent time in the hills as refugees, these Sicilians took it upon themselves to form a secret society to unite the Sicilian forces against the Normans and Arabs. This organization was known better as the Mafia (Omerta, users.aol.com). Mafia is a word that has originated from the Arabic language and its meaning is a refuge (Mafia History, mafiasite.8m.com). This society had the intent to create a family based on their ancestry and Sicilian heritage. In the 1700's they distributed pictures of black hands to wealthy people. This was an unspoken request for an amount of money in return for the protection of them and their families. If the money wasn't paid the people in that house could expect violence brought upon them and their families (Omerta, users.aol.com). By the end nineteenth century, the Sicilian Mafia had grown larger, more extensive, powerful, and more criminally oriented than in the past. They were coming down from the hillsides and some of them were even getting involved in politics running for office and occasionally winning. This was greatly adding to the Mafia's power in Sicily (Mafia History, mafiasite.8m.com).
             In 1876 Mafia leader Don Rafael Palizzolo ran for office in Sicily. He forced some citizens to vote for him under gunpoint. When he won elected fellow member of the Mafia Don Crispi as Prime Minister. These two put Sicily under the control of the Mafia and gave much of the government's funds to the Mafia (Omerta, users.aol.com). By 1900 the Mafia controlled most of the Western third of the island. These "Mafia men" took control of local government offices and ...